18SP 021: Shawn Stevenson | Sleep is the Secret Sauce - a podcast by Jeff Pelizzaro: Top 50 Golf Fitness Pro, Author, Physical Therapist, Fellow Golfer
from 2015-01-15T13:01:50
Shawn Stevenson is a fitness & nutrition expert, a best selling author, host of a #1 rated Health and Fitness podcast (The Model Health Show), and a world renowned speaker.
He literally “wrote the book on sleep!” And in this episode, Shawn takes us on a deep dive into the topic of sleep and how it just may be the secret that you need to take your life and your game to the highest level.
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Shawn’s Background
* Diagnosed with degenerative disc disease at age 20, told he had the spine of an 80 y.o.
* Was an athlete, but was sidelined with this pain
* Started studying physiology/anatomy and nutrition
* Started living a healthier lifestyle regarding exercise and eating
* Lost 30lbs in 6 weeks and his pain was eliminated
* Shawn wrote the book “Sleep Smarter” in 2014, which has been a best selling book since it’s release
Highlights from this episode:
* The “Nacebo Effect”: When you believe something negative is going to happen, it is more likely to come true (the opposite of the Placebo Effect)
* Your body requires the raw materials to heal itself
* Shawn has discovered 2 main causes of weight gain with his clients
* Stress
* Lack of sleep, or better yet, lack of quality of sleep
* Shawn saw the correlation between how he was sleeping and how he was healing
* Your body is healing itself when sleeping
* It’s breaking itself down when you are working out and going about your daily lives
Why does a golfer care about Sleep Quality?
* Brain health and memory (muscle memory)
* Stages of Sleep
* Stages 1 and 2 are REM Sleep
* Stages 3 and 4 are non REM
* Any technique or short term memory is converted into long term during REM sleep (stages 1 & 2)
* Stages 3 & 4 are the anabolic state when the body produces HGH, which is the youth hormone
* 3 & 4 is where the major recovery and rebuilding occur!
Strategies for better sleep
1. Do some form of exercise in the morning when waking
* increases the amount of time in Stages 3 and 4 sleep
* This also helps to set their cortisol and melatonin rhythms
2. Understanding the Light and Dark cycle
* Black out your room at night
3. Get the electronics out of your room
* Especially the TV (couples that have a TV in their room have 50% less sex!)
Alcohol
* Helps you fall asleep, but reduces the amount of time spent in stages 3 and 4 sleep
* Have an alcohol curfew (ie happy hour, vs a late night bender)
Hormones/Nutrition
* Sleep is the anabolic state which produces HGH
* Another important hormone is Insulin, which is very important for energy
* If insulin is “turned on” it’s job is to store fat/energy
* If there is a high amount of carbs present, it will end up storing a lot of that energy
* If your goal is to lose fat, the best way to do that is reduce your carb intake which will turn off the “faucet” of insulin
* You have to find the right ratio of carbs for yourself, your genetics and your goal
*Just one night of sleep deprivation is enough to temporarily make you as insulin resistant as a Type II diabetic.*
When a healthy individual eats a meal, there is a 5% spike in cortisol.
When an overweight individual eats a meal,
Further episodes of The 18STRONG Podcast
Further podcasts by Jeff Pelizzaro: Top 50 Golf Fitness Pro, Author, Physical Therapist, Fellow Golfer
Website of Jeff Pelizzaro: Top 50 Golf Fitness Pro, Author, Physical Therapist, Fellow Golfer