Recovery Hygiene: Food, Sleep, Breath
Your training is only as useful as your ability to recover from it.
Trying to continually grow and evolve one’s ideas and practices is difficult; not least of all in the arenas of health and fitness. Because of this, I’m sure my writing on the subject seems bipolar to some — e.g. minimalism vs. neurotic details and statistics.
However, I think this oscillation is healthy. On one hand, it would take a long time to mow your yard with scissors, one blade of grass at a time. On the other hand, I don’t want to rush the process and carelessly step into a hornet’s nest.
There are caveats to both directions. Some people use “minimalism” as an excuse to give a half-assed effort. Others nag about a person’s success despite their imperfections while personally endorsing the “everything in moderation” MO.
I made the above graphic a month or so ago. Looking at it again, it reminded me of how many posts I’ve made this year about trying to avoid “majoring in the minors.” At the time, I commented on how many people in the “health and nutrition space” hijack our attention bickering about that top 5% tier when it’s the least important.
It’s really trendy, and effective, to sell the drama. If you’re savvy you can even double down and lure in a few more “likes” with a popular off-the-wall 2nd-tier (“snacks” above).
My point is that you have to secure that 80% foundation first. If you haven’t, why not? The other 20% surely isn’t going to do it for you. The 10% 3rd-tier may help (“supers” above), but you certainly haven’t earned the privilege of worrying about the top two tiers yet.
I intended this to be a training post, not a nutrition one, so let’s shift gears. When someone has coached multiple world champions, you should listen. You don’t have to agree (ala appeal to authority), but you should listen (see image below).
The sexy stuff looks great on social media — I’ve made plenty of such posts myself. I will also ashamedly admit to neglecting some of the things in Joel’s second paragraph to partake in the former.
Food is only part of the equation. Contrary to what many zealots — yes, even and especially in the “ancestral health” world — may have you believe, food does not cure everything.
As obligatory as food is, breathing is even more so. Yet, “breathwork” is an afterthought in, if at all part of, most people’s training protocol. When it is included, it’s often done flippantly — e.g. “Have you tried box breathing? No, I like Wim Hof.”
I call it flippant because, like all trends, it catches fire and people apply it like some sort of topical magic without understanding the details of physiology and psychology (those 5% supplements in the pyramid above). Good intentions don’t make this less of a problem; for athletes, coaches, or therapists.
In the “box” breath there is a retention hold (after inhaling) and a suspension hold (after exhaling). Both increase feelings of stress and anxiety because CO2 is “the stress molecule.” Why would you suggest this to someone who is panicking? There are reasons, but you better understand them and how to leverage and manipulate them for the intervention to be effective.
Likewise, “The Wim Hof Method” is a hyper-ventilation protocol (i.e. increases stress because you’re taking in O2 faster than you can off-gas CO2). Up-regulation is helpful if you’re about to jump into a frozen pond or attempt a deadlift PR, but antithetical if you’re trying to fall asleep.
The protocol I’ve been using post-training is:
(single nostril) 10 seconds in, 10 seconds out, alternating nostrils each minute for 6 minutes; then
(both nostrils open) 6 seconds in, 6 seconds hold, 12 seconds exhale, 6 seconds hold; repeat for 4 minutes
The first stage is a baseline protocol for me, while the second is a working breath (Cadence 2) that I may have to adapt (e.g. 5 seconds instead of 6) depending on both chronic and acute stress/fatigue states.
Alternatively, I’ve used a “build-a-box” protocol to work up to a full “box breath (Cadence 1c) with several clients. The lengths of the first stage should be easy and sustainable, and you’ll keep the same duration of each leg throughout:
Inhale + Exhale (5-5, or whatever you can sustain for 2 minutes). When that’s easy, proceed to…
Inhale + Hold + Exhale (5-5-5) until that feels easy, then…
Inhale + Hold + Exhale + Hold (5-5-5-5) and continue for the remainder of your timed practice (e.g. 10 minutes total).
Sleep is also often an afterthought as well. I’ve certainly said, “I’ll get all the sleep I need when I’m dead” too many times before. The irony is that if you really want to “hustle and grind” you better make damn sure the hustle is paying off because grinding breaks shit — literally reduces it to dust.
Personally, I’ve found myself frustrated with trying to establish a sleep routine because “I don’t want a list of stuff to do before bed… if I wanted to stay up and do things, I’d do them.”
There is truth and error in that statement. We want to wind down, not give ourselves a list of arbitrary chores (read X pages, stretch for Y minutes, etc.). For me, this has evolved to look like simply putting my phone away (airplane mode and redlight mode) and taking night supplements (if I’m using them) before the things I have to do at the end of the day anyway, like:
Taking a shower,
Brushing my teeth, and
Walking the dog.
Regarding sleep supplements, it’s a dangerous game. Some are effective only in the short term because of quick tolerance adaptations (as is my experience with CBD), and some have dramatic variance in dosage due to poor manufacturing practices (e.g. melatonin).
Writing this, in addition to gathering data on Animal Pak’s PM (sleep aid) supplement has made me question my caffeine consumption yet again. I want to hold myself to the same standards and expectations I outlined above. If I’m haggling over sleep supplements, I better have my other ducks squared away prior — like establishing some kind of “caffeine curfew” and not blasting my eyes with blue light up until the very last second I’m awake.
Stop making excuses. Examine the facts. Examine your reality. Incongruence between the things one “wants to believe” and experiences of the world as it is will ultimately lead to disappointment. Chronically forestalled, this grows to a mismatch between who you are and who you want to be regardless of what you believe about yourself.
This is fertile ground for growing seeds of resentment, anxiety, and hopelessness. These things are intentionally targeted and fertilized by salesman, social / media influencers, “experts” and other “news” personalities, and the government-pharma industry alike.
If you're frustrated by the lack of results from the latest magazine or social media suggested pill, potion, crash diet, trending rep/set schemes, or “functional fitness” toy; good. Pay attention. That’s telling you your foundation is rocky. You’re worried about the curtains matching the bed sheets while you’re living in a cardboard box.
Recovery is the adaptation. Training is destruction. You can’t dig a hole to Hell and not expect to get burned. So, learn to bring, and how to find water.