The principle of Yin and Yang is that all things exist as inseparable and contradictory opposites, for example, female-male, dark-light and old-young. The principle, dating from the 3rd century BCE or even earlier, is a fundamental concept in Chinese philosophy and culture in general.
In training we break our bodies down, we intentionally create physical and mental stress. In recovery the evolutionary process takes over and your body and mind super compensate and adapt, getting stronger. All you need to do is give it a little window of time and the raw material of nutrients.
Most athletes have a strong focus on getting the formula of training right, aerobic training, high intensity, strength, durability, even weigh management. Few really focus on recovery which is where the magic happens.
Good recovery discipline ensures you convert your investment and effort into benefits. I see the as the third most common mistake made by novice athletes behind 1.) not enough easy miles, and 2.) high intensity sessions not being hard enough.
My top 5 recovery tips:
- Sleep 7.5 hour per night average, more if high volume. If training above 15 hours the 8 hours +. If 25 hours per week then 10 hours sleep, maybe a midday nap. Sleep is when the vast majority of recovery and strengthening happens, invest in it!
- Recovery nutrition. Replace calories and provide your body with the nutrients it needs to recover and rebuild. Vitamins, minerals, protein, natural carbs, health fats. Keep it diverse, there is not silver bullet recovery solution. Broad spectrum nutrient through real food is best.
- Adequate time between sessions. Every session has an objective, a targeted adaptation. If you are too tired to achieve the objective, not up to the challenge due to inadequate recovery, walk away, catch-up on recovery, and turn up to the next session fully charged. For endurance athletes we do however, purposely do endurance sessions with a level of fatigue to promote durability.
- Avoid inflammatory foods. Training creates inflammation and much of recovery is reducing inflammation. Don’t further challenge the immunity system by eating foods that create inflammation. These include processed sugar, hydrogenated vegetable oils, refined grains. Stick to real food, out the ground, off a plant, or of an animal. My experience for myself and coached athletes who have adopted this is that this has made the most significant difference in performance per training hour.
- Warm down. Any sessions above zone 2 need a warm down to flush out waste from the muscles. Lactic acid left in the muscle with delay recovery until is clears. This can take hours without adequate warm down.
