Lifting weights is the fun part. That's where you get to push yourself to the limits and feel immediate feedback that what you're doing is accomplishing something good for you. Unfortunately, it is not what will get you the most progress in the end. There is an interesting relationship between sleep, nutrition and working out for what gets you the most progress and it changes based on how much experience you have working out. Stress is another key factor but it's very hard to quantify compared to the others.

Stress doesn't generally have numbers attached to it. You can try to look at cortisol, blood pressure or do stress score sheets to track it but it's not something easily analyzed at a glance like macros are for eating. It takes self knowledge, reflection and constant awareness of how things affect you to know when you're in a good state or bad state. All you need to do is look around at your friend who always seems forgetful, frazzled and out of sorts trying to do too many things to say "wow they are stressed" but sometimes that's you and you don't even realize it. Especially when trying to reach an elite level in a sport. Athletic and physique optimization is difficult and it can easily become obsessive to the point of panic attacks over a missed meal, lift or training session. Worrying about optimal meal timing, trying to figure out that one technique tweak to fix a lift, or shaving that tenth of a second on a lap time takes a toll and can actually prevent that goal from happening.

The biggest component of stress management from an athletic viewpoint is to not be perfect. It's funny to think that not being perfect is the best way to become as good as possible at something but it's the truth. If an athlete spends so much time amped up trying to be perfect the body can't rest and recover like it should because of this constant heightened state. So don't be perfect. Be very good but not perfect. John Meadows, one of the best coaches to ever live, was a big fan of the 80/20 rule when it comes to dieting. Have 80% nailed. Plan gets followed exactly for that 80% but gets some leeway on the other 20% for sanity's sake. It'll allow that slice of birthday cake to be guilt free and part of the plan. It'll turn stressful events because of food or another factor into the fun and relaxing event it was supposed to be. That will help everything. A happier person will have an easier time sticking to the plan and more to give than someone in a constant state of panic.

Now that the cake has relaxed us and things are looking good with training the next steps can be looked at. Unfortunately there is no one answer to whether sleep or nutrition are more impactful on your progress. It's more accurate to say that the limiting factor for progress is the aspect least dialed in. So if a person's training and sleep are great but they're only eating 50 grams of protein a day then the ceiling is created by poor nutrition. If a person trains well, eats perfectly but lives off 4 hours of sleep a night and enough caffeine to fuel a high school basketball team then we have sleep being the limiting factor. The biggest takeaway for this is don't optimize one aspect at the expense of the other one. Figure out how to give each category the proper balance of attention to maximize your progress.

Here are a few case studies to help analyze this.

John is a 37 year old office manager. He's been training seriously for the last 2 years and focusing on his nutrition for the last 8 months. The last 3 months his training progress has slowed down considerably. 4 months ago he got a promotion to a different department that was struggling a lot, forcing him to work a few hours late every day. He kept to his 6 days per week training program but due to working late his nightly sleep went from 8 hours a night down to 6. He feels tired and is getting cranky. He is lacking sleep and is highly stressed but the training program is solid and his nutrition is on point. It seems that nothing can be done about the work stress but the physical stress can be helped. Let's say John cut down to a 4 or 5 day program with slightly shorter workouts so his sleep can get more attention. He's now in a high work stress but lower physical stress situation with still good training. His nutrition is still good and his sleep has gone up to 7 or 8 hours a night. It's not ideal but with this situation it can't be ideal. So, even though John can't be traditionally optimal with this new situation he does start to see improvements again after implementing these changes.

Angelica is a 20 year old college student. She's been a high level track athlete in high school and is now running for her college. She sleeps well, trains hard and is having the time of her life at college. She's happy and doing well so stress isn't much of an issue. However, she only has a meal plan that allows her 2 meals in the cafeteria a day and doesn't have the money to supplement her diet with food elsewhere. This has been leaving her with eating breakfast and dinner only. Her times have stalled and she's having trouble recovering in time for the next practice. Everything here is fantastic except for the diet issue that seems to have her undereating. So to help things she starts bringing in her homework and study materials to the cafeteria so that she can eat one meal, work for a couple hours and then eat again without leaving. This allows her to get in another meal and it helps her start to set some better times on the track.

Geoffrey is a 53 year old man who lifts weights very seriously but isn't making any progress. His eating is good, he's sleeping 7-8 hours a night, and he's pretty relaxed and planning a fulfilling retirement. He's doing what he used to do but he's stalled on progress. He can't figure out what's missing. Since he doesn't want any regrets he hires a coach who looks at the training plan, diet layout, and schedule to see that he's doing everything mostly right but with a few tweaks more could be gained. Slowly and with care Geoffrey and the coach start seeing progress again. Geoffrey was at a stage where everything was even in terms of effort and subsequent output so in order to make gains the training, diet and schedule all needed to be improved in order for one to not become the limiting factor. Sometimes it takes an outside eye with an impartial view to see what needs to be done.

The amount of nuance when it comes to training, nutrition and progress are immense so if you're having any difficulties feel free to reach out. In depth consultations are available on the site or quick questions can use the contact tab or instagram to send a message.