One aspect of training that doesn’t get discussed enough is recovery. Sure, we all know getting 8 hours of sleep is ideal, but most people “function” on anywhere between 4 and 6 hours, with the occasional person getting 7 hours. Can that affect performance? Absolutely, but it can also increase injury risk, slow down fat loss, reduce muscle-building potential, and increase the risk of getting sick and certain diseases. Beyond sleep, there are other forms of recovery other than slow breathing and going to your happy place in the middle of a Zen garden, so today I thought I would share some of the science of recovery and how you can get the most bang for your buck.

Part 1: Sleep

A lot of people have sleep disorders. And when I mean a lot of people I’m pretty much saying that everyone and their dog is messed up. A sleep disorder is anything whereby the person cannot fall asleep within 20 minutes of head on pillow, and can’t stay asleep until they are required to wake up, and feel completely rested, 8 times out of 10. The major categories are dyssomnias (including insomnia, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, and circadian rhythm disorders) and parasomnias (REM disorders, teeth-grinding, and sleep walking/talking). The DSM IV give a great outline on the most common disorders.

There are four stages of sleep, each one progressing into a deeper state and reducing the effect of sensory input on your ability to wake. Stages 1 is light sleeping, sort of like when you doze on the couch afer a long day and have a puppy cuddling on your chest.

The sleep cycle progresses through 4 levels of deepening sleep, eventually winding up at a Rapid Eye Movement level (REM sleep), characterised by complete muscle relaxation, decreased core temperature, and increased brain activity. It’s believed this increased activity may help restore cognitive and chemical balance from the previous day, and is the true restorative stage of sleep.

Most people will cycle between REM sleep and lighter sleeps on progressively longer cycles, the first lasting only about 20 minutes and the longest lasting upwards of 90 minutes as the body becomes increasingly relaxed. The body needs to go through these full sleep cycles to recover not just the physical component but also the mental and emotional component.Without entering into these deep sleeps the body doesn’t get the recovery it needs which leads to lethargy, increased soreness and stiffness following a workout, and increased reliance on energy aids to get through the day.

How to Get A Better Sleep

Here’s a way to tell if you DON’T need to change your sleep routine.

1. Do you bounce out of bed in the morning without the aid of an alarm clock?

2. Can you make it through the day without coffee, energy drinks, or wanting to tear someone’s head off simply for existing?

3. Do you wake up feeling physically better than when you went to bed?

4. Are you mentally sharp first thing in the morning?

5. DId you watch too much Shee-Ra Princess of Power last night and now you feel like you just got snarfed??

If you answered no to any of these, sit back and take a gander.

First, your bedroom should be like the batcave: COMPLETELY dark and void of any noise whatsoever. If you have digital clocks with bright displays, put something over them to block the light. If you have a television in your bedroom, I can think of better ways to entertain yourselves, but the device is always drawing power and producing high frequency sound that can disrupt sleep cycles. Eliminate all noise and distractions possible, and also try to get to bed at a decent hour (9-11pm). If it means you miss Conan, PVR that and make sure you watch it the next morning, especially if you’re having issues with energy.

If you have difficulty getting to sleep, cut out the television and computer for a full hour before bed. Read something instead. The electrical and optical stimulation can impact your brain’s circadian rhythm and delay the release of melatonin, the chemical that signals your brain that it’s time for sleepies. Have a cold shower or bath an hour before bed, eat a small amount of protein 45 minutes before bed, and perform intense physcal activity (heavy weightlifting over 90% 1RM) within 2 hours of bedtime. All of these will increase your bodies willingness to fall asleep when the time comes. Try to skip sugars and alcohol, as they interrupt the sleep cycle and can delay the onset of REM sleep, respectively.

Last, if you really need something extra to fall asleep, there are some prescription medications available, although it’s something that should be a last resort. Melatonin was believed to be useful since it’s one of the hormones responding to the sleep cycle, but there haven’t been any studies to conclusively link melatonin consumption with increased sleep capability. The FDA even classified it as something that was “plausible” in aiding sleep, meaning they couldn’t say whether it was good or bad for it.

In case you were wondering what would happen if you didn’t sleep, the first big one s that growth hormone secretion is stopped, meaning you can’t get your swole on like you want. If you’re looking to lose weight, this means that the metabolically active tissue that’s stoking your furnace isn’t going to be working hard enough, meaning you burn fewer calories and slow your fat loss, even if you’re exercising 3 hours a day. Secondarily, your immune system reduces its’ secretions and antibody production, meaning you’re more prone to colds and flu bugs. This also impacts your training because working out with a head cold gets you no where.

Cortisol levels also increase due to the lack of recovery and increased stress on your system, which plays havoc on your thyroid glands effectiveness and can lead to fat gain, even in a caloric deficit. Prolonged sleep deprivation, like cramming for a final exam by pulling an all-nighter or 6, can lead to hallucinations and other cool things like that. The most-documented account of staying-awakedness was 11 days, held by 17-year-old Randy Gardner. Through the time he had hallucinations that he won the Rose Bowl, tried to tackle a street sign, and was unbeatable at pinball. In other words, he was just like any drunk guy on Whyte Ave on a Saturday night.

The Guinness Book of World Records stopped recording this feat for fear it would get people injured or even kill a few who would try to break it. And jumping the Grand Canyon is a safer record to beat, right???

Part 2: Tissue and Energy System Recovery

A few years ago I was training a new trainer and taking him through some different workouts, and when we got to the neural complex training, I told him he would feel like a bag of ass for about 36 hours afterwards as his central nervous system recovered. True to form, about an hour and a half after the workout he was complaining of feeling like he was coming down with a flu, achy, chills, stuffed up, the works. The next day he felt like crap in the morning, but by the evening he was raring to go. I looked at my watch and said “Yep, that’s about 36 hours.” He was dumbfounded.

Recovery capability is primarily based on the type of tissue being strained (cardiac, musculoskeletal, or neural), with the fastest recovery coming from cardiac (as soon as the heart rate returns to resting, you’re essentially recovered), followed by muscular (had hypertrophy-style workouts can have full recovery to produce forceful contractions within a few hours in highly trained individuals) and a distant third of neural training. Some researchers believe the nerve’s ability to crank out impulse into the muscle is the true limiting factor to performance, seeing as how they can hook a sample of muscle tissue up to a car battery and repeatedly shock it to produce contractions for eternity or until the thing rips in half.

One way to observe neural fatigue is to run up a long flight of stair (or run stadiums) or push a heavy sled or prowler with a run. Once you get to the end, if you can stand, you may not have smooth and coordinated strides as the nerves ability to control muscle function is temporarily impaired. And by “temporarily impaired,” I mean it looks like you just shit your spleen out.

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If you’ve done a workout where you had multiple sets over 95% of your 1RM, you know that your nervous system is pretty well cooked for a few days afterwards, and will need some time to recover, even if you can walk normally afterwards and can even do some lighter weight workouts as accessory stuff. Sprinters tend to only do full speed days once or twice a month for fear of frying their nervous system, and also for fear of injury.

The ability to see progress in any program and towards any goal will depend on adequate recovery of the system being taxed. Runners can run every day at low speed, but only a few times a week at higher speeds, and only once a week or every two weeks at top speeds. Powerlifters and olympic weightlifters will complete most of their training below their max effort, with only occasional bouts going for max. This is one of the biggest issues with pushing every set to failure, the body simply cannot recover between sets adequately, which means the adaptation to the workout is limited, and the results at the end of the day will be limited as well. Sure, failure is necessary on occasion, but not every set and every workout.

Part 3: Active versus Passive Recovery

We’ve touched on sleep (passive recovery), but active recovery can be just as important. What this means is altering the work of the individual to promote tissue regeneration and altered firing patterns of motor units. This is where typical cross training comes in to play, but can also include things like active mobilization, SMR work with foam rollers, and even going for a walk or bike ride if it’s something different from what the person is used to.

Active recovery should only be an option following a competition (race or meet), following a hard training cycle, or in the case of injury prevention when signs of overreaching are present. Most people won’t get here training 3 days a week or less, so for them active recovery is done through their normal training regimen. In other words, if they don’t have enough cowbell, they need more cowbell.

Recovery could be considered optimal if performance is steadily improving. If performance declines, the culprit could be programming plateau or sub-optimal recovery. The easiest thing to do is switch the tissue demand of the workout and decrease the overall level of stress on the individual. If numbers go up on re-testing, you found the answer. The numbers could be any measurable of importance to the clients goal outcome, be it strength, speed, performance on a skill-based task, or even weight loss.

While this post is in no ways completely comprehensive in terms of recovery, it hopefully will serve as a good general outline of the main areas of importance concerning recovery, as well as why they’re useful to improving performance and health.

What about your recovery? What do you do to get better quality sleeps or to recover from hard training cycles? Leave a comment below and share some wisdom!!