Recovery is very hot right now. Red light therapy, cold plunges, detoxes and if you get a blood test, you will be able to figure out what activities you are meant to be doing (not joking). Now…I am not saying that all of these external modalities a do not work. I think there may be credence to some…however, I think people tend to put the cart before the horse.
Like most things in life, we want it now and we want it with as little work as possible. Much like any supplement on the market, if we do not have our house in order, we will not reap the benefits.
If our diet is lackluster or we are not training or sleeping well, none of these things really matter in the end.
Progress facilitates recovery
The main focus of this short blog is to not vilify things. What I aim to show is that there are things that are more important to do first. The only issue with these things is that they are not marketable. They will not get you a million likes on the ole book of faces.
Will they get results?
That they will. Tried and true
We all know that we should sleep. For individuals such as myself, it is pretty easy. I do not have kids. For others with kids, multiple jobs and a host of other responsibilities that comes with that territory, sleep may not be enough.
Imagine this…
You wake up late. You slept through your 11th alarm. You rip the blankets off, gather your things and hit the door. You push the speed limit the entire way to work and barely make it there in time. Your boss yells at you for being sort of late and it will take you some time to come down from this stressful morning. Throughout the day, you drink enough caffeine to kill a small child and before you know it, it is time to pick up the kids. Traffic to school is a nightmare and with a valiant mental game, you did not drive anyone off the road. You get the kids home, fed and now…it is time to hit the gym. You ingest more caffeine, get a great lift and before you know it…it’s bed time. You lay there staring at social media for 45 minutes and slowly nod off to do the whole thing over again.
That was a lot…sorry…creative writing/writing in general is not my strong suit.
John, what is the point of this?
You spent the entire day in a heightened state. This sympathetic state is known as your fight or flight response. This breaks you down and so does training…
There is good news however!
You have to figure out a way to disconnect from time to time. I know I will be made fun of but my go to is video games and not looking at my phone at certain times on the weekend. May sound silly, but you need to get yourself to a state where you are not wired like a rabid wolverine.
So, getting sleep is important. It is the single most effective recovery modality known in existence. If we were to somehow put sleep in pill form, it would be a banned substance.
For those that made it this far, your response may be:
There is no way I can get 8 hours with my schedule.
That is ok
Get as close to 8 as you can. Being good every day instead of perfect once in a while is the recipe for success.
In closing, it is important to note that if your nutrition/sleep is not on point, most other popular trends for recovery will not work. I know it is difficult to read and rationalize but…that is life!
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