A necessary part of taking care of your body is recovery. If you don’t know what ‘recovery work’ is, I have a video below that will point you in the right direction. And if you already know about ‘recovery work’ but struggle to get it in, think of it like this…
Instead of looking at ‘recovery’ as only something you do after an intense workout, a competition, or a brutal period of Life Stuff, think of it as a natural – and necessary – part of the rhythm of being a human.
It can feel annoying to make the time for ‘recovery work’, but if you remember that you get more (more results, more health, more energy) by giving time to ‘recovery work’, you’ll start seeing the motivation for doing it rise.
In this quick video, I outline five important aspects of recovery, and each of the concepts can be applied in a customized fashion to your own body and needs. Do this based on what activity you were doing, the effort you gave, and how “in the hole” you are after the effort you gave.
If you’re not sure where to start with creating a recovery strategy for yourself, here are a few tips:
- Target the self-massage around the areas you used the most during your effort
- Follow up the self-massage with movement of the joint through its full ROM (remember, massage alone doesn’t solve your mobility issues)
- Walking isn’t about burning calories, it’s about getting the NEAT benefits out of it (the video link takes you to an interview with my good friend, Dr. Jade Teta, who taught all about NEAT movement starting at about the 8 min mark of the interview)
- If you feel the need to sleep and eat more than usual, that is not a sign that something is wrong, it’s simply your body asking for what it needs. Having good sleep habits and balanced nutrition helps to make it easier to hear and understand the signals your body is sending you about what it needs from you during recovery