Athletics While I Sleep

The more I read into different theories on athletics, the more I can become confused. Fitness has been a process for me. I'm a pretty hard-headed person, and use to be pretty narrow minded. I'm still pretty thick headed, but I believe I am now narrow-minded on the right track, rather than maintaining a system that doesn't work.

To my point...

I watched a documentary on dreams and R.E.M. sleep. I began to learn about the importance of dreaming, and the science behind it. In this documentary I learned that dreaming about one thing in particular, can improve your confidence and performance with whatever you dreamed about. Much like students that dream after studying perform better on the test the next day.

Before going to sleep I have been circulating thoughts about jiu-jitsu, sprinting, foot speed. More often than not I have ended up having vivid dreams about those very things. Consequently my performance increases the following day when I awake. I feel my nervous system responding quicker, my muscles firing more loose and in sequence. This is just one thing I have been adding to my daily routine. 

Much like making a car faster. You don't just keep upgrading the vehicle and driving it to increase speed. Occasionally you have to grease the nuts and bolts and fix the inner-workings. If your only interest is in driving the car as fast as possible all of the time, the engine will eventually fail or start performing worse.

I've been learning how important it is to take a systematic approach to fitness. I must train my body to be explosive in everything I do, all of the time. If I workout on a day that I am at 40%, my muscles are exhausted, I'm much slower, etc.. Then I will be neurologically training my muscles to be slower whether I like it or not. When training for speed and power, it is better to do fewer reps at maximum output, stopping at your peak, then it is to grind it out to complete exhaustion.