mbg Magnificence Director
mbg Magnificence Director
Alexandra Engler is the sweetness director at mindbodygreen and host of the sweetness podcast Clear Magnificence College. Beforehand, she’s held magnificence roles at Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, SELF, and Cosmopolitan; her byline has appeared in Esquire, Sports activities Illustrated, and Attract.com.
Picture by mbg Inventive / courtesy of supply
August 11, 2024
We love celebrating girls on the high of their recreation. In our new collection Recreation On, we’re interviewing high athletes about their well-being routines—protecting every little thing from diet that makes them really feel robust to the moments that carry them pleasure.
Taking part in on Group USA Volleyball in the course of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the 6’2” center blocker Chiaka Ogbogu simply took residence the silver with Group USA. She was additionally on the 2020 workforce that gained a gold medal within the 2020 Summer season Olympics in Tokyo.
Hailing from Texas—the place she led her highschool workforce to 2 straight state championships and performed collegiate volleyball on the University of Texas Austin—she now performs internationally, most not too long ago in Turkey. And naturally, she performs for Group USA.
“I feel for younger ladies to see [women’s sports coverage in the media] is de facto necessary, as a result of I did not see that rising up,” she instructed me not too long ago. “And it is cool that I received thus far, however I am like, What would my journey have seemed like if I received to look at girls’s volleyball as a child? Simply the concept of little ladies getting to look at these video games is de facto particular for lots of us and future generations.”
Under, our dialog about how she cares for herself when she’s not enjoying, how she approaches diet, and what she’s going to strive throughout her upcoming off season.
mindbodygreen: What does it imply to be a powerful girl?
Chiaka Ogbogu: It’s about recognizing your strengths and weaknesses—after which standing agency and loving your self by means of that regardless. The moments after I’ve discovered probably the most energy in myself is after I’ve been capable of acknowledge the times the place I don’t really feel my greatest, however then nonetheless determining methods to assist and love myself by means of these days.
mbg: I need to discuss how you retain up your energy bodily—let’s begin with diet. What meals assist you really feel strongest?
Ogbogu: I’ve had such an fascinating relationship with diet—studying in regards to the meals that gives the very best assist for what I’m doing on the courtroom versus what I feel I should be consuming in a day versus what sounds the very best.
However for me, I really feel like I’ve gotten accustomed to discovering colour in relation to my meals. I like to verify I’ve loads of colour on my plate, and ensuring that it’s visually interesting to eat. I’ve labored with so many dietitians and nutritionists all through my profession—I’ve discovered that simply the presence of colour not solely fuels your physique, however it’s good in your thoughts too. And I do know I play my greatest when my thoughts can also be in the precise place.
The best way I’d describe my consuming is Mediterranean style. It’s loads of salad or grain bowls with Brussels sprouts, pickled onions, grains, and issues like that. Something you’d Mediterranean dish.
mbg: Effectively, they are saying the Mediterranean weight-reduction plan is among the healthiest to observe…
Ogbogu: I play professionally in Turkey and simply fell in love with the best way they eat. So I attempt to carry it on over right here.
mbg: what’s your restoration routine?
Ogbogu: It relies upon the place we’re within the season and the way my physique’s feeling. As I’m getting older, too, my physique is telling me I should be actually good at restoration.
I don’t have a selected routine, however I’ve issues I depend on. I attempt to be good with sleep. Put up recreation and publish follow, I am going to use Normatec recovery boots.
Then dietary supplements have been a very huge game-changer for me, particularly on the highway. I take sleep aids and issues that assist your physique get better—like magnesium, calcium, issues like that.
I am all the time open to new restoration concepts. It’s been cool to see what different athletes do in different sports activities, and see if I can take a bit from them.
mbg: what’s the craziest factor you’ve executed within the hopes of optimizing your efficiency?
Ogbogu: I do not know if something I’ve executed has been tremendous loopy. I’ve seen athletes who do oxygen chambers or like sleep chambers.
I’ve executed cryotherapy. For me, that was excessive as a result of I hate being chilly.
Once I transfer into this off season, certainly one of my targets is simply to strive all these loopy methods I see different athletes do to see if it makes a distinction.
mbg: What are your favourite exercises that don’t have anything to do along with your sport?
Ogbogu: I’ve began doing pilates with my different teammates and I’ve seen the advantages—particularly with how effectively we’ve been capable of get better going again into volleyball.
However arising, this would be the first time I’m having an off season in the course of the fall. So I’m excited to additionally get into the pickleball craze. It seems enjoyable and simple to choose up! I feel this fall is de facto going to be about being open to different kinds of coaching now that I’ve extra time to take action.
mbg: How do you mentally get ready for a giant match?
Ogbogu: I feel now it is completely different from after I was in faculty. It is so humorous as a result of I really feel like in faculty I wanted to get actually hyped. I used to be on all of the coffees and all of the power drinks. It was all about getting to love my highest state of focus, which later down the highway, it is not sustainable.
Then with every stage comes new pressures. So there’s clearly extra anxieties current whenever you’re enjoying on the highest stage. So now it’s extra about attending to my most calm state, which has been fascinating.
I feel a part of this journey is nearly maturing. It’s about understanding that you simply most likely suppose your most rationally whenever you’re at your calmest state, versus whenever you’re youthful and it’s about benign spirited. Method and IQ will not be as a lot of an element then, it’s nearly bodily.
In comparison with now, when everyone seems to be bodily. Everybody has been enjoying the sport at a excessive stage for a very long time. So then it’s all about what workforce has the IQ to win.
To calm myself, I’ve been messing with just a few completely different methods, from meditation to sound frequency. I learn Kobe Bryant’s ebook, The Mamba Mentality: How I Play, and it talks about sound frequency. So I made a decision to look into it and check out it. I discovered that calming frequencies1 are speculated to stage your nervous system. So now I’ve been doing that—plus experimenting with different methods.
mbg: Resilience is such an fascinating subject, and one I speak so much about with different athletes. I’ve discovered that a few of that resilience is innate—perhaps you’re simply born with it—however the different half is skilled. How do you construct resiliency in your self?
Ogbogu: I am certain there’s one thing innate in excessive performing athletes through which we’ve this dependancy to pursuing mastery. In order that’s a part of it. However I feel loads of us—and I do know particularly with the nationwide workforce after which myself on a person stage—work with sports activities psychologists to assist us develop instruments to maneuver by means of sticky citations, akin to losses or high-stress video games.
They assist us acknowledge emotions, compartmentalize issues when we have to, after which transfer on from them. It’s necessary to not dwell on what has occurred, be that good or unhealthy. How will we develop instruments to have the ability to acknowledge issues, compartmentalize issues, transfer by means of
For me, I am a giant journaler. I prefer to dump all of it out after a nasty match. Getting it on paper will get it out of my thoughts. It permits me to bodily flip the web page on one thing, so I can mentally concentrate on the following factor.
However the fantastic thing about our sport is that loads of our video games are in tournaments, so that you don’t have loads of time to consider what simply occurred since you’re most likely going to be enjoying once more the following day. Fortunately I’m not in a sport through which you might have one occasion each few weeks or months—then you definitely simply have a lot time to consider it. Our sport strikes so rapidly, there’s not a lot time to dwell on unhealthy video games.
Picture by mbg Inventive / courtesy of supply
mbg: what does it imply to be a superb teammate?
Ogbogu: I am grateful that I had that teammate expertise rising up as a child as a result of it taught me the best way to work effectively with others, particularly whenever you come from completely different backgrounds.
I feel being a superb teammate is first acknowledging that not everybody grew up the identical approach as you or has the identical mind-set as you.I feel simply on a primary stage, understanding that helps you might have empathy.
After which the opposite necessary issue is empathy. I do know my favourite teammates simply had probably the most empathy and respect for everybody round them. It didn’t matter in the event that they disagreed with somebody, they all the time knew that that particular person was nonetheless necessary sufficient to contribute one thing to the workforce.
That’s been the best way I attempt to present up for the workforce, main with empathy. It will get you actually far along with your teammates, and it additionally makes for a extra thrilling and conducive atmosphere. It makes folks need to present up and be round you in the event that they know they’ll belief you and be protected with you.
mbg: what recommendation would you give younger ladies in volleyball?
Ogbogu: Actually, my recommendation could be to strive as many sports activities as you possibly can or be a part of as many teams as you possibly can.
I feel that was useful for me rising up as a result of I discovered so much. I performed basketball. I did Taekwondo. I took one thing from every sport as a result of I feel every sport attracts several types of folks and has completely different challenges.
Then attempt to keep it up for not less than a 12 months simply to see what you possibly can achieve from it. As a result of as children it is very easy to be like, I did not like this right this moment. I am simply gonna soar to the following factor. However I’m actually grateful to my mother and father for not letting me give up issues too early. I feel there’s additionally classes in that, too. It’s about working by means of issues till you possibly can formally resolve, OK I’m actually not on this.
mbg: We’re on this actually cool second in time through which girls’s sports activities is getting a lot extra consideration than it has previously. What has that been prefer to expertise first hand?
Ogbogu: I feel for us athletes, loads of us are form of Lastly! The place has everybody been? It’s thrilling to see volleyball now rising within the States, prefer it’s thrilling for us as a result of we have not had knowledgeable league but. However now it’s beginning up subsequent 12 months. And simply all of the hype and media round girls’s basketball has been inspiring.
I feel for younger ladies to see it’s actually necessary, as a result of I did not see that rising up. And it is cool that I received thus far, however I am like, What would my journey have seemed like if I received to look at girls’s volleyball as a child? Simply the concept of little ladies getting to look at these video games is de facto particular for lots of us and future generations.
