Recovery
It is very well established that recovery if absolutely crucial to your fitness goals. there are of course many reasons for this, but one of the main reasons is that without adequate recovery the body will not be able to perform optimally for your next training session.
This lack of recovery has a compounding affect leading to slower gains or losses. so what can you do to improve your recovery? the 3 most valuable things you could focus or are:
- sleep
- protein
- carb timing
Sleep
this is a no brainer, sleep is by far the most important of the 3. and there are things you can do to get a better night sleep. 1. avoid caffein past 2 pm, the reason to avoid it past 2pm is caffein has a 6 hour half life meaning if you have it a 2pm half of the caffein will still be active in your system at 8pm. 2. dull the lights in your house as it gets closer to bed time, this sends a signal to your brain that it is time for rest and sleep. 3. avoid screens in bed, our screens produce blue light that seems to stimulate the brain.
Protein
this one is pretty simple so we won't spend to much time on it. your body is made from protein if you are not consuming it you will not have the base materials to rebuild. it seems that between 1.8-2.2g per kilograms per day should be a good amount the average gym goer.
Carbs
altho people always consume their protein shakes after their training sessions, the newest research shows that protein timing is less important then carb timing when it comes to training. porting consumption should be distributed throughout the day whereas carbs do seem to have immediate benefits post training.