To optimize both sleep quality and quantity, the following basic guidelines for sleep hygiene are advised for athletes:

• Maintaining consistent sleep and waking times (>9H for athletes) supports a stable circadian rhythm and recovery process.
• Reduce exposure to blue light and stop drinking caffeine in the hours leading up to sleep to facilitate the transition from an active to a restorative physiological state.
• Create a cool, dark, and well-ventilated sleep environment that promotes uninterrupted deep sleep.

Injury prevention:

In elite sport, injury prevention remains one of the greatest challenges for performance and medical staff. Effective injury prevention is not dependent on prescribing corrective exercise, a screening tool, or a recovery intervention. Athletes themselves build it through consistent daily behaviors and training habits.

Important foundations include effective self-regulated individual warm-up structures, monitoring individual training load, structured strength and mobility routines, addressing physical weaknesses systematically, and utilizing tapering strategies to optimize recovery and performance (Eckard et al., 2018; Okobi et al., 2022)

Within high-performance environments, resilience against injury should be an ongoing process rather than a temporary guided intervention by a professional. Athletes who consistently are open about physical complaints and invest in their recovery, preparation, and self-awareness increase their availability and thereby sustain high-level performance over time. In that sense, injury prevention is not simply protection against absence from sport but a competitive advantage.

Pain behavior:

Every athlete knows the sensation of pain. Whether they have faced an affecting injury in the past or have experienced severe pain after rigorous exercise, each athlete is familiar with the pain intense exercise can induce. However, not all pain is damaging, and not all muscle soreness is safe. For an athlete, it is detrimental to know when experiencing pain signals that are temporary and will fade after rest or experiencing pain that could lead to injury. The first step is to learn how to recognize and acknowledge the pain. The next step is to be open about it to the medical and performance staff. Together the staff and athlete can make a joint decision on what to do next. The last step is reflection if the correct call was made. This approach will teach athletes when to push forward and when to hold back, preventing injury. Therefore, reflection and knowledge about pain and pain behavior are essential tools in high-performance sports (Hainline et al., 2017).

Nutrition:

Often overlooked or deemed less important than training and recovery is knowledge about nutrition. Poor nutritional behavior can influence performance substantially. Macronutrients and micronutrients are both essential in high performance (Amawi et al., 2024):

• Proteins are essential for muscle generation and muscle recovery.
• Fats contribute to hormonal balances and long-term energy utilization.
• Carbohydrates are the driver of high performance, allowing for explosive, high-intensity movement.
• Vitamins and minerals allow an athlete to retain immune function, recover, and increase overall health.