Tis the season to be jolly, but unfortunately tis also the season of sickness. Be it flu, cold, Covid, or RSV, everywhere you look you can see the signs of illness. For those in the Northern Hemisphere, the days are getting shorter, darker, and colder and all of the elements needed for a winter bug to spread are perfectly aligned.

So what can you do this holiday or postseason to avoid getting sidelined with the sniffles?

In this episode of the Purple Patch Podcast, Matt provides a game plan to help you build your resilience and bolster your immune system to avoid sickness or at least minimize the impact if you end up under the weather.

Matt offers insight into illness prevention through a coach's lens, using peer-reviewed research, and the expertise of medical and sporting professionals in his orbit.

He discusses supporting habits and best practices you can use to build up your defense, considerations in how to approach your training, and other tips and tricks to apply should you start to feel symptoms.

The three main topics of this discussion are:

Timing: Components and Conditions of the Season

(10:31) "It is a time of the year where there is a lot of high sickness frequency...We come into the holidays and we're having greater travel, typically...A lot of times we're switching environments going from cold to hot or hot to cold, and that's always an additional stress on the body. And also, it's a time that we get together with friends and family and so we tend to congregate inside...And so it's a relatively high-risk environment."

Habits and Approaches: Building a Platform of Resilience

(18:35) Many of us always feel like we must be on. But we can really, really thrive if we allow ourselves a little bit of luxury, a little bit of pampering, a little bit of Spa. And so over these next couple of months, I think that is a very simple but really important component to actually help promote health."

Addressing Symptoms: Reducing Longevity and Severity

(46:45) "We must realize that whether it's viral, or bacterial, infection is a huge additional stressor that now you must handle and it is often the thing that tips the applecart. Your very best chance to meet and beat viruses and bacterial infections is to reduce your overall stressors as you go through these winter months."

The aim of this episode is to provide you with tools and techniques to develop systemic resilience and health, and to help prevent sickness from derailing your performance journey.

Episode Timestamps

00:00 - 05:56 - Welcome and Episode Introduction

06:04 - 49:21 - The Meat and Potatoes - Episode 246: Winter Health - Building Resilience & Minimizing Risk of Sickness

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