In The Flow

I sit down with my friend and fellow athlete meditator john slater for a candid conversation about the parallel threads between movement and mindfulness.

I share a short and simple moving meditation to be used while on a bike ride to cultivate greater awareness, mindfulness, and concentration while pedaling.

there's no doubt that body mass is an important metric for endurance sports like cycling or running, but there also exists a paradox of which the focus on weight undermines the other arguably more important determinants of success, health, happiness, and performance in athletes. In this short discussion, I share some thoughts and some realism on the topic of weight loss and why I urge athletes take a step back and ask the ever important question: why?

Coffee. The most widely used psychoactive drug (caffeine) and one of the top traded commodities on the planet. Is it something we should avoid? Should we drink it for health or performance? What does the science say? In this short episode, I break down some of the main evidence around coffee and caffeine and whether you should be concerned about your intake or lack of it - and address some of the main questions around it like is coffee dehydrating? Is it bad to be dependent on caffeine? More info at intheflownutrition.com

A cornerstone of improving and progressing as an athlete is learning from mistakes and failures, and the job of coaches and practitioners is to support this growth. Nutrition is a critical piece of this, and many endurance athletes struggle with navigating the nutritional demands of their sport. These 3 mistakes are very common and once addressed and dialed in, can make a tremendous impact on your performance.

If you're an athlete, particularly an endurance athlete, chances are you've experienced some kind of gastrointestinal distress or problems, shall we say, in the area of digestion before, during, or after exercise. It's a very complicated topic, as both the causes and solutions are far from clear cut. But this week's episode I sit down with registered dietitian and PhD researcher Patrick Wilson to hear about his new book, The Athlete's Gut, and some of the latest research on the topic so that athletes can make better food choices to avoid problems in the gut. We cover a lot, including fueling strategies, training the gut, fiber, plant-based athlete considerations, and more.

This week, I'm back with another installment of the Research Report, a series that takes a deep dive into scientific research studies or papers to analyze the methods, results, and conclusion around the article and add commentary and philosophical discussion to help live more healthfully and optimally as athletes and humans. Today we look at a new study published analyzing vegans vs. omnivore athletes and how measures like VO2max, submaximal endurance performance, and muscle strength compare. For the full paper, visit intheflownutrition.com/blog.

Practicing meditation has been one of the most important habits in my life, both as a human and athlete. I take a break from the nutrition side of things to share my thoughts on the benefits of meditation, how it fits into the context of sport, why now more than ever we should develop a practice, and end with a short, 10 minute guided meditation session.

Toms Skujiņš is a professional Latvian road cyclist for Trek-Segafredo based in Girona, Spain and Boulder, Colorado. I sit down for a chat with Toms about staying motivated during quarantine, philosophies around sport and nutrition, lessons learned from the pro peloton, and what it's like to wear the polka-dot jersey at the Tour de France. Follow Toms on social media @tomashuuns.

I answer listener questions ranging from plant-based supplementation, recovery nutrition, musical tastes, what's the deal with collagen, my thoughts on oil in the diet, and more. For full show notes and references, visit intheflownutrition.com/blog.