Recovery Routine 2020
Intro
I've spoken a lot on the podcast about the importance of crafting a routine that works for you. One thing I haven't gone into detail about is my routine. One silver lining of the pandemic is that it has allowed me to look at my routine more deeply. Then ask myself questions about what is working and what I need to improve upon. This article is holding me accountable in the future.
Full disclosure - I will share many products that I use. None of these companies have sponsored this article. If you would like to support this content, I will provide Amazon links when possible or if you choose to buy directly from their website, let them know that they heard from us!
Foundation: Sleep
I've spoken a lot about the science of sleep and how important it is. Our culture has a weird relationship with sleep. We've all heard statements knocking on how vital sleep like "I'll sleep when I'm dead" or" burning the midnight oil."
I wanted to note sleep because everything I do is based on providing the highest sleep quality every day.
If we orient our lives toward maximizing the quality, we would all be happier and healthier for it. Beyond this is that when we do have to make changes in our routine to make a meeting or other events, we know what we need to do to perform our best when called to do so.
For me, my general rule is sleep consistency. No matter what day it is, try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. The second is to minimize sleep debt.
If you don't feel exhausted when would you wake up naturally without an alarm? My natural wake time is about 9 am, so I have set my routine to be awake by that time.
Recommended reading: Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker and also check out his TED Talk
Tracking Sleep and Recovery
Long time readers and listeners will know my obsession with wearable technologies such as Whoop and Oura Ring. For an overview, check out my article here.
Whoop
For me, these technologies provide two significant benefits.
First, they provide a baseline of your current state of recovery or a minimum of how much sleep you are getting.
Second, over time they provide awareness of how your body responds to different stressors or activities.
I track everything I do with these wearables to gauge whether they benefit the quality of life I aim to achieve. A common misconception is that wearable technology can cause anxiety. In my case, I don't see that happening in my case. Depending on the type of person getting scored on sleep can take over from the actual goal of learning to sleep better. For example, hyper-focusing and becoming anxious when you know you should be asleep.
Oura Ring
The amount of thought that goes into managing them is front-loaded. For me, it means ensuring the app is updated each morning to check recovery each day to gauge my workout for the day. The remaining energy is to make sure they are charged.
Time-Restricted Feeding (Commonly thought of as Intermittent fasting)
On average, I aim to fast a minimum of 14 hours every day. The decision to pick a specific feeding window was to improve late-night behaviors. Most nights, I would get hunger cravings, which would lead to power eating habits such as sugary snacks or at its works beer. By committing to fasting, my last meal limits me to make sure I don't go to bed while trying to digest food. From my wearables, eating food close to bed has a direct impact on how well I recover.
Some of you may have the question: How long should I fast?
The answer is it depends. For me, I space my fast so that I don't work out before my first meal on most days. Your fast may even change daily, given your workout routine or how competitive you are. If you are any competitive athlete doing a blanket fast may hinder your performance. I experimented with the duration of my fasts. The main point was to discover where my upper limit on fasting duration. Beyond 16 hours for me, my focus begins to deteriorate. This is also due to my body possibly switching to ketones as a fuel source, and after 24 to 36 hours, the mental fog may lift. Experiments for another time!
To help me track my fasts, I use the Zero Fasting App. It's straightforward to use and now has a paid feature but not necessary if you are trying to establish a new habit. My typical fasting window is:
Breakfast from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm.
Feeding Window Close 8:30 pm.
I also don't follow strict fasting as in water-only fasts, as I'll expand on in the coming sections. I still take supplements in the morning.
By choosing this, I limit broader negative behaviors that affect my recovery and choose a more strict dietary plan. While outside of this section, I choose higher quality or less processed food most of the time, but fasting provides me with a foundation of at least portion control more easily.
It's also worth stating that if you start fasting and don't feel great, eat something. Some days you may need to eat and try the next day again. If you want to try to power through, I would recommend drinking plenty of water.
More Resources on Fasting:
Behind the Intermittent Fasting Fad
Zero - App to Track fasts
Breaking Down the Day
Morning
One of the pandemic's silver linings is that I've been able to maximize my time in bed and fine-tune my morning routine without a commute to worry about.
I start my morning with Athletic Greens. If you're an avid podcast listener like me, I am sure you've heard an ad for their product. But that's not where I was first introduced to the product was listening to Chris Ashenden, Athletic Greens founder on Finding Mastery.
Hearing this podcast and understanding the reason for the product's existence helped me understand the product. The reason I feel it necessary to qualify this product is due to its cost. It is priced as a premium product with a monthly subscription, no less. I rationalized this cost by how much value and hassle are associated with buying all the types of ingredients included. On a good day, it's at least double the price here. To only everything as one supplement, this is a no-brainer. You know what you're getting. Athletic Greens has all the bases covered if you don't get nutrients from food sources.
If someone were to ask if I should get only one supplement, what should I get? Answer: Athletic Greens.
Outside of this, my morning is no food, and after this, water until lunch. I am circling back to the fasting. While taking Athletic Greens will technically break your fast, so I try to wait until just before lunch to take this.
If you're looking to keep your fast as pure as possible, instead of taking your greens first thing in the morning, you can take them 15 minutes before having your first meal of the day.
I recently started tracking blood glucose and ketones. I haven't collected enough data yet to be sure how much impact this has on fasting, so stay tuned.
I don't drink coffee often. When I do, it's usually Lion’s Mane Coffee from Four Sigmatic. I view it as more of a supplement than caffeine, and I enjoy it in the winter. If I don't make coffee, I will typically use only Lion's Mane Mushroom. Some early research shows neurite regrowth when supplementing lion's mane. Lion's mane’s possible benefits could ward off neurodegeneration later in life, such as Alzheimer's.
Lion's Mane Studies
My go-to coffee recipe:
French Press
Ground Coffee of Choice
Cinnamon
Alcohol-Free Vanilla
Steep 2-3mins
Add Laird Super Food Sugar-Free Creamer.
Enjoy!
Afternoon
Typically for lunch, I try to eat my largest meal. Having a bigger meal primes my system to perform during my workout in the early evening., I have experimented with noon workouts during the pandemic, which also feels good. Those are less consistent, but I typically enjoy doing fasted workouts. But if I stay too long, the brain fog begins to creep, and all I can think about is eating.
When I break my fast, I also take fish oil for the day. The brand I found is UnoCardio 1000. Total OMEGA-3 1180mg (EPA 665 mg, DHA 445 mg). The real bonus for this particular fish oil is that it also includes Vitamin D3 (25 mcg or 1000 IU).
The driving factor for incorporating fish oil back into my routine was from Bill Harris on Peter Attia's podcast.
These excerpts are from the mentioned podcast.
EPA is considered "heart-healthy"… how so?
Blood platelets become less sticky – some prostaglandin type molecules make the blood platelets less sticky (It's kind of like taking Aspirin without some of the side effects of Aspirin)
Anti-inflammatory – The EPA is also able to produce a whole series of molecules that we call resolvins because they resolve inflammation
It helps cellular metabolism run more smoothly – when EPA becomes incorporated into cell membranes, it changes the flexibility/ fluidity of the membrane, which changes the way the enzymes that live in the membranes work in such ways that make cellular metabolism run more smoothly.
Health benefits of DHA?
But what is Bill's best guess as to what DHA is doing?
Much the same thing as EPA
Anti-inflammatory ⇒ DHAs are called protectins (EPA is resolvins)
DHA will also improve platelet function like EPA does (but with a different mechanism)
DHA is probably better than EPA at actually lowering triglycerides and raising HDL
Although DHA does have an LDL raising effect (particularly in hypertriglyceridemic people taking fairly high doses of DHA).
Pre-workout
I prep for my workout by starting to taking my preworkout. It’s one of the few supplements I've taken the longest. The brand I use is Pre Jym. The Jym brand was the first line of supplements that woke me up to proprietary blends. Now a sharp-eyed observer may say, but what about Athletic Greens, and that is true. It is full of proprietary blends. But for simplicity's sake and bang for the buck, I believe it's worth it.
There is another note here on stimulants. My preworkout is the primary source of caffeine at any point of my day. For this reason, I try to drink this by 2 pm on most days. I've attempted to fast from caffeine, and while I do notice a difference, I've decided to continue to take it but set an upper limit on when it's added to my day to limit the impact on sleep quality.
If you want to avoid stimulants since caffeine is incredibly prevalent, I have experimented with cordyceps, another mushroom. Some research points to improved endurance when supplementing with cordyceps (here is an overview and study). Again here I've bought Four Sigmatic.
Workout
I will not get too specific with my workout routine here; I think it's beyond this writing scope. I will give a basic framework that I try to follow.
On any given day, I try to fit most functional movements like hip hinging, pull-ups, rowing, etc.
Most workouts outside of functional movements are more standard barbells broken down into push, pull, and legs.
At a higher level, if you use Whoop, I try to at a minimum hit low optimal for my strain every day. I've also found that trying to hit high strain on weightlifting only is much more difficult. There are differences in muscular strain and cardiovascular strain.
With the pandemic, I leveraged outdoor workouts much more this year.* I ran much more than I ever have and got back on the bike for more miles as well. Typical workout time is between 4:30 - 6 pm. Though I have been experimenting more with noon workouts during the pandemic as midday reset more on that in closing.
(* Here’s a study I found on sunlight - Benefits of Sunlight: A Bright Spot for Human Health. Another story from Found My Fitness Fat Tissue Has Receptors for Sunlight and They Affect Fat Metabolism)
Typically I will do any stretching that I feel is needed at the end of the workout. I've found arm and leg swings to be a beneficial active stretching to warm up and find any tightness in my shoulders and hips/hamstrings. If you’re like me, my shoulders typically carry a lot of tension and will get tight after a week of weight lifting. I’ll naturally keep an eye on ways to self-massage but will be more for fidgety release.
Post Workout
My post-workout is the transition to the rest of the evening to work on anything Feeding Curiosity related with focus and purpose. The point is to physically and mentally reset from my workout day.
After the workout, it's shower, meditation, and dinner. Typically in that order. This area is what I call habit stacking; by putting mediation during the same time I shower, I stick with this behavior. This is where it attaches the most to my routine and allows me to have a clear head in the evening.
For meditation, I typically use Sam Harris' Waking Up App doing the ten minute guided meditations. I've also used head space but thought it was a little repetitive and didn't go as deep with some of the consciousness theory as Sam does. Some days I won't use anything to expect some light lo-fi music. To add a bit more here, I know some people aren't interested in meditation, and this is not an attempt to say everyone should do this. But what I can say, even something as simple as focusing on breathing through your nose can help; extra effort need not be added.
Effects of Nasal or Oral Breathing on Anaerobic Power Output and Metabolic Responses
Worth Reading: Breath by James Nestor
Going deeper into science meditation is beyond our scope for this, but I highly recommend Altered Traits to dig deeper into this category if you are interested.
This is the best place to add my thinking on alcohol. I've never been a big drinker, but having the data on who drinking impacts recovery from either device has impacted my behavior. If I have more than two beers within a few hours of bed, I will negatively impact my sleep quality. Anyone who has drank understands this intuitively but having the raw data showing that if you cut too loose, you'll have a -11% impact on your recovery it will make you reflect on your choices. Given my data, if I drink, I drink early and a lower quantity. If I choose to drink, I make sure to drink extra water leading up to bedtime. This behavior I can't back up with any data, but if alcohol is filtered through the system quicker, I would assume having more water helps clear the system.
Powering Down
The first step on my power down routine is blue light blocking glasses. As the sun goes down, the glasses go on. So it can mimic the sun setting to some degree before bed. There has been some contention on how much blue light blocking drinks affect sleep. From my experience, I can feel a difference in the level of eye strain. We are sitting behind screens so much more often than even wearing these glasses for some during the evening would positively affect us. However, I cannot back up this claim with data besides my N of one with Whoop data.
The glasses I've used are Gunnars and Felix Gray.
Another aspect here is to be mindful of what activities I am partaking in. Most of us think we are relaxing, but our brains can be engaged, making it more challenging to get ready for sleep. It might not be the best decision to be playing intense video games right before bed or doing something that takes focus to do.
Next up, I take two supplements about an hour before bed. The first is a specific magnesium L-Threonate. L-Threonate is a magnesium transporter, helping it cross the blood-brain-barrier for better absorption. A small study has shown magnesium L-threonate to improve cognitive function in people with mild to moderate dementia. On a recent Peter Attia podcast with Dr. Richard Isaacson, the director of Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic believes that magnesium L-threonate may help with sleep, which he has found helpful for "stressed-out type A people." The brand I've been using is Jarrow Formulas MagMind.
The second supplement and newest addition is CBD Oil. I know there is a lot of hype about CBD in the wellness space. You can buy almost any kind of product with CBD, from drinks to balms. CBD is in its wild west phase. The acronym CBD stands for cannabidiol, which is the other compound found within cannabis plants. The other compound most of us have heard of is THC or Tetrahydrocannabinol, which is the psychoactive component. In lay men's terms, CBD can't get you high.
Mechanisms of action:
Anti Inflammatory
Activates the CNS GABA receptors
Decreases anxiety
In my experience, I went into CBD with significant skepticism because I knew so much hype around these products. As with much of supplementation, the question is how much is necessary. I let my data show me the answer. Early results didn't have a significant impact, but I was pleasantly surprised by the effect after a month of use. I currently have a positive recovery from CBD of 11%.
When buying CBD, I want to share some of my thoughts on it. First, I would make sure it full-spectrum and know what concentration is being sold to you. As I said early, it's a bit of the wild west, so it's better to do your homework and check if the company independently validates their products. Currently, I've been using NED as they have full-spectrum products. I've bought all three concentrations they provide and have opted for the highest because I can take a small dose, and it will last me the longest (about three months). Also, note when dealing with high concentrations, start low, and work your way up. You can overdo it and have a negative response.
Podcast - Debra Kimless, M.D. & Steve Goldner, J.D.: Cannabis – the latest science on CBD & THC
One last piece of tech I have which ties wind down and up is called a Wake-Up Light. This alarm has a smart LED that can mimic the rising and setting of the sun. The version I have is a timer setting so that it darkens over 20 minutes. The alarm feature works similarly but doesn't have the typically jarring wake up. As some research pointed to disrupted sleep and cortisol though I don't know how much research is on this particular topic anecdotally, being awoken abruptly is not ideal.
Area of Improvement
One of the most glaring deficiencies is reading before bed. Before the pandemic, my bedtime routine was solid. I unplugged the TV In my room. But since then, I've had a tv on in my place more often and reading much less frequently. I know from my Whoop data that reading bed had a positive impact. Not to mention the immeasurable effect of reading more and winding down without screen engagement, which is even more critical now.
Closing
I'm typically an active person who could be classified as type A. So much of my effort is placed in getting myself to chill out, be present. After putting this all together, from meditation, CBD, magnesium, all aim at activating my parasympathetic nervous system.
Even looking at my heart rate variability, its range is much lower, sitting at about 33ms on average. So my goal has been how do I improve that number over time.
This does not say that these behaviors won't work for you, but I believe health and wellness are highly personalized. Some might work for you; others won't. But what I hope you do is follow the research I've provided and decide for yourself what you want to experiment with to improve your recovery.
Experiment away!
Links and Codes:
Get a free WHOOP 4.0 and one month free when you join with my link.
Four Sigmatic (Amazon)
Fish Oil UnoCardio 1000 (Amazon)
MagMind Jarrow Formulas (Amazon)
Gunnar (Amazon)
Philips SmartSleep Wake-up Light (Amazon)
