Our habits can make or break us at the end of the day, as evidenced by all the articles out there on the internet telling you the habits of successful people with the implication that following them to the T will lead you to success. While it doesn’t necessarily work exactly that way, there are some habits people who are doing well tend to engage in more often.
Success is very seldom the consequence of just one crucial decision. Often times it’s rather the cumulative effect of many smaller good decisions over time. This is how your habits can have a huge effect on the outcome of your life. Should you always be engaging in negative habits that hold you back, it’s much more likely you won’t be able to seize all of the opportunities you could have. This applies to just about everyone, but in this case, we’re going to be talking about habits that are sure to make a runner’s performance stop dead in its tracks.
There are some things you just don’t do if you want to perform at the top as a runner, and here they are:
Smoking
It’s amazing to think that at one point smoking was considered something good for your health now that we know it hampers pretty much every aspect of the body. Smoking is a terrible idea for runners since it directly affects someone’s ability to perform cardio. A significant amount of strain is put on the heart and lung capacity is greatly decreased. That’s a one-two punch for any budding runner, essentially the exact opposite of what your lifestyle should contribute to.
Excessive alcohol intake
Having a beer or two from time to time isn’t exactly going to crush your Olympic aspirations. however, moderation is key if you don’t want to negatively impact your running performance. Alcohol can impair your body’s ability to recover and come back stronger after training, plus the added empty calories are of no use. If you think your drinking habit is out of control and you need outside help, checking out the resources available to you is a fantastic idea. This rehab gives a good rundown of what to expect from an accredited facility. The dehydration that alcohol intake brings will also slow you down considerably on top of adding a lot more discomfort to the training experience.
Not sleeping enough
The next major sin too many runners are guilty of is not getting enough sleep. Sleep is vital to the body’s ability to properly reset for another day’s training as well as repair the body. You’re also way more likely to trip and fall while sleep deprived than otherwise. Anyone who hasn’t slept enough isn’t operating at peak efficiency, that’s practically a no-brainer.
Dedication and hard work are required to see anything through to the end with good results, making it entirely necessary to drop any habits that don’t help you achieve your goals. At the bare minimum, there should be no habits that hold you back, a few habits that end up being neutral overall can still result in a healthy lifestyle. Make the right choices and the right outcomes will occur.
