| Then this morning, I was talking with a private training client about this quote, and she reminded me that if alcohol and caffeine are borrowing from tomorrow, then exercise gives to tomorrow, and she was right! Exercise does give to tomorrow. There's lots of research on this (look up Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption or EPOC for short), and its basically that afterburn or high you feel after exercise that can last for a few hours the whole day, or more. Some research says 12-72 hours. I think if you asked a marathon runner, they'd say their high lasts longer than 3 days. We all have probably experienced the signs & symptoms of alcohol, caffeine and exercise, but maybe we were going too fast to really consider them. Think about this.
Beers I used to love beers and drinking and partying. It started in high school, progressed through college and peaked when I moved to Boston. It started with all those ice beers from the 90's (Red Dog, Natty, Bud, Molson, Keystone, Genny...), then as my budget grew so did my alcohol sophistication and consumption. Better beers, cocktails and wine. More often that not, it was a lot of consumption vs. a little. And it was fun until it wasn't as fun anymore. I always hated the wasted days of being hungover. Work hard, play hard! Work hard all week, so I could play hard and then on my day off, I'm stuck to the sofa or bed hungover. Lame.
You know for certain you've gone to far if you're praying to the porcelain god, but what about all those other signs you ignore like being the rich guy at the bar and buying rounds or shots for everyone or more subtly like the wasted Sundays hungover or the crappy night sleep you'd get after boozing. Sure you might have passed right out, which is awesome, but how many times do you wake up or have inconsistent sleep the night after drinking or simply not wake up refreshed. Those are signs too, but sometimes the excitement from the celebration the day before can mask the lack of recovery and then you ride the excitement all week, thinking about how exciting the next weekend will be and then you do it again. That's a bad cycle. Been there done that. What is being missed is that you're accumulating sleep debt and compounded poor performance. You're getting further and further away from your best self and you're building bad habits that can be difficult and take time to overcome.
Espressos I love me some espressos. They're my preferred stimulant. I like them way better than coffee or iced coffee. Fun, small & potent. They cool quickly so you can shoot it back quickly. They're inexpensive too. Plus, the Portuguese Club in Ludlow, is where most weddings growing up were held, and everyone including the bride and groom, except maybe guests not from the area that didn't know, would go upstairs to the bar during the wedding and get rounds of espresso, brandy, and beers (even though its an open bar downstairs and you can bring bottles of wine to your table) and play darts, pool or fusbol, before returning to the wedding. (Full Disclosure: most traditional Portuguese weddings had ceremonies start at 10 or 11 an apps served at 12 or 1, and the party would go until 1am, so leaving the banquet hall for 10-30min is no big deal, so long as you bring your +1). So I have great memories of espressos. I think they taste good. I take mine black with no sugar or cream. And they're fun. I've owned espresso and coffee makers before too. Coffee has helped me through finals, a Minor League Baseball season, 5 jobs at one time, post college, many a long day of partying, many a hungover day after partying and when I became a dad.
However even though I sometimes could fall asleep if I was tired enough after having drank caffeine, most times I couldn't. I didn't sleep great, deep or straight through when I drank caffeine. I didn't wake up refreshed and I didn't jump out of bed. I usually needed some more caffeine to get me started the next day. I didn't like this feeling. So most times I used caffeine as a tool in the tool box when I needed it. When I became a dad, I needed all the tools I could get and I used caffeine a lot. I became and expert with grinding beans and making French Press.
But I was losing my power, my gift. I've always described myself as a naturally high energy, positive and happy person. Naturally high energy because of the way I lived and I didn't like being so dependent on coffee to get me started. It was easy & fun, but foreign to the way I've always known. It didn't feel right.
It also didn't feel right that I was once a great sleeper. I could sleep anywhere, anytime. No problem. Until it was a problem and I wasn't sleeping so great anymore. No sleep. Poor choices. Low energy. Reduced memory (forgetting names for example) and dependent.
Basketball I love basketball. Still do to this day. It's hard for me to not keep up on the Celtics or Uconn Huskies. I had a great hoop and spotlight back in the Lud at my parents house and I've got an even better hoop now at the Alves Compound East. Basketball and sports, when you play and participate in them gives you so much including, but not limited to joy, fun, excitement, exhilaration, camaraderie, competition, stories, discipline, work ethic, character, ... and highs or energy. Highs or energy that make the rest of your day better if not great and often times highs or energy that overflow into the next day and sometimes the day after. And when you compound these highs by playing again, it creates a larger ripple effect that takes longer to go away. When you play sports all the time, you're always on a high. Most everything is better always.
Beers, Espressos and Basketball Beers and alcohol in general is fun, it's social, it can taste good, its part of memories and it helps make new one's. It's also a depressant. It lowers testosterone, decreases performance and messes with your sleep. And when you don't get great sleep you don't recover. Work Hard, Play Hard is false, because playing hard has a cost and one of those is sleep and if you get in the pattern of Work Hard, Play Hard, you accumulate sleep debt and then you just get further away from your best self. "Alcohol borrows happiness from tomorrow." That's what Matt Mullenweg, the founder of Wordpress said, and he's right.
Espressos or caffeine is also fun, social, can taste good with a lot of cream & sugar or burnt taste buds, is a part of memories, helps make new memories and has plenty of research to show its performance enhancing benefits. It's a stimulant, where as alcohol is a depressant and even though they're opposites, they both magnify how you're feeling. Feeling great, well they make everything feel greater. Feeling bad, well you'll feel much worse when you're off them and because your'e feeling worse you most likely want to get back on them, but because you're feeling bad they (caffeine or alcohol), magnify how you're feeling, so you have more emphatic adjectives and it becomes hard to get off them. You become dependent. "Caffeine borrows energy from tomorrow" and so far as I know thats my quote, so you can quote me.
Basketball and playing sports and training and exercise and being active and doing physical activity is and can also be fun, social, feel good and be good for your. It can make you smile and feel relaxed. It can make you feel excited, energized and exhilarated and it can make you feel calm, exhausted and beat up. This is the harder of the 3 to do because it requires the most effort. You can't just sip exercise. It'd be nice if you could, but then you'd miss out on the joy and rewards and character building of the process, of the journey of the grind. This process might even be better than the highs and energy you get from exercise, but will focus on the energy. "Exercise gives energy to tomorrow." Just like every and anything else this depends on the mode of activity, the intensity, the frequency, the duration, etc..., but usually exercise gives you some energy after you do it. The more intense it is, the longer it is, sometimes both, but not always or necessary, exercise can give you energy during exercise, after its done, the next day and maybe even the next couple of days afterwards. That's a positive gift that keeps on giving. And if you compound this by exercising again, the next day or day after it takes this energy high and elevates it up further and potentially longer. Build exercise into your life and do it regularly and you're identity changes to the high energy, high performing, best case version of yourself almost always. That's a great way to live. It's exciting and fun. Super bright, optimistic and vibrant. You're squeezing the most out of your days and you're most likely able to sleep long, deep and often, helping you to recover and do it again the next day.
Alcohol and caffeine can be a part of your life, but overconsumption will chip away at your resolve and consistency with exercising and could lead you to not being as successful with your exercising habit, especially if you don't sleep as long and deep on the nights you consume them. Work Hard is getting in the way of Resting Hard.
So this email is something to consider. If life is short and you want to make the most of your days, Work Hard AND Rest Hard. Working and Resting Hard can include playing hard, so long as it doesn't mess with your recovery, your sleep or borrow from tomorrow. Alcohol borrows happiness from tomorrow and Caffeine borrows sleep from tomorrow, but Exercise gives Energy to tomorrow, so consider finding a way to make exercise a more regular part of your days, weeks and life.
Live for today and plan for tomorrow, but don't borrow from tomorrow to pay for today, too often.
Coach Mike
p.s. Guest Week begins, Monday, October 30. If you know someone who'd be a good fit for our program, and they're interested and available next week, please invite them. Attached is our guest waiver form for convenience and you can do an email intro if it's helpful.
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