147: The Biology of Championship: Beating Mid-Season Burnout

Your body is the last unregulated advantage in motorsports. When the cars are equalized by rules, what separates champions from contenders is how well you manage your biology under pressure.

The mid-season grind hits everyone in NASCAR – that point where months of travel, heat, and relentless pursuit of speed create a perfect storm of fatigue. But what's actually happening inside your body goes far deeper than just feeling tired. We're talking about cellular exhaustion that affects everything from reaction time to decision-making quality.

This episode dives into the hidden science of peak performance during racing's most demanding stretch. You'll discover how elevated cortisol changes your brain, why your mitochondria (the tiny power plants in your cells) might be underperforming, and the five-step reset protocol that top teams use to maintain their edge when others fade. From sleep discipline and supercharged hydration strategies to micro-recovery techniques and nutrition pivots, these actionable steps create a competitive advantage that shows up exactly when the stakes are highest.

The cars might be equalized by regulation, but people are not. The crew member who bounces back faster, the driver who keeps sharp under pressure, the team that stays energized through the grind – that's the unfair, naturally-fueled high-performance health advantage. Ready to transform your mid-season wall into your winning edge? Subscribe now and join us on the journey to Victory Lane from the inside out.

Chapters

• 0:00 The Mid-Season Grind Reality Check
• 3:47 Science Behind Performance Fatigue
• 7:13 Cellular Energy and Athletic Performance
• 9:00 Five-Step Mid-Season Reset Protocol
• 12:50 Final Lap: Separating Champions from Competitors
• 14:27 Take Action and Assessment Offer

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

It's mid-season and just a race away from the playoffs. You've been grinding since February the travel, the heat, the long hours in the shop and the constant push to find one-tenth of a second. You may not have realized it, but it's wearing on you. You feel it in your body, your focus, maybe even your mood and confidence. And if you're feeling it, guess what? So is every other team out there. The question is have you fully considered what separates the ones who drive through with ease from the ones who fade when the pressure mounts? Stay tuned to find out.

Speaker 1: 0:49

Hello, I'm Jeffrey Morton. If you're like most in NASCAR's top tiers drivers, crews, owners or executives while you're busy chasing podiums, have you fully considered who's taking care of you? Right here, you're about to start transforming your mind and body for peak race day performance with High Performance Health designed exclusively for the demands of NASCAR. As a certified High Performance Health coach and consulting hypnotist, I've coached elite entrepreneurs and athletes to higher energy, sharper focus and greater resilience naturally, naturally, safely and backed by science. And right now I'm bringing that same engineered approach to the best in motorsports. Here you'll find no wasted time, just a unique blend of integrative health, mental conditioning and proven recovery strategies, delivered in plain language, that you can use right away. Imagine a season without burnout, brain fog or the costly crash of your health, because the truth is, the real race starts within. I'm grateful you're here. Yes, always grateful for you joining us here on the Breaking Boundaries for Champions podcast. And don't forget to use the send us a message feature if you have a question or a comment and you want us to bring that up on the next program. I'd be happy to check out what you have to say there. You can click on that link in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 2:22

So today we are discussing the hidden cost of the mid-season grind. What does that look like? That looks like physical fatigue, not just tired muscles, but I'm talking about cellular exhaustion from stress, from poor sleep, from inconsistent nutrition and cumulative travel. This is exhaustion at the cellular level. This is a deeper level of exhaustion than just being tired. This is really deep physical fatigue. And what else? Mental drain? This is where self-doubt starts to creep in. Maybe you're noticing reaction times getting just a little bit slower and those decisions sometimes get second guessed. And then, of course, that creeps in or outwards, I should say to team morale. Burnout isn't just personal, it is contagious inside of a shop or on pit road, and it might not be so obvious when everyone is feeling it, but by this point in the season it usually starts creeping in. And here's the visual hitting the wall isn't about the car on the track, it's about the people in the team.

Speaker 1: 3:42

So what does the science show us? What I'm about to say it might be a little controversial, but after I explain it it'll make complete sense to you. You may have been misled by conventional thinking, and what I mean by that is the body is not a machine. The body is a continuous biological process that adapts and thrives, or it breaks down, depending on how you fuel and recover. So let me ask you what kind of fuel and recovery are you giving yourself?

Speaker 1: 4:20

Neuroscience neuroscience is the, the study, the scientific study of the central nervous system and the brain. Well, the brain is part of the central nervous system, but again back to that conventional mindset that the brain is separate from the body or the mind is separate from the body. The neuroscience shows that fatigue changes the brain. What I mean is higher cortisol. So cortisol is your stress hormone. And when cortisol is elevated, what does that do to us? That leads to lower focus. It leads to poor emotional regulation and slower reaction time.

Speaker 1: 4:59

Now biology tells us energy isn't just about calories, it's about mitochondria, and you may remember from your high school biology class. Your mitochondria are referred to as the tiny little micro power plants inside the cells of your body. Let's break that down a little bit. Let's break that down a little bit. It's said to that we have about 50 trillion with a t, 50 trillion cells in our body and every one of those cells has hundreds, sometimes thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of mitochondria. So we're really talking about a micro experience here. And those mitochondria create something called ATP. It's adenosine triphosphate. You don't need to know what that means, but ATP, you may have heard, is the currency of energy for the body. So we have these trillions of cells that have hundreds of thousands of mitochondria that produce this energy currency, hundreds of thousands of mitochondria that produce this energy currency.

Speaker 1: 6:09

And they need certain building blocks, certain raw materials, to be able to produce that atp, that energy. And those raw materials could be minerals, it could be hydration, uh, could be vitamins. So those are, you know, your vitamins and minerals are your micronutrients, and then, of course, the right macronutrients to supply the body with those micronutrients, those macronutrients, and then, of course, the right macronutrients to supply the body with those micronutrients. Those macronutrients would be your carbohydrates, your proteins, your healthy fats and things like that, and that creates nervous system balance. So it's bringing it all together. It's bringing that neuroscience together with that biology. And the good news is these are not just fixed traits, these are trainable, these are adjustable, um, and these are trackable as well. So, just like the data on your telemetry and on your dashboard, we can actually use high performance health tools to be able to see these very specific data points, to be able to train these traits in the body, this neurology and biology. So here's your actionable plan. You might be wondering at this point okay, this is great, jeff, but what can I do for a mid-season reset? So here's your very actionable high performance health mid-season reset. It here's your very actionable high-performance health mid-season reset. It's a proven pit stop protocol you can put into play immediately.

Speaker 1: 7:34

Number one sleep discipline. Now, you've probably heard this before, but the same bedtime and wake time, even on the road, has a powerful effect on your energy, your neurology and your biology. We want to protect especially deep sleep as a non-negotiable. We have safe and natural solutions for sleep optimization. Number two hydration strategy.

Speaker 1: 8:03

Not just talking about water here, my friends. I'm talking about very supercharged water, adding electrolytes and minerals to combat heat and travel and stress. Now you might be thinking about some of the electrolytes Maybe you're using them already some of the ones that are sold online. There are some good ones and not so good ones out there. The ones that are really formulated for athletic performance, uh, sometimes are out of ratio, but there are some good ones out there. Uh, redmond makes a great one called relight. That's one of my favorites. And also, uh, there's one out there called lmnt. Uh, probably second best in my category. I'm not going to go why, but if you're just looking for a, you know, a readily available something that you can just go out and buy today. That could be something like the Redmond Real Salt. You can pick that up in the spice aisle of any market, any local supermarket. You can also order that on Amazon.

Speaker 1: 9:04

Just a couple of pinches in your water. Of course, you wanna make sure your water is filtered. You're not drinking environmental toxins in your water. So you know, our foundation is clean air, clean water, clean food For a starting point. But taking that filtered water and adding a little bit of Redmond sea salt in it and then that's going to give you your sodium. Now we want to balance that with potassium and we can do that with a fresh squeezed lemon or lime organic if possible. That's going to give you a great balance of sodium to potassium and actually regenerate your or replenish your adrenals and give you that support that you need. All right enough on hydration strategy.

Speaker 1: 9:44

Number three micro recoveries. Talking about just 10 minutes of specific breath work, something like resonance breathing. What is that? That is an exhale for longer than an inhale. You might've heard of 7-11 breathing before, so that would be breathing in for seven seconds, breathing out for 11 seconds. Do that exercise for three to five minutes, 10 minutes if you can. That's going to make a huge impact, especially before a stressful event like a green flag, or right before bed. That's going to help to enhance that step number one with sleep discipline. That's going to help to enhance that step number one with sleep discipline. So stacking that micro recovery on top of your sleep discipline is going to be absolutely amazing. And then, of course, my specialty guided self-hypnosis. Using that before bed or pre-raise can definitely lower cortisol, reset clarity and enhance focus.

Speaker 1: 10:40

Number four a nutrition pivot. Cut out those processed foods, cut out that sugar. You want to swap in protein, healthy fats, making sure you're getting enough fiber in your diet, and that's going to help to stabilize your blood sugar, remove that brain fog, give you more mental clarity, give you more energy Absolutely amazing what a good nutrition pivot can do for you. And then, number five movement balance. Don't just lift heavy and run long. We want to mix strength training with zone two or zone three cardio on a regular basis and mobility to keep your nervous system flexible. So what could you implement in addition to the strength training and the cardio and this qualifies as cardio as well Tai Chi exercises, qigong exercises so those are based on traditional Chinese medicine.

Speaker 1: 11:37

Telling you right now, tai Chi and Qigong saved my life back in 2014. And that was really my lead domino into what I'm doing now. If you haven't heard my backstory before, that was really what turned my health around and literally saved my life. And then yoga don't underestimate yoga. Those are all amazing modalities for your movement balance. So remember, these small wins can stack and in the final third of the season, that stack becomes your edge.

Speaker 1: 12:07

And although these five small steps are sure to have a big impact. This reset stack was quite generalized and we can engineer this for your exact biology over at our high-performance health shop at VictoryLaneWellnesscom. That's where we do all our amazing work with athletes in the motorsports industry and, as you'll discover, the cars might be equalized by regulation, but people are not. The cars might be equalized by regulation, but people are not. The crew member who bounces back faster, the driver who keeps sharp on the pressure, the team that stays energized through the grind that's the unfair, nationally fueled high performance health advantage. So the final lap, here's the truth. Mid-season pressure is where champions are made or broken. Fatigue, doubt and distraction creep in for everyone. But what separates the great from the good is who's willing to take control of their biology, not just their strategy. So if you're feeling the weight of the grind right now, don't ignore it.

Speaker 1: 13:11

Start small, lock in one recovery practice, cut back on one hidden stressor and measure just one performance marker that actually tells you if you're trending up or down. You could use the minerals and metals test. That's an at-home, functional lab test can be done right at home with a simple hair sample. You can use data, health data that you can. You wearable technology is what I'm trying to say to measure your resting heart rate, your heart rate variability, especially your REM sleep or deep sleep. Or you could use something like a continuous glucose monitor to monitor your blood sugar for 30 or 60 days.

Speaker 1: 13:51

It would be absolutely amazing just to choose one of those to see if you're trending in the right direction. Do that consistently, and you'll show up sharper, calmer and more resilient than your competition when it matters the most. If you're the kind of person who's ready for proven systems to back this up, head over to VictoryLaneWellnesscom. Grab your free, high-performance health assessment. You'll get clarity on where you're leaking energy and the exact adjustments to fix it, so that you can finish the season stronger than you started, because, remember, your body and mind are the advantage. The question is are you willing to make it a part of your execution plan? Hit that subscribe button and we'll see you in victory lane. Bye-bye, everybody.