Cracking the Code of Athletic Performance: Sleep, Training, and Mindset - Episode 204
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What is the most overlooked pillar of disease prevention? Join Jeffrey Gladden and Erik Korem in this episode of Gladden Longevity. Fueled by a deep rooted desire to help others live a more fulfilled and healthy life, Dr. Erik Korem is an applied performance scientist who leaves every person or place he interacts with better than he finds it. During the nearly 20 years he spent working with establishments like the NFL, NCAA, Nike, and U.S. Dept of Defense, it’s easy to see he didn’t let a single day go to waste. Similarly, as a Presidential Leadership Scholar who holds a doctorate in exercise science with a research emphasis on sleep and stress resilience, he’s leveraged his education and platform to provide others with tangible health insights by writing for media outlets like Inc. and conducting impactful interviews with notable experts and athletes on his podcast The BluePrint. He became the Founder and CEO of AIM7 in 2020, pouring his expertise into an app that analyzes users' dataand provides custom recommendations for enhancing the mind, body, and recovery process. Leveraging the science of adaptive capacity, Erik and his team are unlocking a new level of human performance for anyone with a wearable device so they can be their best without burning out. This episode discusses simple things that prevent the most common lifestyle diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity: nutrition, physical exercise, mental fitness, sleep, and the one almost no one talks about. They also talk about the toxification system of the brain, sports physiology, adaptive capacity, how stress is not an enemy but a gateway for growth, and why wearables don’t change long term opinion.

Listen to this episode to learn about making a hundred the new thirty, living beyond 120, and Living Young for a Lifetime!

Interview with Dr. Erik Korem, with a background of working in sports. (00:26)

Dr. Gladd welcomes Erki Korem. (2:28)

An example of a coach who transforms the athlete's perspective on training and emphasizes the science of training athletes. (4:10)

Erik shares that the sports in the US help it. (6:23)

Erik mentions how tracking technology revolutionizes performance analysis in football. (8:20) 

Erik speaks about using wearables to know what sports people were doing on the field. (10:23)

Erik highlights the importance of scaling pedagogical pressure, fast repetitions, and improved skills to become better in your field. (12:18)

Wearables, lessons, data, and technology helped improve sports in a great way. (15:51)

Erik reveals how they made their athletes fitter than everybody else. (18:00)

You are not just training the heart but also the tissues. (19:55) 

Everything is complex, multidimensional, and relative. (22:35)

Speed doesn’t always equal performance. (25:33)

Dr. Gladden wants Erik to talk about adaptive capacity. (28:20)

Erik shares that speed and power is a centrally driven outputs. (30:58)

When you go to sleep, the stress system is down regulated. (33:25)

People who go to sleep earlier have decreased health risks. (37:20) 

Kathy Goldstein, an expert on wearables and mental fitness, would be a great guest. (40:07)

Flow state in sports transitions can be challenging. (43:27)

If you train or inoculate yourself to deal with stress, you can control it. (45:30)

The people who get the bump in their VO2 are people who push harder. (48:26)

The Mediterranean diet is colorful and nutritious and avoids processed foods. (49:17)

One meaningful conversation per day can improve mood and reduce stress. (51:25)

When you engage in healthy habits consistently, you will see improvement. (53:50)

Dr. Gladden questions Erik about how he gets data into the app. (56:43)

Wearable data can sometimes be a lagging indicator. (57:15)

Erik thanks Dr. Gladden for having him. (59:47) To learn more about Erik:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/erikkorem)

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erikkorem/?hl=en)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikkoremphd19991734/ AIM7: https://aim7.com/ Personal Website: http://erikkorem.com)

The BluePrint Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/theblueprintwithdrerikkorem/id1519528171)

Affiliate link/discount code/Gift:

GLADDEN ($1 for the first month for AIM7)