2024 Olympic Silver Medalist Melissa Humana-Paredes' Best Fitness & Nutrition Advice

Thirty-one year old beach volleyball star Melissa Humana-Paredes just took home the Silver medal for Canada during the 2024 Olympics in Paris alongside her partner Brandie Wilkerson.  

I got the chance to chat with Humana-Paredes leading up to the games, and after our call I felt refreshed, rejuvenated, and inspired. 

To start, Humana-Paredes is on a journey to inspire: It's her mission to make sports and the Olympics more eco-friendly and bring attention to the climate crisis. As one of the founders of EcoAthletes (a collection of athletes, coaches, and other professionals that aim to help change sports for the greener), she’s on a mission to bring the climate crisis to the forefront in any way she can. 

She’s also just personally inspiring: Following in the footsteps of her father (who played for the Chilean national volleyball team before immigrating to Canada, fleeing a military dictatorship), she’s been passionate about volleyball since she was a young girl. 

And now, she has some advice for young women who might want to follow in her footsteps.

Humana-Paredes: I’ve definitely been in situations where the mind races—but it’s especially true before big moments in life and high-pressure situations. I’ve been through that experience where I’m just trying to fall asleep, but all the scenarios are running through my head. At some point, you just hit the time where you’re counting down the hours til the alarm goes off. 

I'm not myself when I don't get the proper amount of sleep. I know I need optimal sleep to be able to perform. 

Now, I’ve been through that scenario enough to know how to completely prevent it. I will do everything to avoid it, and that starts with the lead-up to bed. My evening routine starts a few hours before bed. 

For me, it's so hard to just make that switch. So I think you really need to be sending those messages to your mind and your body, earlier than you think to be able to start actually shutting down. 

I’m very big on mood. Once dinner is over, and we’ve recovered from the day, I turn off overhead lighting and light a candle or do some sort of mood lighting. I’ll put on soft music or some chill podcast. I always travel with my own favorite teas. I need to have some kind of chamomile tea or some other wind-down tea. 

About an hour before I actually want to fall asleep, I usually take some sort of sleep enhancement to time it out. 

The other thing I do is that feature on the iPhone that reduces blue light. I started doing it and noticed the biggest difference. I didn’t realize how much blue light was affecting me until I switched it off. It’s also great because if you want to do that last minute scroll of instagram before bed, it’s not as entertaining when it’s all red. It makes you put the phone away. 

Then I’ll start with my skin care routine. Once I start my skin care routine, that means it’s time for bed. I’m washing the day off. I’m getting in the zone. 

Then when I’m about to knock out, I’ll put on my Manta Sleep Mask and earplugs. I swear by them. I’ve tried so many different eye masks, and these are the winner for me. 

Humana-Paredes: When I think of a meal that makes me feel the strongest, I think of breakfast. Breakfast makes me feel the strongest because it's the first thing that my body will take in and give me fuel for the whole day. Right away in the mornings we have training, so if I’m not getting that fuel at the beginning of the day, I know I’m going to feel fatigued. I usually have two breakfasts. One before my training session and then immediately after my training session.

I have different types of breakfast options—sweet and savory. And I like to alternate between the two. One of my favorites is the classic greek yogurt, granola, berries, flax seeds, chia seeds, peanut butter—it's just so versatile.

Then for something savory, I like toast with eggs, avocado, vegetables, and potatoes. That's going to be a little bit hearty because not only do I need fueling for the rest of the day, but I also need to replenish what was lost in training sessions. 

Those are my two go-to meals. They're so they're adjustable to your needs and they hit everything. You have your carbs, fats, and protein. 

I know protein has become such a big discussion, especially with women, because there have been so many misconceptions about how much protein we actually need. Personally, I’m very protein conscious because I have to repair my muscles. In every snack or meal I have, I need protein. What’s great is that there are super quick fixes like, Greek yogurt and cottage cheese are really great ways to get protein for a snack. For meals, I gravitate towards chicken and fish.

Humana-Paredes: The three daily capsules I take are vitamin D, Omega 3s, and probiotics. Of course you have to have daily vitamin D, even though I play beach volleyball and I'm in the sun, I still need vitamin D supplements. 

For powders, I do creatine, a greens powder, and collagen. I also take tart cherry and turmeric for recovery. I also absolutely love electrolytes. I won’t go anywhere without them. 

I also love adaptogenic mushrooms in the form of teas to help calm me down for the nighttime. 

Humana-Paredes: A few years ago I discovered Lagree Pilates on the reformer. It is so different from my sport, and it is so humbling. It’s one of the most humbling workouts I’ve ever done. I actually don’t like telling people I’m a professional athlete or an Olympian when I’m there because I cannot hold these poses. 

Humana-Paredes: Immediately after a game—within 30 minutes—we're getting our nutrients in via shake.That starts the recovery process. That nutrition piece is often forgotten. 

If we're lucky, we’ll have a physiotherapist on tour, so we'll do a session. It’s usually some kind of soft tissue work and working through sore points. We’ll also do Normatec as well, which are these air compression boots. They’re fantastic between games to give your body a boost and some lymphatic drainage. I also travel with massage guns. 

If there’s an opportunity, I go into a pool or do some kind of water therapy. Not too long because I don’t want to loosen up too much if I have a game the next day. And then I’ll do a cold plunge—against my will, but I'll do it. 

But of course the ultimate recovery is sleep. I can't compromise on that. And that's the one thing I prioritize. I will scrap other things in my routine that I just mentioned in order to get more sleep. If physio is going to take me too long and cut into my nighttime routine, I'll push it and make sure I'm getting sleep. 

Humana-Paredes: Especially at the level that I play at, everybody has the physical attributes. Everyone's fit. Everyone can play volleyball. Everyone has the skills. But it’s the mental part that makes the difference. It’s about how you’re going to be able to bounce back. 

Everyone has different routines. One of our most important team members is our sports psychologist. We might not be able to travel with him all the time, but we have access to him, whether it's text messages or phone calls. And it's really important to have that resource—to have someone to share your insecurities, your doubts, and your fears with. It’s important to have someone who you can walk through all that with. 

Athletes have moments of weakness and insecurities that we're all fighting through. Even in the moments where they look the most calm, they might be fighting something inside. 

A lot of the work that I do is mental imagery, which helps build resilience and confidence. It's self-talk. It's really just what you're saying to yourself and how you see yourself most of the time. You have to speak to yourself kindly, like you would a friend. Because what you say, you will internalize. 

It takes time and it takes practice to be able to manage those negative thoughts and manage those insecurities. And, of course, they're okay to have. One of the best tools I use is when something comes up in my head, I just thank it, acknowledge it, but then move on to something else.  

Humana-Paredes: Yeah, in beach volleyball there’s only one other person there—and they’re counting on you. So I do feel a bit more responsibility to be my best self. 

I've been so fortunate. I've had so many different great teammates in my life. The teammate I have right now is especially important to me and we've got a really great thing going. And I think what makes this really special is that there is just like an underlying foundation of respect and admiration. 

We know where each other has come from—from our childhood to how we got to where we are now. There's full on appreciation and admiration for our paths. And they're completely different paths of how we both got to this place that we're in together.

Compassion and respect will get you very far in life with people that you work with. 

But I think the most important thing in a good teammate is vulnerability. I don’t think you can build trust or that foundation without vulnerability.

It’s scary to kind of show your true colors. But when you’re on this journey together—and it’s a big journey, with big goals—you have to be able to get into the nitty gritty. 

You have to talk about big, scary things: What are you afraid of? What makes you tick? When things are going bad, what is the best way to talk to you and help you? What are the things you need? 

Humana-Paredes: It took me a while to learn this, but it’s important to think about who you are surrounding yourself with. And you can only be critical about that once you know who you are, what your goals are, and what your non-negotiables are. 

Everybody has a different list of things that they're looking for in sports. Some people want to just get better and try to reach their true potential. Someone else might have a different goal, and they just want to win absolutely everything. They’re putting their head down and that's their only goal. Or someone just wants to go and be a really great leader and really good teammate.