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“Don’t skip rest day!”
That’s not a phrase you often hear, but there’s a valid argument that it should be if you want to boost your fitness and performance.
The key to enhancing your recovery is not another supplement or a fancy gadget, but simply adequate rest.
Quality rest isn’t laziness; it’s an often-overlooked investment in your wellbeing.
In this podcast, you’ll learn about data-backed restful activities and why common habits like TV or social media might not offer the restoration you need.
Tune in, and invest in your rest!
Timestamps:
0:00 – Please leave a review of the show wherever you listen to podcasts and make sure to subscribe!
0:25 – How much you rest isn’t all that matters
0:46 – What you do to relax is important!
2:10 – Using a basic Likert scale
3:38 – My new protein cookie
Mentioned on the Show:
Try my new protein cookie! Go to https://buylegion.com/cookie and use coupon code MUSCLE to save 20% or get double reward points!
What did you think of this episode? Have anything else to share? Let me know in the comments below!
Transcript:
Too many fitness fanatics are willing to try just about anything to enhance recovery, except the most important thing, which is just adequate rest. So don’t view deloads and rest days and relaxation in general as a waste of time or a sign of laziness. Those things are an investment in your health and your recovery, and they really are a source of energy and wellbeing.
Now how much you rest isn’t all that matters either. How well you can renew yourself is important, too. Similar to sleep. It’s not just quantity. There’s quality. And so in the case of recovery, the more rapidly and the more deeply you can calm your body and calm your mind, the more restored you can feel in less time.
And what you do to relax is a big part of this. Of course. According to a study of over 18,000 people from 134 countries. The most restful activities are as follows, reading, exercising, being in a natural environment, like being in nature, being alone, taking a nap, listening to music, socializing with friends and family, and doing nothing in particular.
And those aren’t given in any special order, but those are the most restful activities, the most effective ways to rest and relax according to this research that I am citing now. Conspicuously absent from that list are many people’s go-tos. Television, for example, which studies show may have limited restorative power in moderation, but can also produce feelings of guilt and inadequacy.
And then we have social media. Which for many people causes feelings of isolation, unhappiness, jealousy, not effective strategies for reducing stress and relaxing. So if you want to get just as good at relaxing as you are at working and working out, experiment with the different. Activities that appeal most to you.
And experiment with routines, combining activities in different ways, and keep a record on how well these things work for you, how restored you feel after each, so you can hone in on what works best for you or what combination of things works best for you. And one way you can do that is with a simple Likert scale, whereby you rate your feelings on a scale from one, which would be strongly disagree to five, strongly agree, or sometimes it’s one to seven, but one to five works for our purposes.
And a few statements that you can use with this scale that you will rate your agreement with are one. After this activity, I feel more energetic and ready to take on other activities. Two. After this activity, my body feels comfortable and relaxed and free from tension and symptoms of stress, like headaches or digestive issues.
Three. After this activity, I feel less anxious and calmer. Four. After this activity, my mind feels clearer and I have less mental and emotional fatigue, and five, after this activity, I sleep better. And so the idea then would be to try each of the activities, or at least each of the ones that most appeal to you?
Several times, not just once. I would say at least five times, maybe between five and 10 times. After each time you try one of the activities, you rate your level of agreement with those statements and you record that. And then after trying all of the activities that you wanna try and recording how well they work for you, you can look at the data on I.
Which are best for you. And then finally, of course, hopefully you’ve found at least a few activities that work well for you and work reliably. And then you combine those into a rest and relaxation routine. If you like what I’m doing here on the podcast and elsewhere, and if you wanna help me do more of it, Please do check out my sports nutrition company Legion, because while you don’t need supplements to build muscle, to lose fat, to get healthy, the right ones can help.
And that’s why over 400,000 discerning fitness folk have chosen Legion. Well, there’s that and there’s our all natural products. There is our clinically effective ingredients and doses and our no hassle money back guarantee. Also Legion just released its newest product, which is a protein cookie. And what makes this protein cookie great?
Well, it’s not a better than dessert indulgence with full spectrum nutrition and zero net carbs. You know, wink, wink, and muscle building magic. And this protein cookie will not supercharge your workouts or your health or your recovery, but it is a tasty, all natural high protein snack with a premium blend of WHE and milk protein, plus nutritious plant-based carbs, fats, and prebiotic fiber.
And I know I’m at least a little bit biased, but I have to say, this protein cookie tastes far better than any other protein cookie I’ve tried, and many customers are saying the same thing in their reviews, which you can check out over@buylegion.com slash. Cookie, b u y legion.com/cookie. And something else that customers are saying is if you microwave it for 10 to 15 seconds, it’s even more delicious.
And that’s a great pro tip for eating protein bars and protein cookies. Microwave it first, just 10 to 15 seconds, and it makes it warm and soft and gooey. And just in case you are wondering, microwaves are not unhealthy. They don’t ruin your food, they don’t ruin the nutrition in your food. If you wanna learn more about that, head over to legion athletics.com, search for microwave, and you can find an article I wrote on it, and I believe I’ve recorded a podcast on the topic as well.
So anyway, if you are looking for a delicious way to supplement your diet with some high quality protein that is rich in all nine essential amino acids that are required to keep gaining muscle and strength as well as prebiotic fiber, which is great. For your gut health. And if you want to do that without bloating, without gassiness, without stomach aches, that can come with lower quality protein cookies, but not with mine.
Check out my protein cookie by legion.com by legion.com/cookie. Well, I hope you liked this episode. I hope you found it helpful, and if you did subscribe to the show because it makes sure that you don’t miss new episodes. And it also helps me because it increases the rankings of the show a little bit, which of course then makes it a little bit more easily found by other people who may like it just as much as you.
And if you didn’t like something about this episode or about the show in general, or if you have. Ideas or suggestions or just feedback to share. Shoot me an email, [email protected], muscle f o r life.com and let me know what I could do better or just, uh, what your thoughts are about maybe what you’d like to see me do in the future.
I read everything myself. I’m always looking for new ideas and constructive feedback. So thanks again for listening to this episode, and I hope to hear from you soon.
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