Your Performance Health Cycle

The simple way to improve the 24 hours around your training

When most athletes think about performance, they focus on the session, the run, the ride, the workout. But true performance doesn’t just happen in the hour you train; it’s shaped by everything you do in the other 23.

That’s why we built Your Performance Health Cycle, a six-step framework that helps you get more from every day, not just every session.

Each step works together to build consistency, balance training load, and support recovery, helping you perform better, feel fresher, and stay strong all season.

1. Sleep

Sleep is the single most powerful recovery tool you have.

During deep sleep, your body releases growth hormone, repairs muscle tissue, and restores energy stores. Without it, progress slows, motivation drops, and recovery feels harder than it should.

Even small changes to your evening routine, like cutting caffeine earlier, taking magnesium before bed, or keeping a consistent sleep schedule, can lead to big improvements in energy, mood, and performance.

How to improve your sleep:

• Aim for 7–9 hours of consistent, uninterrupted rest.
• Take magnesium or a calming supplement 30–60 minutes before bed.
• Avoid screens and bright lights in the final hour of your day.
• Include a slow-release protein before bed to support overnight recovery.

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2. Injury Prevention

Consistency is built on resilience.

You can’t train hard if you’re constantly managing niggles or tightness. Injury prevention isn’t about doing more, it’s about doing the right things regularly to keep your body strong, mobile, and ready to perform.

Supporting your joints, tendons, and tissues with the right nutrition helps you absorb training load and bounce back faster between sessions.

How to build resilience:

• Take collagen with vitamin C before strength or mobility sessions.
• Add omega-3s to support joints and reduce inflammation.
• Prioritise nutrient-dense greens and daily vitamins for tissue repair and immune health.
• Incorporate mobility or stability work into your warm-ups and recovery days.

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3. Strength

Strength is about more than muscle, it’s about durability.

Building a stronger body improves endurance, reduces fatigue, and helps you handle bigger training loads over time. It’s the difference between peaking once and performing consistently all season.

Strength-focused nutrition gives your body what it needs to adapt, from creatine and nitrates to B vitamins and oxygen-supporting supplements like cordyceps.

How to build lasting strength:

• Take 3–5g of creatine daily to boost power and muscle recovery.
• Use nitrates (like beetroot) pre-session for better blood flow and endurance.
• Include a good protein source in every meal to support muscle repair.
• Add aerobic adaptogens like cordyceps for improved oxygen use.

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4. Fuel

Your sessions only work if you fuel them properly.

Carbohydrates are your body’s main energy source during exercise. When you run out, power drops, concentration fades, and recovery takes longer. Matching your carb intake to your training intensity and duration is the foundation of better endurance.

Training your gut to absorb carbohydrates efficiently means you can sustain energy and avoid GI issues, the “practice like you race” approach that every athlete should follow.

Carb intake guidelines:

• Easy sessions: 30–45g carbs per hour
• Moderate sessions: 60–75g carbs per hour
• Race or long sessions: 90g+ carbs per hour

How to fuel smarter:

• Practise fuelling in training, not just on race day.
• Combine gels, chews, and drinks to find your ideal balance.
• Use your body weight and training intensity to plan fuelling with precision.

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5. Hydration

Hydration is one of the simplest ways to improve performance, yet it’s often overlooked.

Even mild dehydration can reduce endurance, increase perceived effort, and delay recovery. It’s not just about drinking more water, it’s about replacing the electrolytes lost through sweat, sodium, potassium, and magnesium, to keep the body balanced.

How to stay hydrated:

• Start sessions hydrated: sip 400–600ml of water before training.
• During: aim for 400–800ml of fluid and 300–1000mg of sodium per hour.
• After: replace 1.5x the amount of fluid you lost through sweat.
• Add electrolytes to your bottle for long or hot sessions.

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6. Recovery

Recovery is where adaptation happens.

When you train, you’re creating controlled stress on your body. Recovery is when that stress turns into progress, when glycogen stores refill, muscles repair, and strength is rebuilt.

The first hour after training is crucial. Refuelling with carbs, protein, and electrolytes kick-starts the recovery process, reduces soreness, and helps you perform again the next day.

How to recover effectively:

• Consume 20–30g of protein and 1g of carbs per kg of body weight within 30–60 minutes.
• Rehydrate with fluids and electrolytes to restore balance.

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How to use the Performance Health Cycle

You don’t need to overhaul everything overnight, performance health is built through small, consistent habits.

1. Pick one or two areas to focus on first: maybe sleep or hydration.
2. Build small routines that fit your lifestyle: magnesium before bed, collagen with breakfast, protein after training.
3. Plan your sessions with the XMiles Nutrition Calculator to match carbs, electrolytes, and timing.
4. Review weekly: track how you feel, recover, and perform, then adjust as needed.

Over time, these steps work together to create the foundation for sustained performance, helping you train smarter, recover faster, and stay consistent across the season.

Explore Your Performance Health Cycle ›

Your performance isn’t defined by one workout, it’s shaped by everything that surrounds it.

The sleep you get, the fuel you choose, the hydration you maintain, and the way you recover all matter.

The Performance Health Cycle helps you bring all of that together, so you can perform at your best, every day.

Anthony, XMiles Founder