3 Ways to Make Your Rest Days More Effective
Whenever I post a Q&A on Instagram, I get some sort of question about what to do on rest days. The answer is pretty simple: you should rest on your rest days. Seriously! If you’re constantly searching for ways to improve, even on rest days, you’re never really giving your body or mind the time away from the gym they need to adapt.
I get it, though. Sometimes you’re so excited about your training (or you have so much free time on your hands) that you can’t help it. So I’m going to share some suggestions to improve the effectiveness of your rest days, but here’s the deal: please don’t go overboard. Becoming an elite athlete requires a surprising amount of balance, and I don’t want to imply otherwise!
Strengthen Your Heart.
Strength athletes are notorious for neglecting their most important muscle (the heart, duh). That’s a dumb move for two reasons. Obviously, cardio will improve your health and probably help you live a bit longer. If you do it right, it can also improve your performance in the gym.
“Right” means different things for different athletes and different situations. If your joints are beat to hell and back, you’re probably best off taking a little CBG and going for a long, easy-paced walk. If you’re feeling tight and antsy, try doing a few high-intensity, short-duration sprints on an assault bike. And if you’re really fat, maybe you need to do some traditional cardio and get on the stairmill for 40 minutes.
If you’re looking for some suggestions here, check out my article about Assault Bike Training for Strength Athletes.
Fix Your Gut.
Bodybuilders hold their digestive health in top priority, because eating is at least half the sport. That’s not true for all strength athletes, but I do believe that powerlifters and strongmen underrate the value of a good diet and good digestion.
That’s understandable, because training for powerlifting or strongman is a heck of a lot harder than training for bodybuilding. Traditional bodybuilding training tends to stimulate appetite, but heavy lifting demands so many physical and mental resources that it often has the opposite effect. Many lifters are so drained that they struggle to eat after training. It’s hard to eat a lot before going to the gym, too, because excessive bloating can actually disrupt leverages.
Fortunately, I do a trick to improve your digestion. Try avoiding carbohydrates in the morning on your off days. An extended “carb fast” can improve your insulin sensitivity, which in turn will improve your gastric emptying; it also will help to reduce your food volume, so there’s less to empty in the first place. You’ll probably feel a bit sharper mentally, too (more on that below).
You can also try the newest supplement from Better Through Biology: Max Uptake. Max Uptake is a specialized glucose disposal agent designed to amplify the effects of everything you ingest, including supplements. It’s available for presale now.
Reset Your Brain.
Even if you’re a proud meathead, you need to keep your brain in good shape to perform at your best. If you’ve ever gone into the gym with a foggy head, you know how quickly a lack of focus can derail your training. You probably also know that quality sleep, a low-stress lifestyle, and conservative stimulant use will help to keep your brain in good shape.
You might not know some of these other strategies for mental sharpness in the gym:
Get some cold exposure. Jumping in a cold shower or ice tub can shift your brain towards parasympathetic activity when you’re feeling stressed, worn out, or anxious. It’s an oversimplification, but the less time your brain spends in a sympathetic (fight or flight) state, the fresher you’ll feel for training.
Play a game. “Use it or lose it” applies to your brain, too, and games like Lumosity and Elevate aren’t just for grandparents fighting the effects of aging. Try playing one of these games in the morning on days when you train (or right before training) and see if you don’t feel a bit sharper.
Use non-stim supplements. I’ve already written about the benefits of Nectar, CBD, and noopept for improving your mental game in the gym. Just remember to use these as supplements — don’t rely on them to cover up gaps in your recovery.
Try a recovery creatine session. These are super-cool training days designed to reprogram the way your brain interacts with your environment. You can learn more about these on Andy Triana’s Instagram page.
These aren’t the only ways your can take advantage of your rest days, but in my opinion, they’re some of the best. Again, don’t go overboard with these: try implementing one and see if it helps. If so, keep it, and maybe try another. If not, don’t sweat it. At the end of the day, the most important thing is that your rest is actually restful!
If these strategies help you, and you’d like some help structuring your training to take advantage of your improved recovery, click here to contact me for coaching.