The great secret of Manu Ginóbili to improve your rest at night

Emanuel Ginóbili was recently inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame, the United States basketball league, considered the best in the world. In his career and after his retirement, Manu Ginóbili’s rest habits were key to achieve and maintain performance top.

Although having an established sleep routine and sticking to it is important, Manu Ginobili’s methods for rest go one step further. The basketball player, who knew how to be an Olympic champion and world runner-up with his team, resorted to specific devices to adjust the details of his rest to the maximum.

Ginobili’s secret is in his hands

To achieve the best possible rest, Manu Ginóbili uses a device called Oura Ring. This device is a ring that keeps track of the person’s biometric data for the whole day. Thus, it is able to create a profile that determines what would be an optimal sleep and compares it with the actual rest of the user.

For example, some data that this smart ring takes is body temperature and HRV (heart rate variability). The latter is an indicator that reflects the adaptation of a person to training and serves to know the state of stress of it. Namely, if you are fatigued, overtrained, exhausted or even suffering from anxiety.

Manu Ginóbili began to use this ring after his retirement, after reading the book Why we sleep? (Why do we sleep?) by neuroscientist Matthew Walker. Ginóbili himself usually shares the results of his nights of sleep on social networks, especially when the results are “optimal”, according to the rating of the apps.

In addition to the hours of rest, the apps displays other data, such as efficiency, sleep quality, REM (light sleep) sleep time, and deep sleep time.

The change that Ginobili made to stretch his career

In an interview, the Argentine said that, after the age of 30, his recovery after a training session or match was not ideal. She did not yet have the “sleep ring,” but she instinctively looked for other items, such as smart watches and pillow clips, so that she could gauge her quality of sleep.

It is curious that Manu Ginobili did not concentrate on training more to perform on the track. Quite the opposite: directed his efforts to a better rest, something that until then seemed like a waste of timein his own words.

Of course, he accompanied this habit with a diet that included intermittent fasting, even training without eating anything beforehand, and two meals a day. The diet was based on fish, vegetables, eggs and healthy fats.

Dairy, cereals and sugars were left out.

Why is rest important?

Sleep is an indispensable need for human beings. When we sleep, the body enters a state of regeneration that is key to recovering energy and other resources for the activities that will have to be faced later. According to science, an adult person should sleep between 7 and 8 hours each day.

Sleep is also critical for memory, experts say. While we are at rest, the mind organizes and consolidates the knowledge that we acquired when we were awake.

That is why it is recommended, for example, to rest properly the night before an exam. Sleeping, we record information.

The simple act of sleeping is also key to good mental health. Sleep repairs the balance in the body and decreases the stress that we accumulate during the day, according to studies.

Finally, there are several negative consequences that can result from a poor night’s rest. For example, a person who does not sleep well at night, or who goes to bed late, has a higher risk of obesity.

Tips to get a good rest

If you don’t have the ring that Manu Ginobili wears, don’t be discouraged. Still, there are some simple strategies that can help you get a good night’s sleep:

• Eat dinner at least 2 hours before bed and avoid heavy meals and alcohol.
• Reduce the use of screens a few hours before the break.
• Meditate or take a hot shower to promote relaxation.
• Establish a routine Trying to go to bed and get up at the same time every day. The body gets used to that rhythm and thus it is possible to adopt the habit.

Ultimately, remember that it is understandable to have a bad night’s sleep, either due to poor quality or lack of rest. The important thing is that it does not recur.

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