In the previous blog we spoke about some effective ways of appropriately fueling up for a workout and/or what to eat prior to training. It should seem fairly obvious that it goes without saying how you recover from a training session is also extremely important. Recovery can be a fairly broad topic so for the purpose of this blog we will focus on the following subjects:

• Nutrition
• Stress
• Sleep

There are many ways nutrition comes into the “post workout” period whether it be a balanced meal, protein shake or carbohydrate drink etc. Protein shakes can be used though not always necessary unless you are in a hurry and might not get to eat a proper meal for a few hours and/or your pre workout meal was insufficient or non existent! The type of exercise also matters for example, if you’re training for an endurance event or do high endurance type workouts then a more carbohydrate rich meal or even carbohydrate drink might be better to focus on. If you focus more on strength training then perhaps a more protein rich meal is better with some quality carbohydrates added if you so wish.

Please remember recovery is not just post workout as much as it is how you eat throughout the whole day! Drinking a high quality protein/recovery shake is not so important if you are not eating properly or eating good food consistently the rest of the day so make this your main focus regarding recovery. On a final note do aim to get a good meal in fairly soon (around 1-2 hours max) post training and exercise common sense on the meal size relative to how hard you trained. This is especially important for those looking to drop body fat and improve body composition!

Keeping stress levels to a minimum is another key aspect to proper recovery because training itself is just another stress on your system. Understandably we cannot keep stress out of our lives entirely but can manage stress with good nutrition, good sleep, reducing caffeine and other techniques such as meditation and breathing exercises (which are out of the scope of this blog). Planning your training around stressful days at work is also a good idea so if you know you have a tough day ahead then plan training accordingly. An important note on coffee and caffeine consumption is to try and avoid caffeine immediately post workout and for at least a couple of hours after. Caffeine increases the stress hormone cortisol which is better to keep to a minimum after training and sufficient recovery in general.

We are all aware proper sleep is good for us but it’s always worth another mention just to reinforce it. Getting to bed at a reasonable time at night and striving for those 7-8 hours pays dividends for recovery not just from training but from life in general. Remember train hard but recover harder!

 

When starting a health and fitness program the most important thing is to know what you want to achieve or what your goals are first and foremost.
There are those people who are actually unsure what their goals are and therefore fail to achieve much and become demotivated.

So let it be said that vague goals produce vague results, or to quote legendary baseball star Yogi Berra “if you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up some place else!”. On the flip side there are also many people who perhaps have too many goals and try to achieve too much, ending up spreading themselves too thin and achieving none of them!
So focusing on just one or maybe two goals means more focus and a likelihood to achieve them.
Establishing a goal needn’t be complicated and can be as simple as you like for example, fitting
into a dress you haven’t been able to in a while or simply reducing resting heart rate if better health
is your concern. Having a clear and specific goal is a great motivator which makes achievement of
it more likely.

This is where the SMART goal principles can be of use, SMART being an acronym that means the following:-
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Realistic
T – Time based
To give you examples on this Specific might be either a set body weight you wish to achieve, a dress or jean size, a contest you are training for or even just to train 3 times per week on a consistent basis. It’s important to remember your individual goal is YOUR goal and even if it’s simple being specific can help you achieve it.

Measurable relates to how you measure success for example, if training for a particular body weight then the scales could be your measuring tool. If training to improve overall health then lower blood pressure and resting heart rate readings might be better? Once again no need to complicate things just having something relevant to measure success is beneficial.

Achievable means it should be something that will push you out of your comfort zone a little but not to be unrealistic. This should speak for itself but maybe not a good a idea to have a goal of training 5 days a week having been inactive for the previous 10 years!

Relevant means a goal should be important to YOU! Training for a goal someone has set for you be it a spouse or partner for example can be a recipe for poor motivation. If you have set the goal and it’s relevant to you then the likelihood of you achieving it is greater!

Time based simply means a time frame in which you intend to complete your training goal for example, wanting to fit in to a particular dress for an occasion or event.

Hopefully the above gives you some clarity regarding your fitness goals and don’t feel you must stringently use ALL the SMART principles either. Even if they give you some guidance or feel only some of it is relevant to you then that’s great, just focus on the points that work for you!