“If we have a platform that allows us to account for the physiological and psychological variables that impact our performance, then we can effectively choose our level of performance at any given moment.”
Kristen Holmes
EFR 494: The Science of Deep Sleep, Maximizing Recovery, and How Quantifying our Behaviors Can Lead to Improved Performance with Kristen Holmes
Kristen Holmes is the Vice President of Performance Science at WHOOP, a platform that delivers personalized insights on your fitness, sleep, and recovery to you in real-time, effectively facilitating the connection between you and your body.
According to Kristen, WHOOP allows us to apply our behaviors, because once we can understand, in a quantifiable way, why our body is performing the way it currently is, we then gain the confidence to be intentional in everything we do—from the sports we play to the daily routines we live out day-to-day.
Ultimately, we’re all just trying to be as engaged, present, and available as we can be, no matter the task at hand. To be able to track performance changes through data in real-time is a powerful way to pinpoint weaknesses, fill gaps, and adapt to environmental stressors.
Listen in as Kristen does a deep dive into how personalized insights by WHOOP can help anybody, athlete or otherwise, to live their lives with more energy and joy.
She also shares why it’s not just the physiological parameters that influence our adaptive capacity; that the research indicates that the psychological component impacts us more profoundly than anything we can do physiologically.
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Key Highlights
Kristen explains why “getting a handle on your sleep behavior” should be the first consideration for anyone looking to improve their performance.
How does quantifying our behaviors via technology help us live our lives with more energy and joy?
When should we pay more attention to what the data shows us over what our body is telling us, and vice versa?
Kristen speaks on her approach to managing her limited amount of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual energy in the most productive way throughout the day.
How can we become more aware of how our sphere of influence impacts our psychological and physiological self?
Powerful Quotes by Kristen Holmes
Sleep is the most important behavior that we can leverage if we want to influence our capacity—and I broadly define “capacity” as our ability to adapt in a functional way to our environment with some sort of intention and purpose.
We always talk a lot about enhancements and what medication or supplements we should choose. But if you don’t have your sleep right at a foundational level, you’re not eating the right foods, and you’re not hydrating properly, there is no supplement in the world that is going to be able to overcome that level of mismanagement.
When you don’t understand your body, it’s very hard to be intentional about your behaviors.
If you just live your values, everything rights itself.
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