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Precision, Power, and Progress: Performance Unchained Insider (Ed.11)

Welcome to the 11th Edition of Performance Unchained Insider: Precision, Power, and Progress! 🚀


I’m excited to welcome you back to another issue of Performance Unchained Insider—a space where science meets strategy to help athletes, coaches, and high performers unlock new levels of potential.


Every edition, including this one, is driven by one mission: to connect you with evidence-based research that fuels smarter training, faster recovery, and long-term performance breakthroughs. In a world filled with noise and fads, I believe it’s critical to lean into what’s proven, what’s practical, and what truly pushes the boundaries of human performance.

If you’re already part of this growing community, thank you for being on the journey. If you’re new here, welcome, you're in the right place. Every study shared, every insight delivered, is chosen with one goal: to give you tools you can implement immediately.


📩 Not subscribed yet? Consider subscribing and stay ahead of the curve with cutting-edge research delivered right to your inbox. And I make you this promise to stay up-to-date to provide you with the latest studies in athletic performance, mental performance, and wellness. You have no idea how it motivates and inspires me to think how else can I grow this organically, provide you better information, & create partnerships in the future ahead!

Let’s keep building momentum—with precision, with power, and with progress. Here's to raising the standard of what’s possible—together.

Stay strong, stay informed, and stay unchained.


Randy Palacios

Founder, Flexfit Wellness & Recovery



Wellness Spotlight: Top Recovery Tip of the Month


🧦💪 Compression Garments After Lifting: Miracle Recovery or Overhyped Socks?

We’ve all seen it — the gym warrior strutting out of a brutal leg day, wrapped head-to-toe in compression gear. The promise? Less soreness. Faster recovery. Better muscle repair. Maybe even a secret ticket to gainzville.

But according to a fresh study in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the reality check has arrived:

Compression garments might not be the magic recovery hack we hoped for.

Let’s break it down. 🧠👇

🧪 The Study That Squeezed Out the Truth

Researchers recruited a group of healthy, resistance-trained athletes and put them through a standardized resistance exercise workout.

Then, half the athletes put on compression garments, and half just kicked back naturally (no special gear).

They measured:

  • 🧬 Muscle protein synthesis markers (how well muscles were preparing to repair and grow)

  • 💨 Blood flow (how efficiently muscles were flushing waste and getting nutrients)

  • 🏋️ Performance (how strong and explosive they were afterward)

  • 😌 Perceived recovery (how sore and “ready” they felt)

Sounds thorough, right? Here's what they found...


📊 Results: Compression Didn’t Bring the Thunder

✅ Muscle Protein Synthesis? No boost. Compression garments didn’t light up the muscle repair process any more than resting without them.

✅ Blood Flow? No significant increase. Those snug sleeves didn’t pump the muscles with extra life.

✅ Performance? Same same. No better jump height, no stronger lifts compared to non-compression folks.

✅ Perceived Recovery? Tiny trend toward less soreness — but not statistically significant. (Translation: Maybe felt a little better, but not enough to matter in the data.)


🧠 Editor's Insight: Are Compression Garments Useless?

Not so fast.

Just because they don't supercharge muscle recovery doesn't mean compression gear is garbage. For some athletes, even a slight placebo effect (feeling fresher, moving a little looser) can make a big difference mentally.

Plus:

  • Compression can still help with swelling after injuries.

  • It might offer joint support during activity.

  • For travel, it’s great for minimizing post-flight bloating and stiffness.

But if you’re banking on your tight tights making you recover like Captain America after a brutal squat session? 🦸‍♂️ You’re better off focusing on sleep, hydration, protein intake, and smart programming.


🚀 Real Recovery Tips That Actually Work

🛏️ Prioritize 7–9 hours of high-quality sleep.

💧 Hydrate like it’s your part-time job.

\🍳 Get 20–30g of protein in within an hour post-training.

🧘‍♂️ Incorporate active recovery (light mobility, walking, or cycling).

📅 Respect training volume and deload when necessary.

Compression gear? It’s the icing, not the cake.


💬 What’s your personal take? Have you ever felt like compression gear sped up your recovery—or do you think it’s all hype?



Athletic Performance Spotlight: Unlock Your Edge Tip of the Month


⚡ Sprint, Sweat, or Both? — The Battle Between Repeated Sprints and HIIT for Hamstring Power and Fitness

In the world of elite sports, especially in high-impact, fast-paced games like rugby, every inch of speed and every fiber of strength counts.

But when it comes to building bulletproof hamstrings 🦵 and elite endurance, should athletes blast sprints or hustle through HIIT?

A fresh study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research tackles this very question:

“Repeated-Sprint Training vs. Short-Bout HIIT: Who Wins the Hamstring Architecture and Fitness War?”

Let’s sprint (and maybe jog a little) through the findings! 🚀

🏁 The Showdown: Sprint vs. HIIT

Researchers recruited 24 under-20 elite rugby league players and split them into two camps:

  • Repeated-Sprint Training (RST): Short, intense bursts of sprints.

  • Short-Bout High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT): Short intervals at high intensity but not pure sprinting.

They wanted to see who built:

  • Stronger, more resilient hamstrings (by measuring muscle structure through ultrasound)

  • Sharper sprint speed

  • Better aerobic fitness

  • Bigger vertical jump power

All this across six weeks of hard work.


🎯 And the Winner Is… (Well, It Depends)

Here’s the cheat sheet:

🦵 Hamstring Gains: Both RST and HIIT grew hamstring fascicle length (muscle fibers got longer = stronger, more resilient to injury) and slightly decreased pennation angle (helping with better force production).

🏃 Sprint Speed: 🚀 RST crushed it — faster over 10, 20, and 30 meters. (Sprint training makes you sprint faster... who would've thought?)

❤️‍🔥 Aerobic Fitness: 🏃‍♂️💨 HIIT stole the show — bigger improvements in the 1,200 m shuttle run.

🦘 Jump Power: Small improvements in countermovement jump peak power, especially for HIIT athletes.


📊 Quick Statistical Recap

  • Fascicle length increased about +1 cm in both groups (moderate to large effect sizes).

  • Sprint improvements favored RST strongly — effect sizes around 0.8–1.0 (moderate to large).

  • Aerobic improvement favored HIIT — moderate effect size of 0.89.

  • Muscle thickness increased slightly in both groups (small to moderate).


🧠 Editor's Insight: Training Is a Weapon — Choose Wisely

This study proves that both RST and HIIT sharpen your sword — but they sharpen it differently.

If your sport demands:

  • 🔥 Explosive breakaways

  • ⚡ Rapid accelerations

  • 🏉 First-to-the-ball sprints

➡️ Focus on Repeated-Sprint Training.

If you need:

  • 🫀 Superior endurance

  • 💪 Long-lasting fitness under fatigue

  • 🏃‍♂️ Faster recovery between plays

➡️ Mix in Short-Bout HIIT.

Best of all? Smart programming doesn’t choose between them. It periodizes both — depending on season goals, player needs, and performance demands.


🛠️ Practical Tips for Coaches & Athletes

✅ Use RST during preseason to build top-end speed. ✅ Introduce HIIT later to maintain conditioning without losing explosiveness. ✅ Measure both hamstring strength and endurance to track adaptations. ✅ Prioritize hamstring health — longer fascicles = lower injury risk!

🚀 Want help designing the ultimate sprint + HIIT fusion program for your team? Let’s connect — I specialize in turning science into sweat and results.



Mental Performance Spotlight: Mind Over Matter Tip of the Month


😬💥 How Jaw Clenching Might Be Sabotaging Your Game — The Hidden Link Between Bruxism and Athletic Performance

Athletes are known for their grit, grind, and laser focus. But what if I told you that one of their biggest hidden enemies isn't lack of strength or stamina — it's their jaw?

Yep. According to a new systematic review and meta-analysis published in the International Journal of Sports Medicine, bruxism — that's excessive teeth grinding or jaw clenching — might be silently chipping away at athletic performance. 🦷🏋️‍♂️

Let’s break this study down, minus the jaw pain. 😅👇

🎯 What Were They Trying to Find Out?

Researchers asked a simple but powerful question:

Does bruxism hurt athletic performance, and if so, how badly?

They dove deep into 11 studies (spanning from 2000 to 2023) to find out if athletes who grind or clench had:

  • Worse strength 💪

  • Slower reaction times ⏱️

  • Poorer endurance 🫀

  • Higher injury risks 🚑

  • Messier sleep patterns 💤

  • More psychological stress 🧠

Spoiler: They do. And it’s significant.


🔍 The Study Game Plan

  • Athletes Studied: From weightlifters to fighters to endurance racers.

  • Comparison: Bruxism athletes vs. non-bruxism athletes.

  • Tools: Advanced statistical magic ✨ — including pooled standardized mean differences and odds ratios.


📊 The Eye-Opening Results

🦷 Prevalence:

  • Bruxism affects about 38% of athletes.

  • (That’s nearly double the rate in the general population!)

💪 Physical Impact:

  • Strength down (SMD = -0.48)

  • Endurance down (SMD = -0.41)

  • Coordination worse (SMD = -0.45)

  • Reaction time slower (SMD = -0.33)

🧠 Mental Impact:

  • Anxiety higher (SMD = 0.62)

  • Sleep quality worse (SMD = -0.56)

🚑 Injury Risk:

  • 2.5x more likely to get injured.

💥 Combat sports and weightlifting athletes were hit the hardest, likely due to the stress and physical demands unique to their sports.


🧠 Editor's Take: Your Jaw Could Be Your Secret Weak Link

This study shines a spotlight on a wildly overlooked factor in elite performance:

A tight jaw equals tight performance.

Chronic clenching doesn’t just wreck your molars — it:

  • Disrupts sleep (which ruins recovery)

  • Builds unnecessary tension throughout your body

  • Saps strength, speed, and coordination

  • Adds psychological stress to an already stressed athlete

In short, it’s like trying to drive a Ferrari with the parking brake half on. 🚗💨


🛠️ What Athletes, Coaches, and Trainers Should Do

✅ Screen for bruxism during health and performance evaluations. ✅ Promote relaxation techniques — meditation, breathing exercises, yoga. ✅ Educate on the importance of sleep hygiene. ✅ Consider custom mouthguards to protect teeth and reduce clenching. ✅ Encourage stress management training — mental game is physical game.



🥇 Final Thought

Athletic excellence is a game of inches — and now we know, even your jaw can cost you the win.

Stay loose, stay mindful... and maybe unclench that jaw. 😅



That’s a wrap on Edition 11 of Performance Unchained Insider: Precision, Power, and Progress! 🚀🔥


From exploring how compression garments impact muscle recovery and blood flow, to hamstring architecture changes through different sprint strategies, and even the surprising link between bruxism and athletic performance—this edition was designed to give you powerful, science-backed insights you can use today.


If something sparked a new idea, challenged your thinking, or gave you a tool to help yourself or others perform better and recover smarter, let’s keep the momentum going: 💬 Comment your biggest takeaway or insight! 🔁 Share this with a colleague, teammate, or performance-minded professional who would benefit. 👍 React to support the spread of evidence-based performance strategies.


📬 Not subscribed yet? Join and I wholeheartedly promise to continue delivering impactful research simplified into actionable strategies so you can stay ahead of the game.

To future partnerships, new collaborations, and sponsors—thank you for believing in this mission. Here’s to building smarter athletes, stronger communities, and breaking limits together.

Until next time—stay curious, stay committed, and stay unchained.


Randy Palacios

Founder, Flexfit Wellness & Recovery



PUI 11: Precision, Power, & Progress
PUI 11: Precision, Power, & Progress

 
 
 

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