6 Reasons Why You’re Too Tired To Hit Up Cheer & Tumbling Practice (And How To Fix It)

It may sound surprising, but the cold hard truth is that even world champions tend to have off days.

Times where they’re just not feeling it. Where the mere thought of going to cheer practice sounds about as appealing as peeling off eyelashes after a competition.

But if you constantly suffer from more off days than on days, I’m here to help you put an end to it.

As a fitness and nutritional consultant, I have to make sure that my athletes are performing at their peak, nine times out of ten. So today I’m going to reveal six reasons why you may be feeling too tired to go to the gym, and how you can turn things around so you can have your best practice ever!

1. You Skip Conditioning Too Often

I know this sounds very counter productive, but there is real science to back it up. There was a study done by the University of Georgia where they realized that healthy adults who started exercising three days a week (even for as little as 20 minutes) reported feeling more energized, alert and overall less fatigued after six weeks.

One of the major reasons why athletes seem to want to skip conditioning is to save energy – which makes sense on the surface, but it actually works against them. Here’s how: when you workout, your nervous system releases a rush of endorphins – basically a natural form of morphine. This not only uplifts your mood and makes you feel good, but reduces pain and improves your quality of sleep.

Obviously when you sleep better, you wake up more rested, which means you’ll have even more energy, and so the cycle continues.

There is a very good reason why some of the top business leaders in the world stay very active. They’ve instinctively felt this cycle of high energy and they know that physical activity has a lot to do with it.

On top of that, strength and high intensity training (which is basically what conditioning is) not only boosts your strength levels (keeping you safe and injury free) but also helps your cardiovascular system run more efficiently. This means that oxygen and other nutrients are able to get to your hard-working muscle tissues at a faster and more efficient rate.

Bottom line: Don’t skip conditioning unless you want to increase your chances of injury or miss out on the natural high your body can give you (Tweet This)

2. You don’t drink enough water

As an athlete I’m pretty confident that you understand the importance of fluid intake. When you sweat, there obviously needs to be a way for you to replenish all that fluid loss, and water is an excellent choice. But what happens when you don’t drink enough? Here’s what an RD had to say:

“Being even slightly dehydrated—as little as 2% of normal fluid loss—takes a toll on energy levels,” says Amy Goodson, a Registered Dietitian

Why exactly does this happen?

Well when you’re sweating buckets but don’t take in enough water, your blood starts to get thicker. And thick blood doesn’t flow as quickly as it used to. However, it’s not like your muscles have stopped working – you still need to hit those jumps and tumbling passes. So to compensate, your heart starts to work harder in order to pump this thick blood around your body so it can deliver the necessary oxygen and nutrients to your muscles.

Keep this up, and eventually you’ll pass out during practice. The absolute last thing you want to do is have your heart work harder than it needs to, and have blood that doesn’t flow like it should. So keep your fluid intake up.

Pro tip: Keep a few bananas on hand. One of the major reasons for muscle camps is a dip in your potassium levels, and bananas are loaded with them. This is a much better (and cheaper) option than Gatorade.

3. Not enough sleep

This seems obvious but as you’ll soon see, there is more to sleep than meets the eye. First of all, you’ve all heard the traditional recommendation of how you need to get 7-8 hours per night, am I right?

Well this recommendation exists for a good reason – the average student these days only gets about 5 hours per night, so telling them to sleep an extra few hours is beneficial (especially if they’re an athlete). Here’s some very convincing data which shows us why:

“One study tracked the Stanford University basketball team for several months. Players added an average of almost 2 hours of sleep a night. The results? Players increased their speed by 5%. Their free throws were 9% more accurate. They had faster reflexes and felt happier. Other studies have shown similar benefits for football players and other athletes.” – WebMD

Now you have to understand something – it’s not just the length of sleep that’s important, it’s the quality. Ever had a lazy Sunday where you slept for like 14 hours, only to wake up tired, exhausted and confused? I have.

See the thing is, sleep is only useful when you can manage to hit the REM stage (Rapid Eye Movement) or also known as “deep sleep.” This is where you have those vivid dreams or crazy nightmares. Deep sleep is the magic land of recovery, and you don’t always need an 8 hour time block to achieve it.

Want to know how to add a few hours to  your sleep schedule without going to bed earlier? Simple, take naps during the day.

Yes, it does add up!

Now I know what you’re thinking: “Coach I can’t do naps, if I sleep, I’ll pass out for good!”

I’m the same way, but that’s why alarm clocks were invented. In fact, I need to set about three alarms within 5 minutes of each other to wake up. So if I can do it, so can you. Also, you should know that polyphasic sleeping (sleeping multiple times throughout the day) is how our bodies were designed to sleep in the first place. This whole concept of sleeping for a big chunk of time, then staying awake for another big chunk of time, is a modern-day necessity due to the way our society is structured.

But we didn’t evolve this way, so getting in the habit of taking naps (half-hour or longer) whenever you can fit them in, will do more for your energy levels than constantly drinking cans of RedBull.

Another big benefit is that once you get in the habit of napping, your body can hit the REM stage a lot faster. The average person spends the first few of their traditional 8 hours in light-sleep, which is where their heart rate starts to slow down and the body is getting ready to go into REM mode, but it can be easily disturbed. But once you get used to napping, your body will go into REM mode a lot faster.

4. You’re not consuming enough iron

As a female athlete, iron is a very key element that you absolutely do not want to be deficient in. Low iron levels can really rob you of energy and your ability to focus. If you’re a base, we all know the consequences of low focus, right?

A flying limb to the face, and a nice black eye to show off at school the next day.

When you’re low in iron, you suffer from similar problems which we talked about when blood becomes thick – your muscles receive less oxygen and nutrients. A good way to top up on your iron is to take an iron supplement, but be sure to also include foods such as lean beef, kidney beans, tofu, eggs (whole, not just whites), dark green leafy vegetables and nuts. You should also pair them with foods high in vitamin C as it improves the absorption of iron.

Caution: If you’re regularly tired, even at school, then that may be a sign that you’re anemic. This is basically a condition where your blood lacks enough healthy red blood cells or hemoglobin. Supplementing with iron helps but you should definitely check with your doctor first.

5. You don’t obey Parkinson’s Law

Parkinson’s law states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”.

If you’re a seasoned procrastinator then you’re very familiar with the consequences of this law, even if you’ve never heard of it before. Your science teacher gives you 2 weeks to complete a project, and you do it in 24 hours. So really, would it have mattered if he/she gave you only 1 week to complete it? Or even 3 days?

Nope. You still would have found a way to finish it, regardless of the allotted time.

Setting deadlines that are strict and also the shortest you can get away with are very beneficial because they’re less taxing on your energy levels. When you set too much time for yourself, you not only linger around, you end up working more than you have to. Here’s what Irene S. Levine, a professor at the New York University School of Medicine had to say:

“Striving to be perfect—which, let’s face it, is impossible—makes you work much harder and longer than necessary. You set goals that are so unrealistic that they are difficult or impossible to achieve, and in the end, there is no sense of self-satisfaction.”

The solution?

Set smaller deadlines and follow them religiously so you can move on with bigger and better things in your life – such as nailing that double full.

6. You Eat The Wrong Foods At The Wrong Times

I saved the best for last, of course. So if you’ve managed to read this far along, you’re going to be rewarded because once you fix this issue, at least 50% of your low energy problems will disappear. Let’s get into it.

First, as an athlete you need to realize that your body runs on carbohydrates, and there is no getting around that fact. So please don’t get swayed by quacks and other scammers who tell you otherwise. The best-performing athletes on Earth (regardless of the sport) fuel themselves with carbohydrates on the day it counts, and for good reason.

What exactly are carbohydrates? Basically just sources of sugar.

Random fun fact: your brain is one of the most sugar-hungry organs in your body!

While on a molecular level all sugar molecules look basically the same, on a more realistic level, not all carbs sources are created equal. This is pretty obvious when you compare a doughnut to a bowl of brown rice. Now I’m not here to hate on doughnuts or cookies – I enjoy them regularly. Yet, I still manage to keep my abs.

How? By following two simple rules.

Rule #1: Don’t eat too close to practice time

If you have practice coming up in the next 15 minutes and you stuff your face with a bowl of oatmeal, it will most likely end up on the floor. Especially if your practices are intense like mine used to be.

Why?

Because it’s just sitting in your stomach! Your body cannot use the carbs you eat unless it gets absorbed through your intestines, which then releases the glucose molecules into the bloodstream. And this process takes time – usually hours, depending on what type of carbs you had. Simple carbs like donuts and sugary drinks tend to get absorbed a lot faster than carbs such as brown rice, oatmeal or sweet potatoes.

Rule #2: Don’t eat carbs if you don’t plan on training your butt off

Look, if your body is not going to be burning calories, then why would you eat more? Especially in the form of carbs?

Doesn’t make sense does it? If you fuel yourself and your body doesn’t have a way to burn it off, there is only one other thing it can do – store it as fat. I don’t eat carb heavy foods on days where my activity level is low. However, on days when I know I have an intense workout coming up, I’ve successfully fueled myself using every carb source you can imagine:

• Chocolate Bars
• Cookies
• Doughnuts
• Skittles
• Oatmeal
• Pancakes
• Nutella (of course!)
• Cheesecake
• Rice
• Sweet Potatoes

…and didn’t put on an ounce of fat in the process.

Seem impossible? My clients and I are living proof that it’s not. Follow the two rules, and if you’d like more in-depth information on how and when to time your food intake for maximum performance, be sure to check out more information on The Cheer Diet below.

Eat well, train hard, stay fierce!

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