Why Having A Recovery Program Is Critical To Your Success

Every single one of my athletes has a Recovery Plan BUILT INTO their Muscular DeVelopment Program, do you?

Most everyone is down with the fact that you gotta train hard and eat right, but talk to most athletes and ask them what their Recovery Plan looks like, and you'll hear crickets chirping.

A lot of Average Joe's get annoyed or frustrated that Recovery is ESSENTIAL.

You can train your body to do a lot of stuff, but one thing you will not be able to overcome is your humanity.

Hey, don't shoot the messenger.

All's I can do is lay down how things work, and you in your infinite wisdom can choose whether or not to use it.

For this, we gotta do a quick review:

1) You Are A Human, Not A Robot.

2) A human is made of living, breathing cells.

3) One of the reasons why you continue to move the needle of your progress is the fact that your body has systems built into it to facilitate growth.

Building muscle is one example. Most of us know that in order to spawn muscular growth, you have to destroy it when you train. By placing the muscle under extreme conditions for time periods that exceed what it is capable of handling, the muscle fibers are actually destroyed.

Through your body's built in systems of repair and remodeling, the muscle cells rebuild themselves bigger and stronger. BUT, JUST LIKE A CONSTRUCTION SITE, REBUILDING AFTER DEMOLITION TAKES TIME.

The body has to clear out the broken down pieces of the muscle fibers and flood the area with the supplies it needs to rebuild. (Oxygen, amino acids, nutrients and water are among the front-runners of most-needed supplies)

After your body uses these resources, the muscle site then has to clear out the waste products. It's a constant cycle that continues until the work is finished; and it doesn't stop simply because you want to train again.

So what does this have to do with why having a recovery program is critical to your gainz?

A Lot. It comes back to understanding your body's energy demands, how to fuel it to maximize your gainz, and to allow for clearance of your receptors (MOREONRECEPTORSANDWHATTHEYDO__HERE).

One thing to remember is that your body is always using energy. In order to maximize your gainz, you must ensure you are fueling your body with enough energy to meet the demands of keeping you alive and it's basic functions before it will allow your nutrition to be used for muscle remodeling and repair. (MORE ON THAT HERE)

A SOLID RECOVERY PROGRAM BOOKENDS WHAT YOU DO IN THE TRAINING ARENA WITH THE NUTRITIONAL/ENERGY REQUIREMENTS AND STRATEGIES TO ALLOW FOR RECEPTOR CLEARANCE TO MAXIMIZE YOUR GAINZ.

One of the easiest and most effective things you can do to recover your muscles; improve/maintain mobility and flexibility; and promote receptor clearance is stretching and deep breathing.

FYI: Deep breathing actually causes your body to move from "fight or flight" into what we call "feed or breed." With this switch, your blood vessels relax, blood flow is directed to the gut, and digestive processes are heightened. This, when coupled with a solid nutrition program increases nutrient absorption to maximize your gainz.

It's Not Crazy, It's Physiology. xoxo