Science that reaches the routine
How to transform evidence into protocols, choices and behaviors that can be executed.
Performance Journal · Rafa Barleze
Think better.
Decide better.
Articles for those who need to transform science into decisions.
Nutrition, health, recovery, leadership and behind the scenes environments where every choice has consequences.Original library
Long texts, field notes and analyzes built from science and experience within high performance.
PerformanceBefore changing the plan, improve the decision
Before changing your diet or training, assess the evidence, outcomes, and experience of following the plan. Criteria for keeping or adjusting your strategy.
10 min readRead analysis
PerformanceA habit must survive a bad day
Small actions matter when the environment reduces friction, the system records feedback, and the routine remains flexible enough not to automate error.
13 min readRead analysis
HealthThe body prefers to conserve energy—and still needs to move
Exercise is healthy, but saving effort is also deeply human. The realistic path combines need, pleasure, bonding and progression.
14 min readRead analysis
PerformanceDesire is not the same as enjoyment
Dopamine helps explain why the next goal calls so much. Performance improves when expectation, effort, feedback and presence come together again.
13 min readRead analysis
PerformanceReading people without inventing certainty
The best people reader doesn't hunt for magical signs: they build hypotheses, look for patterns, check context and preserve the right to be wrong.
13 min readRead analysis
PerformanceLanguage can guide. It cannot replace evidence.
Language, imagery, and modeling can be useful—provided high performance separates a testable technique from its explanation and promise.
13 min readRead analysis
PerformanceHigh performance is not about defeating biology
Five lessons from Daniel Lieberman for thinking about load, energy, recovery, environment and cooperation in high performance.
14 min readRead analysis
Sports scienceTraining expends energy. Performance decides where it goes.
Energy is not only what an athlete expends: it is also what the body stops supporting when training takes up too much of the budget.
12 min readRead analysis
PerformanceHigh performance starts before the decision
How to automate the predictable, preserve attention, reduce friction, and know when a routine must become a decision again.
12 min readRead analysis
PerformanceMore load does not mean more performance
The book’s main lesson is not how to lengthen telomeres, but how to apply load, recover, adapt, and repeat without confusing maximal effort with high performance.
10 min readRead analysis
Sports scienceThe average athlete does not exist—but evidence still matters
A reading on genes, environment, training, and recovery—and how to individualize high performance without abandoning scientific evidence.
12 min readRead analysis
NutritionCarbohydrate during exercise: is 10 g/h enough?
A 2026 review puts blood glucose back at the center of fatigue and questions high doses — without turning 10 g/h into a universal rule.
15 min readRead analysis
NutritionAntioxidants in sport: overprotecting can also cost adaptation
What the 2026 ISSN position stand actually supports about food, supplements, recovery, and the risk of erasing useful training signals.
15 min readRead analysis
PerformancePerformance is not training, nutrition, or recovery in isolation. Performance is a system.
Training, nutrition, and recovery produce performance only when stimulus, resources, state, skill, environment, and decision-making work as a system.
16 min readRead analysis
Sports scienceThe formula prescribes more food than the athlete eats: what Herman Pontzer helps explain
Why adding training to daily expenditure can inflate a prescription — and how to adjust energy without normalizing underfueling.
13 min readRead analysis
PerformanceTriple A in high performance: showing up, following through, and learning are different things
Attendance creates opportunity, adherence protects the plan, and attitude turns repetition into learning—provided each pillar is regulated.
15 min readRead analysis
PerformanceBetween boredom and threat: where high performance finds flow
What the challenge × skill graph really teaches about attention, development, and performance—from training to leadership.
14 min readRead analysis
Sports scienceThe test still showed a deficit. Why did the athlete return anyway?
What 30 weeks after a rupture of the patellar tendon teach about strength, field load, function and confidence in the decision to return.
12 min readRead analysis
HealthACL tear: rehabilitation before surgery can change the decision
As pre-habilitation reveals who can follow without reconstruction — and when instability, demand and associated injuries favor surgery.
14 min readRead analysis
Sports scienceMorphocycle: the week does not start on Monday
How to connect game model, load and recovery between matches without turning tactical periodization into a fixed recipe.
14 min readRead analysis
NutritionPeriodized nutrition: the best fuel changes with the session
How to adjust carbohydrate intake, recovery, gut training, and supplements to the work each session needs to produce.
13 min readRead analysis
NutritionDoes calorie counting work? The numbers help—until they replace judgment
The difference between energy balance, counting, diet quality and individual response — and when numbers really help.
13 min readRead analysis
Sports scienceFootball does not run in a straight line: why curved sprinting is a skill of its own
Why running on a curve is neither a bent linear sprint nor a cut — and how to assess and train this specific quality.
13 min readRead analysis
PerformanceStrength training: science simplified the method without eliminating judgment
What really needs to be adjusted — and what can stop being complicated — for strength, hypertrophy, power and adherence.
11 min readRead analysis
PerformanceThe aerobic engine behind power
Why VO₂max helps repeat sprints, restore power, and sustain explosive actions — without replacing speed or strength.
10 min readRead analysis
HealthLow testosterone: when the number matters — and when it merely reflects context
A low result may signal illness or simply reflect blood-draw timing, energy availability, body weight, medications, or acute illness. Learn how to interpret it before looking for shortcuts.
11 min readRead analysis
Sports scienceCMJ testing: when measuring more gets in the way of a decision
Force plates produce dozens of CMJ metrics. See how to select a concise, reliable panel that can genuinely guide decisions.
11 min readRead analysis
PerformanceNitric oxide and performance: raising the marker does not guarantee the outcome
Beetroot, citrulline, and arginine can act on the nitric oxide pathway. Their value depends on whether the mechanism reaches an outcome that matters.
11 min readRead analysis
PerformanceSports psychology will fit in your pocket. Responsibility will not.
How AI can expand mental support to athletes without replacing context, connection, supervision and professional responsibility.
13 min readRead analysis
Sports scienceHypertrophy: is 8 to 12 repetitions still the best range?
The classic rep range is efficient, but not exclusive. See how load, effort, exercise selection, and context shape the best choice.
10 min readRead analysis
NutritionDoes beetroot juice improve performance? The effect exists — but it is not automatic
Nitrate may produce small gains in some types of effort. Learn who is more likely to respond, what dose to test, and why serving volume is not the same as dose.
10 min readRead analysis
PerformanceMotivation is not willpower: what really makes someone act
A 2026 audit of dopamine, effort, autonomy, competence, and the conditions that transform intention into action.
11 min readRead analysis
Sports scienceSubstitute yesterday, starter tomorrow: the load a microcycle can hide
How the transition from non-starter to starter changes the reading of the external load accumulated between two matches.
10 min readRead analysis
Sports scienceMore exercise, more expense? The body doesn't do this math in a straight line
Why daily spending may rise less than expected — without decreasing the value of exercise for health and performance.
11 min readRead analysis
PerformanceCircadian rhythm: your body does not need a perfect routine—it needs consistent signals
How light, sleep, food and training help the body recognize when to speed up, recover and sleep.
11 min readRead analysis
NutritionProtein for athletes: the right dose depends on the job it needs to do
Daily total, serving per meal, and the contexts in which increasing protein actually makes sense.
11 min readRead analysis
PerformanceMitochondria: the invisible capacity that turns training into performance
What really improves your ability to produce energy — and why training, fuel, and recovery come before supplements.
11 min readRead analysis
NutritionGlycine for performance: biological promise, evidence still limited
It participates in the synthesis of collagen, creatine and glutathione. Understand why this still does not prove an ergogenic effect.
9 min readRead analysis
NutritionAnabolic window: the 30-minute clock that science left behind
Post-workout protein matters, but adaptation doesn't disappear once the clock ticks past 30 minutes. Understand what really deserves priority.
9 min readRead analysis
Editorial lines
Four perspectives for organizing knowledge without separating what, in practice, needs to work together.
Nutrition beyond the menu
Strategies that consider training, calendar, travel, recovery, culture and individuality.
Health that sustains performance
The role of sleep, availability, metabolism and longevity in building results.
Leadership in demanding environments
Processes, people, communication and criteria to decide under pressure without losing consistency.