Shocking - the athletic benefits of earthing
Okay folks, brace yourselves - today we’re going full woo-woo weirdness because this post is all about ‘energy in the earth’, the ‘charge’ in your body and how taking your shoes and socks off is going to save the world. Assuming you haven’t already thrown your phone out of the window in disgust having concluded I have clearly lost the plot, let’s get stuck into the athletic benefits of earthing
I’ll be completely honest and admit that this is precisely the kind of thing I would have laughed at ten years ago, before concluding that anyone spouting such drivel was clearly spending too much time aligning their chakras, and rather less time inhabiting the real world.
But strip away the hippy dressing and flowery language - just as the whole plant-based diet deal has with the much-maligned idea of veganism - and behind it you’ll find some major performance and health benefits for free.
After all, we’re electric.
Earthing. Not just for off-grid nomads with dubious personal hygene, it’s an excellent performance upgrade for athletes
Every signal from our brains to our bodies and back again is the result of electricity carrying the message from one part of the body to another, resulting in thought, feeling, action, movement, breath, heartbeats - the lot. The earth we live on and the atmosphere we live in are also electrically charged.
Pull the plug on this and life ceases.
And in just the same way as your toaster needs an earth cable so it doesn’t accidentally shock you into the middle of next week if a live wire comes loose while you’re dozing through breakfast, when electricity is poorly moderated within the body things start going pear-shaped.
Humans, just like toasters, need a good earth connection to work properly. Without it, we’re disconnected.
The result is a lack of energy, vitality and a general sluggishness. In more extreme cases, nagging pains and illness persist.
None of these things ever made anyone a better athlete.
And by simply reconnecting to the earth every now and again you can reduce all of these symptoms, reducing stress and cortisol levels in the body, improving sleep and turning down stress.
Which all means better training, better racing, faster recovery, and a faster, fitter happier you.
Seriously?
Absolutely.
A lot of people may yearn for the ‘good old days’ but, really, they weren’t that great
War, disease and infection killed us in droves, surgery was limited to the application of leeches or having a limb chopped off with an old saw, and the wifi was rubbish.
But we were at least pretty bloody well connected to the earth.
Rubber shoes had yet to be invented, and with the industrial revolution still to come we hadn’t really got started on covering every available peice of land in tarmac and plastic.
Today though, in our uber-connected world, we’re pretty bloody disconnected from the earth beneath our feet and all the driverless cars and virtual reality terminals in the world aren’t going to bring that back.
Shoes and socks off, health and performance up. It’s as easy as that
Time to reconnect - how to harness the athletic benefits of earthing
- Go barefoot - walking or standing barefoot on the ground (grass, mud and sand are best, wet concrete works at a push) earths you right away. Add a few minutes daily for great results. If you’ve ever wondered why walking barefoot on the beach feels so good, this is why - it’s not just the sand between your toes and that Mai Tai you had for breakfast
- Grab an earthing mat - handy for a shot of earthing when it’s freezing or chucking it down outside and the last thing you want to do is stand in the garden barefoot
- Jump in the sea - salt water’s an excellent natural conductor after all
Nutrtition for earthing
Haha, good nutrition can do a lot of things, but food can’t earth you. You’ll need to get barefoot for that.
But for all the rest, when you need the absolute most from your nutrition, for those big training sessions and full-gas race days our Pre & Post Workout Shakes deliver above and beyond.
Power up your diet for key training sessions and race day with 33Fuel’s unique Pre & Post Workout Shakes
Conclusion
If you can get past the sandal-wearing-hippy-stigma around earthing, you’ll find an excellent (and free) performance and health upgrade, all for the sake of whipping your shoes and socks off every now and again.
See you on the beach.
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