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posted on December 9, 2019

You’ve trained, you’ve had a great day at work and it’s time to unwind at the end of the day. Now what do you do? I ask this question to everyone as we have a plan for how to train, how to save money and how to attack many aspects of our lives. Yet do we have a plan for how to recharge? This is a mistake that too many of us make. I am writing this in hopes of helping some of you make a plan on how to recharge or “sharpen your saw.” This is one of the most underrated means of self improvement.

I began thinking about this post over the weekend and I decided to ask the interwebz their thoughts on this topic. I then posted a question on instagram asking my friends what they do to recharge. The answers all seemed to have similarities. They were all activities that we can get lost in the process. The answers ranged from cooking, getting in touch with nature and meditating. There were others as well such as reading or napping and even a nice libation. Each of these have some positive benefit yet some must be taken with a bit of caution. So I came up with this list to help you in sharpening your own saw.

Find an activity that will take you to another place in your mind. Athletes speak of flow and this can also be true with reading, cooking or even a hike.
Disconnect! This is important. Make sure with your activity you remove distractions. I forget the study, yet I remember hearing about a study (I believe it was on hidden brain podcast), the study had three groups. Group one took a test with their phone in their hands. Group two took the same test with their phone just out of their reach. Group three left their phone in another room. As you probably guesses group three did the best followed by group 2 then finally group 1. So leave the phone.
Remember that exercise is a stressor and all stressors are cumulative. In the real world this means that stress adds up and if you had a hard work day you may have to cut back a little on your training, or if you sleep wasn’t perfect you may need to adjust.
Find time to sit in silence everyday. The top three areas with nerve endings are hands, feet and ears. We abuse our ears everyday so give them a break and relax.
Get a massage from one of our fine massage therapists.
Go back to your roots. This could mean spending time with family or taking a walk in a familiar neighborhood.
Volunteer. While this may seem like stress to many people yet paying it forward can help many people recharge.

This is just a short list that we came up with after reviewing what we do as well as others ideas. Just remember that stress is a personal reaction to whatever is happening to you. So each of us will have our own way of dealing with stress. The take home point is plan your recovery mentally they same way that you plan your training or meals.