Assess the conditions

As summer approaches, many triathletes are swimming in open water to prepare for upcoming races. Training in the pool is great to work on distance and technique. It is important to incorporate ocean water training to be confident in the conditions on the day of the race. Practicing a few swims at the race site will help you prepare mentally by becoming familiar with the surrounding environment and potential hazards. The more experience you have swimming in different ocean conditions, the more prepared you will be for race day.

Assessing ocean conditions is critical for successful swimming. One week before your event, check out the surf report! It is important to mentally and physically prepare for your upcoming ocean swim. Surfline.com is a great site for accurate forecasts.

 Getting in the water before the race has several benefits. First, you can assess the bottom to look for any inshore holes or rocks to avoid while entering during your race, the last thing you need is to sprain your ankle or twist your knee. Second, you can assess the power of the waves while also assessing the strength and direction of the ocean current. Assessing the current is one of the most critical things to do before an open water swim. This will help you gauge where you start on the beach to make the best water entry to hit the buoy without having to swim up the current. Assessing the current takes time and experience in the water, spend time getting comfortable in the ocean and getting a ‘feel’ for it. Third, taking a quick dunk in the water will help to avoid that initial shock when you hit the water at the start of the race. Lastly, I suggest asking local lifeguards about any possible hazards to be aware of during your water entry and exit to avoid possible injury.

Water Entry

Arguably, one of the most important parts of a competitive ocean swim is your water entry, not the amount of time you put in swimming laps. A good water entry starts with gauging were to enter the water after assessing the current.

A quick and efficient water entry through the surf line will separate you from the rest of the pack. Use high knees when running out through the surf line. As it starts getting more difficult to run, you want to start ‘dolphining’ through the surf line. ‘Dolphining’ is a technique used to get through the ‘impact zone’ efficiently. Start  ‘Dolphining’ in waist-deep water by diving with both arms over your head, grab the sand bottom to pull yourself forward while bringing your legs underneath your body to explode out of the water through the surf. Continue ‘Dolphining’ until the water gets too deep, then begin your swim. Swim with your head up through the surf line to keep an eye out for waves. In the case of an approaching ‘set’ of waves, it is always safer to swim toward the wave than away from it. Once past the waves, periodically take a few strokes with your head up to keep your eye on the buoy marker.

Rip currents

Rip currents can make or break you. While we are all taught to ‘stay out of rip currents’, these currents can be used to your advantage in getting through the impact zone more efficiently. Swimming with the outgoing rip current can save time and energy to swim faster through the surf line where waves generally don’t break. This technique should only be used by experienced ocean swimmers with good ocean knowledge and awareness.

 Water Exit

Once you round the buoy, use landmarks on the beach to swim straight. Make sure to avoid any rip currents swimming towards shore, getting stuck in a rip will cost you time and energy. If you find yourself swimming in sandy or foamy water not making any progress, chances are you are in a rip current. Swim parallel to shore to the blue water, then continue swimming towards shore.

In the impact zone, keep your head on a swivel by turning on your back or looking over your shoulder to look for oncoming waves. Bodysurfing can save a lot of time and energy in the impact zone. This takes time and experience to learn but can be a huge asset at the end of a swim. Continue swimming until your hand hits the sand, then start with high knees to exit the water. Remember, running is faster than swimming. Don’t fight the current, it will be faster to run back than to fight the current swimming.

Tips for ocean swims

•       Check conditions before your swim
•       Minimize your time in the ‘impact zone’
•       Use landmarks to help swim straight
•       Avoid rip currents on your way to the beach
•       Practice ‘ins and outs’ to have faster water entries and exits
•       Always swim with a partner

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Clay Simons

clay@rauschpt.net

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Maybe you know some of the dangerous side effects of too much stress in your life — which can lead to such outcomes as weight gain, poor memory, and a whole host of mental and physical health issues. Life places many demands on us, affecting us in different ways and on many levels. Add to that, returning to ‘regular life’ after a year of a pandemic can also be hard! Start this new period of life fresh and renewed with a new ‘habit’. Incorporate ongoing massage to combat your stress! Rx Massage offers a wide range of therapeutic treatments for when you need that break.

You didn’t get to where you are in life without learning how to relieve stress along the way. But just because you’ve “been there, done that” doesn’t necessarily mean it is going to be easier this time around. Granted life experience will likely have taught you the old refrain, “this too shall pass” but that same life experience will also likely have taught you something about the active role you need to take to combat stress from time to time and how we could all stand to benefit from a stress-busting reboot.

I think we all know the dangerous side effects of too much stress in our lives. Stress is a major contributor to many poor health outcomes, such as diabetes, weight gain, hypertension, poor memory, and a whole host of mental health issues. Therefore, how we manage the stress in our lives, needs to be revisited with a fresh and new perspective, in the same way, we need to clean out and freshen up our closet every so often.

Below are my top 10 strategies to relieve stress and restore energy with a fresh look at some old favorites that are guaranteed to help you self-optimize for health and happiness in body, mind, and spirit.

1. Compartmentalize—Prioritization on Steroids

People think of the compartmentalizing tactic in different ways, and there are negative associations with this term. However, when I suggest that you compartmentalize to manage your stress—or better yet, relieve stress—what I am referring to is the idea that you block out certain parts of your life that are distracting you from what you need to do in your daily life.

For example, you are at work but also have some extraordinary stress in your private life due to ailing parents with no siblings to share in the caretaking. Managing this alongside your own family and professional responsibilities, which were already heavy enough, places an enormous amount of stress on you.

When you compartmentalize, you put up mental blinders to help you focus on the task in front of you with the knowledge that managing your parent’s living and financial situation will be handled in due time after work hours.

Learning how to block out these different realms of your life will help you prioritize and manage the work that is in front of you.

2. Get Outside, It’s Like Therapy

Simply getting outside in the fresh air will automatically bring down your stress levels and restore some lost energy. The research around this growing field known as ecotherapy is proving once again how powerful nature is and how we can improve our mental wellbeing along with our physical and spiritual health with time outdoors.

When you are outside, you are more likely to have increased activity levels and will be exposing yourself to the mood-boosting sun, which helps our body create vitamin D. Research on vitamin D indicates that those who are vitamin D deficient may be more susceptible to inflammatory illness, depression and lowered resistance to stress, and more and more of us are becoming vitamin D deficient across the United States.

Spending as little as 10 minutes outside every day can be enough to improve mood, mental focus, and decrease blood pressure. Think of the increased concentration and improved efficiency you will get as a return on investment that yields way better growth on your aptitude and attitude for life.

3. Do an Organization Reboot

We all know the secret to success is largely due to organization or at least some form of it. I would argue that organization is a process. We build structures to organize information and life events based on our current demands. Over the course of your life, this will vary and probably increase as your life becomes more complicated, which will force you to innovate and change things up as you go.

What was enough in college or your first job out of college may not be enough at this point in your life? Furthermore, many, many systems can help us organize, and too many can detract from their intended benefits.

Assessing and weeding out the unnecessary systems or consolidating from the many to one might just be the answer.

Is a family calendar on Google more efficient than the calendar hanging in the kitchen? Don’t just assume that the answer will be in tech. Sometimes the old-fashioned pen and paper is more practical and might also serve as a better physical reminder—think of the whiteboard in the kitchen vs the hidden “to-do list” on your smartphone with reminders that consistently fail.

Another strategy for your organization reboot is an organization self-assessment. First, what it is that you need help organizing, and what the intended outcome is? Is it for communication purposes—to make sure that everyone is on the same page—or is it to help you process and think about the workload in front of you? Answering these 2 questions will help you move forward as you think about what makes the most sense for you, your family, or your team at work.

Another way to approach an organization reboot is to ask other people how they stay organized. This is especially helpful when taking on new responsibilities that might come with a job change or a new family dynamic.

I did this in a new position I recently took and by collecting data on how other people approached their work (think of the complex systems in public education), I was able to create “a best practice” that worked for me and that I could share with my colleagues. Something that could earn you some extra kudos is a bonus, especially when you are the new kid on the block.

4. Engage Your Creative Brain

When we engage the creative parts of ourself we tap into the part of our brain that releases dopamine, which has a naturally calming, therapeutic effect. Needless to say, this will almost immediately help us to relax and will lower our stress levels. One of the premises for which art therapy has been well established.

In one study, in particular, it was found that after just 45 minutes of engaging with artistic materials, regardless of the level of production or artistic talent the person had, there was a notable decrease of cortisol in 75% of the participants.

Music therapy is another form of creative art that can relieve stress and restore our energy. Many of us use music to help us decompress or move into another part of our day or activity. Music also taps into this part of our brain that increases focus and can help us emulate the feeling or “vibe” we perceive in the music. As we know, upbeat music will help you feel more positive while slower music can help you feel more relaxed by easing some of the tension in your body.

There are tons of great playlists out there aimed at stress relief. The next time you are on your preferred music streaming service, test out a few and see which works for you. Needless to say, music is one of those things that we can have in the background while moving forward with other parts of our day.

Perhaps this is another area in need of a reboot that could enhance your stress relief routine.

5. Do You Need a Vacation or Weekend Away?

Vacation opportunities may not be as readily available as we would like. However, it doesn’t have to be a week in the tropics to feel the benefits of a short break from your everyday routine.

If we are optimizing our time with some of the above strategies, perhaps we might be able to sneak in that weekend getaway or even just a day trip with the family. Getting out of your everyday environment, especially when trying to build in some respite and relieve stress, can do wonders for our mind, body, and spirit.

We may love our homes, but they do represent the endless “to-do list” and remind us of all the things that contribute to our stress levels. Getting away from this environment where you can get outside and engage in some of your favorite activities with your favorite people will free your mind and your body.

 

Granted, COVID-19 has definitely hindered our road trip or vacation opportunities. However, with a little creativity, we can build in the little breaks that we need to relieve some stress, reconnect with the people who are important in our lives, and help us to feel ready for the next hurdle in front of us.

6. Meditation and Mindfulness, Make Them a Habit

Meditation and mindfulness can offer endless benefits to us emotionally and psychologically, which will naturally relieve stress. Many of those benefits include increased focus, relaxation, and a decrease in the mental clutter in your head.

One of the biggest challenges with mediation or mindfulness is that to feel the impact, we need to practice it consistently, which takes discipline. The people who are most successful at integrating mediation and mindfulness into their self-care and stress relief routines are people who build it into their daily practices.

And as is true with many strategies, we don’t need to spend hours doing it. Just 5 or 10 minutes a day can make a difference, but we do need to make sure we are doing it.

Maybe there is a 5 or 10-minute window at the end or beginning of your day where you could fit this consistently? There are lots of great apps to help guide you through your mediation with music and visualization.

7. Fight Off “Aloneliness” and Find Your Alone Time

I read an article recently about “aloneliness,” which is the opposite of loneliness. As an introvert, I have always been that person who replenishes her energy from time alone but never quite thought about the craving as a likening to loneliness for the introvert.

The benefits of alone time are science-backed and include those things that many times go out the window when we are stressed and overwhelmed—things like creativity, mental strength, and productivity. The COVID-19 pandemic has left many people without the opportunity to have their alone time, which could be another reason that you are feeling more stressed and less able to deal with your daily challenges.

You might need to be strategic, but you could build some alone time into your life with a walk outside to get lunch for example, which will also be incorporating strategy #2 on this list.

8. Find Balance in Your Life

Stress can turn our lives upside down and throw everything off-kilter. Finding your equilibrium, getting your bearings straight, and finding the balance in your life between the many demands of family, partner, work, and friends is essential.

If you are feeling increased stress, take a look at the demands around you and make sure that there is a balance between the different parts of your life—in particular, the areas where you find more nourishment for the soul.

Incorporating the well-known life coaching strategy “life wheel” is a great way to think about the different parts of your life to ensure that you are giving all areas the time and attention that they need.

9. Maintain Good Sleep Hygiene

It’s no secret that sleep can be your best friend or public enemy number one. As the saying goes, “what a difference a day can make” is in large part due to a restful night’s sleep. However, when we are stressed, sleep is one of the first things to get out of whack.

If you are going through a period of high stress, you are likely feeling an increase in outside or family demands. Finding the time to fit it all in may naturally creep into your sleeping hours or, on the other hand, the stress might keep you from being able to get a restful night’s sleep. Either of these two scenarios is a case where it might be good to take a look at your sleep routine and force you to be a little more protective of it.

Some of my go-to tips and strategies around maintaining healthy sleep hygiene are:

1. Plan ahead
2. Maintain your physical activity
3. Limit alcohol
4. Sleep in a cooler environment
5. Get plenty of fresh air

So, before you get to thinking that you can sleep “later,” remember that healthy people and well-balanced lives have a healthy amount of sleep in their lives.

10. Animal Love

There’s tons of research out there about the benefits of having a pet, in particular, a dog or a cat. Taking care of a pet or any member of the animal kingdom can have such a positive impact on our mood and psychological well-being that our brain releases a hormone known as oxytocin, dubbed the love hormone.We get this hormone from other nurturing (human) relationships as well, but we cannot underestimate the impact this can have on us when we care for and connect with one of our four-legged buddies. A case in point is the fact that many pet owners report feeling a connection to their pet that rivals that of any significant human connection and, in some cases, can even be more significant than a human-to-human connection.^[8]

Additionally, having a pet will likely promote other healthy habits. Some of which I spoke about above, such as being outside more often and increasing your physical activity. On a social level, connecting with friends and neighbors about your pet creates a shared connection—another protective factor in the fight against stress.

Bottom Line

Modern life places many demands on us which hits us in different ways during different periods of our lives. Maintaining our physical, mental, and spiritual well-being requires a fresh and renewed approach every so often.

If you take the time today—to take care of yourself for tomorrow by revamping the old worn-out items in your self-care toolbox—you will reap the benefits 20 fold! Learning how to relieve stress from our life is a process that we will need to revisit time and time again, each time getting better and better.

Reference: {https://www.lifehack.org/903519/how-to-relieve-stress-easily}

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