Rest Assured
#40 10/3/2025
You are what you do, not what you say you'll do. - Carl Jung
Fit Tip: Recovery
Let's talk recovery. Any good training plan has recovery as a consideration. We are familiar with the concept that you are "damaging" or stressing the muscles in the gym, and the growth that occurs is the repair that happens later. When you consider that concept, you see the importance of recovery from exercise. Proper recovery requires three main things: a carefully programmed workout routine that allows for rest, high quality sleep, and nutrition that supports the training.
A carefully programmed workout routine can adjust with your lifestyle. It allows the muscles to recovery enough before the next big effort. You might workout 6 days in a row, but the routine must be different enough from day to day to allow recovery. Even if all you do is run, you know better than to do two hard runs back to back. If you do a full body workout in the gym, you might not be doing anything with weights the next day to allow the muscles to recovery. However, this doesn't mean you have to sit on the couch. Active recovery like light cardio or mobility and stretching can be even more beneficial than doing nothing at all.
Sleep. I've said it before and I'll say it again: you need high quality sleep. Regularly getting 7-8 hours of sleep that is uninterrupted is important for the many systems of your body to repair. Not just your sore muscles will suffer from lack of sleep, your motivation and drive will too. It is even shown that people tend to make worse food choices after a bad night of sleep. Prioritize good sleep as your number one recovery tool. No amount of massage or ice baths can ever come close to a good night of sleep for recovery.
Your nutrition should support your goals and intensity. What you eat and how much you eat should be considered. If your goal is fat loss you will have to be in a calorie deficit; if your goal is to gain some muscle mass you will need to eat in a calorie surplus for a while. Everyone is talking about protein consumption these days, and for good reason; many are eating far less protein than they ought to be. One-hundred grams of protein per day should be a bare minimum. If you are looking to build some muscle mass I would aim for closer to one gram per pound of desired body weight. Other nutritional considerations are simply eating good whole foods that will fuel your body rather than junk that will slow you down. Carbs are not the enemy, they can be a great energy source if you are working out pretty hard.
A note about the stress bucket. There is good stress and bad stress, but both can fill your bucket. Good stress is the kind that applies work on your body but provides benefits (a workout, a cold plunge, a sauna sit.) "Bad stress," while not always truly bad or avoidable, adds to your stress bucket as well. If your work, family, or emotional stress are building up, they will take a physical toll. This stress will affect how much "good stress" you can handle on top of it. You may not tolerate a hard gym workout well if your stress bucket is already full. Don't use this as an excuse to skip the gym constantly, just understand what level of intensity you should be using to allow for recovery despite outside stressors.
Help Your Children Breath Better
Do you have kids who breath through their mouths a lot? Does it seem like they are sick more often than they should be? Are their teeth crooked or crowded already? These are all things worth paying attention to. Perhaps your dentist has even made comments about the growth of their mouth being somewhat affected. In the blog post that I linked I give a few practical tips and exercises to help.
October Challenge: Get Off Your Phone
It's hard for me to make this challenge specific as everyone has different phone use habits. For this week, just start by going into your settings and settings some app timer limits if you haven't already.
Win the weekend!
Brad
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