recovery

You’re not missing more gym time, I promise.

Do you often think that when you are training, you always need to do more? You need to spend more time in the gym to get better results. Well, depending on what you are training for, more is not necessarily better. It’s what you do outside the gym that greatly impact and can actually increase your productivity in the gym. We are going to look at how Nutrition, Recovery, and Mindset Training affects your overall program and how you can start implementing today. For any athlete, at any level, these 3 topics are generally overlooked but are equally, if not more, important as time spent in the gym. These are the Secrets of top tier athletes.

Nutrition

One of the topics people should not talk about along with politics and religion. But the truth is, no matter what you do in the gym you will not get the most out of it, unless you are properly fueling yourself.

This can get quite complex but we can break it down to a few Main Points:

• Drink water. No sodas or other no calorie power drinks out there. Divide your weight in lbs by 2, that’s how many ounces you should be drinking on a regular basis. Obviously more on training days.
• Eat real foods. Processed foods is a no-go. No cereal is not good for you. Low-fat crap in a box is also not good for you. Stay on the outside aisles of a grocery store, skip over the bread section (they try and pretend that’s healthy) and do the majority of your shopping there.
• Eat for your goals. If you don’t have any, get some. If you want to lose weight, well, you must change up your macros to do this. Same goes for if you want to gain weight.

Now, we can get into counting your macronutrients and such but I go over that in the Select Athlete Elite Fitness Facebook Group. So you can go over there, join the group, and get all the free info you want.

Recovery

Alright, you just hit the gym HARD, your muscles are pumped with blood and you probably can’t see straight. You just know you’re going to be sore for the next couple of days. But what do you do? Sit your happy ass down and binge watch Friends and Parks and Rec on Netflix. Sorry my friend but this is not recovery. You are only making things worse for yourself. Instead of making sure your body doesn’t completely tighten up (like your pants after a cheat weekend) you must make sure that you are performing some sort of rest, myofascial release, and mobility training when you are not in the gym.

Greater mobility will also result in greater strength, power, and speed output. If you can also move through a greater range of motion, you will also be more resistant to injury.

If you realized that you are not recovering properly, or just want to do a better job at it, here are some principles to follow.

• Sleep. This is probably the single most important part of recovery. Proper levels of sleep provide a hormonal balance, muscular recovery, and mental health. A good amount of sleep is anywhere from 7-10 hours a night.
• Hydrate. Just like the nutrition part of this article. Hydration is key to your health, performance, and overall fitness.
• Stretching. Since you know you need to move well and remain pain-free, stretching is the way to do it. I’m not talking about bending over and touching your toes. I mean getting a proper dynamic stretch before you workout and do static stretching after (do it anytime of the day actually if you can).
• Myofascial Release. Muscles and trigger points may need to some assistance being released to make it a healthy tissue. Foam rolling and other tools can be used to help facilitate the relaxation of the muscle.
• Heat and Compression. Research has recently shown that using heat on a sore area can decrease the effect of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) after a workout1. Also, more research has shown that wearing compression garments post-exercise acts to increase blood flow, which may enhance arterial muscle blood flow and result in improved recovery2 .  

Look simply put, a simple yoga class is not enough. That may be only one aspect of your recovery. You need to make sure you are treating your body with enough detailed attention as much as you do playing Pokemon Go.

Mindset Training

The often most overlooked part during anyone’s training. The difference between an Elite Athlete and you is simply a mindset. They can already see themselves on a podium every morning before you can even wake up and eat your frosted flakes. But this doesn’t mean you can’t start making a change now. This just means that you need to realize it first.

You, and only you, have the ability to change your mindset to a positive and abundant one (if it’s not there already). Nobody is going to do this for you. Nobody can. In a world where everyone seems to be entitled to everything, including a trophy, you cannot be part of that crowd.

There are practices that you can incorporate so you can win in your mind first before you even step onto the field, gym, etc.

The first things you can start doing as soon as possible is learn to breathe from the diaphragm. This may sound easy but take notice of your breath, are you taking short choppy breaths or are you taking full complete breaths through your diaphragm? It’s time to start taking control of your mind and body. A simple practice to start would be to inhale for 4 seconds and exhale for 4 seconds for about 5 minutes of diaphragmatic breathing. Take time to start focusing your mind. Practice this anytime but before and after you train would be a great time to do this exercise.

Another important practice that you can incorporate into your training is learning how to Meditate. Meditation is key to helping you focus and calming your mind. If you have every tried it and felt like you can’t do it, that’s kind of the point. You may not be a monk in 24 hours but at least you can practice calming your mind and witnessing your thoughts. Many of the world’s greatest athletes practice some sort of meditation to keep their minds clear and their focus sharp.

Start practicing by with your breath awareness practice and every time a thought comes up in your mind just let it disappear and resume focusing on your breath.

There are many other practices like goal setting and visualization but this can be for another day. (or you can learn more about it in the Select Athlete Elite Fitness Facebook Group)

Conclusion

This stuff is not always on the attractive side of training but it is more than necessary. If you eat right, recover correctly, and train your mindset you will be farther advanced than you ever thought you could be. This will also place you ahead of most of your competition.

1. Mayer JM, Mooney V, Matheson LN, et al. Continuous low-level heat wrap therapy for the prevention and early phase treatment of delayed-onset muscle soreness of the low back: a randomized controlled trial. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2006 Oct;87(10):1310–7. PubMed #17023239.

2. Hamlin MJ, Mitchell CJ, Ward FD, Draper N, Shearman JP, Kimber NE. Effect of compression garments on short-term recovery of repeated sprint and 3-km running performance in rugby union players. J Strength Cond Res. 2012 Nov;26(11):2975-82. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3182711e0b.