Normally when the term “recovery” comes up, you think about sleep, proper nutrition, maybe even some light movement to get the old blood moving. Those are all great and essential but what else can you do to further promote recovery?
There are two ways:
1) Acute recovery – all the great things you do mentioned above. The basics work well, no doubt.
2) Intrinsic recovery/robustness – are you an organism that can handle more stressors? If not or you want to increase this, you’re in luck as this is trainable via physiologic flexibility.
Here is an example that at first blush sounds like a horrible idea – if your goal is powerlifting then do more aerobic (cardio) training. Hold the phone, what is this insane nerd talking about?
We all know that aerobic eel-shaped rakes don’t win powerlifting events.
True bro-sefus, however, that does not mean aerobic training has no place when you are training for your one-rep max.
For powerlifting, you don’t need a massive VO2 max (aerobic capacity), but if your aerobic capacity is dog poo, it will limit how many high-quality sessions you’ll do in a week. Plus, It will limit how much time it takes you to recover during your gym sessions.
Heck, if you do any supportive accessory work and you’re huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf, your aerobic system need work. Because aerobic work plays a supportive role here.
Of course, if you get all crazy and do too much aerobic work, the wrong type, or program it like a num-nut, it will be a negative not a positive.
My point is that acute recovery is great, but don’t forget about training intrinsic recovery mechanisms via the 4 homeostatic regulators to increase your physiologic flexibility.
Training intrinsic recovery makes you more robust and anti-fragile.
For recovery methods #1, the Flex Diet Cert will open again in early January.
For recovery methods #2: the Phys Flex Cert will be open again around March 2021.
Stay tuned for more info on both.
In the meantime, focus on both subsets of recovery for mad gainz.
Dr. Mike
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