2512: 3 Ways to Reduce Stress and Improve Recovery During Your Next Workout by Harold Gibbons of Mark Fisher Fitness

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Health Daily Episode 2512, three ways to reduce stress and improve recovery

[00:00:06] during your next workout by Harold Gibbons of markfisherfitness.com and I'm Dr. Neal

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[00:00:45] Three ways to reduce stress and improve recovery during your next workout by Harold Gibbons

[00:00:50] of markfisherfitness.com

[00:00:54] The F-Train just got stuck again.

[00:00:57] Traffic on the 405 is at a standstill.

[00:01:00] You have to switch terminals during a layover in Atlanta.

[00:01:03] You just lost 4G, LTE and the video is blurry over 3G.

[00:01:08] You testified in court on Thursday.

[00:01:11] Our first world problems can be really stressful am I right?

[00:01:15] Show of hands.

[00:01:16] Who uses physical activity as a way of relaxing from the stresses of daily life?

[00:01:21] Here's a question for you.

[00:01:23] What happens when those incredible stress relieving workouts become stressful themselves?

[00:01:28] Today, we're going to talk about exercises a form of stress management and we'll focus

[00:01:33] on some action steps to bring some balance to the force and ensure that we're able to

[00:01:38] get through our most stressful times.

[00:01:40] First, we should address the elephant in the room.

[00:01:45] Exercise is inherently stressful.

[00:01:47] When we exercise, we're asking our bodies to work harder than they would otherwise have

[00:01:52] to at rest.

[00:01:54] Most of the time, we don't think of it as stressful.

[00:01:56] It's renewing, it's rewarding and we feel absolutely great when we're done working out.

[00:02:02] Push it a bit harder though and physical activity can really take its toll on your body, as

[00:02:07] evident by the dancers, athletes and weekend warriors among us who are regularly grabbing

[00:02:12] the leave, ice pack or getting weekly massages because everything hurts.

[00:02:17] However, not every workout has to involve running yourself into the ground or lifting so

[00:02:23] much that you're walking funny for a week.

[00:02:26] Those workouts tend to be the ones that leave you feeling physically worse when you're

[00:02:29] done.

[00:02:31] Intensity is a spectrum and there's definitely a time for getting after it as hard as you

[00:02:35] can.

[00:02:36] For now, let's talk about working out in moderation with the intensity that leaves your body feeling

[00:02:41] physically better than when you started.

[00:02:44] Exercise for recovery

[00:02:46] One of our key lessons at Mark Fisher Fitness is to run your own race, which means that

[00:02:52] everyone should train at the intensity that feels most appropriate to them.

[00:02:57] Over the course of multiple workouts, that means that we're often training at differing

[00:03:02] intensities.

[00:03:03] It's easier to treat every workout as a chance to go hard but slowing down is just as important.

[00:03:10] Here are three of my favorite recovery strategies.

[00:03:13] One, do your warm up, then stop.

[00:03:17] Seriously, that's it.

[00:03:19] Practicing a warm up like those we use at the clubhouse or a sequence of yoga moves that

[00:03:24] help your body feel more loose and relaxed.

[00:03:27] It can be five to twenty minutes of gentle movement that's focused on letting your

[00:03:31] body soften rather than harden.

[00:03:34] If you wake up in the morning and you need to pick me up other than coffee or you get

[00:03:38] off a five hour flight and want to move a bit more than that middle seat allowed,

[00:03:43] a yoga movement sequence could be just what you need.

[00:03:46] Two, take it easy, like really easy.

[00:03:51] If you're used to going beast mode every time you break a sweat, you may need to learn

[00:03:55] about workouts that don't even feel like a workout.

[00:03:58] Taking it this easy in a training session or a class might not be what you're interested

[00:04:03] in.

[00:04:04] So my summertime preference for easy exercise is to get outside, explore new places and

[00:04:09] do it with friends.

[00:04:11] This is working at a low to moderate intensity and you should be able to carry on a conversation

[00:04:17] the entire time, although that may prove difficult if you're say swimming.

[00:04:22] Walking, swimming or a calm bike ride around town are all great low impact ways to do aerobic

[00:04:28] exercise that should leave you feeling invigorated at the end of twenty to forty minutes of energizing

[00:04:34] work.

[00:04:36] That's specifically not an hour long spin class, sprint repeats or posting a new personal

[00:04:41] record on your fitness app.

[00:04:44] I've made this mistake before.

[00:04:45] You leave the house with the intention of keeping things nice and slow and five minutes

[00:04:50] in you decide to drop the hammer.

[00:04:54] Don't do it.

[00:04:55] If you're tracking your heart rate, stay at around 60%.

[00:04:59] It is slower and easier than most of us want to move but it will do wonders for making

[00:05:04] your next workout feel a heck of a lot better.

[00:05:07] Three, follow your regularly scheduled workout but at a lower intensity.

[00:05:13] There's a difference between sand bagging a workout and planning to focus on moderation.

[00:05:18] The difference there is intention.

[00:05:20] At Mark Fisher Fitness I frequently see ninjas making these three decisions to train successfully

[00:05:26] while honoring a lower intensity.

[00:05:29] A, choosing slower exercises over faster exercises.

[00:05:34] Deadlifts over swing.

[00:05:36] Baby crawls over bear crawls.

[00:05:38] Reverse burpees over burpees.

[00:05:40] The slower exercises still offer a great workout and one that you'll be more likely to keep

[00:05:45] at a consistently moderate pace.

[00:05:48] B, do less.

[00:05:51] This may mean that in classes you use kettlebells that are a slightly lighter weight than normal.

[00:05:56] It may mean that in a semi-private lesson you use the same weight but you cut back on

[00:06:01] the number of sets or repetitions.

[00:06:04] Cutting down the overall training volume can again make recovery easier.

[00:06:08] One of my favorite strategies is to cut back on the number of sets but to use my normal

[00:06:13] weights for the normal number of reps.

[00:06:16] I'll invest that extra time in more foam rolling or mobility work and always feel better

[00:06:21] at the end.

[00:06:23] And see, track your heart rate.

[00:06:26] Using one of our programs we encourage ninjas to take one regular mark fish or fitness

[00:06:31] class per week while maintaining a heart rate that hovers between 60 and 80%.

[00:06:36] Hovering around 70% is always a challenge at first because most of the time we blow past

[00:06:41] that number really quickly when taking classes.

[00:06:45] Using a heart rate monitor can really hold you accountable to keeping things slow and

[00:06:49] steady, especially if you're like me and tend to get carried away with wanting to do

[00:06:53] as much as possible.

[00:06:55] Using intense training, using a heart rate monitor can be useful for making sure you're

[00:06:59] working as hard as you planned on.

[00:07:02] When you're focused on recovery use that heart rate monitor to stay within the range that's

[00:07:07] appropriate for you.

[00:07:12] You just listen to the post titled Three Ways to Reduce Stress and Improve Recovery

[00:07:17] During Your Next Workout by Harold Gibbons of markfisherfitness.com and I'll be right

[00:07:22] back with my commentary.

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[00:08:36] Dr. Neil here for my commentary.

[00:08:39] I'll admit taking an easy during a workout is not something I find easy to do at all.

[00:08:44] Today's author Harold said, if you're used to going all out every time you break a sweat

[00:08:50] you may not be interested in doing workouts at a lower intensity.

[00:08:54] That's definitely my problem.

[00:08:56] It wasn't always this way though, when I first started getting into exercising more regularly

[00:09:01] I used to dread those super high intensity workouts and definitely forget leg day I would

[00:09:06] skip that all the time.

[00:09:08] I would always feel nauseated about halfway through these workouts.

[00:09:12] There were more times than I would like to admit where I would have to stop myself in

[00:09:16] the middle of let's say a boot camp class to lie down on the ground and put my feet up

[00:09:20] on a bench just to stop myself from passing out or getting sick in front of everybody.

[00:09:26] This was not a feeling I particularly enjoyed so I would avoid these types of workouts but

[00:09:32] I eventually hit a turning point where I could push my body to a high intensity and

[00:09:38] not get that sick feeling.

[00:09:40] I can make it through a class and actually feel really good afterwards and then I started

[00:09:45] to crave this feeling.

[00:09:46] I then only wanted to experience that feeling after a workout so all of my workouts became

[00:09:53] intense like that.

[00:09:54] Well, that just led to overtraining, that point where the stress of exercise becomes too

[00:09:59] much for the body to handle.

[00:10:01] I would become moody, I would lose sleep and eventually my body would just break down

[00:10:05] and I would get a cold or the flu.

[00:10:08] So I've relearned with time to again appreciate the lower intensity days too.

[00:10:14] I have to remember that these lower intensity days are good for my body and mind like I say

[00:10:20] with food, everything in moderation.

[00:10:23] Well that applies to exercise too.

[00:10:25] Alright, that'll do it for another edition of Optimal Health Daily.

[00:10:30] Thank you so much for being here.

[00:10:31] I hope you have a great rest of your day and I'll be back here tomorrow with another post

[00:10:35] and where your Optimal Life awaits.