Are you needing to scrape yourself off the floor after your workouts? Do you have very little energy to get through the rest of your day because your legs are shaking? Does this make you feel like you punished yourself enough to counter that unhealthy meal from last night or that belly fat you can’t seem to get rid of?
Truth is, by pushing past your physiological max during a workout, you are creating more stress to your system and preventing achievement of your goal of a healthier, stronger body.
Intense exercise puts you in a catabolic (breakdown) state. We tear our muscles, increase cortisol release from the adrenal glands to make up for energy loss, create inflammation and even increase leaky gut. If we do this consistently, we will be in a cycle of breakdown and recovery with a imbalance towards breakdown. The breakdown happens to your muscles, immune system, mood, and brain function. Now, add a stressful day mentally, unhealthy food and poor sleep habits and we have decreased our recovery to basically non-existent. So in your mind it sounds good and mentally FEELS good to go balls to the wall on your workouts 5-7 days a week thanks to endorphins and dopamine BUT you are actual doing more damage than good.
How Hard Should You Workout?
The word "hard" has a different connotation depending on your level of fitness. Generally speaking, you should:
have about two more reps in your tank before failure
have enough energy to function for the rest of the day
not be so sore that you cannot workout the following day
not be repeatedly getting injured
consider other stressors in the day and if you are sick
Going to failure every time or sweating so much that you deplete all of your electrolytes and water is not going to create more weight loss or larger muscle gains.
You may be too sore to train the next day, get injured or after some time, unable to keep up the rigorous schedule, so over time you are actually going to end up training less overall. Consistency, over a long period of time is where you will feel and see the benefits if done consciously and respectively. This is why RECOVERY is just as important as the MOVEMENT.
The Importance of Recovery
Your autonomic nervous system oscillates between a sympathetic and parasympathetic state on a regular basis. This keeps a homeostasis within the body. The sympathetic state allows us to be alert and engaged like during a workout and inflammation occurs, while the parasympathetic state is releasing, calming and restoring aka RECOVERY. When we are sleeping, eating and not working out we have the ability to be in recovery in a parasympathetic nervous system state, where the strength, healing and repair takes place.
If you have very little recovery time in a parasympathetic state, then you don't have a chance to decrease inflammation. Chronic inflammation is the underlying cause to most diseases. IBS is caused by inflammation. When your gut is inflamed, your brain cannot function properly, and the immune and digestive systems become weak. Living in a stressed state requires you to constantly be burning energy. You will end up eating more food than necessary, bogging down your entire system more. It is a depleting cycle, yet can easily be avoided by working out smarter!
Breathe Move Recover Workout
Breathe: Do breathe through your nose as often as possible. This will allow for more optimal oxygen exchange and faster recovery time.
Move: Choose strength training 3-4 days a week that challenges you enough to cause adaptation while leaving you able to move throughout the rest of your day. DO warm up cool down with each workout. Do mobility work on your off days. Here is a great Breathe. Move. Recover. leg workout that will get you activated and ready for the holidays:
Banded Lateral band walks 10/way
Glute bridge squeezing block 15
Single leg touchdowns 5/side
3x
KB Goblet squat 10
KB deadlift 10
Squat jump 10
5x
Banded donkey kick back 20/side
Banded glute bridge 2 sec hold 10
Plank squeezing block 30s
3x
Figure 4 3 deep breaths/side
Recover: Sleep at least 7 hours a night, eat nutrient dense whole foods with complete protein at each meal, spend time with people/ animals you love to boost your oxytocin and parasympathetic response to aid in decreasing inflammation and cortisol.
If this excites you let's train together!
Breathe. Move. Recover. combine, strength training with performance ability so that you can stay functional, fun, and most importantly have a balanced nervous system to truly enjoy life. We will dial in your nutrition, stress management and workouts to fit even the busiest of schedules. Email me at casey@caseymauro.com for a FREE consultation so we can get started on your Breathe. Move. Recover. journey. A'ho.
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