Recovery

You’ve heard it again and again by now. Prioritizing your recovery habits like sleep, nutrition, and minimizing stress are just as important as the weight you lift. But, how can we improve on these variables in order to maximize our recovery? In this article, we’ll outline overarching ideas to elevate your recovery game as well as some techniques to start implementing today.

First and foremost, we should quickly discuss how strength adaptations occur over time. The stimulus-recovery-adaptation (SRA) model (Figure 1) describes how we improve over time. We introduce some sort of stimulus, usually in the form of a training session, then we take time to recover. This is followed by a period of adaptation where we are better suited for the stimulus, AKA we get stronger. 

Figure 1. SRA Curve, “Scientific Principles of Strength Training”, Israetel et al.

This model serves as the base for our discussion. Admittedly, there is more nuance in this topic, which is beyond this article like timing SRA curves and different curves for hypertrophy, technique and central nervous systems (figure 2). I encourage you to read “Scientific Principles of Strength Training” if you’re interested. 

Figure 2. Timing SRA curves. “Scientific Principles of Strength Training”, Israetel et al.

After understanding the above-mentioned, there should be a focus on the “recovery” component. If done correctly, our hopes as strength-training athletes are to continue adapting overtime like in figure 3. However, if our recovery is deficient or our training is too much, we run the risk of “de-training” (figure 4).

Figure 3. Training overtime. https://www.revampts.com/blog

Figure 4. Under-recovery or over-training. https://www.revampts.com/blog

So, how do we stay clear of figure 4 but ensure figure 3? The first strategy is to flush out training variables (volume, intensity, frequency, and density). The discussion of programming regarding the above variables warrants its own post, but we will focus on the second strategy: mitigating outside stressors (daily tasks, sleep deprivation, and poor nutrition). 

Daily Tasks

Something my coach says is “stress is stress is stress” highlighting that stress can come in all forms and can wither our psychological, mental, and physical energy over time. As I trained for powerlifting, across different contexts of life, this idea became more clear. During my intern year of residency, I had 12-14 hour shifts 6 times a week with a 45 minute commute one-way. This left little time to grocery shop, clean, or even get a haircut. I had to find the balance between training and busy rotations. This may not be uncommon for every hobbyist powerlifter, who has a job. I thought back to my recovery prior to my intern year and thought “was I always this beat up, tired, and achy? Or am I just getting old?” I compared it to the final months of medical school. Rotations were online. I knew where I was headed to continue my medical training and I had 2 vacations already planned. I distinctly remember that during this period, all aspects of my recovery were far easier to handle and control. I did not have to worry about my daily tasks of walking from end to end in the hospital, presenting patients on rounds, and holding family meetings to discuss their loved ones. 

Our daily tasks can unquestionably affect our performance and recovery. But, how do we take advantage of this knowledge and what strategies can we utilize to help mitigate this stress? 

First, make sure the small details of your programming are fleshed out. Trying to maintain a 5 or 6 day per week training split, having to miss 1 or 2 days, feeling guilty, and then spiraling out of control is a recipe for disaster. Consider 4 or even 3 day training splits. I can guarantee, one can make considerable progress by being 100% consistent on a 3 day per week training schedule. Moreover, these training days should be in balance. Not too much volume per given session and just enough to recover from day to day and week to week. You should experiment to find that range of work (ie. 8-12 weekly sets of squats vs 15-20 weekly sets) that you can recover from but still make incremental progress. At this point, less is more.

Secondly, find the ebb and flow of your work or school schedule. There are “busy seasons”, where your daily tasks are more numerous and you are expected to show up more often to work a little harder. Hospital services usually get busy during winter seasons, accounting firms during tax season, schools during finals or midterms and groceries/retail stores during the holidays. There is a natural timing where training must take a back seat and this is OK. Work with your coach to program quicker sessions (like less accessories or 1 less set across all movements), 1 less training day, or less intense top sets. When the busy season ends, move training to the front seat again. Timing competitions can also follow this pattern. For example, the retail worker should consider a competition in late February or early March in order to have an 8-12 week meet prep right after the New Year.  

Lastly, I cannot stress enough the balance within your day to day tasks. As important as timing your busy seasons with training and competitions, sometimes it's just the daily tasks that are too cumbersome. Just like finding the balance in training/programming, you should find a balance between just enough work during the day versus too much work. For example, on my days off, I can only handle 3-4 hours of studying, coaching or content creation. The rest of the time is dedicated to reading, walking, spending time with others, and/or training. Any extra time becomes unproductive and I am easily distractible. So, find the balance between your daily tasks versus other activities that are most important to you. Give yourself time to recharge your physical, emotional, and mental batteries.

Sleep Deprivation

We all know the importance of sleep but oftentimes don’t get enough of it, wake up in the middle of the night, or can’t fall asleep. Adequate, restful sleep can make or break your recovery and is arguably the most important recovery aspect outside of proper programming. There is overwhelming evidence to show that we require sleep for improved cognitive and physical processes. A common recommendation is at least 6 to 8 hours of sleep per night for adults and 8 to 10 hours of sleep for growing adolescents and teenagers. Furthermore, understanding our day to day schedules may not alot for this much consistency. If absolutely necessary, we also recommend a weekly average instead of a daily goal in order to meet this recommendation (6 hours one night and 8 hours another night average out to 7 hours of sleep). 

What other strategies can we utilize to obtain more restful sleep? 

1. Consistency

As with any successful habit, consistency is king or queen. Try to make everything surrounding sleep as consistent as possible. Wake up around the same time and go to bed around the same time. This includes the weekend. Oftentimes, individuals who wake up feeling absolutely destroyed on Monday, had deviated from their sleep schedule during the weekend. Instead of waking up at 6AM like they always do, they slept in until 9AM on Saturday and Sunday, having to then wake up again at 6AM on Monday. Moreover, try to maintain consistency with the “spread” of sleep hours. Sleeping 6 hours and then 8 hours a night is arguably better than 4 hours then 10 hours, despite the average being the same (AKA 7 hours). Finally, keep the idea of consistency in mind as we explore the following strategies of sleeping environment and behaviors.

1. Environment

Our sleeping environment will dictate our sleeping quality and is something overlooked. Our body temperature naturally rises 1-2 degrees at night, so decreasing the room’s temperature or bundling up less will help you stay more comfortable. Some individuals are very sensitive to light, whether it is street light or the rising sun. Consider investing in black out curtains (or any curtains that darken the room) and minimize any leaking light sources that can potentially wake you or keep you from falling asleep. Moreover, investing in a “sunrise” alarm clock that gently wakes you in the morning instead of a disruptive and blaring phone alarm can be more pleasant. Along with light, there is sound. Find an area away from the loudest part of the house and/or street to minimize sound. Investing in a white noise machine or downloading a 10 hour loop off Youtube or Spotify can also help wash out any ambient noise. Cleanliness is the last thing we should consider, both in ourselves and in our environment. Making it a point to shower before you sleep can alleviate nightly discomfort or itching but showering can also act as a signal that you are winding down to sleep. It can be incorporated into a nightly routine where you take some time to meditate, relax, listen to music, wind down and implement other self-care modalities. Your room should also be regularly cleaned: floors and corners vacuumed, hard to reach places dusted, bed sheets and covers washed, and items arranged. If our rooms are disorganized, our minds may mirror this. Lastly, our bedrooms should be designated for sleep and/or sex only. When you walk into your room, there should be behavioral cues that help us achieve more restful sleep. Therefore, avoid eating, watching TV, browsing on your phone, playing video games etc in your bedroom and reserve it for a different room in the house. 

1. Behavior 

What we do beforehand also plays a large role in our ability to fall asleep and stay asleep. You have most likely heard to avoid bright lights/TV monitors/phones prior to bed and I agree with this. Furthermore, stimulating behaviors should be minimized at least 30 to 60 minutes prior to bed like watching a scary movie, intense sporting games, or anything that more or less stimulates our fight or flight response. This is not to say you shouldn’t engage in these activities close to bed time. That is not realistic. But this is to say, give yourself time to wind down like having a 30 minute nighttime routine. Another behavior overlooked is what we consume around bedtime. Avoiding large, spicy, carbonated and acidic meals prior to bed can decrease discomfort or reflux. But also, limiting caffeine use at least 6-8 hours prior to bed will help you fall asleep faster. Alcohol around bedtime should also be minimized and definitely should not be used as a way to fall asleep. Alcohol has been shown time and time again to decrease the quality of our sleep and can introduce unhealthy habits and addictions. Lastly, we sleep in cycles as depicted in figure 5 below. Our goal is to maximize rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and these cycles repeat every 90 minutes, on average. During REM sleep, we are closest to our “awake” selves. So, when you do the math, you should sleep in intervals of 6, 7.5, or 9 hours. Furthermore, use these intervals as a guide to schedule your wake-up time. For example, if you sleep at 11 PM, try to set your alarm for 5, 6:30 or 8 AM. This ensures you maximize time within REM sleep, but also ensures that you do not wake up in a deep sleep cycle.

Other considerations

Lastly, despite the above strategies, your sleep quality and length may still be poor. Sleep can be a complex issue and for some, may require medical evaluation. Many individuals may be suffering from anxiety or depression that prevents them from winding down. Or, in the world of powerlifting, our elevated BMIs and girthy necks often cause obstructive sleep apnea. Whatever the reason, if you are consistently having sleeping difficulties, consider an evaluation by a medical professional. 

Poor Nutrition

“Poor nutrition”, as an umbrella concept, is defined as the inability to support our lifestyle and training demands with our current nutritional habits. The big 3 pillars of ensuring you stay away from poor nutrition are as follows:

1. Calorie intake

2. Macronutrient Breakdown

3. Nutrient Density 

All 3 pillars must be balanced and individualized to maximize your nutrition. 

1. Calorie intake should be a largely individualized number, depending on your unique lifestyles and goals. The concept of eating more to get bigger and eating less to lose weight is already widely known. However, the practice of being objective and strict with individualizing how much more or how much less to eat is not emphasized enough. A 2500 calorie diet for a 20 year old collegiate powerlifter is different for a 30 year old mother of 2 who works full time as a CPA. What is different between these two is not simply the calories eaten, but also the physical time available to eat, snack choices, meal choices, cultural differences etc. In order to maximize your nutrition, whether you are in a calorie deficit or calorie surplus, you should have a period of exploration. A period where you not only define your individualized maintenance calories but also explore what recipes you enjoy, what meal times work with your specific schedule, and what general protocols work seamlessly within your lifestyle.

1. A balanced and individualized approach should also be taken for your macronutrient breakdown. If you’re reading this, you probably already know that proteins, fats, and carbohydrates are the macronutrients I am referring to. For a reminder, carbohydrates are your body’s main and preferred source of energy, protein acts as building blocks for muscle growth and fat helps with hormone production and a multitude of cellular processes (nerves, cell membranes, lipid transport etc). Similar to your calorie intake, your macronutrient breakdown should reflect your individual training protocol and lifestyle. 

Take the 20 year old collegiate powerlifter and put them in 2 different scenarios: off-season hypertrophy training while balancing 2 weeks of finals vs 4-week peaking block in the summer. One should argue that during the off-season, this lifter should eat 200-400 calories in a surplus, closer to the 1.8-2.0 g of protein/kg of body weight and increase carbohydrate intake. But during the 4-week peaking block, remain at maintenance calories with an emphasis on carbohydrates and fats given the need to prioritize recovery but not muscle growth. Furthermore, with more experience and exploration comes more opportunity to fine tune each athlete’s strategy. 

1. As much as I am a proponent for the CICO or IIFYM diets, it can lead to sloppy habits and oftentimes “poor nutrition”. Nutrient density is defined as the relative proportion of a food’s nutritional content (calories, macronutrients, micronutrients, fiber, electrolytes, vitamins, added sugar etc). Taking a lackadaisical approach to your nutrition -or- being too relaxed with CICO/IIFYM, can de-prioritize the importance of nutrient density. Take for example, a diet composed of meticulously meal-prepped chicken and sweet potato balanced with nightly Chinese takeout and beers/pizza on the weekend. It sounds like a good time to me, but for maximizing our powerlifting performances, there is a lot to be improved, especially when it comes to nutrient density. With our meals and snacks, we should ask ourselves “how can we make this more balanced?” Surely, not every meal and snack can be customized in this way. However, if we can add an extra serving of vegetables here and some whole grain there or swap out for a “no-sugar added” version, we may be in a better spot. 

In our previous post, “How to be a Better Client”, we discussed that work ethic should transcend what happens within the gym. Your desire to be the best at what you do inevitably needs to bleed into recovery. We quickly discussed the fine balance between stress and recovery and how this repeated process leads to our incremental strength gain. Although it is easy to fatigue ourselves with increased training, what is not emphasized enough is our skill at recovery. The biggest takeaway from this article is that you must find your uniquely individualized recovery strategy in order to minimize the stress from your daily tasks, maximize deep sleep and prioritize balanced nutrition.