by Jessi Stensland, Professional Triathlete and Movement Specialist

There will always be times in life when it is necessary to put training on the back burner. It could be the off-season, career or family commitments, injury, lack of motivation or just because you feel like it. Whatever the reason, although your fitness might flounder, you can never afford to forget about your health. Conveniently, maintaining optimal health is the foundation of any proper training program. Simply being diligent about a few things in your day-to-day routine can make a positive impact on your health while helping you maintain a great foundation for piling back on the fitness once you are able to get back at it.

Here are four things, in order of importance, which you can incorporate daily that can make a huge impact on your performance in life and sport.

1. Get good sleep.
   Sleep is critical to the function of the mind (REM sleep for cognitive function) and the body (deep sleep for physical restoration.) Sleep has been defined as the "natural periodic suspension of consciousness during which the powers of the body are restored." There is no magic number when it comes to how much sleep one needs, but it is recommended that adults get somewhere in the range of 7-9 hours of sleep per night. Find out your optimal daily sleep requirement by letting yourself sleep without interruption when possible. 
   
   A helpful tip: set your alarm for the time you need to go to bed so that you won't need an alarm to wake up. For example, if your body requires 9 hours of sleep a night and you have to be up workout or a meeting by 6:30 a.m., ideally you'd be getting to bed by 9:30 p.m. Cutting back by even one hour can make a big difference in mood, health and the ability to focus and fight sickness. If you are unable to get a full night's sleep, 20-minute power naps are helpful. If you are getting less than you require, be sure to take that into account when you are planning out your daily demands on your mind and body. The Zeo Sleep Manager is a fantastic tool for monitoring your sleep. Like a power meter for the bike, it won't make you sleep better, but it will allow you to measure and analyze your sleep data in order to help you improve it.
2. Stay hydrated.
   Water makes up approximately 60-70 percent of the human body by body weight. Adequate hydration ensures that all systems of the body can function at their peak potential. It helps fight off colds, decrease pain and increase your energy. To stay hydrated, start the day off with a glass of water before food or coffee. Carry a bottle of water with you and sip on it throughout the day. Drink a glass of water before going to bed. 
3. Eat clean.
   You are what you eat. As often as possible provide the body with the cleanest choices available. It's nothing you haven't heard before: opt for fruits, vegetables, whole grains and sustainably sourced protein sources.  Avoid packaged, processed and refined foods with unnatural and unnecessary ingredients. Read labels. Choose foods with fewer ingredients and avoid foods with fillers. Eat small, colorful, balanced meals often.
    
   Daily nutrition a big challenge? A few things that can help: plan your meals in advance. Pack your lunch. At the very least, commit to making one small change like choosing water over juice or soda or trying a new grain by choosing a new recipe that includes it.  Remember, good habits are just as easy as bad habits. Commit to it.
4. Stay stacked! Practice and maintain proper posture.
   Proper posture is critical to your health, your fitness and your sports performance. Like the pillar of a house, it is designed to be your strong, stable base of support. Crooked? Weak? Not ideal. Whether sitting, standing, sprinting or time trialing on your bike, maintaining a strong, stacked posture is most productive. Your base of support starts in your abdominal muscles and extends the length of your spine.
    
   Does it feel like hard work to stay in good posture? Work on lengthening and strengthening your abdominals with yoga's cobra pose, a pillar bridge, the overhead squat with a dowel, the RDL with a dowel and the floor posture slides.  Lengthen your pectoralis major muscles to open up your chest by massaging them with a Trigger Point Massage Ball. Strengthen your upper back muscles to help keep your thoracic spine extended with a movement like the Low Row with the TRX Suspension Trainer.  The goal is to keep your body parts from your ear to your shoulder to your hips to your feet stacked strong and straight.  Once again good habits are just as easy as bad habit.
    
   Create good postural stability then reinforce it by living it and cycling with it. When your posture is correct, your muscles, organs, joints and bones are where they are designed to be.  Focusing on maintaining posture day-to-day, will have a positive impact on your daily energy levels and put you in a much better position to jump into fitness when the time comes.

Jessi attributes her desire to race at an elite level and her ability to do so injury-free to the team at Athletes' Performance and the Core Performance program. An understanding of body awareness, being athletic, and how to integrate all elements of performance into life is a message that Jessi is committed to passing along. Jessi is the owner and founder of MovementU. MOVEMENTU provides hands on, interactive experiences designed to enhance the understanding of how to increase INJURY RESISTANCE + POWER through body awareness and efficient movement as it relates to life and your specific sport. To see if MovementU is coming to an area near you, visit movementu.com.

To learn more about Jessi, visit her website at http://www.gojessi.com or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jessistensland.