It was just past 8 am on a cold Monday morning and I had just got on to yet another packed bus to take me to work. The sun was just rising and I took my place among the familiar low chatter and rumble of the bus engine.
No seats as usual so I grabbed one of those grey loops to keep me balanced. It was early and yet another late night had taken it’s toll as I could feel the dryness in my eyelids. I didn’t have breakfast either; I traded that time for a few minutes of extra sleep. But I was fine, just another day in the life of full time work.
The Incident
Two stops later I started to feel nauseous out of nowhere. Swaying with the stop and go of the bus I started to lean on that grey loop to keep me up. Then it was black.
I could hear voices but they were far away. In a rush they became louder and closer until I opened my eyes, finding myself on the floor. My mom, who was on her way to work also, was frantically shaking me to wake me up. I had fainted, for the first time in my life. Lack of rest and food finally caught up with me and resulted in catastrophe. I would have to miss a full day of work and miss out on a couple hundred bucks as I went to the hospital and spent the rest of the day asleep. Not productive in my opinion. Wasn’t even embarrassed though, I’d kinda like to see the security tape, probably fainted like a boss.
This is why balance is so important, both in life and in training. I was providing my body with too much stimulus (work and training) and not enough recovery (sleep and eating). That provided me with results for awhile until I was forced to stop and my gains (money) came to a halt. When we train we love to use the stimulus (intense training), even to the point of overdoing it. After all, results happen when we train hard right? Sitting at home won’t get us any results so exercise is the answer. True.However, when training intensely, we often forget recovery is a top priority.
The Key
The reality is that results happen when we recover, not when we’re in the gym. The training is the stimulus; recovery is where the results of that stimulus become realized. We can’t have one without the other and we can’t overdo one in comparison to the other. Proper alternating between stimulus and recovery allows us to realize the gains we’re trying to achieve while allowing us to continue to train hard and consistently. To prevent fainting on the proverbial bus, know that the harder you train the harder you should recover.
That’s right, go off on that foam roller. Make good food choices and treat those meals like training sessions. Bring the pain. Get amped to get to bed on time and get those 8 hours. When people ask you how much you bench respond with “Forget that, how many hours of sleep do you get?” Yeahhh buddy, nobody recovers like you do.
Just like you (should) plan your workouts, plan your recovery strategy. Plan your meals in advance and have them ready to go. Set aside time in your day to run through some quick mobility and stretching to keep you moving well and injury free. Even if it’s only 5 minutes per day, that adds up over the course of a year. Try to get into bed at the same time every day and get some quality sleep as this will reduce your stress and let you take advantage of the hormones that show their faces at night. The ones that make you bigger, stronger, and leaner. If sleep itself could be bottled, I would be a very rich man.
Make recovery a priority and you’ll maximize your results…. or faint on a bus. Your choice.
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