The Core
You're at the wheel and decide to push your body to its limit. And at times, you're feeling exhausted, like you've given all you've got to give. What to do, if there just is no more energy, no more spirit?
A late colleague, Aki Hintsa, coached top-level executives, leaders, and F1 drivers. Hamilton, Vettel, Räikkönen, Häkkinen: familiar names, all coached by Aki.
A few years ago, the journalist Oskari Saari wrote a book on Aki's philosophy called "The Core". The ideas in this book are suitable for all of us in our daily lives: to trim and prepare our own engine to its best possible condition. Fill up the tank and fly the flag high! Aki's ideas were born from following the life of top runner Haile Gebreselassie very closely. "Haile = runner" describes his attitude towards life and high-level athletics. Running was a part of Haile. Running was not about performing, it was about living.
Aki's basic idea means identifying your core – what lies within. Essential questions to ask yourself are such as What do I want? Where am I going? It's truly worth getting to the bottom of yourself and finding the real answers to these questions. The kind of answers that are unacceptable are such as "I am a doctor" or "I want to win the lottery and then spend the money". This the point where you have to dig deeper, with courage and without prejudice. If you can't find your inner self and the direction of your life, how can you tune your engine, how can you steer your car? Most likely you'll just skid on the start line and drive out at the first corner.
Once you've grounded yourself and found a path for your future, it's time to think about how to get there and commit to what you're doing. Aki has broken down achieving success into six different areas: general health, biomechanics, recovery, nutrition, physical activity and mental energy.
This all seems exhausting, maybe it would just be easier to give up everything? The idea is not to train all of that at once, grinding away with a mean grin. Take it easy and be kind to yourself. You can choke on a bun if you bite it all at once! Take two of the six areas and work on them for at least three months. Then you can focus on the next two in peace and quiet, and again after three months on the next two.
On the Spanish seaside, it's easy to focus on good, healthy food. The Mediterranean diet is considered very healthy and balanced. Fish, seafood, fresh vegetables and fruit. Nuts. Red meat is rare. Olive oil.
Another thing that is easy to start with is recovery, or rest. Get enough sleep and sleep well. A five-hour night's sleep is not rest. Staying up all night makes your mind function worse, equivalent to a slight drunken buzz. Alcohol impairs sleep quality. Computers, tablets and other sources of blue light should be turned off at least an hour before bedtime. Sleeping pills cause habituation and quality of sleep suffers. Sleep well and enjoy it without feeling guilty. And nothing is more luxurious than a 15-minute nap after a good run! And a good book.
The previous tips may help you towards your dream start. According to Aki's teachings, the next stage would only start after three months. I think it's also very easy to be physically active on the Spanish coast, which means taking on a third theme: physical training. Golf, walking on sandy beaches and in markets, hiking in the mountains, looking at the scenery from the back of a bike. All this opens up before your eyes every morning. You just have to enjoy it. Cycling may feel wild, but I can tell you from personal experience that nowhere is there more respect for cyclists on the road than in Spain.
The "migratory birds" will have done all they can during their stay in Spain and before returning home in April, there will be time to focus on the fourth point: mental energy. One part of mental well-being is being at ease with yourself, both physically and mentally. This is where plastic surgery sneaks into the picture; there's no point suffering from distracting bodily dents if a plastic surgeon can straighten them out. Countless studies show that high-quality surgery can improve the quality of life. And quackery, on the other hand, leaves your formula engine in the last box behind the starting line.
Asko Salmi
Specialist in Surgery and Plastic Surgery
