When asked, most people would prefer to discuss exciting things like the best exercises, intensity techniques, how to schedule their workouts, and similar. Rest and recovery often come as an afterthought, which is a huge mistake.
But, as you’ll see in the following paragraphs, making your recovery a priority could be the one thing you need to accelerate your progress and reach your fitness goals.
Let’s dive in.
1. Skipping Recovery Comes With Consequences
Under normal circumstances, your body is in a state of homeostasis. Everything runs along smoothly, and processes occur predictably.
The homeostatic state gets disrupted when you run into a stressor, such as an intense workout. Your body enters a state of alarm, where it’s recognized the stressor and mobilizes all forces to deal with it. In the context of training, the alarm phase leads to higher breathing rate, heartbeat, energy demands, and core body temperature, all necessary for allowing you to deal with the ‘threat.’
Once you’ve dealt with the stressor, your body enters the crucial recovery phase where it repairs the stress and damage. Training-related stress includes damage to the muscles, bones, joints, and connective tissues, along with central nervous system fatigue. So long as you give your body the time and resources it needs, the damage gets repaired, and you enter the last phase: adaptation.
Your body repairs the damage and makes the necessary improvements for handling the same stress better in the future. In the case of training, your body adapts to the specific training you do, leading to performance improvements, muscle gain, etc.
The problem is that skipping recovery prevents your body from repairing the accumulated damage and adapting positively. As a result, you run into recovery issues, fail to make progress, and put yourself at a higher risk of injury.
2. Sleep Is Crucial For Everything
Most people understand sleep, but few recognize its profound importance for our health and well-being. Not sleeping well is linked to over 15 adverse health effects related to our physical, mental, and emotional health.
Some of the adverse effects of sleep deprivation include:
On top of that, the adverse effects of insufficient sleep can contribute to stress, creating self-perpetuating cycles. For example, poor sleep can make it difficult to concentrate, leading to poor productivity, making you feel worried, and leading to more sleepless nights.
3. There Is More to Recovery Than Sleep
Sleep is one crucial component of recovery, but it is far from the only thing that matters. Stress can come in many forms, so there are countless ways to promote recovery, feel better, and stay on track with your goals.
Let’s review two examples:
Mental Health
Stress:
Recovery:
Physical Recovery
Stress:
Recovery:
4. You Need to Look At The Big Picture
Recovery might seem complicated, but the fundamental rules don’t change. Stressors have always been the same, and recovery tactics haven’t changed. Regardless of what anyone says, looking at the big picture will always bring the quickest and most pronounced benefits.
Here are some of the most significant stressors that impact your recovery:
Now, let’s go over the big picture of recovery:
Just as many things can stress your body, numerous recovery tactics can help you feel well-rested. Approach your recovery with the mindset of, “How can I attack my recovery from several angles?” instead of focusing on one thing.
5. You Need The Right Amount of Stress
A stress-free life sounds amazing, right? Each day feels easy, no urgent tasks require your attention, and you don’t have a single worry.
Unfortunately, while some stress-free periods, such as going on vacation, can be great for our mental health, not experiencing any stress is not ideal. For one, you never genuinely enjoy ‘stress-free’ living because that’s all you know. Second, you’re more likely to get bored because you need challenges and adversity to stay engaged and be motivated to get out of bed in the morning.
Experiencing too much stress isn’t ideal, either. Life is full of small and large stressors that accumulate and can turn into chronic stress. Over time, chronic stress can put us at a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, mental disorders, poor productivity, burnout, and more.
In other words, we need the right amount of stress to thrive. Too little leads to boredom; too much causes burnout. But here is where everything comes together:
How much attention you pay to recovery will influence your ability to handle stress and determine what that ‘sweet spot’ is for you. Someone who sleeps well eats a healthy diet, and stays hydrated will likely be able to handle more stress and remain strong. In contrast, a sleep-deprived person who barely drinks a glass of water a day and only eats processed junk will have a much harder time dealing with stress.
So, pay attention to your recovery and tackle life with vigour and enthusiasm.
Coach Michael
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