At this time of year motivation is high and people crave that healthier lifestyle and often look to step things up with their training and nutrition.
Social diaries are a lot quieter, meaning we have more time to dive into a new health and fitness regime without what we see as “ruining” their progress at the weekend.
We tend to see a spike in peoples overall activity levels, which is amazing! They start to feel better, more energised and well on the way to getting the results they want.
and unfortunately - surprise, surprise - they start picking up niggles, injuries and generally start to feel burnt out. They stop doing all the good things they started, they quickly end up back where they started and motivation is at an all time low!
However, this doesn’t have to happen….. if people started to schedule and prioritise regular recovery methods they would be able to continue with the increased activity which will allow them to smash their goals out the park.
When your body enters a deep sleep, it starts to ramp up the production of the hormones that are responsible for muscle repair. Reducing the duration and/or quality of your sleep will therefore negatively impact your bodies ability to recovery.
It is recommended that we get at least 7 hours of sleep each night, so if you are no where near this just start by going to bed 15 minutes earlier than you usually do. No doom-scrolling on social media, no watching TV to fall asleep, etc, instead set yourself a good bedtime routine to make sure you are not too stimulated before getting into bed.
We all know that we should drink more water!
Not only will this improve your performance and recovery but the benefits to your concentration, digestion and appetite control should make this a high priority!
Protein is the main food source that helps to repair damaged cells and promote muscle growth. You can get really specific with this in terms of how many grams of protein you need depending on how much you weigh, but the easiest way to start off is by making sure each of your meals has a good quality protein source in it.
Sometimes a rest day is more important than that extra gym session. There is no perfect number of how many rest days you should take a week. Listen to your body and find what works for you. Your ‘Rest Day’ doesn’t have to be a day of lazing around, instead try and incorporate some active recovery. Pick a lower intensity activity, for example increasing your steps, low resistance bike, swimming, yoga etc.
A good place to start with this is a short 5 minute mobility routine every day. Pick 3 of your top stretches that you know you need to do. Be consistent with this! Doing this every day is way better than doing an hour on a Monday and then nothing else for the rest of the week.
As always you don’t want to try and implement all of these things at once, pick one area that you think you’re lacking the most and start there. Once you are comfortably implementing the first thing, think about adding another. And finally, ensure you are always reflecting back and checking in within yourself with how you feel.