Basic Pursuits

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.

Fact: we all have really bad days.
Fact: we know today's troubles will end and that tomorrow is another day.

Question: why wait til tomorrow? why not just reboot and start today over again.

The blog geeks are sexy make this intriguing proposal. It suggests that after a 15 minute nap, wake up telling yourself that a new day has arrived and you are rested and ready to face its challenges from a fresh perspective.

That's a great idea. For those who can't nap on demand, a good meditation session should reboot you as well.

As an appropriate followup to our exploration of rest yesterday, here is an article from describing the recuperation needs of horses.

"Equine muscle glycogen stores require sufficient time for post-exercise repletion. Repletion cannot be hastened in any way other than rest."

The article is based on work done by veteranarians in Finland.

For people who are lifetime exercisers, their most important characteristic is consistency. They attain consistency because the exercise makes them feel good. Ask a hundred of these folks why they exercise, the first thing you'll hear from most is, "because it makes me feel good."

O sleep, O gentle sleep,
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down
And steep my sense in forgetfulness?
~William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I

About ten years ago I was working on a newsletter project for a medical client and had the opportunity to interview an immunologist in South Florida. He was very learned with many degrees behind his name and a lot of research on his resume. Sadly, I can't remember his name, but I do remember something that he said more than once.

"Rest is your immune system's best friend."

I believed him, both because he came with such powerful bonafides and because my mother said the same thing, in so many words.

I ran across this piece late last week. It reports on a study done in Japan which concludes that exercise burns fat more efficiently when there is a intervening rest period. In this case, 30 mins. of exercise followed by 20 mins. of rest followed by 30 mins. of exercise.

Being a great believer in not pushing too hard, I rejoiced inn the notion that more is accomplished (at least more fat burning) by resting than by just pushing through.