One of the main reasons I choose Altis (formerly World Athletic Center) was Dan Pfaff. A coach that has been around for some time (40 or so years), he knows what it takes to get to the top. Everyone knows this, thanks to feats like claiming silver AND gold in the men’s long jump at world championships. Not an easy accomplishment, but a chat for another day.
Today in training Dan was offloading some of his wisdom on us. This is always a pleasure and I try to absorb everything I can. Through blood work, Dan is consulting with multiple rugby teams in Europe and an NFL team here at home. The biggest takeaway he wanted to discuss at his first day of practice? Regardless of how good or terrible these athletes are eating, being coached, and live, 60 hours of sleep a week was a game changer. He lost me in a conversation about exponentially reducing cortisol, cytokines, and other body chemicals I won’t even try to remember. But the moral of the story was that 9-10 hours of sleep, consistently every night, led to exponentially good changes.
Im going to restate that one more time, just so everyone hears loud and clear. Exponential improvements across many systems in the body, simply from sleeping more. For an NFL player, that could be the difference of millions. For a 2.19m high jumper, that likely will be the difference of 10cm and the chance to represent Canada in Rio this summer.
Dan isn’t the only one. JJ Watt of the Houstan Texans stated in a documentary that he goes to bed at 8-9pm, and tries to get 10 hours every night. He will even add naps as needed.
Did you get 60-70 hours of sleep last week?
