Exercise Recovery Formula

Public Service Announcement: We don't get stronger during our workouts or in the gym. We improve during our recovery, the other 22 to 23 hours of the day when we're not working out. We create the “demand to grow” in the gym. The body says, “Woah that was intense! I'd better adapt just in case this person puts that stimulus on me again.” Then it goes to work, using your soft tissue work, nutrition, hydration, sleep, even your mental energy to repair itself to be stronger for your next session.

If you're training and recovering optimally, your intense workouts create microscopic muscle damage; then you recover, becoming a bit better than you were yesterday. This process is repeated throughout your training phases as you manage recovery with different volume and intensity workouts. Or at least that's what happens in an optimally structured program.

In a suboptimal program, you train and create muscle damage, you recover a little bit but not enough before your next workout to be a net positive, and thus you create a net negative. Repeatedly shortchanging your recovery is how you train yourself sick or to injury.

The winning formula is this: Work+Rest=Success, with each aspect being equally important. One could argue that rest is more important as it includes everything we do in the hours outside of training. Good nutrition, for instance, is a critical piece. You may have heard the phrases “abs are made in the kitchen” or “you can’t outwork a bad diet.” Be sure to heed those words as they are like laws of physics in training.

So how do you optimize your recovery? We cover the bases: hydrate, participate in active recovery, eat the macro and micronutrients you need, and prioritize sleep.

Hydration

Our bodies are more than 60% water. Staying hydrated is just like taking care of a car. If your fluids are low then big systems in your body are going to be affected. From musculoskeletal, to hormones, to mental acuity.

• Get a water bottle, put 4 hair ties around it and use them to track your intake throughout the day by sliding one down the bottle each time you drink it all.

We recommend a 32-oz bottle so you're not filling it up all the time—unless you work a desk job and want an excuse to take a little walk. How much water to drink depends on a number of things, including your age, gender, activity level. Some wellness experts recommend 10 ounces per pound of bodyweight. However that can be a lot for those with a high BMI (Body Mass Index) or higher weight. The U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine suggest about 15 cups (3 liters) of fluids per day for men, and about 11 cups (around 2 liters) for women. This includes water from both beverages and food.

Staying hydrated also provides your joints with the lubrication they need throughout workouts.

A note on hydration and electrolytes: "High quality H2O" (Water Boy reference) is great yes. It is also important to remember to not just drink water but also replenish your body's electrolytes. The main "Macro Electrolytes" are; magnesium, chloride, calcium, sodium, potassium, and phosphate. These minerals are special because they possess an electric charge. This allows your body to; maintain a steady blood pressure, efficiently contract your muscles, adequately repair broken tissue as well as energize your tissues. Therefore, without electrolytes your body would not be able to energize itself or maintain and repair your tissues. You can add electrolytes to your water with an electrolyte supplement to help ensure you are getting an adequate amount per day. No need to overdo it. Adding electrolytes to a few of your waters each day will do the trick.

Active Recovery

Active recovery should be built into your weekly routine. You want to start off active recovery by caring for your muscles.

These are your recovery pillars, in this order (use the SMA acronym):

• Soft tissue work: foam roll to break muscle fascia off of your muscle fibers so it slides correctly, and for self-myofascial release (which is similar to a deep tissue massage to help break up knots done with a lacrosse ball or tennis ball).
• Mobilize: After your fascia and knots are less in the way, it's time to stretch. First, do your dynamic stretching where you move through ranges of motion and pause for 2 seconds at end range, moving through reps. Then, do some static stretching, where you're holding a stretch for 30-60 seconds for a few reps.
• Activate with bodyweight exercises. After loosening everything up you should have new range of motion. You'll need to teach your body this new range, reactivate everything you just broke up and stretched out.

Activation examples include bodyweight glute bridges for hips with a good squeeze at the top; pillar bridges for the core with a squeeze for 20-30 seconds or some bird dogs or dead bugs (all easily findable on YouTube), or scap pushups for shoulders (which you can do on your knees if needed).

After your soft tissue work, mobilizing, and activating (SMA) you are now ready for 20-30 minutes of LISS (Light Intensity Steady State) cardio where your BPM is about 50% of your max heart rate. Find your max HR by taking 220 and then subtracting your age. Then multiply that number by .5 or .6 to find 50-60% of your max HR. Decide on 50 or 60 percent based on how you're feeling or what your body’s HRV is telling you about your readiness and nervous system.

LISS can also be walking, a chill hike or bike, or even some hatha yoga. Yoga is great for mobility and equally important, stability, by putting us in positions that increase our range of motion, which translates over into our workouts.

Nutrition

Now that you're hydrated and taking care of your muscles by giving them some SMA and LISS, you'll want to make sure that your body has the materials it needs to repair damaged tissue and grow strong. That's where nutrition comes in. If you punch a hole in drywall you are going to need material to patch it. If the body doesn't have what it needs to repair after a workout, it will sometimes pull from other muscles and bones to make up the difference. If you keep causing damage without repairing, the wall falls.

This is where it can get complex based on personal circumstances, preference, food sensitivities, and other health and life factors. Simply put. an adequate balance of macronutrients (protein, carbs, and fat) is needed as a core foundation, with each performing its role and helping the others out where needed.

Protein = build. Carbs = fuel. Fat = fuel/hormones/nervous system.

For protein you'll want to aim for .8-1.2 grams per pound of bodyweight daily. If you have a high BMI that makes that number unrealistic, then you can calculate with your lean body mass. Depending on your body style (mesomorph, or muscular; ectomorph, a skinnier frame; or endomorph, which is usually a shorter, rounder body style) there are different recommendations for percentages of protein fat and carbs. This also differs depending on your goals.

Within 90 minutes of your workout, your muscles are dilated and ready for nutrition. Make sure to prioritize re-fueling in that time for your recovery!

Here's a simple post-workout recovery shake recipe:

1. 20g-40g protein powder
2. milk or water
3. 1 cup of berries
4. 1/2 banana
5. 1 tbsp of nut butter
6. 1 tsp chia seeds or avocado for healthy fat
7. A handful of spinach for minerals and chlorophyl
8. 1 scoop of greens or reds powder to boost antioxidants and phytonutrients

Shakes are already physically broken down which makes the nutrients easier and faster to absorb. This is important because protein is hard for the body to break down. Ever heard of the “meat sweats”? This happens when the body is overloaded with protein at any given meal. Digestion creates heat, especially the digestion of protein, which largely occurs in the stomach (the most active part of digestion). Because of this, aim for 30-50 grams max of protein at any one time. After this post workout shake, since it's easily digested, you could have another meal within 60-90 minutes. This gives you two fueling opportunities within 2-3 hours of your workout.

Sleep

Sleep is the body's most critical time to recover from the day. This is where our body produces human growth hormone, repairs damaged cells, reduces inflammation, and learns from the physical activity you did. Creating good-quality sleep largely depends on timing. Timing of sleep, plus timing of our daily activities.

A meal toward the end of the day will have an impact on how you recover. Since the active part of digestion raises your core temperature and your heart rate, you want to keep this separate from sleep. Allowing about 4 hours between your last meal and your bedtime is ideal, so your body can finish its active digestion and use its enzymes to break down inflammatory compounds to improve your recovery.

Studies show that fasting can improve sleep quality. That's because a calmed digestion allows your heart rate to reach its lowest point near the middle of your sleep. This gives time for your heart rate to begin rising again before you wake up, so that when you get up you feel more awake and fresh.

The timing of your workouts is also important for recovery. Working out too late can make it harder for the body to get good-quality sleep. Exercise raises cortisol levels, heart rate, core body temperature and increases endorphins. This cascade of activity needs at least 2 hours to calm down for sleep.

Optimal workout times varies by individual. Some clients have reported consistently sleeping better when their workouts are in the morning vs. afternoon, even if they have ample time to wind down afterwards.

Your sleep coach will make sure you have all the tools you need to prioritize sleep in the ways that are most dialed in for you!

Wrap Up

So, there you have it. Hydrate. Give your body some love with pillar prep. Optimize your workout program to include active recovery and optimal volume/intensity. Make sure your nutrition is on point so your body soaks up all the best materials to build from. And last but not least, Sleep! Work+Rest=Success!

If your HRV is low, take that information and train accordingly. In general, we need 2-3 active recovery/rest days. Keep in mind that different people have different HRV baselines, so consider your HRV based on your own natural range. If you don’t have a device measuring HRV, use your subjective feelings to gauge when you may need to rest.

You can learn more about HRV here.

Overtraining feels like you don’t want to work out, you're still overly sore days later (soreness is not always indicative of a good workout), you are irritable, you're restless at night when you're trying to sleep. Keep an eye out and recover well!