The data is pretty clear at this point: your ability to recover from training can either unlock your fullest potential, or hold you back from conquering that goal you’re working tirelessly toward.
Here are 5 simple ways to ensure you’re optimizing your body’s ability to unlock the best version of you.
1: Recover in the Sauna
We favor the Finnish, steam variety at our house.
This tool packs a punch, which is why it comes is as #1 on the list. Not only does heating your core temperature dilate blood vessels allowing an increase in blood circulation, thus speeding oxygen and nutrient delivery for muscle repair, it also increases blood plasma volume and increases red blood cell count if completed after a workout or training session.
Another way to put it – not only does the highway get larger so cars can move at faster speeds to deliver essential cargo, it allows a greater number cars to travel on that highway to optimize delivery. More nutrients, more oxygen, faster delivery speed, means repair occurs more quickly. It’s really that simple. Oh, and 20 minutes in a sauna is super relaxing. Any time that autonomic nervous system is preset at “parasympathetic,” you’re primed for optimal recovery.
2: Muscle and Fascial Work
Here’s where you get to habit stack to increase efficacy AND efficiency.
Self-massage, scraping (or guasha), and cupping can direct the body’s attention to areas in need of special attention. We literally store a cup in our sauna and use it to direct blood flow to muscles that were worked more heavily that day. You can also store a scraping tool, or guasha tool in Chinese Medicine terms, in the sauna to treat more superficial tissues like IT bands as well.
Using a public sauna? No problem; storing a singular silicone cup and a guasha tool will take up less space in your gym bag than a sneaker will. In fact, you could store the tools inside the sneaker and call it win.
3: Breathe
It’s no wonder the animal with the greatest endurance capacity, the horse, breathes almost exclusively through its nose. Breathing through the nose during endurance activities not only ensures optimal oxygen saturation rates, it also reduces the impact of lactate accumulation (which induces muscle soreness).
Additionally, elongating your exhalations relative to your inhalations (ideally in a 2:1 ratio) immediately following training sessions is a cue to the vagus nerve that it’s time to shift gears from fight or flight, into rest and digest. In short, it intentionally transitions the body, within moments, from fueling exercise, to repairing from it…without confusion or natural transition times.
4: Actually Rest on Rest Days (Seriously)
Use sleep as an example. There’s no such thing as truly productive sleep if you’re repeatedly waking. You’re either working through the natural phases of sleep and your recovery is happening in concert with that, or you’re not. You certainly wouldn’t expect to feel your best in the morning if you’re working through a series of structured naps rather than a full night’s sleep.
It’s no different with recovery. A day reserved to fully rest so the body can focus on one goal (tissue repair) will yield far better results than a day where the body is required to fuel moderate exercise and recovery intermittently. Just because you can’t see what’s happening, doesn’t mean the body isn’t hard at work. Don’t add to its plate. Allow its resources to invest fully in rebuilding muscle tissue so you can push harder the next time your training plan requires it.
5: Use musclemud
This one is easy. The point of training is to push your body to adapt to a given stimulus. That’s what brings gains. During the push, cellular byproducts accumulate, oxygen requirements increase, and inflammation rises. Applying musclemud immediately following your training sessions increases blood flow to the area where it is applied so cellular byproducts begin to flush efficiently.
The increase in blood flow also translates into an increase in oxygen and nutrient delivery for tissue repair. And because musclemud is infused with botanicals like turmeric, frankincense, and myrrh, all known anti-inflammatories, the natural inflammation response which occurs following a training session is calmed so it doesn’t get in the way of the fast, effective repair the increase in blood flow wants to provide.
Simple measures. Profound results. Train on!