The Most Important Part of Training

I’ll cut to the chase. Put as much energy into your recovery as you put into to your training.

It’s not glamorous but it’s necessary if you want to train consistently all year round and continue to progress.

So…what does recovery look like?

Sadly, only sitting on the couch is not what we mean. However, if you sit on the couch in conjunction with any of the below recommendations - that’s a step in the right direction.

Here is a list of 5 active recovery practices that you can incorporate:

1. Get sufficient sleep

   • Sleep is where the magic happens because this is where we repair and rebuild. Try to get at least 7 hours of restful sleep if you can.

   • There are a lot of things that can affect your quality of sleep, so some self-exploration is often necessary. From sleeping position to activity levels to diet to pre-bedtime routine…these factors can all impact your sleep.

   • Curate a bedtime time routine that promotes sleepiness. Dim the lights, put on some soft music and do some gentle stretching. Slowly begin to turn off your mind.

   • A lot of people are woken up in the night by niggly aches or discomfort. We recommend foam rolling those areas before bed so that they don’t disturb your sleep.

2. Nutrition

   • You need energy to expend energy. Your cells are looking for energy so they can do their jobs to keep the inner workings of your body going. Not consuming adequate fuel can result in prolonged recovery time and energy depletion.

   • You definitely need enough calories especially important if you are trying to build muscle, hit strength personal bests or improve endurance.

   • We recommend using a BMR calculator to figure out how many calories you need depending on how active you are.

   • Use an app like MyFitnessPal (free) or Carbon Diet Coach (monthly fee with built-in coach) to track your caloric intake and learn about your current tendencies and where you can make improvements.

3. Drink Water

   • Having enough water in our system increases the fluidity of our blood allowing for better flow throughout the body increasing nutrient flow to the areas where you need it most.

   • Increased blood fluidity will also help with management of any inflammation and waste products from training, allowing waste products to more easy flow out of the areas of use.

   • Water also increases the fluidity of our muscle and connective tissue like fascia, ligaments and tendon, this helps to keep friction down between tissues within the body reducing inflammation.

   • Although 8 glasses or 2-3L of water a day has been thrown around as a benchmark to try to attain, it’s actually more individual than that. So if you aren’t meeting this standard, don’t worry, just monitor how you feel day to day and keep a watchful eye on the color of your urine as another indicator. If you experience frequent headaches or feel fatigue often, check in to see if you can increase your water intake a little bit.

4. Foam Roll and Stretch

   • These practices help to manage tension, reduce soreness and promote fluid flow by interacting with your nervous system and directly with your body.

   • Managing soft tissue tension is a necessity if you are training or working hard. Tension will increase overtime if not managed which can lead to decreased mobility, discomfort and sometimes injury.

   • Increased tension, and inflammation over time can lead to soreness. Soreness is our bodies way of trying to communicate with us, listen, it’s asking for help.

   • Unsure how to start? We have over 15 instructional videos on YouTube that guide you along how to roll out different areas of the body.

5. Contrast Therapy

   • The expansion and contraction of our soft tissue and vasculature with the application of hot followed by cold is a powerful tool. It acts like a pump to move fluids around the body, bring new nutrient-rich fluids in and move inflammation and other waste products out.

   • This is also a nervous system control exercise. Stepping under the cold water will activate your sympathetic nervous system making you want to get out! But wait…just relax, focus on slowing down your breath and taking control of your nervous system. This practice can also help us manage stress in our lives.

   • The longer the better, so work up to those longer cold dips and you will see the benefit if you push yourself. The public pool is amazing for contrast therapy between the hot tub, sauna or steam room and cold showers. You can do this at home in the shower just as easily or using hot and cold packs.

As always, don’t bite off more than you can chew or get overwhelmed with trying to do it all. Start with assessing your sleep and go from there.