How to Practice Recovery

Andy: [00:00:00] All right, all right, all right! Welcome to the Gratuitous Marmot Booty Podcast. Yeah. So last night for no reason at all, I decided to watch The Big Lebowski again. And I just got to say nice marmot.

Ryan: [00:00:14] Nice marmot, man. Yeah.

Recovery is Part of Training

Andy: [00:00:16] Alright. So today this is Andy. Ryan is here and we are going to be discussing Recovery. And since this is GMB-flavored recovery, we're going to be talking a lot about autoregulation.

We're going to be talking a lot about active recovery methods that we use and also some passive recovery methods. But first I think we should just talk about what the hell recovery even is and why it's important, because I think when we are in a fitness context and we talk about recovery, there's so many ideas and thoughts and things, and people selling stuff too, that it gets really confusing really quickly.

Ryan: [00:00:59] Yeah, man, definitely. And let's first off just kind of say that we think that, if you look at training and you look at recovery, it may not be the best way to look at it because I consider them really, everything part of a training. So basically there is not just only the recovery and only training.

It's all mixed in together and we'll come into the autoregulation portion of that later. And that's why it's really important for us in GMB, basically, in order for you to continue training and to keep at your best and do what you want to do, well, you've also got to think about recovery.

And so that's why we're going to be talking about that today. Balance is something a lot of people talk about.  We're never really in balance, to be honest, it's a matter of like counter-balancing and figuring out what we need at that particular time. Because it's always going to be different, throughout the year, the years, even the month, the week, the day.

And so by really breaking things down and looking at it that way and saying, well, "What do I need right now in order for me to continue to move forward?" I think, it can actually make it a little bit easier on yourself instead of thinking that you have to do something a certain way in terms of a recovery protocol.

You can reframe the way you look at it and say, all right, "What is best for me right now?" And, that is a big thing with me, especially as I get older, it's really making sure that I'm paying attention to right now. What is good for me? And by focusing on that, what is in front of me that just actually allows me to continue to move forward.

It's also not just dependent upon your workout. That's also something that's really important. There's a lot of factors in there and we're looking at the physical side of it. We're looking at the mental side of it and especially everything else that's going on in your life. So if you base your recovery, simply on what you did in your, air-quote, "workout," well then you're not really looking at, in terms of how it could be more beneficial to you in the long run, because it's not just about the workout, it's about everything else that's going on in your life and making sure that you're taking that into consideration so that you can continue to move forward.

And, not just get better, but really, really enjoy the process of wherever you're at, at that point in your life.

Andy: [00:03:20] Yeah. And I think that's really key to understand is that, when we talk about recovery in this context, we are doing this in a really two-dimensional way. And we do this knowingly, we understand that this is reductive, but we use this as a framework. I'm going to set this up in a way that it sounds ridiculous, but it also useful, I hope. The way that we usually talk about recovery is that it's the opposite of working out. Right? You have this two dimensional, like a line chart, right? Your, your Y-axis would be like intensity. And your x-axis would be like days, right? And after your workouts make the intensity go positive, recovery is negative intensity.

And over the certain number of days, you want to have the average balance of these things equalling out at zero, right? You do workouts and then you've got to get, you do three units of workout, and then you have to have three units of recovery. And that is, it is useful as a framework, if you have never really considered this.

And if you're trying to figure out why you are not making progress, why you're tired all the time, and we'll get into a little bit of what happens if you don't mind your recovery later on, too, but it's also, I explicitly set this up to be extremely reductive, it's clearly this is not the way it really works.

There's more things involved. It's not a two-dimensional thing. Recovery is not like a set of practices that zeroes out your workout and you don't want to zero it out anyway. Because the way that you get stronger is actually, there's a fancy word for it: "supercompensation", where you add stress, you add stimulus and then you recover and you go back down to zero, but then you recover a little bit above that.

And then you want to take this next, just a little above zero point and then go a little bit higher next time, a little bit higher. But even throwing all of that out the window, recovery is not anti-workout. It's not the opposite of working out. I don't know what that would look like because like Ryan said, what is your training?

Your training is really all of these kinds of things you do, we've said this before, too. You're always training. Right now, Ryan and us are training ourselves to get really good at sitting in chairs. Like we are, we're damn pros at this by now. But this is training too, and it impacts our workouts.

It impacts the way we move, the way we feel, the way we do our martial arts and stuff like that. But there's other stuff too. 2020 has been a hell of a year, man. I don't know any year where literally every single person I know has been as simultaneously stressed as we have been at two or three specific points during this year.

And that's very interesting because your workouts, your physical training, these are a type of stressor. And we're used to thinking of those as distinct from other things, because a lot of our stress cycles go in different ways, depending on work, family life and stuff like that.

But when you have a lot of non-physical stress happening, it does impact your body's ability to recover from physical stress as well. And the other way around. If you have a lot of physical stress, it impacts your body's ability to recover from other non-physical fatigue type stresses. So we're going to address some of these things later on, but the point I'm trying to make is that we talk about these as you know, workout versus recovery, but understand that we're doing this as a very convenient sort of division.

We understand that these boxes aren't real, but we will talk as if they are at certain points and then at other points talk as if they're completely bullshit. So don't get confused. Recovery is huge because training is also huge. Training is not just one dimensional either. But we do need to have some sort of agreed upon understanding of what we're trying to do, as we are ultimately making a balance, but that balance is  not perfect balance at all times, like Ryan said. And it's also not flat. It's a moving balance that changes over time.

Autoregulation and Awareness

Ryan: [00:07:35] Yeah, thanks for prefacing that. With that being said, it kind of makes it easier to look at what recovery maybe... I don't want to use the word should, but could be for you. And that is bringing you back to a state of where you feel good, or where you want to feel. Maybe that's a better way, not just good, but how you want to feel.

And so by bringing that awareness back into your body and saying " Right now, this is what I feel. Where do I want to be?" Okay. Then saying, "All right, this is what I need to do in order to help me to get back to that state so that I can do X", whether that be your workout, or whether that be something else in your life like Andy, you just said with stress. With a lot of us, it's maybe you're not even thinking about your workouts right now because you have so much other stress.

Okay, great. Well, what do you need to do in order to help you to recover, then get back to the point where you feel a certain way so that you don't maybe feel that stress or something. We are going to be really basing this around our sessions, our training. So in that light then we'll just go on to say recovery for us then is going to be, how can you get back to that state of being prepared for your next session?

And so that is an easier maybe way of looking at that. Now, obviously it's going to be different for each person because we all have different goals of where we're going. And of course, depending on, the previous day's session or that day's session, your recovery needs to be adjusted accordingly. And yeah, the key thing though, really is to look at what do you need right now?

That's really what it comes down to. And this is why autoregulation for us is so important. And so I'm gonna jump in to autoregulation.

Andy: [00:09:23] Let's talk about autoregulation.

Ryan: [00:09:25] Let's talk about autoregulation. And so, let's say that you've got a program that someone has created for you. Your coach has laid it out for you. And it says that today is your high intensity day.

You're well aware that today it's going to be really high intensity because it's written on this piece of paper. You wake up, you're not feeling it, something's going on. You're sick. Does that mean you should do and continue to work on performing that particular session? Well, if you're a professional and you're getting paid to do this sort of thing, then I'm going to be honest, suck it up buttercup. You got to do it. Okay. That's your job. But the majority of you listening, including Andy and I, we are not professional athletes. We have the opportunity to say, you know what. Today is not a good day for me to do this session. Doesn't mean that you'll necessarily just skip that session, but you have the ability and the option to adjust that particular session accordingly.

So that means that you're going to auto-regulate by making those adjustments. You start off, maybe with your prep work, you start moving your body a little bit. And, there's a couple options you say, I feel really good, great! Hit that high intensity, smash it, crush it, whatever you want to do. Okay, whatever word you want to use for it.

But you do that prep work and you're like, man, this is really not working out for me today. Okay. Cool. Stop your session. Say you did the prep work. You listened to your body by using autoregulation. Congratulations. You're looking at what you need that day. And, that is actually there for part of your recovery, which started just then, because that way you understand that the fact that you didn't continue with the session and you were smart about it, is allowing your body to recover so that the next time that you come to your session, you can again use autoregulation and see where you're at.

And if you continue to do it in this manner, then you can continue to not just improve, but get to that state that I was talking about before, where you feel a particular way that you want to feel for your sessions and for your life. So the autoregulation is truly just looking, and being aware of what's going on in your body that day, and being true to yourself. It can be super simple.

The only problem is that it can also be very difficult because sometimes our ego gets in the way of wanting to do something. But when we can move beyond that and simply say, this is what I truly need today. Whether that be, as I mentioned before that high intensity day, it could just be lowering the level of the intensity of that session, or it could be completely not doing that session. Then congratulations, that's great. And then on the other hand, for example, we can get into, talking here a little bit about some actual protocols that you can incorporate, into that, based on recovery, that's going to help you. But the autoregulation portion of it is really where everything starts and it never ends.

It's always a continuous process of being aware of what's going on in your body, both mentally and physically in order to make sure that you are in that state where you want to be and continuing to move towards a better state.

Andy: [00:12:51] And autoregulation, if you have listened to this show more than 10 times, you have heard us mention it. It is absolutely one of the key components of what we try to do in GMB. And I think that it's really important to bring up here, because auto in Latin means self and regulate well, okay.

Autoregulation what are we regulating here? And I think that the key here is just what Ryan said is how you feel, how you want to feel. And, we don't mean this in a kind of wishy-washy way. We mean, how do you want to be able to feel when you are doing things? How do you want to feel when you are performing?

How do you want to feel when you are walking around? How do you want to feel when you are lounging at Mr. Donuts with your feet up? Even though it's completely rude here to put your feet on chairs in Japan, but you know, you do that shit anyway because you're lounging at Mr. Donuts, and you're having free refills of café au lait, you're having some cinnamon old fashions. And how do you want to feel when you're doing that? I'll tell you how I want to feel. I want to feel really damn good. 

And that's how I think most of us want to feel most of the time. But autoregulation is about being able to regulate our body and mind's ability to feel the way we want to feel in the activities we do.

And that is not just a feeling subjective thing, feeling the way we want to feel when we're using our bodies. And whether that be lounging or performing in a sport or something, is subject to our actual ability. If I am tight and tired, I am not going to feel good lounging. If I am tight and tired, I am not going to feel good practicing my martial art, I'm not going to feel good performing. And that is the thing we're regulating. It's very hard to define because so much of it is a subjective experience, but we are regulating the way we feel and the way we move, the way we perform, the way that we are in these activities that we do. It can be,  you can call it your energy, you can call it your feelings, you could call it whatever, but that's the thing that we are regulating.

Common Recovery Methods & Tools

Andy: [00:15:04] And that is the thing that you are attempting to bolster with most recovery methods, most things billed as recovery methods. And so examples of those, that most people are aware of and we've written out a list of things so we don't forget to mention them because people will say, you didn't mention this.

So we're going to mention some of them. Stretching can be a recovery method, and there's people that say stretching doesn't work, and it doesn't work for some things, it does work for other things, but it can work for helping you recover, mostly because it can help you feel nice. It helps feel nice and relieve tension in your muscles, right?

Just moving around a little bit, some light, low intensity movement, can help do the same thing. It stimulates the nervous system. It releases some tension, and it helps you feel like you are able to be connected to your body in a way that is pleasurable. And, your body is then more responsive, right? What are some other ones?

Ryan: [00:16:02] Self massage.

Andy: [00:16:03] I'm a big fan of self massage.

Ryan: [00:16:05] With a foam roller. Yeah. That's for a different podcast though. Yeah. Foam roller. I actually love using a lacrosse ball. Well, even though right now, don't travel, at all, but typically when Andy and I are traveling, he knows I'll always have a lacrosse ball with me that I'll use for some self massage. 

Also a massage gun. This is something that I purchased. Goodness, how long, I guess it's been over six months now. Oh, it's phenomenal. The entire family uses it as well. Do it, before bed, to be honest, is when I do it. But yeah, different ways to do that. There's many different gadgets out there for self massage that you can use, as well as some other things could be actually getting massage from a professional, or a family member. 

Little kids with their bony elbows work very well. But, these are just a few things that we have. There can also be things sauna, let's see, what am I thinking? The sauna, whirlpool, all different kinds of different stuff that you can use for recovery. Not to mention probably the two most important things, sleep and nutrition. And I'm going to throw one other in there is breathing, making sure that your breathing patterns are breathing patterns that are going to help you rather than hinder you.

Yeah. So there's just some examples of a few things that we can do. Other things I want to throw out there as well as is actually programming in days off, as recovery. Properly scheduling these recovery days. Whether that be complete days off of doing nothing, maybe just going for a walk, going to get a massage, things like that.

I like to look at these going from macro to micro, example would be. Taking a de-load week off. So a complete week off after completing say like a three month program. So giving yourself the opportunity to step away, and do a little bit of something else, some light work, again, stretching, whatever it is that week.

And then, moving down, X number of days per month, making sure that you have those off days and then looking weekly, having a day off and then each day maybe doing something that's going to help aid in your recovery. And again, it doesn't mean that, you do a "30 minute Recovery Session." Okay, again, it could just be simply focusing on your breathing patterns.

It could be maybe grabbing a lacrosse ball because you feel the arches of your feet tightening up from whatever. And just working on spending two minutes, no more than two minutes, working on that particular point in your foot. You're done. So again, coming down to the fact that it's all about awareness.

It's all about autoregulation and there are different protocols that you can use, but really, without having that awareness, it's going to be difficult to understand which of these particular things are going to be good for you. So this is where, yeah. And so again, this is where it really is about you having a better understanding of your body.

And that comes down to the awareness and assessing where you are with your body. So important. 

Andy: [00:19:26] And so we get a lot of people that ask us things. "Oh, I heard cold showers are good for recovery." Really?

Ryan: [00:19:32] Yeah.

Andy: [00:19:33] From whom did you hear this? What does that mean? Is this person actually an expert in his thing? Because I don't know, man, I'm pretty sure most of the time, this is somebody confusing cold showers with actual cold immersion therapy, which is completely freaking different.

All right. And the thing is, okay, cold showers, or let's just say cold immersion therapy might be good for recovery, but what kind of recovery? Is it the right recovery for you? Is that the thing that is going to be best for you? And this is what we're going to get into a little bit, is that so much of this is, yes, subjective, and instead of recommending a lot of different "you should try this, you should try this, here's 98 hacks from top performers' favorite recovery protocols" that won't do jack shit for you because they won't. We're going to try to help you figure out what you need to do to be able to understand your own subjective needs of recovery.

Answers to Questions about Recovery

Andy: [00:20:36 ] All right. And so we asked these, before most of these episodes, we ask our community, we have a Facebook group for the podcast, and we ask people, what are their questions about things. And so there's definitely some good questions that come up. One thing is, what about tendons and joints?

Because most of the time when you talk about recovery, people think that it's just a muscle thing. It's delayed onset muscle soreness, sore muscles. We did a whole episode on muscle soreness before. So if we want to hear about muscle soreness, this is not the time , go to that other episode. We talked about it a lot. We're not going to talk about it now. 

But people think that, recovery means, oh, it's about sore muscles, which is completely wrong. But anyway, what about tendons and joints? Do they need recovery too? Yes. Everything needs recovery. When you lie down on your Tempur-Pedic mattress and then stand up, it is recovering when it returns to its normal state. Your joints need recovery.

They do recover. Now, joint recovery is weird to get into because of what joints are. But let's just skip over that for right now, tendons. Yes. They need time away from tension. You put too much tension on your connective tissue for too long, or too often, without letting it heal, then yes, you do need to let that recover.

And yes, these things do need more time than your actual muscles to repair. That's an important thing to do, but at the end of the day, there is no recovery practice that you can do for your tendons. There's not a tendon recovery practice that will speed that up. Tendons need rest. 

Ryan: [00:22:10] Yeah, yeah. Just to jump in here real quick. So one other thing to take into consideration is the particular exercise protocol that you've been using. For example, let's say that you're doing rings. Okay. If you're doing a lot of ring work, then it's not just the tendons and the muscles that's happening there.

 You've got to take into consideration the central nervous system and how that's being reacted upon when performing certain movements within that. And so it's not just the tendons, it's really looking at the body overall. And so that's why we can't say, okay, just do this for this.

And it's also per person. And so how long have you been doing this? Okay. And what level are you doing it? Were you doing something stupid that you shouldn't have been doing? Okay. There's so many things that are involved with this question. So really the answer to this is: yes, figure out what you need.

Sorry. I mean, that's, not the answer you maybe want, but that is the answer to everything. Regarding age, age is the same. So does it take you longer to recover when you get older? Well, yeah, maybe!

Andy: [00:23:11] Let's be honest. Yes. It's just, yes. There's nobody, I mean, unless you are out of shape or you got more serious or got better at recovering, if you get better at recovering into your forties, then yes, you can recover faster. In your fifties, even being better at recovering probably will not let you recover faster anymore.

I mean, so yes, recovery will take more time, but that doesn't mean you need special recovery protocols. It doesn't mean you need to do anything different. It's still very subjective and it's still up to you to learn what things you need, what kinds and how much recovery from. So yes, age, you need more, but again, we're not looking at just a two-dimensional, recovery is the opposite of workouts here.

It's more subtle than that. And if age is your concern, then what we're going to get into in just a minute is going to be the answer to that.

Ryan: [00:24:04] Absolutely. Yeah. And what I was getting at is that, every single person is different, so that's why I cannot give you an exact thing. 

Andy: [00:24:11] Well, also just before that, I do want to say there are like, there's recovery gadgets. Some of them are good. Some are bullshit. There's like vibrating heat-up massagers, which I think were ported over from a whole different market. There's, other supplements that you can take and, just like we've talked about with supplements before, unless 99% of everything is dialed in, no, they're really not going to make a big difference, unless your diet is crap. There are many things. So like I use a couple of recovery gadgets.  Like you have your foam roller. I have a, I do a lot of typing. So I have a thing called an arm aid, which is, it's a self massage for your forearm and I'm in love with it.

It's great. But I would not recommend that for most people, unless you spend, like, literally all day and you have wrist problems. But you know, a lot of these things, they're very subjective, and you might find that a thing is very helpful for you. If you have a specific recovery issue that you have been struggling with and you find a gadget that will directly help you with that.

And, if you will actually use it consistently, and that's where a lot of it falls down, then by all means buy that thing. But otherwise, no, these things will probably not help you. All right. 

Active Recovery

Andy: [00:25:25] So let's get into the real things. And Ryan, you mentioned this before, obviously your nutrition, your sleep. These are very important parts of recovery. Even if we're being extremely reductionist with how we define that, these are very important. And we're not going to really talk about these, mostly because we're not your mom, we don't cook your meals, we don't tell you when to go to bed. We do have, material that we've talked about on getting restful sleep, and a lot of things we've talked about on food.

So listen to those episodes, read the website, but ultimately I think we've done all we can to try to convince people to sleep better and eat better. So that's not what we're going to talk about right now, but there's also, like I mentioned a little bit before, it's not just physical stuff.

There's stress. There's emotional situations.  If your head is full of anxiety , and this could be positive anxiety or negative anxiety, like maybe you have mental anxiety over a thing you're really excited about that you think is great. And just can't turn your brain off because you read this amazing book and it just blew your head open and you can't stop thinking about it. You're not going to have your best session that day.

That's fine though. But you need to come down from that mental high sometimes too. So there are a lot of different aspects to this. These are things that will figure in subjectively, even though we're going to be talking about some of this from a physical perspective.

All right. So then let's talk about how you can autoregulate, how you can learn to track and subjectively control your stimulation level, how you can regulate automatically . 

Ryan: [00:27:12] Is this where we plug our new machine that we're selling that you can hook yourself up to, and it does it all for you? Is this where I'm supposed to say that?

Andy: [00:27:20] It's a combination of a vacuum cleaner and, that's a diff that's- sorry.

Ryan: [00:27:28] Okay. So we've got active recovery. Yeah, really, we're going to bring it right back to autoregulation, and by now you're probably sick of us saying this, but we really need to dial this in. It's about awareness. 

Everything is about awareness. What Andy just said is, yes, we're going to be talking about some physical components of that, but, when you're hyped up because you're excited about something, simply being aware of that is also extremely important.

And that awareness, then you can say,"Oh, this is why I'm so hyped up and I can't sleep. I can't do X. Therefore, I can then do this in order to move towards that." I don't even like saying, but balanced state or that counterbalance, if you will, in order to make sure that you are moving towards that state,

Andy: [00:28:17] Getting to the ready state, you may even say.

Ryan: [00:28:20] The Ready State, oh my goodness! It's a great name for a company. 

Andy: [00:28:24] Hi Kelly!

Ryan: [00:28:25] Wow. What's up Kelly? K star baby. Okay. Let's look at some physical components of this. First off, let's look at DOMS, and like I said we've already talked about this before, so like we're not going over that, but if you've got DOMS from your current strength program. Yesterday, you did something, you woke up today and you're really feeling it.

Then typically, I feel that moving around a little bit is going to help you. Doesn't mean that you go in and just do this massive workout, but going in there, getting the blood flowing a bit more, and just saying, "Oh, wow. I really feel this in my hamstrings after doing X." Okay. Well then go in there, do what you need to do that day in order to do this. 

Now, what do you do? Okay. Well, it could be maybe doing some Bear. It could maybe do, a seated forward fold, stretching. Okay. It could be whatever it is that you need that day. So that's why, it's not that we're trying to give you a protocol, it's about bringing awareness to that area. 

The cool thing about this is this: you feel it in your hamstrings, the DOMS are intense, and as you get to moving around, you realize somewhere else in your body, you're feeling it too. So you're like, "Oh, wow. It's not just my hamstrings. I'm also feeling this in the scaps."

So then you can spend a little bit of time as well, working on the scaps, and I'm not talking 30 minutes, an hour, three hours or anything like that. Again it could just be like a minute, two minutes. And you could be good to go. And that's what's really important, is when you're working on something, and bringing that awareness in there, it's assessing the situation and you might find other places within your body that needs some attention.

And so you're able to give a little bit of attention. And with the understanding that a little bit is going to go a long ways. And the other thing too, is you could maybe do that in the morning, and then maybe do it in the afternoon, and then maybe do it again in the evening. And if it's only like a minute or something like that, well, then it's not a workout. And nor should it be.

And I think that's a real key factor here, is that when we're looking at recovery, we're not looking at working out. It should feel light, if you will. You should feel actually refreshed after doing it. And this is actually going to take some time. If you're the kind of person who's used to just doing everything just full on.

It's "Well, I gotta do another workout in order to make sure that I can continue to get that feeling, to work out the kinks." Well no, okay. A Little bit. And then maybe a little bit here, a little bit here. That is really going to add up over time and it's also easier, and this is a key point of this as well.

If you keep it simple, then you're more apt to do it, okay. And so making it easy to do is going to allow you to actually do it. The more you do it, then the better off you're going to be. And, I also want preface that as well. I'm not talking like duration again, I'm talking about over time, doing things over time and building a good habit, and that habit is bringing awareness to what's going on in your body.

And just giving it a little bit of love, and then moving on with your life. Really, that's it. That's recovery.

Recovery is a Practice

Andy: [00:31:52] I think the really important thing that you just said here, is that recovery is a practice. It is a thing that you get better at over time. It is not a set of movements. It is not a pill you take. It is not the opposite of working out. It is learning how to destimulate. Learning how to return to the ready state, learning how to come back into balance.

As we talked about in the first part of this show, so you can then feel how you want to feel, perform how you need to perform, be able to do the things that you'd like to do with your body, right? It is a practice of getting better at that. 

And so what are these movements and recovery routines? And we have recovery routines too. What are these designed to do? Well, the first one for most of these is like Ryan said is they are a very low intensity set of movements. Usually any kind of active recovery routine you're going to see, whether it's from us or someone else, is almost always going to be a very low intensity set of movements.

Oftentimes they are trying to move your major joint areas through, as close to a full range of motion as possible, lightly, easily. You're not trying to stretch. You're just trying to move the muscles and joints around. This is, it's loosening up tension. It's tuning your CNS so that it is aware of how you feel and stuff and you're breathing, you're moving, you're coordinating your body. You're just refining and fine-tuning the calibration, I guess you might say. And this is really one of the important things in autoregulation is doing these things, and then being aware like Ryan was saying.

The awareness and saying, "Oh, if I go further than this, I feel a little tight today. Or if I move this way, then I'm a little more sore." Or, this is the thing that people fail to notice a lot of times like, "Oh, if I start reaching over this way, my hand gets a little shaky." That's actually a thing that your nervous system is not able to control your muscles in some ranges sometimes. People don't notice this a lot of the time, but it's a thing. 

This is why, for GMB, when we have people do a session, we say, rate your ease, the feeling of ease you have while you do it, and also your quality of movement. These are the things that we're trying to, you should feel easy when you're doing things, but also you should be able to move with high quality, which means that you are in control and you lose control when you are not at your best, right? 

So these are the things to notice. And as you begin moving in any kind of routine, or even if you just have a couple of moves that you like doing, or if you're foam rolling or whatever, you start noticing these things. And the important thing is, I just highly suggest write them down.

Write it down. We have a numeric system that we track in, after every session. And it keeps score for you, and you don't have to worry about remembering it, but if nothing else write it down, because the thing that is important here is that you do what we call baselining. You establish what baseline normal is for yourself.

How do you usually feel when you are doing well? What are the indicators that you are not doing well? And you have to make note of these things over time to be able to practice responding to the signals you get. And then being able to know, maybe I do need to modulate the intensity of my next workout, or maybe I'm feeling great and I can do more, or maybe I need to spend some more time today or tomorrow doing some of these kind of recovery practices, or maybe I just need to go to bed early. But, you won't know this, unless you get in the habit of noticing how you feel as you run through, most of these recovery routines, like I said, it's a lot of different major joints, and we look at this as like a quick self-diagnostic, right.

And noting how that diagnostic is performing versus baseline. That is the key to most autoregulation.

Ryan: [00:36:05] Yeah, this is great. And I want to throw one other thing in there, and that is, a lot of people don't know how far they should go with their recovery. And so, it's that awareness that we can talk about awareness for people like it's like telling a person, Oh, just relax. Well, how the hell do you relax?

Andy: [00:36:21] It's so easy!

Ryan: [00:36:22] Something for me though, especially over the years, is that when I'm looking at doing these things, the awareness is a big part of me is the breath. And not a particular breathing pattern. Okay. But how am I breathing? And is it calm and is it quiet? And so if I find my breathing ramping up and starting to get towards the point of it being labored, of rough breathing. No, no, no, no, no. It's too much. And so when you're moving around doing a little bit of locomotion, things like that in terms of, the frame built upon you in recovery mode, well then focus on keeping the breath, calm and quiet, and being aware of that.

And that's actually going to help to start to teach you to practice. It's going to give you that practice for noticing other things that are going on in your body. And so first start off with the breath and bringing awareness to that. Calm and quiet. And that is actually going to start moving throughout the rest of the body and helping you to bring attention and awareness to those other parts.

Yeah, I mean, lots of great stuff in there. Andy mentioned before, like in our recovery program that we actually have, it's looking at that, it's going through a full body scan, and seeing, okay, what is going on? It's not just doing the movements. It's really taking note of what's going on when you're performing these movements.

Doing a little bit of locomotion and then there's some self massage that we do as well. And the thing is, with these particular programs, you can actually, there's only six of them, six sessions. You could come back and choose one particular session that you would like to do again, based on a particular place in your body.

They're not based, they're not body-part specific, but what I mean is you might find that there's a particular session that you gravitate more towards, and feel that would be good for you for your recovery that day. And so this is something again, how is it going to come back and aid you in moving towards that state that you want to be in? That's really the most important thing.

Andy: [00:38:25] Yeah. So I think today, in typical GMB fashion, what we've done is we've taken a thing that a lot of people have a pretty okay grasp on, if you look at it in a very reductive frame and we said," Oh, it's not so simple. There's a lot of nuance here. and that, sorry, but there's no actual answer. The actual answer is you have to spend a whole lot of time learning how to find the answer for yourself."

Which I realize is deeply frustrating for some people. And if that's you, sorry, dude it's the truth. Yeah, recovery, there's a lot of things you can do, and we have routines that can help with that. But the fact is, is that it is a practice.

And the only way to make sure that you are recovering well, and recovering adequately, is to practice one, doing things that help you recover, and two, noticing whether or not they're helping. And this is all straight up a hundred percent just learning to autoregulate. You're welcome. 

So that's all we got. Thank you!

Ryan: [00:39:28] That's it. Thank you. Any questions? Then yeah, join the Facebook group. Leave them in there. And, yeah, I'm going to go recover. That's the proper answer, right?

Andy: [00:39:39] I am headed right to Mr. Donuts after this.

Ryan: [00:39:43] To put your feet up. Sounds good. 

Andy: [00:39:44] Thanks. Bye.

Thanks everybody.