There are many people who really struggle to get themselves to the gym. Then there are those, myself included, who really struggle to get out of the gym. This is a typical problem among athletes; and yes, it is a problem… usually. Most athletes are seeking to improve themselves to the highest degree and actually love the exercise environment. In the previous article, we discussed the consequences of overtraining. Today, we discuss the importance of rest, as well as the benefits thereof.
Archai’s philosophy is indeed about relearning the principles of the past to perform better now, and even the peoples of ancient times were not always moving at high intensity. They were constantly moving at a low intensity and would occasionally, if the situation called for it, move at a high intensity for a short period. But they certainly were not training until failure on every muscle group every day. Neither should we. Despite the desire to remain in a state of perpetual training, it’s not a good idea. We now know the dangerous effects of over training. Therefore, in order to maximize the amount of time we are able to spend developing our abilities, we need to maximize the efficiency of our recovery. The best ways to do that are to be intentional about our nutrition, movement, and rest.
Likely the most neglected of the bunch is indeed one of the most crucial: food. What we eat has an astounding effect on how we feel and ultimately perform. If we are not taking full inventory of what we eat and why, we are doing ourselves a huge disservice. Nutrition is a massive category that can’t possibly be discussed conclusively right now. Instead, we will look at the most important things to eat and drink directly following a workout. The three major macronutrients, as many of you may know, are fats, protein, and carbohydrates. Of these, one stands out above the rest for maximizing recovery.
There’s recently been much talk in this space about carbohydrates being critical for restoring glycogen to the muscles after exercise. However, I would advise against that. Studies show that as long as you’re not working out more than once per day at an intense level, you should not need any additional focus on carbohydrates immediately after training. That same study showed that consuming carbs after training would actually decrease the efficacy of protein synthesis in your body. Protein makes up about 80% of your muscles and protein synthesis is the creation of that protein. You are likely much better off skipping the banana after the workout and sticking with the grass-fed whey. Your glycogen levels will be where they need to be by the next day’s workout.
Now this protein is of the utmost importance after training. If we aren’t taking in the protein, then our body is going to have a difficult time creating it which basically means the muscles aren’t getting bigger or, more importantly, stronger. However, this is certainly not a one size fits all kind of deal. It depends on what your goals are. I am coming from the standpoint of health and performance, but if you want to run a marathon the next day, you’re going to need the carbs. I’ll assume going forward that you and I have the same goals of general health and performance for this article and I can cover more specific goals down the line.
So if our goals align, focus on getting in your protein after training, ideally from whole food sources such as meat, fish, eggs, or poultry. If that is not convenient enough, there are certainly excellent supplements that we all know and love. The amazing, wonderful protein powder. Again, I won’t go into all of the details in this article. But for now just know that there are good and there are bad protein powders out there.
There is one thing that is absolutely unmatched in its importance to the human body. You guessed it, it’s that good old H2O. As far as survival goes, the human body can last up to three months without a single morsel of food. But the moment that water stops flowing the clock starts ticking down from about 70 hours. I don’t know about you, but I have definitely gone almost an entire day without drinking any water; and boy did I feel it. Truth is, if you’re “thirsty” you’ve gone far too long without a sip. Recent studies are showing that you need to drink at least half your pounds of body weight in ounces of water at a MINIMUM. That’s just to keep your body from deteriorating at a rapid pace.
Water is highly involved in every single cell in our body and without the proper levels, they absolutely will not be able to function properly. We’re all about the natural design of the body over here at Archai, and without lots of water, we can’t even come close. There is evidence pointing toward a lack of hydration leading not only to standard issues such as fatigue, headaches, and inability to focus, but even damage to our very DNA! This is no bueno at all. Water is the lubrication of the body and is an absolute non-negotiable when it comes to the health and longevity of athletic ability. If you don’t like the taste of water, learn to and get drinking. Your very life depends on it, let alone your performance.
Now this next category here is not for the faint of heart and I would not recommend seriously for the average joe. But YOU are not the average joe. If you really want to take your health and performance to the next level, you need to work on your mobility and take advantage of recovery time to increase blood flow to your muscles and get the lactic acid all out of there. If there is one thing I learned from running at a highly competitive level for eight years, it’s that without proper cool-downs and stretching, you will be in PAIN.
It’s all too easy to think before your workout that you feel good and are ready to get into the exciting, intense part and be done quicker. It’s even easier to think after your workout that you’re really tired and ready to guzzle a protein shake and hit the hay. This is unwise. Proper warm-ups and cool-downs are the bread and butter of athletic injury prevention and recovery. To start, we need to warm up. I won’t go into too much detail here as there’s much to cover. But warming up is one of the most neglected things for the modern athlete, especially before strength training. There probably are not many runners that will throw on their running shoes (hopefully some good barefoots) and begin sprinting 200m repeats on the track. Everybody knows that if you sprint without a warm-up, you’ll likely get injuries.
For some reason this idea gets thrown out the window with athletics that are perhaps slightly less dynamic. I cannot even count the amount of times I would see dudes walk into the weight room, throw four 45s on a bar and start squatting (usually not very low). Some will start by squatting about 50% of their 1 rep max to warm up but that still is not enough. Warm-up by moving every joint involved in the workout in every single way possible. Avoid sharp pains but it should certainly get the blood flowing. Don’t static stretch but instead keep it dynamic with every “warm-up exercise” involving movement.
We have certainly neglected the warm-up. But nothing in the world of training is probably more neglected than a proper cool down. This is where you definitely want to get your stretches in. Before we start the stretches, if you smoked your legs during the workout, go for a light run at a very comfortable pace for around five minutes. Then, do some stretches for a few seconds at a time and do it in reps just like a strength exercise to make it easier to track. Move into the stretch slowly, hold for two seconds, then move out slowly. Do that for at least five reps per trained muscle.
Next, there should definitely be some light foam rolling action happening. Foam rolling really aids in reducing that DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) and will keep you from having to compromise your next workout due to the pain. If you’ve been training for a while, you may not feel sore anyway, but the rolling is still good to get blood flowing back to the trained areas to expedite healing. It’s crucial to remember that our bodies don’t get stronger during the workout, but during the rest.
Training is the process of breaking down your body through a concept known as hormetic stress. It’s placing yourself under a circumstance that your body is either incapable or hardly capable of. Then, when the body has the opportunity to heal from the damage that it was caused, it repairs better than it was previously. The reason this happens is because the body is highly adaptable. If it expects that you will be required to perform tasks that require much endurance or strength or speed, it will adapt accordingly when given the proper stimulus. But it cannot have the space to make these adaptive changes if there is never opportunity for the body to rebuild and repair.
It is a time old debate as to how long one should wait before once again training the same muscle group intensely. However, for peak performance and development, the jury now recommends to wait around 48 hours. This absolutely does not mean you should sit around and eat potato chips every other day. What it means is that any given muscle should not be intensely trained within 48 hours of a previous session for that same muscle. That is why you typically see what’s known as a workout split.
A workout split is what muscle groups are worked each day of the week. Some people will train legs-push-pull, some will train upper-lower, and some will train strength-cardio. All of these splits have their cases and allow for at least 48 hours of rest for each muscle group but whichever one is right for you will depend on what sport you play and what exactly you are optimizing for. Even with a perfect training split, it will not matter if the time spent not training the muscles is spent poorly.
We need good sleep. Studies are showing that people who consistently get less than 7 hours of sleep per night, have significantly higher rates of all cause mortality. Although our focus is not necessarily on survival, if you’re not surviving, you’re certainly not competing at your best. It’s important to get good sleep as often as possible as this is when the body truly heals. Deep sleep is an elevated anabolic state. I won’t get into all of the details of anabolism and catabolism in this article, but it’s basically when your body does all of its healing. Just going about our daily lives is breaking down our cells and we need that time of sleep to build them back up again.
Do not neglect sleep. I know how easy it is when life is full of responsibilities and you would rather spend your precious time doing more productive and enjoyable things. At Archai we believe that the quality of what we do is far more effective than the quantity. Sleep enables us to be the absolute best we can be each and every day so we can make the most of every opportunity that comes our way to be better. If the sleep gets compromised, so does everything else.
Over time, the effects of poor recovery are compounded and can lead to some serious problems down the line. Research has shown that the average person is at the peak of their athletic ability in their early 20s. But we know that there are a few examples of athletes who continued to increase in their abilities even well into their 40s. People like Brett Farve, George Foreman, and Charlie Hough. Despite their age, they continued to improve and I have no doubt that a good recovery process was central to their long careers. No need to settle for the statistics when you’re not average. The average person will never become a world class athlete, but if you were average, you wouldn’t be here.
Remember the big three when it comes to proper recovery: Nutrition, movement, and rest… as long as necessary. If you keep these three in your athletic tool belt, you will be able to build on the abilities you already have to achieve the results you want. Having a background in finance, a Warren Buffet quote comes to mind. “Rule Number One: Never Lose Money. Rule Number Two: Never Forget Rule Number One”. Or as it pertains to athletic performance, “never lose muscle”. As soon as muscular function is inhibited, so will growth and performance be. So recover well and become the athlete that you were designed to be.
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