Your Recovery Checklist
Want to know how you can make more gains in 2022? Focus on recovering better!
Foam rollers, theraguns, and cold therapy are all fine if you feel like they help, but they’re not necessary and likely not doing too much if you aren’t focusing on these four basics:
Focus on adequate food intake.
For most people this will look something like about 0.8g/kg protein, about 5-8g/kg carbohydrate, and about 0.5-1.5g/kg fats per day.
Prioritize sleep.
Is sleep the most underrated recovery tool? Yeah, probably!
Getting sufficient sleep allows muscles to regenerate and grow, helps with hormone regulation, improves reflex times and judgement, and promotes proper immune system functioning.
Pay attention to stress and fatigue management.
While exercise can reduce stress hormones, it is still a stressor on your body and brain. Outside life stressors can also impact the quality of your workouts and recovery, and having a solid stress management plan (which might include an extra rest day, therapy, a different chill hobby, etc) can help improve your performance in the gym. You’ll also want to appropriately manage your fatigue in the gym by paying attention to things like volume, exercise selection, and deloads if necessary.
Consider following a consistent exercise program.
If you’re always choosing random IG workouts, not only is your strength and muscle building potential limited, you’re also more likely to be consistently sore, which isn’t great when we want to focus on recovery. A program that incorporates similar movements from week to week will allow you to progress in the gym and limit consistent soreness, thus making your recovery time shorter and more efficient!
As always, thanks so much for reading. I’ll see you next Friday!
-Jory
