In this episode I explore the subject of recovery and how it can make or break a training journey.
Listen to the other episodes of this mini-series:
Listen to the Training For Trekking Podcast on: Or any other of your favourite podcast platforms! EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: [0:00] All right. Hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So, in today's episode, we are covering episode number 15 of our `20-episode miniseries, which is 20 Lessons Learned Through 20 Weeks of Training. And in today's episode, we are covering the topic of recovery and specifically being serious about your recovery. Now, we briefly touched on this in a previous episode of this miniseries talking about sleep specifically, but today we're going to be going into a little bit [0:27] more detail and a a few other areas you can kind of look at. Because ultimately when it comes down to it, when it comes down to any big training process, when you're putting in the sessions, doing your strength training, doing your cardio, doing your hiking, whatever it may be, ultimately you don't get more fit, more strong, more resilient from your actual training sessions. It's not like you do a strength session, then immediately after you're all stronger and you can lift more weight or hike longer or or whatever it may be. You get fit, more fit, more strong, more resilient when you recover from your training. And this distinction is important because so many people end up putting all their attention into their training and they put all their focus, all their willpower, all their organization into making sure that they're training consistently and hard, which is great, but they forget about the other side of things. They forget about the recovery. They forget about making sure the body's bouncing back in between sessions, that it's actually actually consolidating all the work you're doing in the sessions and a lot of people do forget about this. [1:24] Now I'll sort of preface this by saying like if you are just training normally and say you're just training day to day, say you don't have a massive adventure in your sights, say you're just kind of training at a level that like you're just comfortable with, you're not really pushing things too much, in all honesty you don't really need to put a huge amount of time into this. As long as you're generally living healthy and generally eating well and generally sleeping well, you know you probably will be fine. But ultimately if you are following a dedicated training program, which is progressively getting harder over time, and you really do want to ensure that you're doing everything you can to get the most out of this training program, this is something you want to pay attention to. [1:59] Now, let me tell you the kind of story of where this sort of came from. And I think I've probably said this story as we've gone through the podcast already. But anyway, at first, when we're kind of getting into the process of that 20 weeks of training I was doing, the training was hard. You know, it was difficult. It was five mornings a week doing, you know, new things, challenging things. It was difficult, but it was manageable. It was kind of okay. [2:21] But week by week, as we got into things and ultimately month by month, because we had about five months of training, Things got progressively harder and harder and harder and harder as we got fitter, as we got closer, as we learned more things, we're going to push a little bit more. And I realized, look, I am battling fatigue. You know, I realized that, look, you know what, I need energy to not only get through my day, the session in the morning, but I need energy to get through my day, to focus at work, to be productive. I need energy to be doing my other training sessions outside of the formal sessions we had I needed energy to make sure I wasn't just you know the boring lifeless slob at the end of the day when Ali came home um you know I needed energy because you know Ali my wife was going through a massively stressful period of work through all of this and I was doing the majority of um of cooking and bits and pieces so there's a lot of things that really needed my energy and I was like look look, I really need to make sure that I am staying on top of this, that I'm doing what I can to support my energy, to reduce fatigue, to help my recovery, and doing all of these things that I can do to put into attention into recovery. And essentially, this is kind of like a sliding scale. Like I started to incorporate a few things initially, and that was good. And then things got harder. I was like, oh, you know what? I actually need a little bit more here. So I started doing more on recovery. Then we got harder in the training. I did more and more and more. And And basically, as things were ramping up, I just needed to do more and more things. And I think I talked about this in the sleep module before or the sleep episode before. [3:46] But as I was going through this, you know, and as I was adding in more and more and more, I began to really start to think of all the big things I could do for recovery. You know, things like massage, things like compression boots, things like supplements, things like infrared saunas, and all of these are like things that you can do. And, you know, you often get marketed to, you see online and all of these. And a lot of these things can be helpful. And a lot of these things can help you feel good, whether or not it lives up to some of the more like, you know, outlandish claims, a lot of things, but they all do cost money. They all do take time. They all do take, you know, a fair bit out. So, you know, when I was kind of like going into this mindset, I was like, oh, maybe I'll put some money towards this and this and this or whatever it may be. I kind of checked myself and I was like, you know what, in all honesty, yes, maybe those things I may use them, you know, if I really need. But I asked myself, am I doing all the little things which are pretty much free, which I can be doing? Am I doing all the bits and pieces that I know will aid my recovery, which will fit around my life, which won't cost me a huge amount of money or time? Am I doing what I can to help? help. So over time, I began to, you know, I checked myself. I was like, I don't need to spend a huge amount of money here, but there are a lot of things that I kind of added to this list and this weekly list of things that I was doing or daily things that I was doing to help with my recovery and just little bits and pieces that could help me, you know, relax and help the body sort of turn over a bit and help me feel a little bit better. [5:05] So to give you an example, here are a few things, bits and pieces I was doing through the training. And I wasn't doing all of this at at once. [5:12] Sometimes I was, sometimes I wasn't, but these are different things I kind of tried. Now, on one big branch of recovery and one thing that a lot of people really should be looking into is what's known as active recovery. In the sense of the days that you're not training or the periods where you're not really training hard, sometimes doing gentle exercise as opposed to just zero rest, but gentle exercise can be really beneficial for your recovery. It can get the blood moving over, it can help reduce aches and pains, just help calm the body down or whatever it may be. So, at different periods through the process, I was doing things like, you know, I was making sure, you know, once a day I was going out just for a gentle 20 to 30-minute unloaded walk, just casually strolling just to get myself up from work and just moving. Sometimes I was going down to the ocean, I was getting in the water and doing some walking or some swimming in the ocean pool, which was really nice. You know, I was doing some stretching or some self-massage and rolling and just these little bits and pieces that I could do actively to kind of help my recovery. [6:08] On the nutrition side of things, I was making a really big conscious effort to remain hydrated through the day. Such a simple thing, but it makes a big difference. I was making sure that after we trained in the morning, I'm not massive into breakfast usually, but I was making sure, look, after we trained, I was getting something in. I was getting protein. I was getting carbohydrates, making sure I was refueling immediately after those morning sessions. I was making sure every meal I had that I was getting a good serving of veggies. I was making sure I was getting protein in every meal. I was making sure that even though I was, you know, trying to drop a few kilos because it was a weight-based sport, and as I was talking about in another episode, you know, that was something I was trying to do, I was making sure I wasn't significantly under-eating, but I was just kind of just, you know, managing my calories in a way that I [6:52] would just reach the targets that I needed for my weight loss stuff. Now, on the sleep side of things, you know, I was making sure I had a consistent bedtime. time. I was using like a few simple sleep aids. I was having chamomile tea. I was using some magnesium, a little lavender oil before I went to bed to help [7:06] me get to sleep a little bit better. On the mental side of things, often just de-stressing and things that are going to be a bit stress relieving, they can be beneficial for recovery. So I was doing things like journaling every day, which I do for work anyway, but I was making a conscious effort to do that. I was taking periods to do just five minutes or 10 minutes of deep breathing and just little bits bits and pieces. [7:26] Now, as you can see, there's a whole bunch of options in there and things that I was doing. Most of that, well, all of that is pretty much free, except for obviously buying veggies and protein. Most of that is really, really, really easy to fit in. Some things do require a tiny bit of time, specifically active recovery, but most of it's pretty doable. And for me, I sort of found as I got harder and harder and harder into the training, I started incorporating more and more and more of these things. And it really did help, you know, keep the balance. [7:53] So for you as a hiker, you know, who's training, who's putting in time, who's putting all this attention into training, you need to be aware of, yes, we need to be focusing on getting fit and getting strong, getting resilient, putting in the hard work in our training sessions. But if you are working hard, you also want to be thinking about what can you do for recovery. [8:11] It doesn't have to be complicated, expensive, fancy things, but you want to be doing some basic things consistently and it can make a big, big difference. So just ask yourself, yourself, if you're going through a bit of a training process outside of what you're doing that is currently scheduled or whatever it may be, just ask yourself, what can you do on the active recovery side of things? What are some small, gentle, easy exercise that you can do, which isn't so much training, but it's just getting the body moving, helping calm things down, helping relieve aches and pains. Is there anything in there you can incorporate in your everyday life? What can you do on the nutrition side of things? Are you covering those sort of really basic things. Are you having a source of protein with most meals? Are you having veggies with each meal? Are you having fruit? Are you staying hydrated? All of these simple little bits and pieces. Ask yourself, what can you do to aid your sleep? Are you actively doing anything to help you either get a little bit more sleep or just have a bit of a deeper sleep? Are there some simple little bits and pieces you can put into action which may help there? And also ask Ask yourself, what can you do to de-stress? [9:12] Everyone has a particular, you know, certain levels of stress in our life. Are you actively doing things in your day? It could be five minutes at a time, which will help with those stress levels, help the body and the mind calm down, which can genuinely help with your recovery. [9:26] Ask yourself each of those questions. Active recovery, nutrition, sleep, de-stress. Choose one or two things in each of those categories, is. And if you can apply those consistently over a training process, it will be so beneficial for you. They're helping you bounce back in between sessions, to help manage stress, to help relieve aches and pains, and a whole bunch of different things. Recovery is a really, really valuable thing. It can get really complicated and really expensive and really inconvenient, but it also can be very, very simple, very, very cheap, and very, very, very effective. So if you're training for a big training process and you haven't considered these things before, I strongly recommend put a bit of time, put a bit of attention into it, see what you can incorporate consistently and it may make all the difference for you. So on that note, that's all I need to say on this. Recovery is an important facet of your training. Take it seriously, put it into action and you may be surprised at what a difference it can make. So thank you so much for listening. I hope you've enjoyed today and we'll talk to you very, very soon. Bye.
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AuthorRowan is an online personal trainer who specialises in training for hiking and mountaineering. He helps get them fit, strong and resilient so they can conquer every adventure. Archives
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