Recovery for me fluctuates honestly. I have children, 2 Jobs , family drama, ex wife drama etcseems like when one is normal another issue is flared up. As long as whatever is going on doesn’t effect sleep I typically recover well and feel well. My diet is consistent and controlled so usually it’s a non factor unless something crazy pops up.
Techniques I use that seem to work are foam rolling lots of stretching and relaxing baths here and there. I started eating carbs before bed and taking them out at another meal as well and helps with sleep. Something that helped also was learning about MRV. And also I purchased a ssb a few months ago and it has saved my shoulders.
Fish oil 2x daily, ZMA, vitamin C, vitamin d3 and 3 mg melatonin an hour before bed helps with everything. I also stop with phone activity at least 30 minutes before I’m ready to sleep.
550 DL, 460 back squat (ass to grass not parallel), 355 front squat, and a crappy 290 bench. I do OHP as assistance, I generally do 3x10 last week I did 170. I weigh 188 for reference.
Solid numbers. I know people who like to spend more time recovering than they do working out and have failed to make any progress on their lifts over the years. I was hoping that you weren’t one of these people.
Out of your recovery methods, if you had to provide a top 3, which would they be?
I don’t think I’ve posted about my recovery yet in this thread, so here it goes:
Sleep - Obvious, but if I’m having a bad week of sleep, I’m likely also recovering poorly.
Use bands to push blood into anywhere that is causing me pain - Hips hurt? Abductions, adductions, hamstrings, glutes. Lower back pain? Banded hypers or goodmornings. Shoulders? Pullaparts, dislocates. Etc…
I have not had great luck with stretching, at least for the injuries that I have battled.
I also go get a deep tissue massage about once every 6 weeks.
Me too man. I can’t drink beer like I use to. After 2 mugs I’m tapped out. Stomach gets too bloated. But I do like whiskey on the rocks. Seems to be the perfect way to auto-regulate myself lol. And honestly doesn’t affect my recovery at all.
Now I know how those Russians get so strong still haha.
I agree with sleep as #1, if I sleep like crap I just have a hard time feeling energized for my next session. Next I’d say deep tissue massage. I have an excellent masseuse who knows exactly how to work out knots and do sports stretches to get my IT bands/glutes more relaxed. Not to mention every evening after my massage I sleep like a rock so it plays into #1. Third I would say chiropractor. I work long hours at a desk, and ever since I started to get regular adjustments I never get a stiff back sitting down all day. My lower back never feels tight/awkward lifting anymore. I just generally feel much better. I know that people may not consider a chiropractor as recovery, given it’s more spinal alignment, but your spine inevitably gets a bit out of place doing heavy lifting so I count it.