Lifestyle Factors Which Impact Recovery
with Moritz Neumann
Hey Athlete,
Life comes at us fast, and lifestyle factors have the potential to impact recovery
dramatically.
Leading examples include...
- Having a newborn baby in the house
- Experiencing high levels of stress at work
- Going through a difficult relationship separation
- Intense travel
The list goes on, but you get the picture.
Things which disrupt the landscape of our day to day life, impact sleep quality, stress levels and mental well-being must be considered when looking at your capacity to recover. If you do not consider these things when they are very much a part of day to day life for you, it is highly likely you will struggle with recovery. As such, your ability to improve performance and maintain optimal body composition levels will be hampered very quickly.
So, how do we bolster recovery levels when things in life reduce our capacity?
Firstly, become aware of the variable that has caused that!
For example, if you have a newborn baby in the house, consider sleep is almost
certainly going to suffer, stress levels may go up (as you have less spare time) and your ability to accommodate training, pre-hab work and even food prep is going to reduce.
With that said, step 2 is to consider an appropriate maintenance program. Don't go against the grain and force things, because the chances are you will crash and
probably end up regressing. That is not a mantra we subscribe to, it is far better to
be self-aware, and use intelligent planning to proactively foresee obstacles, create
winning solutions and empower yourself to progress.
Progress is an interesting word here, because sometimes progress means
maintaining for a period of time, so you can push forward to the next phase, when
life gives you the freedom to do so. Key point: There is NOTHING wrong with a
maintenance phase, where it is appropriate.
With that said, if life is giving you a hard time by placing huge demands on you,
return to "basecamp" and maintain. Don't let yourself regress, but don't put pressure on yourself to force things, and ultimately crash.
Remember, if you can't recover, you can't progress.
During times of high stress and limited time, consider ways to make staying on track as convenient as possible.
Team BFA
