#45 - Recovery
The standard workweek in the U.S. is 5 days. I once heard a speaker say, “God rested one day after he created the universe in six days. I know a lot of people who do nothing all week and then take two days off.” This was his humorous way of saying that he thought people should never take a day off of their dreams (he was speaking to entrepreneurs). The 5-day workweek came about because Jewish mill workers couldn’t work on Saturday and Christians didn’t want them catching up on Sunday. The 2 day weekend gained wide acceptance during the Great Depression as an alternative to unemployment.
As an athlete, I’ve been training six days per week for at least 5 years. In training, that day off is absolutely critical for several reasons. First, your body needs a chance to repair itself—all that training does damage to the body and only after it recovers does it get stronger. That day off is also critical for mental recovery. Taking one day per week off and not thinking about training at all helps me stay at the top of my game in every practice during the week. Without that break, suffering through 10-14 workouts every six days can be really hard mentally. Another reason that day off is so important is that it allows me to keep up with the other things I need to do: grocery shopping, laundry, school, family, friends, etc.
My freshman year of college, I was coming off of a lower hours training year (due to an injury). I jumped right into a training plan that packed in more hours than I was really prepared for. I trained hard from May 1st all summer and into the fall. The season started and several of my teammates came down with mono which meant I was on varsity. I was starting to feel tired out and my improvement had stagnated but I pushed through and did my best—the team needed me and I wanted to prove myself. As the season progressed I became more and more tired—each race was 100% “in the red.” In other words, my body was not recovered for racing and so that level of effort was extremely hard and painful. As the season drew to a close in late March, my hair started to fall out; clearly my body had reached the limit and needed a break! I’ll never forget the feeling of relief crossing the finish line of the final race of the season and collapsing into the snow! I shared this story to illustrate how critical rest is—not only to improvement but basic health.
There is a lot of carry-over from this training example to your summer, even if your specific goals are not athletic. The mental break is critical—it prevents mental burnout and you’ll hit the next practice feeling energized and ready to give your best. It doesn’t help your brain if you don’t train but you think about training all day long. So, use your day off to focus on something else; relax, enjoy friends and family, get other things done, etc.
So many athletes undervalue recovery. Always remember that your body doesn’t get stronger from training—it gets stronger from recovery after that training. A lot of young athletes that I talk to aren’t recovering properly. Usually these athletes deal with a lot of injuries throughout the year. After they finally get healed up, they try to “catch up” and are soon injured again. Failing to recover is holding these athletes from competing at their best (and often preventing them from competing at all). Remember that the quality of your training is more important than the quantity.
I hope you recognize the importance of recovery so you can avoid getting as burned out as I did! Please realize that taking 3 or 4 days off isn’t recovery: it’s skipping training! Taking too much time off has the same negative effects as not enough—mental difficulty, getting tired easily, and not being able to perform as well under pressure. There are a lot of great tools that you can use to track your recovery. Look into “resting heart rate” and “heart rate variance monitor” as ways to track your recovery. If you have questions about this or anything else, get in touch!