This episode we have a new guest on with Debbie- another Canadian!. Mike Bracko is a skating coach for hockey, a fitness writer, a presenter. We discuss how important quality sleep is for improved fat loss, health and performance for athletes of all levels. Improve your performance for life and sports with one of the important my “WHOLESTIC Method” elements- SLEEP!
Dr. Mike is a fitness educator, fitness writer, hockey skating coach, and strength & conditioning coach. He was born in Calgary, Alberta and spent 15 years in the United States having lived in Chicago, Illinois and Provo, Utah. He now lives in Calgary. His education is a Bachelor and Master of Science Degrees (Physical Education & Exercise Science) from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Doctor of Education degree (Exercise Science) from Brigham Young University in Provo, UT.
Dr. Mike works with fitness professionals, industrial workers, and hockey players to improve performance and prevent injury. His clients include: personal trainers, group exercise instructors, fitness professionals, youth to pro hockey players, youth hockey coaches, log haulers, oil and gas workers, and nuclear security officers. He is a renowned fitness educator presenting sessions on numerous topics on fitness, sports performance, back injury prevention, and strength & conditioning. He is a regular presenter at fitness conferences such as: IDEA World Fitness Convention, IDEA Personal Trainer Institute, CanFitPro, ACSM Health & Fitness Summit, and National Strength & Conditioning Association Personal Trainer Conference.
Click here to go to Dr. Bracko’s website
I interviewed Mike Bracko from Calgary Alberta on the importance of quality sleep to improve performance and recovery time for athletes of all levels. Dr. Mike is a fitness educator, fitness writer, hockey skating coach, and strength & conditioning coach. How sleep can we impact our performance and recovery? Mike Bracko focused on researching on what happens to athlete’s performance if we don’t get enough sleep …and on the flip side what happens if we get more sleep?
Mike Bracko observed the past ten years that many professional teams and athletes were not getting proper sleep when traveling for performances or games. Now teams are making improvements to their team travel schedule to ensure players get more quality sleep. The proper amount of sleep can definitely enhance his or her athletic performance. There is overwhelming evidence that people who do not take much sleep has greater risk of becoming overweight. Sleep disorder results in the secretion of hormones (stress hormones), if we do not get enough sleep our body feels like it is under stress (red flag!) and as with any trigger of the stress response system, the brain tells the stress hormone glands (adrenals) to secretes more cortisol. When we secret excess cortisol, we then have a tendency to make be hungry and often reach for processed junk food. There are few other hormones related to our hunger as the hormone Leptin that helps us feel full. When we are healthy and getting a good amount of sleep each night, we have normal amount of secretion leptin hormone. Another hormone, Ghrelin, stimulates hunger (G-growling) and we desire more food that makes us want to eat. When we do not get enough sleep we have an increase in secretion of the Ghrelin hormone- leading to an increased in consuming high sugar processed junk food.
Mike suggests eating at least an hour or half hour before going to bed. If you are training late in the evening it would be better not to take high meal but if it of high intensity and requires lot of energy than some carbohydrates and proteins, would be good enough to use a snack instead of meal. I suggest to clients to eat a meal no more than two hours before bed or else a small snack if needed (higher fat and lower carb especially before bedtime).
How can we manage our hormones so we could sleep better? We need to manage our sleep to avoid any imbalance in the secretion of these hormones. According to Mike Bracko, there are lots of researchers stating that lack of sleep in North America is one step behind becoming an epidemic. There is not any specific research explaining how to get more sleep but there is one thing which can be implemented… turn off your cell phone- at least the sound and the light. Another tip for good sleep is to keep your bedroom cool before going to bed because our body responds better in cooler place, keep your door locked, and use a comfortable bed and pillow. These are the things that can help you sleep better. We have talked about the five stages of sleep which helps us for proper growth and repair as well as immune system and physiological repair. We have become so addicted to our phones and social media feeds as Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. How many times do you click “refresh” to get the new updates on feeds and tweets right before bed time? Your sleep is too important for our daily performance and recovery from daily life busy-ness and sports