Posts Tagged ‘recover’

Do you think you are a machine…? That can carry on forever without any rest or recovery?

Top successful sports men and women follow a system called “periodization”. This means that periods of exercise are alternated with periods of rest or recovery. The longer or more intense the exercise, the better the recovery should be.

These recovery periods allow them to exercise more and harder in a high pressure environment.

“Normal” people like you and me are also under immense pressure to perform well, not necessarily physically like sports men and woman, but definitely mentally and emotionally, both at work and at home. We can all benefit from the system of “periodization”, by making sure that we take time to recover. Here are some tips on how to increase your recovery and thereby increasing your energy:

The most important form of recovery we have is sleep. This is probably the single item that has the biggest impact on our performance by far! If you want to test this theory, just go without sleep (or with only a few hours per night) for the next few nights and see what it does to your performance!

We need our sleep if we want to recover. Although people differ, the average person needs between seven and eight hours of sleep per night to function optimally. If you are not sleeping enough, try to establish the reasons behind this. The easiest way to do this is keep a journal of exactly what you do for 2 hours before you go to bed. And then analyse the patterns of when you had a good night’s rest and when not.

There are many creative solutions once the problem is identified.  Often a simple change in routine may do the trick. For instance, if you read your e-mails late at night or begin in-depth discussions late, you will probably have a hard time switching off and falling asleep. So, move these activities earlier in your evening and end your night with a relaxing bath or something similar. The aim is to have a natural winding down, switching off and relaxing as you approach bed-time.

Short, frequent breaks throughout the day are just as important! As we previously stated: 5 – 10 min breaks every 90 – 120 min will make a massive difference in your energy and state of mind.

Try to work out how you can build in periods of recovery into your routine and ensure you get enough quality sleep. This will certainly multiply your performance!