As you stand over your loaded barbell and ponder, I have some thoughts for you to consider. When was the last time you took a day off of working out? How have you been sleeping? What has your stress level been like? What has your nutrition intake been lately? Have you been doing mobility and flexibility work?
Most of the time when people start analyzing their strength and conditioning weaknesses, they immediately turn their attention to what they have been doing in the gym. And sometimes what you are doing in the gym, IS the problem, but what people often fail to to realize is that your performance is really an indicator of how you recover.
Every single workout that you do is designed to improve your performance in some way, correct? In order for this to be true, it means that you are trying to physiologically change the tissues inside your body. The only way to do this is to place those tissues under a stress they have not experienced, cause damage, and then allow them to heal, presumably stronger than before and therein increasing performance.
So what happens when you do not allow those tissues to heal before placing them under a similar stress? They continue to break down. And if you don't allow them to heal, well then that's normally when injury occurs. All of your gains in the gym rely entirely on how you are recovering, because if you do not allow your body to recover and heal itself then your gains will become losses.
Believe me, I get it, recovery isn't as sexy and throwing down heavy weights in the gym. Scheduling rest days, making sure you get enough sleep, and watching what you eat are not nearly as fun (and probably don't get as many likes on social media). But it is HERE, in these things, where your hard work in the gym becomes the increased performance that you desire.
If you feel like your body is taking too long to recover between workouts there are a few different things to consider that might be able to help decrease your recovery time.
1.) SLEEP! Especially in our culture where it seems that everyone suffers from FOMO, we are up too early, we are out too late, and we seem dead set on making it through the day by surviving on caffeine. Is it ok to do this occasionally? Of course! Go out and enjoy life but if you find that without that third (or fourth or fifth) cup of coffee that you are a walking zombie, you need to get a good nights sleep. If you have trouble sleeping, I highly recommend looking into adding magnesium or valerian root to take with your dinner. These are both completely natural components which have been proven to help people with sleeping disorders. Start with small dosages and see how you feel. I also recommend educating yourself on why sleep is so important. Sleep Smarter, by Shawn Stevenson is an excellent resource and is packed with plenty of other ideas on how to maximize your sleep.
2.) Protein intake. A good rule of thumb for protein intake is 1 gram for every pound of lean body mass. In theory, this is enough to fuel your body and also help it to heal. When you take your protein also affects your recovery. Ideally, you should take in anywhere between 15 and 35 grams of protein after a tough workout. To maximize the protein uptake, take whey protein isolate which is quickly absorbed and broken down. At nighttime, the use of casein is more useful as the absorption process is much slower.
3.) Diet. Stick to whole real foods and stay away from processed junk. Processed foods contain many additives, many of which we still do not fully understand the repercussions they have on our body. Whole real foods by and large are also packed with the micronutrients that our bodies require to function optimally, and are more easily processed by our system. There are exceptions to this rule as individuals have different sensitivities, but for the most part, sticking to a whole, real food diet will give you adequate nutrition to recover and fuel your body properly.
4.) Active recovery. The amount of active recovery tools are somewhat limitless these days. Whether you are doing flexibility work, mobility, stretching, ice baths, e-stim, or one of the many other methods that people use to aid in recovery, I recommend that you find what works for you and to continue to do it. For me, I like to do a combination of mobility and flexibility work, and occasionally adding in some deep tissue massage or ice depending on how my body is feeling. Also, being just slightly active on a rest day can be very helpful for your body's recovery. Whether it is going for a short hike or walk, or doing something fun like miniature golf with your friends and family, it has been shown that moderate circulation aids more in recovery than being sloth-like all day.
The most important thing I can remind you to do is to listen to your body. We have all been there... on those days where we know we shouldn't be at the gym but we find ourselves there anyway. When your body is telling you, "Hey, this doesn't feel good today," it's ok to listen to it. The hard part is determining whether it is your body or your mind... your mind will tell you the same thing but for different reasons (ie. This feels hard so I don't want to do this hahaha...most of the time we need to ignore our mind in these scenarios).
Really this entire post is just a reminder that amidst your hard work, you need to honor your body that does the work. So yes, DO the work and be PROUD of the work that you do. But then, fuel your body properly, give it the rest it needs, and then get back in the gym ready to kick ass. Because I promise you, if you learn how to recover well, then your goals and expectations are going to be unsurpassed.