“Focus on recovery.”
It’s something I see people say all the time.
But how true is it?
Well, you do need to recover if you want any chance at making progress.
When it comes to training, the entire goal is to create an adaptation. Yet your body only creates that adaptation after you recover from a session – not during the session itself.
In that sense, recovery is clearly important.
So what’s the problem?
Well, for one, you still have to train hard enough to actually warrant recovery.
As Steve Magness says, you still have to “embarrass the body” a bit during a training session in order to create a sufficient stimulus.
Now, does this look different for different people?
Absolutely.
One person’s easy run might be someone else’s VO2 Max pace.
One person’s heavy squat might be someone else’s warm up.
But just because effort and difficulty are relative doesn’t mean they aren’t important.
When we say “focus on recovery,” that assumes you’re giving your body something to recover from.
If you’re not, then we’re probably jumping the gun a little bit.
The first step really needs to be creating a stimulus before we start focusing on all the ways that we can recover from that stimulus.
On the other hand, that stimulus also has to be responsible.
I see so many people with just… zero concept of load management saying they need to focus more on their recovery.
No.
You don’t need to focus more on recovery.
You need to stop doing 3 high-intensity running workouts per week and maxing out your deadlift every time you walk into the gym.
Recovery isn’t the problem.
Your training is just irresponsible.
We need to create a stimulus…
That stimulus still has to be reasonable.
Finally, have you ever noticed that “focus on recovery” is always a lead-in to sell you some sort of product?
A supplement to help with digestion.
A red light.
A new bed.
A cooling system for that new bed.
A supplement to help regulate cortisol.
A set of magic boots.
A massage gun.
A supplement to help you get to sleep in that new bed.
We all realize that humans used to sleep on rocks, right?
Like… we used to fight wild animals and sleep on rocks.
I’m not saying we need to go back to that lifestyle (I like pillows), but I do think it’s worth mentioning when we start listing all the things we “need” in order to recover from a 45-minute training session that we chose to do.
Recovery is important.
If you don’t recover, then you’re not going to create the adaptation you’re trying to create with your training.
I’m just saying in order for recovery to be a concern, you actually have to create a responsible stimulus.
Key word responsible.
You’re also going to get infinitely more recovery from sufficient food and stress management than you ever will from $10k-worth of fancy gadgets and supplements.
Train hard.
Eat food.
Take a nap.
Get faster.
Hope you’re having a good week.