Today, we're diving deep into the oh-so-exciting world of rest and recovery—yeah, I know, not exactly a thriller, but trust me, it’s crucial! If you're like most of us, you’ve probably fallen into the classic trap of thinking that more workouts equal more gains. Spoiler alert: it’s not about how much you do; it’s about how well you recover. We’ll chat about why rest isn’t just a lazy day on the couch, but a vital part of your fitness journey. From understanding how quality sleep impacts muscle repair to the ins and outs of active recovery, we’re covering it all. So, grab your favorite post-workout snack, kick back, and let’s unravel the secrets to maximizing your performance without burning out!

Takeaways:

• Rest and recovery are absolutely crucial for your performance, don’t skip them!
• More isn’t always better; focus on quality training over quantity for muscle recovery.
• Proper nutrition, especially carbs and protein, plays a huge role in recovery success.
• Sleep is where the real magic happens—prioritize it and watch your gains soar!
• Active recovery, like light walking or yoga, can boost blood flow without overdoing it.
• Listen to your body; persistent fatigue means it’s time to chill and recover.

Hi, everybody.

Welcome back to the Wicklove strength and Fitness Podcast.

It's me, Lee Mo Toole, and today we're gonna dive into a very boring but crucial aspect of fitness that is often overlooked or over complicated, and that is rest and recovery.

So, you know, we all know that working out is essential for building strength, building our fitness.

But, and you probably do know this, that rest and recovery are just as important for making progress.

However, I doubt there's a single person listening to this who hasn't ever fallen into the trap of doing more is better.

We, as fitness people are constantly in pursuit of doing better.

We want to improve our.

Whether it's strength, whether it's our cardio capacity, our aerobic capacity, whatever it is, right?

We have a goal and we're working towards it.

And we think, no matter what, that the solution is more volume more is better.

But the reality is better is better.

And we need to try and prioritize so that we can maximize our performance.

Because if we don't rest correctly, if we don't recover correctly, it has dramatic impact on our performance, our health in general, and even just our ability to operate during the day.

So it's like, how can we maximize our.

Our time outside of the gym to make sure that when we're in there that we're getting the most from our sessions?

So, you know, before we get into, like, how is best to recover, like, why is it so important?

You know, what does it actually do for our body?

But you've probably heard me say this before on a couple of our nutrition ones.

But, you know, when we work out, we're actually breaking down our muscles.

You know, it's not really about the amount of time you spend lifting weights or running or whatever.

It's about how your muscles rebuild and adapt after that effort.

So, you know, if you have a really good training session with the right stimulus being hit, then afterwards, it doesn't matter if that session was two hours or 45 minutes, if the stimulus was controlled and was the correct response for you.

Now, we need our body to recover.

So think of every workout as a controlled stressor to your body.

Whether it's a run, whether it's, you know, an individualized plan, or whether it's a group class, it doesn't matter.

It's a controlled stressor on your body, and we're looking for certain adaptations to happen.

Your muscles will endure small tears during these exercises, during just lifting in general, during any form of activity, and it's during the recovery that they repair and grow Stronger.

It's not actually in the gym.

It happens outside the gym.

And without proper recovery, this process slows down and your performance will stagnate.

In fact, with muscle not repairing correctly, that's where we can often end up building up lots of knots.

And we'll have to get kind of manual massage to ease those out because they haven't repaired fully.

And recovery, that's the easy one, right?

Because we're talking about muscles and we can kind of see that, right?

But recovery isn't just about muscle gain.

Your nervous system and your energy stores also need time to regenerate.

If you don't give your body adequate rest, you risk over training.

You know, you're risking, you know, fatigue, injury, burnout, illness, you know, so the key here is that rest isn't just about taking a break.

It's actually about allowing your body to recover, rebuild, and maximize what you did in the gym already.

You know, when we say nervous system, I want you to think of like, let's say in a test week, you may have done them before where you do a max back squat or a heavy deadlift.

And the next day, you know, maybe your muscles don't even feel that tired.

But you're really like, you personally, like, you're not sore, but you're just, you feel drained, you feel empty.

That's your nervous system that's recovering because you've put out so much.

It's taken such a hit to lift that really heavy weight that it takes time for that to recover.

So obviously going to the gym that day and trying to do a heavy session is probably not the best unless we are hitting alternate groups, right?

So, like, look, there's different types of recovery and you all probably know the importance of rest.

But I guess the reason for doing this podcast is, you know, there's, there's really so many of you who have so many incredible goals, and we've talked about that a lot in recent episodes, but I suppose we're often hearing in goal reviews about, like, you know, I'm tired.

I, you know, what can I do to recover faster?

I want to add in some running at the weekend.

I want to add in this, I want to add in some accessory work after this class.

It's always about adding in and I suppose just to kind of layer on top.

You know, the recovery part becomes more and more important the more training that you want to get, want to do.

Because, you know, recovery isn't just lying on the couch after a workout.

You know, there's multiple things and several components that go into it.

We have things like active recovery.

So low intensity exercise that would promote blood flow to the muscles without adding any or too much strain.

So, you know, going out for, you know, taking the dog for a long walk for 60 minutes or something, you know, you're getting the body moving, you're getting the blood flowing, but you're not exerting yourself to the same degree as if you went for a 60 minute run or if you went to a 60 minute CrossFit or Hyrox class.

You could go do some yoga.

Yoga, some light movement, some stretching, some challenging holds for sure.

But we're not taxing our body in the same way as any of those aforementioned activities.

Right.

But we are again, promoting blood flow, moving our body through different ranges of motion, which can obviously have such a big impact through, you know, helping to flush out any metabolic waste, reduce some muscle stiffness that maybe we have from a week of training.

It probably promotes circulation.

Like we get the blood pumping through the body and the goal here is to keep moving, you know, at a low intensity so that the body can recover without any overexertion, so that we're ready to go for our next session.

And then there is like, if that's active recovery, there is passive recovery.

So that's complete rest.

Like that's exactly what it sounds like.

And it's, you know, not engaging in any exercise.

And these are the things I think that we've talked about a lot.

You know, you've got your sleep, proper nutrition, actually just relaxing, taking some time, putting your phone down, just being present, taking away distractions and just decompressing.

Mindfulness meditation, if you do those type of things, that actually does help with passive recovery.

And this type of recovery allows your body to rebuild those muscle fibers and restore the energy levels that we've talked about.

You'd be surprised how often sleep comes up, you know, in any nutrition consultation, in any, in any kind of like goal review where, you know, maybe food comes up or like maximizing gym time.

One of the first questions we always ask about is sleep.

And it's a, it's an interesting one because I think people just accept that like, I don't sleep well and it's like, but what else can I do instead?

But like, sleep is really the most important form of our recovery because when you sleep, the body repairs the muscle tissue, it balances the hormone levels, it restores the glycogen stores.

So we really do need to prioritize sleep.

So if you're listening to this and you're thinking, but I'm not a great sleeper.

I have news for you.

That's me too.

You know, I'm terrible at sleeping.

I had really bad insomnia when I was a teenager to the extent that, you know, my teachers were complaining to my parents, thinking that I was, you know, sitting up playing PlayStation all night and that that wasn't the case.

I was literally just lying in bed stir crazy, just, you know, going, going nuts.

I just couldn't sleep.

Right.

So, like, I'm speaking to those people who say it's, it's very hard for them to get good quality sleep.

And I listen, I'm right there with you.

There are certain things you can do.

You know, you can try take melatonin.

You can.

What's been successful for me is listening to audiobooks to try and help me wind down.

Creating a bedtime routine can be like vitally important for that.

And we will probably do a whole episode on like bedtime routines.

The importance of kind of getting into, you know, that relaxed state for going to sleep, because it's an episode in itself.

But I suppose more and more, and I think especially in the last couple of weeks, I've had a lot of conversations about sleep and about the importance of it and how we need to try and prioritize it.

And if it's not good at the moment, the answer isn't going to be found in eating more carbohydrates or eating some mad food or a supplement or anything like that.

Right.

You've probably noticed on days that you don't sleep well is the days that you're kind of craving carbohydrates, right?

So that's really where that comes in.

We're looking for energy from other sources which can obviously then have a negative impact on the amount of food that we're eating.

And look, I suppose, look, we're on food now, so we'll talk about how your body needs the right fuel to recover properly.

I mean, we've done a couple of nutrition focused episodes, but you guys know that after a workout, your muscles are essentially hungry for protein and carbohydrates to start the repair process.

We had a whole episode on protein last week, but we know that that is the building blocks for muscle recovery and also for a heck of a lot more in your body.

But carbohydrates will replenish the glycogen stores in your muscles that we used when you were exercising.

So I think there's a misconception that protein is important with the gym so people assume that we're using protein when we're in the gym.

We're not.

That's afterwards.

What we're using when we're working out is the carbohydrates.

They're giving us the energy to do the exercise.

And if we're not eating enough of them, we can't work as hard.

So we're just coming into the gym.

If we're under fueled, if we haven't recovered properly, if we haven't given our body the correct amount of carbohydrates since our previous session, then we don't have the glycogen in our muscles, so we're not going to be able to push the weights as hard.

And then we're going to be annoyed about why we're not feeling as strong as we should.

And we're like, oh, I'm going backwards.

Why isn't this working?

I'm training harder than I've ever trained before, but why am I not seeing the progress?

And a lot of it can come down to maybe you're not eating enough carbohydrates in between your sessions if you're training so much, if you're not recovering correctly.

So, you know, like with the carbohydrates, you know, they look, they're important for your brain, too.

I mean, you'll suffer brain fog if you don't have them.

But also in the gym, those days where you come in and you can't grip is the one I think people notice, like they can't hang out of the bar very well.

It's like, why isn't this working?

A lot of that is just because you're not fully replenished from the day before.

And for those of you who train, maybe sometimes in the evening, and then you follow that up with a morning session that can be even more prevalent there.

So listen, again, we could talk for a long time about that, and we probably will at some point in the future.

But just an understanding that sleep, good, quality food, these are the things that will set you up for success, right?

And then we have a certain amount of mobility and stretching work that we have to do because we can improve our flexibility and range of motion.

You know, it's crucial that we want to prevent too much tightness and we want to improve blood flow to our muscles.

So incorporating mobility exercises, you know, foam rolling, dynamic stretching, yoga, as we mentioned just a few minutes ago, can help maintain muscle health and prevent injuries.

And it's a great way to just take care of your body and make sure you're moving properly for the long term.

And I'd actually say for those of us who are always pursuing, doing more, adding yoga in and adding in kind of mobility and stretching as like one of your additional sessions is more beneficial than adding in another weight session, adding in another run.

Focusing on this kind of recovery part is, is huge because like there's.

Your body will give you signs of, you know, when you've pushed too hard, you know it's going to tell you that you need more recovery.

You know, if you're constantly feeling tired or low on energy, even after you have slept nine hours, you know, it might be a sign that you've been overdoing it.

You know, consistent fatigue can be a sign that your muscles and energy stores haven't fully recovered.

It's important to listen to the body and take a step back when you need to.

Heck, take a full rest day if you're waking up every morning feeling exhausted.

You know, if you're noticing decreased performance.

This is the one I was talking about a minute ago where you know, you're coming into the gym and you're noticing that you're not doing as well, your strength is, isn't as high, you're not lifting as much weight.

Maybe you're running slower than your previous times.

Maybe you're just feeling weaker in general.

You're coming in, you can't get it moving.

Like, I know I felt this before.

Everybody has, you know, it can mean that your body is just a bit fatigued and needs a bit more recovery.

Maybe we need to just take a day or two because it's not just for our muscles.

It's our nervous system that needs to recover too, and it needs time to reset.

An awkward one to kind of talk about is maybe you've noticed that your increased increasingly irritable, maybe you're stressed.

Okay, over training can actually affect our mood and our mental state as well.

So you can be feeling more stressed, anxious, irritable than usual.

Your body may just not be recovering properly.

You might have high cortisol levels which are associated with stress.

And that can arise from pushing your body too hard without giving it adequate recovery.

You know, you could be feeling, you know, feeling sore after a workout is normal, but if you're experiencing soreness that's lasting for weeks, days, it feels like every day you're just constantly picking up a new niggle.

You know, my shoulder is sore today, my calf is sore today, my hip is sore.

You know, can mean you're probably training with either too much intensity or you're not allowing enough time for recovery.

You'll notice the coaches and classes or you know, they'll often prescribe intensity.

They should feel like this, this barbell, even even though the weight says it's at 40 kilos, that's designed to be a light barbell that we don't drop.

So that's looking for a required stimulus there.

But if just because I'm like, I can do 40, but if 40 is really heavy for me, then I'm not getting the required stimulus, which was designed to be a light barbell because now I'm overexerting myself.

And these are things that can come true.

And then over a long period of time, you may even notice that because you're not recovering well and because you're constantly pushing yourself down, you're depleting your batteries, you may even notice that you start to get colds.

You're getting a little bit more like sickness and stuff, which sounds insane from, you know, a really, really fit person for sure.

But if we're not allowing ourselves to recover, we're just constantly stressing our body without giving us the, the stuff it needs with, through sleep, through light activity, through nutrition, to actually get back to 100%, we're not getting to get back better.

We're not improving because we're constantly just beating ourselves down.

So, you know, how can you incorporate it?

Well, I've already talked about prioritizing sleep.

You know, aim for seven to nine hours of sleep per night, good sleep hygiene, creating that routine, you know, limiting your screen time before bed is, you know, I feel like such a old man shaking my fist at the, at the clouds when I say it.

But you know, screen time and, you know, mobile phones and everything that we have in our modern day world in this constant attention economy where everything is fighting for us to scroll, you know, we need to avoid that before bedtime because that just stimulates our brains too much, you know.

And I suppose in addition to that, you can also do things like making sure your bedroom is cool, it's dark, you know, we're avoiding eating too heavy a meal late at night.

If you do have to eat late, try and have that as a smaller meal and have your bigger meals kind of earn earlier in the day.

So sleep is when your recovery happens.

Just please don't skip it and don't look for ways around it.

You can also look to fuel your body.

Right?

If we're talking about other things to do, we've talked about nutrition, we can talk about that.

We can Go deeper in that.

But you guys know, protein for recovery, carbs for energy.

And then I suppose, just following what your coach is telling you, you know, if we're talking about the importance of doing this workout at 85%, make sure it is 85%.

If we're saying that when we're doing the strength work, you know, to leave two reps in the tank, leave two reps in the tank, because that's all there for a reason.

We're balancing intensity across the week, and that's vitally important to kind of help your recovery, too.

And I suppose before we wrap up, I should kind of touch on, you know, the recovery industry itself, right?

There's a.

There's an entire kind of subsection of the fitness industry that has risen up because of people like you guys, right, who are fitness enthusiasts, who are training super hard.

And then there is, you know, products being created to help with recovery.

Okay.

And it's all.

You'll see lots of, like, you know, if it's instagram ads, you know, ads on YouTube or wherever it is, you'll see lots and lots of different products with the latest and greatest in recovery techniques, Whether it's, you know, home ice baths, massage guns, infrared saunas, compression boots, and things like that.

And, you know, these can be helpful tools in the recovery arsenal.

But it's important to understand that these are not a replacement for the basics.

You know, the basics being rest, sleep, nutrition, Everything we've talked about so far in this episode.

But, you know, these things are the supplements.

It would be like if someone came to me and they said, yeah, my diet is terrible.

I don't eat well at all.

But I'm going to start taking beta alanine for energy, Because I refuse to listen to, you know, eating real food.

It's like someone who says they want to go on herbalife or something like that, right?

It's not a replacement.

It's a supplementation.

So if we look at ice baths, like, they've got a lot of attention in recent years, and, you know, their ability to reduce muscle soreness and inflammation.

They're used by elite athletes all around, you know, and there's, you know, there's evidence that cold exposure can reduce inflammation and alleviate pain, but it's not a magic fix.

Like, if you're feeling tired and sore, Ice baths aren't going to be the only solution after intense training, you know, for reducing acute soreness.

You know, they can be a useful tool, but they shouldn't be relied upon as the primary factor, because, in fact, you just probably need more sleep, you know, and we don't want to use these things too often.

You know, we want to make sure that we're not interfering with our body's natural healing process.

You know, a certain amount of inflammation, a certain amount of inflammatory response plays a role in muscle repair.

So we don't want to stifle it too much.

So we can use ice baths strategically, for sure.

Massage guns are another one.

They're everywhere.

There's a million different brands nowadays to help release tight muscles.

And, you know, they talk about increasing blood flow, speeding up recovery, and, you know, they're great in some ways, but again, they don't replace, you know, recovery methods.

They're, you know, best used in addition to, you know, doing some stretching and doing some foam rolling and having, like, again, proper rest.

There's the compression devices.

These, again, are similar.

You know, they're, you know, they can help reduce swelling.

They're talking about increased blood flow.

But again, they're similar to the massage guns in that they are kind of equivalent to doing some foam rolling.

You know, it's something to help kind of get you prepped.

It's not necessarily the foundations, and then there's all the heat therapies, you know, to help relax, improve blood flow.

You know, there's.

There's loads of great benefits of going to the sauna, but we shouldn't necessarily think of it as just a place to recover.

You know, there's tremendous amounts of, you know, benefits to going and, you know, the relaxation stuff that we get, but it's not something we want to build as the foundation of our recovery process.

So, you know, like, it's easy to get swept up on these recovery trends.

It's easy to see an ad for something and think that's the solution, because that's what the marketer wants you to think.

Social media is flooded with influencers, athletes who get paid to show off this kind of stuff.

But the key here to remember is these are the supplements, right?

They are the tip of the iceberg.

And the foundation of everything is the fundamentals.

Through proper sleep, good nutrition, regular balanced workouts that are balanced in intensity across the week.

This is the foundation.

And just remember, I suppose you guys are amazing.

You're doing tremendous amounts of work, and I know you guys want to get better, but just trust in us as your, you know, coaching team.

If you're in a different gym, talk to your coaches.

They have your best interests at heart.

And when they're telling you to recover, when they're telling you to rest and not add in an extra session.

They're not trying to hold you back.

That's the last thing we want.

We want you to get you to your goals fast as possible.

But in doing so, that might mean.

That might mean that we're telling you to step off the gas a little bit.

And while that seems counterintuitive to your head because you think, I need to do more, I need to do extra muscle obsessions, I need to do extra work on this.

I need to do extra, extra, extra, extra.

The reality is sometimes you just need to chill, you just need to recover.

You need to be fresh, you need to be honest for the sessions that matter, rather than looking for the bells and the whistles and getting attracted to all these shiny objects, you know?

So, listen, thanks for tuning in today.

I hope you took something from it.

I hope maybe you can help.

It can help you prioritize what's important to you.

And I hope that moving forward, if you ever have any questions on this type of stuff, I'd be happy to chat in and.

Yeah, listen, hope you have a wonderful week, guys.

We had a really busy week with the gym.

We had the launch of the open.

We had our BYOB bowling.

We obviously got 25.2 coming up this week.

And we have a little bit of news to kind of bring up soon and announce soon.

So I hope you all have a wonderful week.

I'm sure I'll see you guys in the gym or I'll catch you on the next episode.

Have a great day.