Whether getting into shape for the first time, maintaining gains, or peaking for competition, attaining fitness involves lots of rest and recovery too.
As athletes, we do tend to focus more on the active aspects of training. Intensity, duration, equipment. Rest and recovery are on the list but not usually highly ranked. I often thought of them as days off, but in reality, rest and recovery are some of our busiest times, metabolically speaking.
A Little Chemistry in the Night
Our bodies are a massive collection of chemical actions. Food is digested to make energy and build tissue, air is exchanged to bring in needed oxygen and expel toxic carbon dioxide, all while microbes in the gut go about maintaining our physiology.
No conscious thought required!
All we need to do is support these innately natural events. Take in supportive nutrition, keep the body adequately hydrated, and be sure to provide for sufficient sleep.
As we sleep, the body responds to the day’s events. That heavy training session or extra miles calls up a number of building processes that eventually make us stronger. In a way, building the body we want happens outside of our training when we are not exercising.
The Elusive Good Night’s Sleep
Prioritizing sleep is a good first step.
Intention and consistency play into obtaining the most bang for your sleep buck. Following a schedule instead of going to bed when tired works well. Increased demands, such as increased training intensity, demands more recuperative rest.
Think of a rest regime as another component of training. Listen to the body and then put some thought into designing a rest schedule around physical and mental demands. There is wisdom in marrying the mind and body in this effort.
Differentiating quality from quantity of that sleep is important. Getting lots of hours of sleep is not the same as getting rest for those hours.
Building routines for your training holds true for rest. Cutting out screens and caffeine a few hours before bed helps to prepare the mind and body for a shutdown. Warm bath, book reading, lowered lights – all go towards the unwinding from the day.
Everyone unwinds in their own way. Success at building a rest routine arises from the intent and consistent application of those methods.
More Rest & Recovery Irony
Daily stress contributes to altered states of mental health. Depression is a not wholly uncommon occurrence in people. Part of this mental state can be expressed as physical fatigue. The perception that one is too tired to get up and move is ironically effectively treated with, you guessed it, movement.
We are all familiar with that reluctance to train on any given day. After a day of screens and the stress of dealing with others, the last thing on my mind is putting in a workout.
Oddly enough, some of my most enjoyable workouts have started with this level of reluctance. Dragging my body kicking and screaming to a run, only to have endorphins kick in and make my whole day worthwhile, happens more frequently than I sometimes care to admit.
From There to Here
Call me biased but all of the elements of an exercise lifestyle come to solve so many problems posed in life. Building the body through both use and rest creates positive changes in that body that produce a quality of life. Physical health begets equally important mental health.
Rest and recovery end up being more about allowing the body to heal from within than just taking some time off.
Enjoy.
“When you truly love what you do, not working is hard work.”― Mokokoma Mokhonoana
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