General Wellness & Performance

What Is Peak Performance?

Peak performance is an umbrella term for the state a person experiences when they are reaching their peak potential. This is a highly subjective state. What’s considered peak performance for one person might not be the same for others.

This term is often used in the sports and exercise health industries, but it can also be used to refer to peak performance in pretty much any aspect of a person’s life. 

If you treat your body to experience optimal conditions, you can reach peak fitness levels — and optimal mental levels, too. There are so many ways to function at your highest levels.

What Is General Wellness?

General wellness is a term that simply refers to a person’s overall wellbeing. According to the FDA, it’s about maintaining a healthy state, a healthy activity level, and reducing the likelihood of developing a chronic condition or disease. 

There are eight components of wellness, including:

• Physical
• Intellectual
• Emotional
• Social
• Spiritual
• Vocational
• Financial
• Environmental

All of these factors can lead to overall well-being — or they can lead to stress, anxiety, depression, and other conditions that may lead to chronic illness or disease. 

Most general wellness therapists focus on diet, exercise, and mindfulness coaching. 

How Do You Measure Peak Performance?

Since peak performance is so objective, you’ll need to determine performance milestones for yourself (or work with a coach to do so). 

Peak performance is usually measured by data points. Just some of these points include:

• Blood oxygen levels
• Heart rate
• Recovery times
• Performance times

How you feel during exercise and recovery times can also help measure peak performance. If you’re constantly wiped out during and after workouts, you may be exercising at the wrong times — or you may need to change your diet or recovery times to reach peak performance. 

How Do You Maintain Peak Performance?

There are a few ways to reach and maintain peak performance and general wellness. Some of the top ways to maintain peak performance are:

• Get enough sleep
• Eat for performance and recovery
• Treat injuries
• Make rest and recovery a priority
• Don’t overdo workouts

Getting enough quality sleep is one of the most important ways to maintain peak performance. And that whole eight-hours a night statistic? It’s kind of bogus. Everyone needs different amounts of sleep each night.

It’s almost impossible to reach peak performance without getting the right amount of quality sleep — which can only be determined by your body.

Eating the right foods is also equally important. Everyone has different allergies and intolerances; avoiding allergens and foods that don’t support your system will help keep your energy levels high.

It’s common for everyone to ignore injuries. But doing so can greatly decrease performance and increase recovery times. Making an appointment with an online doctor to discuss any injuries can prevent chronic ones from developing.

Making rest and recovery a priority (while not overdoing workouts) is just as important as making time for the workouts themselves. Overdoing workouts and not making time for rest and recovery can prevent reaching peak performance levels and create imbalances in the body (as well as promote some illnesses). 

Luckily, there are plenty of treatments available to help you stay balanced and discover your peak workout, recovery, and sleep times. You can event test your nutrient levels and tweak your diet and supplements to ensure the best possible performance and wellness levels. 

Treatments for Peak Performance

Even if it’s been a long time since you’ve performed at peak levels, all is not lost for your daily workout. Everyone can perform at their highest levels if they eat right, get enough sleep, and understand the data. 

The best ways to start performing at optimal levels and getting the most out of your body physically and mentally is to take supplements, track your activity and recovery data, and maximize the right workouts at the right times. 

Supplements

Eating the right foods will help you get the nutrients your system needs to perform its best. Yet sometimes it’s not possible to eat only foods that support our systems (and sometimes it’s impossible to eat enough nutrients through foods).

That’s where supplements come in.

Supplements can help your body get the nutrients it needs while maintaining peak performance. Supplements can also help you fight off infections, boost your immune system, and boost your energy. 

They can even support your bone health, prostate health, and reduce stress. Some of the top supplement providers include:

• Asystem
• Hims
• Hum
• Vital Proteins
• Rae
• Roman
• Ritual

Activity Trackers

Activity trackers can help maintain peak performance and monitor general wellness in two ways:

• They measure your performance levels
• They provide biofeedback data to enhance workouts and recovery times

If you’re concerned about maximizing peak performance times (physical or mental ones), we recommend investing in an activity tracker.

Depending on your health goals, you may want to opt for a tracker that provides data on rest and recover times, activities, sleep, or biofeedback.

Some of the top activity trackers that provide data on performance levels include:

• WHOOP
• Biostrap
• Oura Ring

Trait & Genetic Testing

You can’t fix a problem if you don’t know for sure it exists. Trait and genetic at-home health testing kits can help you learn about your optimal peak performance levels and possible genetic predispositions.

These tests take blood, urine, or saliva samples to determine any predispositions to certain foods, exercises, or even conditions.

At-home test kits can now tell you what foods you should eat and at what times you should exercise — all based on your genetics. 

Some of the best at-home testing kits that provide data for trait and genetic testing include:

• Baze 
• Thriva
• Vessel Health
• EverlyWell
• Health Testing Centers
• Let’s Get Checked