Recovery and Regeneration are finally getting some recognition in the world of sports performance, but while many people are searching for a magic cure, they would cover a lot of ground by just focusing on a few things...
1. Sleep. I know, how many times do we need to hear it...but sleep is important. More important is to NOT stress out on the days you don't get that much (shit happens). In the meantime, pick up some ZMA (zinc, magnesium & b6 will do), some melatonin and sleepy time tea for the best nights sleep of your life! I think that whether you get 8 hours, 9 hours, or 6 hours, the key is the quality of the sleep.
2. Nutrition. Post workout, during, post workout...obviously this stuff is important, but recently I've been reminded how important FAT and protein is. I've ignored this advice from guys like Dan John, Steve Maxwell and Charles Poliquin until now and I've been experience some of my best workouts ever. Do you need 300 grams of protein per day? No. But, if you're anything like me, drop your carb intake, jack up your fats and watch some pretty amazing things happen.
3. Daily Meditation/Relaxation/Time To Yourself. Its amazing to me just how undervalued "alone time" is...but you should take some time every day to visualize your goals and remember the things that are important to YOU. So take a few minutes to shut down your engines, recharge your batteries and get back to neutral...
4. Deload! So you push, push, push...every workout is a total thrasher, you feel good, you're setting pr's and then all of the sudden the warm ups start feeling heavy, you feel sluggish during the day, and you can't fall asleep at night...but you keep on going. And going. And then you wonder why you can't make any progress. There's alot of information out there about this, but a good idea is every 3-6 weeks to cut your intensity and volume in half. As Dan John says, make sure your Highs are HIGH and your lows are LOW.
5. Cut the excess. Similar to deloading, but a look more in the overall picture, get rid of the shit that isn't doing anything for you but cutting into your recovery time. I'm all for building a huge work capacity, and throwing in extra workouts and such, but sometimes you need to be ruthless with your approach and just cut down to the essentials. Cut to the core of your training and start to understand what's working and what's not.
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