Recovery
Many of us can see how working out will help improve our health but many people overlook the importance of recovery. Our recovery from our workouts, career stress, or simply just storing information from our day all happens during sleep. To ensure the best recovery, we should actively develop our recovery practice. Being here, you probably realize the importance to taking a holistic approach to health and many things influence our ability to properly recover such as our nutrition, stress management skills, sleep quality, circulation, etc.
In the sections below are some breakdowns of mobility, stretching, foam rolling, etc. Many of us live very busy lifestyles and don’t have time to stop everything and work on movement quality. This is why I incorporate it throughout my day. For those of us who have a hard time incorporating movement quality into our day due to time, it’s often because we work long hours. This is where I integrate movement quality into my day. Instead of sitting on your chair for hours at a time, we can switch into many positions throughout the day and take moments to scan the body for tight areas and address them while working. Here is a slide of pictures on different ways of achieving this.
Mobility / Stretching
Most people sit most of the day and don’t move or stretch. Yet our bodies need to move and stretch in order to be at their best. Nothing crazy like Olympic athletes who will get stretched for an hour a day. But just 5 min can lead to extraordinary benefits.
Stretching leads to greater energy, focus, mental clarity because what’s held in the body is holding the mind back too. It increases blood flow to the muscles which is important because the more blood flow the more oxygen flow, which helps create the foundation for energy at the cellular level. Also, if you notice tightness or soreness in certain parts of your body, (for example, the lower back), it’s often something that can be taken care of through 5 minutes a day of stretching and foam rolling.
Foam rolling is a simple practice that gets you to break up the fascia on the surface of the muscles. It hydrates the connective tissue between your muscles, and bottom line, allows your body to feel more aligned, and helps you recover faster.
Every day, to properly recover from the workouts and lifestyle changes you are creating through being in this program, it’s important for you to stretch or foam roll every day. With the preference being that you complete both for at least 5 minutes. When you do, you’ll notice tightness in your back, hips, and neck lessen. You’ll notice new creativity and focus come to you, in fact, it may even affect your mood because when you’re body is more relaxed, you are free from the agitations of little nagging pain showing up around your body.
Use the cool-down routine in the next tab to end your workouts, and then the additional stretching routine for the morning.
Cooldown Routine
We want to stretch out the muscles that we worked out for your cooldown routines because they have been contracting and tightening throughout the workout. For your cooldowns, you should focus on deep diaphragmatic breathing and static stretches. Take this time to really develop more awareness throughout the body.
Foam Rolling
This week, spend 5 min in the morning either stretching or foam rolling before getting into the flow of your work. You can order a simple foam roller from Amazon at this link
Foam roll slowly, making sure you do not rush it because when you rush it, nothing happens. If it hurts, that means you’ve come across an exceptionally tight area and your body is being refreshed. Foam roll the hamstrings, glutes, calves, IT band, hips, quadriceps, lower back, and upper back.
Make sure to breathe deeply, you may catch yourself holding your breath.
For more on mobility, stretching routines, movement quality, or painful areas- make sure to reach out so I can help you out!
Assignment
Under the conclusion section, in no specific order, along with your conclusion to this weeks teaching, please speak to:
What areas of your body stay tight?
What areas of your body have pain?
How can you use your breath and movement to reduce tightness and pain?
Under the implementation section, in no specific order to what you wish to speak to, please also speak to:
How will you implement mobility, stretching, and movement quality sessions into your day?