How well you can recover is just as important as how hard you can train. Finding a balance between the two is extremely crucial to performing at your peek potential. I will go as far as saying that this is not just a training concept but a universal concept that can apply to all other practices upon which you want to improve. The universal principle I am talking about here is that you can only train as hard you can recover.
That means that if you cannot fully recover from a workout, all that extra hard work you’ve done is going to waste. Ideally when we train, we expose our bodies to a stimulus that causes us to adapt. Training places stress on our tissues, like muscles and bones, creating a small breakdown of those structures. Our bodies’ response to this is to rebuild these tissues, making them stronger than before. The catch to this is that our bodies need to be ready to adapt and recover from what we’ve exposed them to. Two of the biggest factors in that contribute to how well you are going to recover are your sleep and your nutrition.
Sleep is sooooooooooo important. I cannot stress that enough
when it comes to recovery. While we’re sleeping is when the body does the
majority of its work towards recovery. It literally has nothing else to do
during that time, so its only effort is to recover from the day, repair itself,
grow, and become more resilient to the stressors we expose ourselves to. Ideally,
we want to be getting between 7-9 hours a night.
Your nutrition is another huge component of recovery. The
phrase “you are what you eat” is so cliché but oh-so-true. If you eat garbage
food, your body will perform and recover like garbage. Think about it this way:
you don’t put $1 food into a $1,000,000 athlete. This reminds me of when I was
playing baseball in college, and we would stop at fast food chains while
traveling to and from games. When a whole team feels and plays like garbage,
because they’re lethargic from all the crap they ate, some people wonder why their
athletes aren’t performing as well as they should. I won’t get into this any
further, but something is better than nothing in terms of energy needed to
recover, so don’t starve yourself! I’ll stop now before I go off on a huge rant…
Just try and do your best when it comes to getting the best nutrition you can.
Before you even consider taking supplements, make sure
you’re addressing both of the aforementioned factors. Realistically,
supplements are a small piece of the puzzle, and you need to do the big things
right before worrying about other things. Work on getting enough quality sleep
and eating real food that your body will use to its fullest potential to repair
itself and grow. Adopting just these two habits will put you on the right track
to performing your best.
Ryan Goodell, CSCS
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