Basic Pursuits

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Last week I realized that I needed to spend more time on my recovery. Just because I wasn’t waking up sore each morning didn’t mean that I was recovering properly. With the combination of a fat loss diet and increasingly intense workouts, my body was taking hits from all angles without proper recuperation.

Sleep - Sleep is by far the most important aspect of recovery. My basic sleep pattern has been to sleep at around 11 pm, and wake up at 7 am. That’s plenty of sleep,right? 8 hours. Well, during midterm and 51-page papers week, I was up till 1am and work up at around 6:30. My sleep dropped down 2 and half hours per night. After about 10 days of that, your body catches up to you and you end up passing out in the middle of your living room.

Strategy: Sleep early, and wake up naturally.

Workout Time - It would seem strange that workout time would make such a big difference in your recovery ability. However, at least for me, I feel very fresh and alert after a good workout. Hence, it makes sense to try and get in your workout as early as possible. When I had all those papers due and exams to study for, I would often finish all my work, and then workout. This often meant training at 5:30 pm or later. When it came time to sleep, even though I may crawl into bed at 12 am, I wouldn’t be able to get to bed until 1:30 am or later. Training early in the morning makes a huge difference (other than the fact that you’ve gotten it out of the way), by energizing your body and mind.

Strategy: Workout as early as possible.

Meditation - When you have a lot on your mind, you need to find that center of peace within you to keep on going. I don’t meditate that often, although I should. However I used to meditate almost on a daily basis, which has given me a higher sense ofwho I am and how the world works around me. Now I often meditate when I am extremely stressed out. Note that I’m a very calm person, especially under pressure, and it takes very rare instances for me to act out emotionally or feel stressed out. During that entire week of finals and papers, I was most likely a little bit on edge. Sorry to all those I’ve wronged.

Strategy: Meditateat a higher frequency.

With these three techniques, I hope to calm my mind, body,and spirit for better workouts and further fat loss.

About the Author

Parth Shah is a Strength Consultant based in New Hyde Park,New York and is currently going through his own personal physiquetransformation. Check out his website: http://shahtraining.com/

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