If you are reading this, you may be an athlete looking for an edge on competition. Or perhaps you just want to minimize your recovery time so you can start feeling and looking better sooner! Whatever your reasoning is, you will not be disappointed! I am writing about this subject of recovery through my own experiences as a means to help like-minded people reach their goals and learn more about living a balanced and healthy life along the way.
For it wasn’t too long ago myself that I was riddled with physiological imbalances..
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Growing up in a fairly active lifestyle there was always some sort of athletics in my life. But it wasn’t until my junior and senior year of high school that I began taking it more seriously. I decided to devote myself strictly to track, making it my full time job.
As I started competing in track more, primarily the 800m and 1500m, I quickly started realizing that if I put in the work, I would get results. I was no genetic freak like some of the guys I competed with, but my WORK ETHIC is what made me be able to keep pace with them.
I got excited with the results I was seeing in my times so I kept training, hour after hour. I would come home some nights and just collapse!
There were nights I stayed so late, my parents began to question where I was. But I was just committed to track...TOO committed.
After a few months of these workouts, the results stopped dead in their tracks, and so did I during a workout one day. As we were doing some speed endurance drills, a sharp stabbing pain hit my ankle, and in less than a second I was down on the ground wondering what happened.
I had partially torn my achilles.
I was devastated.
But in the end, this injury that, at the time, seemed like a curse from the devil himself, ended up being a blessing.
It gave me time to BREATHE.
And so I began to spend my time doing yoga, and stretching...WHATEVER it took to get myself back on my feet running again. I spent more time reading about “remedies for a faster recovery” than anything else.
It was there, that I came to the realization that my accident, was no accident at all. I had been going into overdrive and it was showing up in injuries, and in my personal life. I had lost all sense of balance and harmony in my life.
After weeks of recovery, I began training again. Another meet was just around the corner and I was not looking forward to it.
The day of that meet, I came back expecting the worst race ever. I had taken so much time off, my body HAD to have been in the worst shape of its life.
But when the gun went off, something unexpected happened.
I WON.
Not only that, but I wasn’t gasping for breath at the finish line!
I WAS ECSTATIC. How could this be?!
I started thinking more and more about why I had not only not gotten worse, but BETTER.
It was because I had finally turned on part of the nervous system that I had been neglecting for so long.
It was hard not to blame myself during my several times of injuries, but I realize now I was only training how I had been taught for years by the fitness industry.
What The Fitness Industry Doesn’t Tell You..
The fitness industry is no doubt one of the fastest growing and most influential corporations worldwide. It has, in my belief, done a lot of good. But unfortunately it has done A LOT OF BAD too.
For years we have been wrongfully taught to focus our training only on the external, tangible parts of the body. By doing so we have CONDEMNED our body to a toxic, imbalanced life with not only poorly functioning organs, but weaker muscles as well..
This often shows up through injury (like my torn achilles), plateauing results, poor posture, fatigue, the list goes on…
These can be some of the symptoms of a much more serious imbalance that can lead to all sorts of diseases, and will most certainly stop you from achieving your best results in the gym.
The Yin And Yang Of The Nervous System
The two systems I will be talking about are both a part of the Autonomic Nervous System (branch of the CNS). These systems are the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic nervous systems.System. The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are complementary to each other. When I say this, I mean that they COUNTERBALANCE each other, like yin and yang. If one is weak, the other will be directly affected.
The SNS is catabolic and yang, whilst the PNS is anabolic and yin. In a perfect world, the body would spend most of its time in the PNS, recovering and staying in a state of homeostasis as it is designed to do. Only during life-threatening events would the SNS be stimulated, triggering Yang energies of aggression, fear or stress.
Unfortunately we do not live in a perfect world, and we have created a society that is highly stimulating for the SNS. Because of our busy lives and stressful jobs, it is very easy to become over stimulated through different stresses - both physical and mental - that trigger this fight or flight (or freeze!) response. Even if we are never in real life threatening situations, our body perceives it that way.
From the new hectic schedule your boss handed out, to the coffee cup you're drinking to wake yourself up, they all create a sympathetic response from your nervous system.
In order to continue growing STRONGER and building the physique YOU WANT, it is important to remember all sides of the equation!
Exercising for your health isn’t always about those hard gym sessions with weights, but about the calm collective, yin exercises for the mind. For us dudes, this can be hard for our ego to handle. But it is essential.
Increase Your Anabolic State
Strengthening the PNS will directly strengthen the other systems of the body, including your muscles. The PNS’s main goal is helping to nurture the body back into a recovered state, helping repair, and GROW muscles.
The PNS, as stated before, is ANABOLIC, meaning it hinders catabolism and triggers natural growth hormone responses in the pituitary glands. This is the exact formula needed for your body to get stronger.
This anabolic state can be triggered through many ways. Certain practices I have attained thus far:
Exercises:
Meditation
It’s easy to forget how the simplest things can be the most powerful. Just as I learned during track, taking the time to breathe and calm the body is just as, if not more important than all those brutal sessions in the gym. Although there are many different techniques to meditation, I have found that the simpler it is in action, the greater benefits I see afterwards.
I recommend finding a quiet place, preferably in nature, to sit. Although this sounds like an easy task, for many it may be very difficult at first to keep your thoughts at bay while remaining relaxed. Some tips that have helped me along the way are imagining each vertebrae of the spine getting more relaxed every breathe, starting from the top, and working your way down. Do this for as long as you wish.
Cold Showers
Sadly this one is not as comfortable and calming as meditation, in fact, it's anything but that. However, it is imperative if you wish to be the best you can. Cold showers waken up the body and help activate the adrenal glands which are vital to your overall health. Think of it as weightlifting for the organs and PNS. If they aren’t used consistently, they will weaken and tire. Therefore we must shake (or shiver!) things back into operation. The easiest method is doing it for 3-5 minutes everyday.
Yoga
I like to think of Yoga as a dynamic meditation. It should include several different stretches such as the child's pose, and downward facing dog, practicing to get deep into each stretch every exhale.
A simple way to stay focused on a good, organized plan is by simply going on youtube and finding a video that suits you!
I hope all of this information helps guide you to living and breathing a healthier life!
Much love,
Sam
