Enough With Hustle. Downstate Is the New Secret to Success.

You can have more focus, better sleep, and way more energy for just about everything. All you have to do is less.

- By Gina Loveless

SEVEN YEARS BEFORE Glover Teixeira earned the UFC light-heavyweight championship in 2021, he was wiped. All I wanted to do was train more than anybody, he says. But despite his hustle and his experience as a 35-year-old fighter, Teixeira was no longer competing at the same level as his much younger opponents.

So he turned to the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas for help. After trainers there assessed everything from his workout regimen to his nutrition and sleep, they recommended something that surprised him: He needed to train less and concentrate more on recovery.

In fact, the new plan that the UFCPI sent Teixeira even told him to take an entire day off. (I kind of felt guilty, he says.) It took him some time to adjust, but eventually he started to access rest mode more often. He stayed in bed 12 hours at a time. He built a routine that was more in line with circadian rhythms. And after a while, Teixeira began winning more fights-his power, focus, and energy not only returned but remained.

Rest mode isn't something you need a UFCPI plan to execute. Sara Mednick, Ph.D., a professor of cognitive science at the University of California, Irvine, says anyone can take advantage of what she calls the downstate, daily periods of relative calm that can improve your energy and sharpen your thinking.