It's Not about Exercise, It's about Recovery

How many times have you gone to the gym, worked your butt off for 60+ minutes, soaked your t-shirt, gave it your all, and then as soon as you left, it was back to the same old routine: you sit at a desk at work, make poor food choices, have a couple of glasses of wine at night, get 6 hours of sleep if you’re lucky, and then wake up and hit the gym again to make sure you are in top condition. Now, this may not fully describe your situation, but I am guessing that your lifestyle does not line up 100% with your exercise goals. I am not here to say what your goal in exercise is…you may exercise for the sole purpose of eating that bowl of ice cream every night. If so, this article is not for you. If, however, you have larger ambitions for your exercise, it may be time to rethink your strategy.

What is Exercise?

To fully understand what exercise can and cannot do for us, we must first understand what it is: a STRESSOR. Exercise is essentially a controlled physical stressor, one which breaks down muscle tissue, decreases your immune functioning, decreases balance and strength, and increases the risk of injury. We know the immediate result of exercise—it’s called fatigue—and we all know that we are not at our best when we are fatigued. The question is: can you recover from that fatigue and how quickly?

Adaptation = Results

The bottom line is that exercise is just as likely to help you grow strong and fit as it is to make you weak and sick. Stress in any form can be good or bad, it completely depends on your body’s ability to adapt. Given the proper conditions, your body has the remarkable ability to absorb stress and become more capable of handling that stress in the future. Given the wrong conditions, however, your body will be limited in its recovery, and future exposures will only lead to further weakening of the system.

To make the most of our exercise, we must put an emphasis on recovery. I would go as far to say that what you do in the gym should be completely dependent on your expected recovery potential. If you know that you are not going to be able to recover well, go light at the gym and make sure to stay on your feet throughout the day. Activity is always a good thing, but do not think that doing extra hill intervals will help if you are only going to sleep 6 hours that night.

What is Recovery?

If you decide to exercise, and I highly recommend that you do, here are the 3 main factors that you must consider if you are to derive the most possible benefits from your time and efforts.

1. Sleep: The time you spend asleep is one of the most significant periods of recovery. From bone and tissue repair to hormone balancing, sleep is when your body goes into overdrive to help you recover. The reason 8+ hours becomes crucial for optimal results is that your body depends on a variety of hormones to fully adapt to stress, and it is not until you have been through 2-3 sleep cycles that your body turns up the production of these hormones. When you only sleep for 7, 6, or even 5 hours, your body has no chance to repair. There are a number of other negative health consequences of missing your sleep, but this is all we will focus on here.

2. Diet: The food you eat literally becomes who you are. Your body will look and feel exactly like the fuel you give it, so why not fuel it with high octane food products. Quality protein, carb, and fat sources each have an important role in recovery and should be placed at the highest priority. I know that eating well takes time, money, and effort, but I always wonder, what time will you have when your money and effort is tied up in feeling sick and exhausted. Make health your top prority and you will increase your wealth in all of these areas.

3. Movement: Keeping active makes a huge difference in how you recover. Walking, playing a sport, hiking, gardening, cooking, cleaning, building, etc. It all makes a difference. We were not built to sit for hours on end, and having consistent, light activity throughout the day will make for a much greater adaptation to exercise.

These are not the only elements to recovery, but they are the ones that I feel are commonly neglected (I talk more about these topics in my article 165 Hours). If you have a goal and you think exercise is going to help you achieve that goal, then take some time to think about if your recovery is also in line with your goal. If you are just beating yourself up at the gym but do not focus on changes related to health elsewhere in your life, then there will be very few results from your efforts. It can be very frustrating to work so hard and not see results, so start off on the right track and put your recovery first!