Poker, even at a great online poker room such as Juicy Stakes, can be a marathon. One area of importance that gets too little talk is staying healthy so that your health doesn’t interfere with your poker.
Good Health is Vitally Important for Everything
Poker is certainly not the only reason to keep yourself healthy. Not by a long shot! In this sense, poker is a minor, but very useful, diversion from the pressures and stresses of everyday life.
So, although this article talks about staying healthy for poker, we really mean for you to stay healthy for yourself and for all of your loved ones, friends, colleagues, and…well, everyone.
Having said that, we should now point out that there are a few things that poker players have to pay extra attention to in order to become better poker players.
You Said That Poor Health Could Interfere with Poker. How?
When we talk about poor health, we are not talking about the huge setbacks some people unfortunately experience, such as heart problems or cancer. We are talking about generalized not feeling well.
Again, this is not the kind of feeling poorly where you know that you are “coming down with something”. The poor health we will talk about is so generalized that you may not even realize that you aren’t feeling “poker well”
What is the Most Important Aspect of Good Health?
There is no one aspect of good health that is clearly more important than the others so we will list three super important areas of good health as co-equals. These are exercise, hydration, and sleep.
It takes a long time for most people to see positive results from changing sleeping habits, exercising more, and drinking more plain water. Still, these are so important that we will start here.
Exercise Means Moving
It’s all well and good to be able to run 10 kilometers or so but it takes a long time to work up to a BIG workout. Still, we can all move a lot more than we do, given our mostly sedentary lifestyles.
Everyone should walk for at least 30 minutes in the morning and again in the evening. We do understand that you have family obligations that make it difficult for you to walk every day.
There are many other ways we can move our bodies. Movement is the best way to get blood flowing to your legs and feet. Moving while swinging your arms will get blood flowing to your hands and fingers.
There are many people doing chair calisthenics. This is a great way to get moving. Planks are also a quick and highly effective way to improve the functioning of all of your internal organs. Resistance training is another quick and effective way to improve the health of your body.
Invest Some Money in Really Good Shoes
If you are going to walk more and if you hope to start running at some time, you should invest in really good shoes. You will also need ankle support and, possibly, high-quality inserts to protect your heels and shins.
A lot of people start walking with shoes that are not designed to give your leg muscles the support they need for long-distance walking.
Start By Getting up Every Hour at Least
Even if you can’t start a walking program just yet, you can get up often and move around for a few minutes. This stretches your long muscles and your back. If you work while standing, you should find a way to move around as often as possible.
Good Sleep is a Function of Good Health
First, we have learned in the last few decades that 6-8 hours of sleep every night is best. Too little sleep and too much sleep are detrimental to good health.
Sleep is when our bodies regenerate so many of the little parts that we cannot ever be aware of. These little parts are mostly hormones. The body does yeoman work when we sleep, so getting enough good sleep should be a paramount goal.
Stress is a Surefire Detriment to Health and a Lot More
There is one area of life that intrudes on people’s sleep and hurts them. This is stress. Now, poker can also be a stressful activity. So, if poker is too stressful for you to get enough good sleep, you should take a hiatus from poker and work to reduce your stress level.
Quiet time is a very good way to reduce stress. But eating the best food for you and eating just enough is another great way to reduce stress.
How to Eat is a Ferociously Debated Issue
Some say “eat the fat” and others say “stay away from fat”. Some say “reduce carbs to the bare minimum,” while others say that carbs are the greatest and healthiest source of energy.
Here is where you need to be in tune to your own body. No one can at this time say definitively that a specific eating regimen is best FOR ALL PEOPLE. So, you have to know yourself, which is what Shakespeare said: “To thine own self be true”.
It will take some time for you to find out what is the best eating regimen for yourself. But there are a lot of things everyone agrees with that we can do as we experiment with the ultimate eating program.
- Reduce alcohol to the bare minimum.
- Avoid fried foods.
- Eat less.
- Eat leafy greens.
- Reduce carbs even if you still want to eat them.
- Eat whole carbs. This means brown rice and whole wheat, and so on.
- Avoid all so-called foods that are loaded with sugar.
- Learn the many ways sugar is added into food by other names.
- Avoid sugar alcohols.
- Some people benefit greatly from intermittent fasting.
- Sip water rather than DRINKLING WATER.
Your eating plan will reflect whether you are at your best weight or if you need to lose weight.
We Have Arrived at Hydration
The term hydration implies avoiding dehydration. One of the many hindrances to hydration is caffeine, which dehydrates the body. You might be able to drink a lot of coffee without feeling any terrible side effects from it. But you probably won’t be in good poker health.
Nathan Pritikin sounded the alarm against decaffeinated coffee decades ago since very powerful chemicals are used in the decaffeination process.
Most people agree that it is better to drink small sips frequently than to drink a lot all at once.
Juicy Stakes Wishes Good Health to All
Here at Juicy Stakes Poker, we hope that every player takes the utmost care of himself and herself. Very few people actually make a living playing poker. For most of us, poker is a fun sidelight. Still, good poker health can help you win more, and winning is always a lot more fun than losing.
Juicy Stakes features Texas Holdem and Omaha. Some players love one or the other. Some players love both. What no one can dispute is that feeling really good as you play is best.
