Fortis After Hours Podcast
Welcome to the Fortis After Hours Podcast!
Join Nate and Liz as they dive into unfiltered conversations about fitness, mental health, relationships, powerlifting, and everything in between. From navigating life as a married couple running a business together, to chasing PRs and personal growth outside of the gym, no topic is off-limits.
Expect honest insights, practical advice, and plenty of healthy banter as we redefine what strong really means in and out of the gym.
Fortis After Hours Podcast
SIX | The Three Pillars of Recovery
Have you ever pushed yourself to the limit in training only to find yourself broken down, injured, or regressing? The missing piece might be recovery. Recovery is an essential component of your fitness journey equal to your workouts themselves.
Recovery isn't about fancy gadgets or complicated protocols. At its core, it hinges on what we call The Three Pillars: Sleep, Hydration, and Nutrition. Sleep stands as the most crucial recovery mechanism. It is the time when your body repairs and restores itself from training. Whether you're struggling with insomnia or just prioritizing TV time over rest, we explore practical solutions to help you get to sleep faster. We discuss different sleep hygiene routines that have actually worked for us.
Hydration goes far beyond just drinking water, though a gallon daily is a good target. We dive into why electrolytes matter and how proper hydration affects everything from muscle function to cognitive performance. For nutrition, we break down protein requirements and we discuss why most beginners are likely consuming far less than optimal for recovery.
Beyond these foundations, we share our personal approaches to recovery modalities like stretching, foam rolling, massage therapy, and more exotic options like cupping and dry needling. The contrast between our habits is about right: Liz maintains a disciplined mobility practice, while Nate admits that he struggles to maintain consistent recovery protocols.
As we age and push our physical limits, recovery becomes increasingly important, not just for performance but for longevity in the activities we love.
Take this episode as your invitation to reassess your recovery strategy. Your future self will thank you for the investment you make today.
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HOSTED BY
@lizribaudo_fortis
@nateribaudo_fortis
What's going on, everybody? Welcome to another episode of the Fortis After Hours Podcast. Since our name is the After Hours Podcast, I decided to take a little bit more of a calm approach to this episode, since the topic is going to be recovery. I'm your co-host Nate, joined by my wife Liz.
SPEAKER_03:Hi.
SPEAKER_00:And we have another awesome episode planned for you guys today. Okay, I'm not actually gonna talk like that the whole episode. Oh man, I couldn't even handle that. Liz couldn't even handle the intro. Uh but yes, welcome to another episode, you guys, and we are gonna be talking about recovery, uh, kind of the fundamentals, some basics that you need to be uh doing for sure, and then some extra things like getting massages, cupping, dry needling, stretching. I was trying to figure out what I just started. That um, etc. So, yeah, we're gonna be going over different recovery uh kind of modalities, if you will, um give you our top three kind of pillars of recovery, is what I'm gonna call them. Uh, absolute essentials hint. We've talked on about them here before, and they have nothing to do with the foam roller. Um, and then just kind of talk about different things that me and Liz like to do. Um, and the reason why we're doing this episode is because a lot of us can get uh carried away with training in the gym and just getting after it and absolutely crushing our body.
SPEAKER_03:So it's funny, I was actually having a conversation with someone today that I was working with about um like knowing when you need to do some more like I'd say like corrective exercise things, mobility things, recovery things, whatever. But and like she knows she needs to do them, but she's like, but I always just want to like get to the gym and get after it and lift heavy weights and get a good sweat in my workout. But then we were talking about how like if you want to be able to keep doing all of that, then you have to do like the little things to allow you to be able to do that.
SPEAKER_00:That's exactly right. And that was also uh coincidentally the same conclusion that I came to uh this week myself because crazy. I am a pro at pushing myself. I can definitely push myself well past my physical limits. I've done it many times to no avail. Uh, end up getting hurt, uh, end up regressing strength wise. Um, and you know, there's no sense in like absolutely like pushing your body to these crazy limits if you're not gonna take care of your body on the other end so they can recover and you can actually get stronger. Um, so yeah, so I figured it would be a good week to talk about recovery. Um and I thought about staying in that voice for the entire episode, but I don't think Liz could have made it.
SPEAKER_03:So no. You would have probably been by yourself in that one. I would have just left.
SPEAKER_00:It's just me talking quietly and Liz.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Liz is reading.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gone. I'm gone.
SPEAKER_00:All right. So, anyways, let's start off with the three pillars of recovery, I'm gonna call them. Um, which we've talked on these many times before, so we're not gonna go too in-depth on these, uh, but I do want to bring them up because, in my opinion, they are the most important. Um, and that is sleep. And this is in order of importance in my brain. Uh, sleep, hydration, and nutrition. I think those are the three most important things for all people that are trying to do any type of fitness or athletic or weightlifting or powerlifting endeavor. Um, and the reason is number one, sleep is literally like where your body is restoring itself, where it is healing itself. Um, without good quality sleep, you're never gonna reach your full potential. Um, so that needs to be a priority. And I do want to make a quick note. I understand that some people may be listening to this and they they're like, you know, hey, I just had a new family, uh, you know, a new addition to the family, or maybe like you have a job that is maybe your first responder or something like that, or a military member, and your uh sleep is whack. Hear me out. I'm not saying that everyone needs to be sleeping like eight hours a night. If you're not sleeping eight hours, you're never gonna okay. But like what you do want to try and do is come up with some type of schedule, even if it's a couple hours of sleep. You know, if you gotta wake up every other hour, whatever, that's fine. But you do want to try and come up for you and your life with some sort of schedule that you can try and keep. Uh, that will help your body recover as best that it can with the sleep that you give it. Um, also, as far as sleep goes, which I'll turn this over to Liz, don't be afraid of exploring different sleep supplements. Um, I know we've tried a bunch. Mainly, like it's just Liz trying them, and I just try them because I'm here.
SPEAKER_03:I don't have to be like, I was really bad at sleeping for a long time.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so maybe go through some of the stuff that we've tried and then what you landed on, and maybe like why you like it.
SPEAKER_03:So I think for a while, I don't know, I was really bad at sleeping, just I don't even know, months, years, really bad. I like would have a really hard time falling asleep.
SPEAKER_00:I would so good at regular life that sleeping is where you know her shortcomings were.
SPEAKER_03:I like would wake up all night, I couldn't go back to sleep, terrible. Um, so I tried a lot of different things, like going to like the supplement stores like GNC or places like that. A lot of supplement companies now make different kinds of like sleep aids that are not medicine. Because like I never went down like the actual like sleep medicine route, like uh even like the ZQL I don't even know, thing, like Tylenol PM, things like that. I mean, I've taken those before when I've been sick and like I don't love how I wake up the next morning.
SPEAKER_00:Those can actually really mess you up. Like I have I've had uh people, you know, friends and clients that are like prescribe them, and I always try and encourage them to try like everything else, just because those like while they do put you to sleep, and I guess like psychologically that's good because you're asleep, sort of, like it's really hard on your body as compared to like falling asleep naturally or maybe with an assist like melatonin, something like this.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so I definitely I've tried melatonin. Um it works, but I got some crazy dreams with it. Um, some people have like actual, like almost like night terrors, like really bad, vivid nightmares with it.
SPEAKER_00:That's probably like me.
SPEAKER_03:Mine were never like bad dreams, they were just like super vivid and intense, and I like never like I don't remember any of them. I would never remember them, but I just remember like having like crazy intense dreams like all night long, and I still didn't really feel rested when I woke up in the morning.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Um, but that's me. I've talked to some people that they take it and they love it and it's perfect for them. So melatonin is something if you ever decide to try something like that. I would definitely start with a small, small dose of melatonin.
SPEAKER_00:On that note, quick note, we have a friend in Louisiana, uh Demereus, and I just saw that he posted that he's like starting to take a little melatonin. And the only reason I bring it up is this guy is huge. And if you don't know who he is, he's a big power lifter, he's very, very strong, very jacked. And he's like, Yep, I'm just taking a half a dose, and it works wonders. And I think like that's the funniest thing because like you would think for him you'd need like five or six, whatever, but like he's just taking a half of the recommended dose, and he's totally fine. So start tread uh tread lightly with the sleep aids.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so I started with that, and then I tried, I don't know, maybe like two or three different ones from supplement stores, like drink things. Um they worked, and I would take them for a while, I would say. And then, but it's still like I kind of felt like it was like a little bit still fake sleep, but it was better sleep than I was getting. So like I was fine with it. Um, but it was also it's expensive because like it was something that like I had to take every night or else I couldn't sleep, which is probably also a little bit in my brain at that point.
SPEAKER_00:But yeah, but it's like kind of becomes a psychological thing. Yeah, it's like people that need pre-workout to work out, like you know really need it, you'll be fine.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. So then I started trying to come up with like a better, what do you want to call it? Like a bedtime routine. Yeah. Like trying to like kind of start the same way every night, like go to bed, be in bed, drink my basically.
SPEAKER_00:I bought Liza Kindle reading books.
SPEAKER_03:Um, so I started reading before I went to bed, and that seemed to help a little bit. And then somewhere along the line, I don't know, I think I tried you were take drinking like sleepy time tea.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:With a little bear on it.
SPEAKER_00:You know where I got that from.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. Your mom.
SPEAKER_00:My mother, mama R.
SPEAKER_03:Um, so I don't know what made me try it one night, but I was just like, I'm just gonna try this, like see if it'll it'll work. So I found there's extra strength sleepy time tea, and then I also did some research, and it says if you use two bags and make it more concentrated, it can have a more like uh I don't know the right word.
SPEAKER_00:Sleepy, like drowsy effect or whatever.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, like it works better, basically, it's more potent.
SPEAKER_00:Um so makes sense because two bags more than one.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. So I added that in every night. I'll drink that and still read. I also take Ashwagandha every night, um, and then Azyrtek, which because I just have allergies, that's not really to help me sleep. But my doctor did say that if I was gonna take it, taking it at night would be best just in case it makes me a little bit drowsy, even though it's a not drowsy. Anyways, that was a lot of things. Um, but I feel like it's working. I also sleep with brown noise because I'm crazy. Um, not white noise, brown noise. It's very specific.
SPEAKER_00:Um, there's a spot it up, it's on Spotify, just like this podcast. Subscribe to both.
SPEAKER_03:There's Spotify podcasts of all different kinds of sounds, so that I also listen to every night. And yeah, I feel like I'm well, I know I'm sleeping way better and probably helping my recovery. Yeah, apparently Apple watches give you sleep scores now. I got a 93 the other night.
SPEAKER_00:Look at that.
SPEAKER_03:I don't know. That was the first time I knew for losing I knew they were even giving sleep scores on that. So I guess I'll have to check and see what I got since then.
SPEAKER_00:But yeah, I don't really have much to say. That's why I was kind of turned over to lose.
SPEAKER_03:I like sleep a lot, but I am that person. Not everyone needs as much sleep as me. I'm a little crazy.
SPEAKER_00:Ironically, I don't really like sleep, but I actually despise having to sleep. It's really annoying to me. But I just don't think about that because I feel like there's just so many things I could be doing. But I have found that in fact, sleeping seven, eight hours, which is usually my goal, does really help with my recovery and it helps me feel good and strong. Um, but yeah, as far as falling asleep for me, I just kind of I mean I drink some sleepy time tea more for the routine, but I'm I'm asleep like a rock.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, fun fact, my sleep last night was in 97. Excellent.
SPEAKER_00:Look at that, excellent.
SPEAKER_03:Toby didn't wake me up all night from the storm.
SPEAKER_00:I'm gonna track mine tonight just to see. Watch this hundred come up. Watch it's like 60. Like in my brain, I'm like, I sleep great. It's terrible. Um, anyway, so so yeah, so try some of those things out for sleep. Um, like I said, tread carefully. I'd honestly start with something like sleepy time, it's cheap. You can get it at your local grocery store, and it works really well. Um, it's kind of like a natural, like kind of calms you down.
SPEAKER_02:Now, it's don't expect I do add honey.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah. Definitely add a little bit of honey.
SPEAKER_02:The taste is not amazing.
SPEAKER_00:But uh, I mean, I could definitely have it without money. I can't. Anyways, well, you're like this needs either like sugar.
SPEAKER_03:Sometimes the honey like doesn't mix in all the way at first, and then the first few drip sips are not great, so I'm gonna have to do some extra mixing. Okay. Fun facts.
SPEAKER_00:Nice. Um, so yeah, so try those things out, you guys, for sleep. That's uh number one for recovery. Uh, number two is I'm gonna say hydration. Um, just because I think I just think it's still like overlooked. Make sure you guys are getting a good amount of water. Um, I know that it's varies by each individual, but I just like to say about a gallon. You can obviously drink a little more, drink a little less, you'll be just fine. But I like to shoot for that. It's a nice, easy number. And they sell them at the store.
SPEAKER_03:I think they say, like, technically, whatever. Um, if you're not like a gallon drinker person, like minimum, you should drink half of your body weight in ounces of water. Like minimum. So if you're not sure where to start, that would be a good place to start as far as drinking water. Yes, and then half of your body weight in ounces.
SPEAKER_00:Also looking into uh electrolyte supplement, which we've talked about on here as well. Um, and there's many to choose from. Our favorite is element. L M N T. LMNT. Um, I also like liquid IV, and I saw that liquid IV has uh sugar-free option now, so that's nice. So you can just get the electrolytes. Um and having electrolytes is super important, especially if you're sweating a lot. Um, if you're not sweating a lot, less important, but still important. Um, but if you are sweating a lot, it is going to help you retain some of that water and make sure that it's not just like flushing through your system.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So adding in some electrolytes is also a key part of hydration.
SPEAKER_03:If you are getting like cramps really bad or feeling like if you get headaches, because maybe you're dehydrated, like you're drinking water, but maybe it's not saying headaches are definitely because you're dehydrated, but it's a possibility, especially if you're not eating like a lot of salt on your food or anything. Um, so that is just something to consider if you want to add them in. I have them every day.
SPEAKER_00:Same. Just because um they're good for you. And then last but not least, for my three pillars of recovery um is going to be your nutrition, which that is super broad. We're not gonna go too deep into that. Uh, but you just want to make sure your nutrition is on point, you guys. Make sure you have enough recovery, excuse me, protein for recovery.
SPEAKER_03:Um protein, carbs, like honestly, like just trying to make sure you have a good balance of all of your macronutrients.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_03:Um, that is very individualized per person, per what you're doing, per the type of workouts you're doing, for your goals, like all of that. Super individualized, but you do want to make sure that you are eating like a good balance of everything and eating enough. I think that's a big problem, is a lot of people under eat certain, like certain specifically protein, but will undereat, especially during the week, then they'll overeat on the weekends, and then it's a whole situation of like a cycle of not great endless cycle of nutrition. Yes. So just and also if you are eating, like providing your body with what it needs to fuel, to recover, to like feel good every day, you will have less cravings, just like overall. Yep. Because your body is fueled and feeling good and full. I mean, sure, you might want again. I'm not saying that I'm gonna pass up a sweet treat. Like, I love me a sweet treat, but also I one can say no, depending on like what I'm doing, but having it in like moderation is also fine because I'm full most of the time.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Um, so yeah, making sure you have your nutrition dialed in as well. Uh, it's gonna be essential for recovery. Um, we've done many podcasts on nutrition, and maybe we'll do another one, I don't know, but um, but yeah, there's loads that we could dive into, but making sure you at least are having your protein, uh hitting that protein goal, which would be kind of like 0.5 to 1 uh gram. I almost said pound, uh, gram per pound of like lean body mass or your body weight.
SPEAKER_03:If you're lifting, it's probably closer to 0.8 to 1.
SPEAKER_00:And you can and yeah, somewhere around there, 0.8 to 1. Uh, I mean, there's people that go above way above.
SPEAKER_03:Well, yeah, it's technically up to 1.2.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:But most people have a hard time even getting it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, making sure you have enough protein. Uh, honestly, if you're listening to this and you're new to the gym, you're probably eating less than 100 grams uh during the day. That seems to be fairly common for people that are talking to like way less than 100 grams. If you've never tracked your food. If you've never, yeah, if you've never tracked your food before, start out by trying to hit 100. That's your first goal. There you go. Um, so yeah, so those are the first three things you guys want to take care of uh for recovery. And everyone has lives outside of the gym. So I'm not saying you need to like do all three of these things first.
SPEAKER_03:Um, but I would definitely mean to be perfect, like just kind of like working towards doing some of these, part of these.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I would say, and this is why I wanted to have it first. I would say if you're having issues recovering and you don't pay attention to any of those three things, you need to stop stretching, you need to stop like rolling around or whatever, you're going to get massages and start with those three and then start going to the other stuff. Because I'll tell you right now, if you're not paying attention to any of those three, but you're like, Yeah, nate, but I go and get a massage every two weeks. That's literally like I'm I'm not gonna say useless, maybe it's relaxing, but as far as like recovery, useless, especially if you're not hydrated and you're not able to flush those toxins out after a massage, Liz knows. Yeah, gotta you gotta definitely have that hydration on point. So I would definitely focus on those three things first, um, and then we can move into kind of our second thing, which is different recovery modalities, different recovery things, um, which again kind of has like a precursor. Number one, if you're moving well, technically sound movement in the gym is going to speed run your recovery. So if you have really poor movement mechanics and patterns that you need to like undo, there's gonna be a lot more like stretching and mobility required. Now, some people just have really bad mobility, and that's you know, if you're working on that, like that's awesome, good for you. Keep going. I am one of those people. I have super, super tight hamstrings, but then I also have super mobile hips, so it just kind of depends on the thing. Liz has not mobile hips, but she has left side.
SPEAKER_03:I don't think I have mobile anything.
SPEAKER_00:Liz is pretty tight.
SPEAKER_03:Um, I don't have any mobility, it's terrible.
SPEAKER_00:Anyways, so you do want to make sure you're moving as good as possible, and a lot of these recovery modalities that we'll mention next can help you do that. Um, so what are kind of like some of the favorite things that you like to do? Just because you do more of them. Um I'll save mine.
SPEAKER_03:So I stretch every day, like even if it's just like a little bit, some days are more than others, depending on how I'm feeling, depending on Liz be stretching for like a half right now. When I'm lifting, yeah. Well, most days, yeah. Um I'll usually do a little bit at the gym, kind of in the morning time, to make my body functional for the day. However, sometimes if I have PT clients all morning, I don't get to it until later, but I will usually do something there. Um, usually specifically focused on hips because my hips are stupid tight. And um my back, my like upper mid back is always really tight. So I'll pretty much like always do that at the gym. Um, usually at night as part of my bedtime routine, I will when I'm in bed reading, I will do a little bit of stretching too.
SPEAKER_00:Kind of before or after the sleepy time.
SPEAKER_03:Um depends.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Depends. Sometimes during.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Um, but I'll try and do a little bit just to it does help me kind of like relax too. Um, so I will do a little bit of that. So definitely stretching and then foam rolling, I guess is separate. But it's kind of I do it at the same time.
SPEAKER_00:So trying to get through like so I do those at the same time.
SPEAKER_03:So like I foam roll, and with foam rolling, again, specifically, I do like my adductors and my quads and my calves are like my biggest things. I foam roll and my back. Um and then I get a massage roughly once a month, but I try and do it on my D-load weeks, and I do like so like once a block, I would say. So it's usually like five weeks, actually.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:But like the massages I get are not like relaxing massages, they're like fix-the-problem massages. And which is ironic because then my body has to recover from the massage as well as from the workouts, which is why I try and go at the beginning of D-Load week or at like the end of my last week of training, so that way I have like the whole D-load week to recover from training plus the massage, so then I can start fresh the next block.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And you also have your hydration and nutrition and sleep on point.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah, I do all those.
SPEAKER_00:I thought those were yeah, yeah, but I'm saying that definitely helps when you get the massage, flush everything out, so that way you can actually like get the better.
SPEAKER_03:Sometimes if I don't drink enough water after massage, I get a little bit of a headache.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:A little bit, a little bit.
SPEAKER_00:Um and then so then some other things that we've used in the past and that you use infrequently, uh, would be like cupping. I don't really know when you use that. Sometimes you're like, I need you to cut my back.
SPEAKER_03:Usually, like if my back is just because my back really gets super tight sometimes. I have issues with it, specifically like my thoracic region. Um, the only thing that's ever like fully actually helped that was the dry needling from Lauren when she was here. I've had dry needling from other people before. Well, it has worked in other spots. I've never been able to get my like thoracic to release like I did when she would dry needle me. Um, so that was wonderful. So if you have a Lauren, go ahead and see. If you live in DC, aka a good physical therapist that does really good dry needling. Yeah. Um, that can definitely be helpful. I've done that in the past. Cupping. I've gotten a massage before where they've done cupping, like actual cupping and like moving the cups around. Um I was like black and fire. Um, no, she didn't use fire. I think she just used oil. But there is some that use fire. But the lady I went to didn't. I think she just used oil to like move them. I don't know. It kind of hurt.
SPEAKER_00:I mean you don't use fire to move it.
SPEAKER_03:Well, they like to like make it like suction or whatever.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I think it's like they just use heat.
SPEAKER_03:I don't know. She didn't have those, she has the same ones we have, just like the suction cup ones.
SPEAKER_00:Anyways. Um so no real like schedule on those.
SPEAKER_03:No, that's just like a if I feel like nothing else is seeming to work and I just need my back to kinda get some fresh blood flowing to it, basically.
SPEAKER_00:Cool. Um, all right, so my turn. Um, so the recovery modalities that I do are nothing.
SPEAKER_03:Facts.
SPEAKER_00:So I don't do I'm so bad at this. I don't stretch, I don't foam roll, not for recovery. I use a foam roller to warm up, so there's that. And I have a little warm-up routine.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you do pretty good with that. And like some of that would be considered mobility.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I mean, you could consider that. I consider it a warm-up. It's like a primer in my brain that lets me know it's time to work out.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, but it is also a fun fact for anyone listening. It is technically mobility work.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I do that and I do I don't do anything else. I don't do massages, I don't really like them. Uh I've had them before, don't really like them. I don't really do cupping.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, also, sometimes you don't do this, but sometimes Epsom salt baths, especially if I'm like super achy. That's true.
SPEAKER_00:You do like those.
SPEAKER_03:I'm just sharing ideas that people don't like baths. Oh no.
SPEAKER_00:Liz basically just takes an Epsom salt bath like fully clothed. It's hilarious.
SPEAKER_03:It's like I make myself pretend like it's a hot tub and I wear a swimsuit because I do not like taking baths.
SPEAKER_00:Alright. No baths. Um so, anyways, yeah. For me, I this is uh this is a part of whatever, I don't know, fitness that I am uh lacking in. And I just really I just can never like stick to something. Sometimes I'll do stuff. If I'm hurt, I do everything that I need to do to get myself better. So that's like I'm really good at doing that. I don't like it, but I can do it. Um, but when I'm you know just rocking and rolling, I just am not good at consistently doing something. Nope. Um and it was nice when we had Lauren in house that was sick. Um, that's probably something that I did do for a while consistently. But ever since then, I really have struggled to kind of like come with a routine. So then this week I just decided I don't really know why I decided, but it just popped into my brain that maybe I should start doing some stretching. And I just have no like I was talking about this with somebody the other day, like as I've gotten further and further into the roles of like owning a business and like specifically uh being like a powerlifting coach and personal training and all these things, like my brain has definitely dumped other information, and mobility is one of them. Because ironically, I used to be like fairly well versed in mobility and like foam rolling, and I kind of just knew all this stuff like off the top of my head, and I just don't have that information in my brain anymore.
SPEAKER_02:You gotta think too much, you know.
SPEAKER_00:And then I've tried doing like you know, let me YouTube this, but I just it's again just too much. So so then I decided, you know what, I'm gonna try a like stretching app because I used to use one years and years ago um when they were first starting, to be honest, uh and it was like a CrossFit app. And I was like, I think I I thought that they rebranded, but I couldn't remember if there were still things. I did a little research, long story short, ended up with that same app. Um, it's uh low-key still the best for sure. Um it's awesome. It's called Pliability, and it has so I now do a little program, it's a little stretching program. It's got a workout thingy, stretching thingy, ready for me.
SPEAKER_03:Look, sometimes even coaches need coaches.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. Um and yeah, it's got a little stretching thing for me to do, and it's like between 15 and 20 minutes, I think is like the programs that you can do.
SPEAKER_03:You showed me some, I think some were a little bit longer than that.
SPEAKER_00:I think I need to adjust it because I can do 20. I would prefer to do like the longer ones. Uh, but anyways, I've uh already done it like four days, three days, and I feel great. It's awesome. Um it really I think it's gonna help me out specifically, like scientifically. I think the biggest thing is it's going to actually put me into a like state of not fight or flight.
SPEAKER_02:Um some zest state.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I always get confused between the parasympathetic and sympathetic um nervous system, but I am going to definitely be able to like get out of like the fight or flight mode and chill into actually relaxing, which is very difficult for me. Um but it's nice. I do these little things and I just listen to it and then I do it and then I feel good. So that is gonna be my new thing that I'm doing. Um it does cost money, but I would check it out if you are bad at stretching like me, because it's probably worth it. And it's cheaper than massages and other things.
SPEAKER_02:That's true.
SPEAKER_00:So uh it's not bad, but you do still have to do it. Uh but anyways, yeah. I kind of started on that journey this week. I'm excited to see how it kind of uh builds and helps my training, I'm sure it will help. Um also I think that's always something that's funny to me, is like it's like, oh, I'm a powerful throw, I want to make sure like everything's tight. You can still make sure everything's tight. Look at like the internet and people on the internet that are super flexible but then are lifting like world record weights. There's quite a few of them. Um, and just because your body has like flexibility doesn't mean you can't make it tight. I will say, because of what I just said mentally, where the stretching kind of like takes me, I'm not doing it on any of my three main training days uh because I want to make sure that my body is ready to move weight. So I will not do it on those days. Maybe at nights if I really get into this and really enjoy it. Like afterwards, but I will not do it before or even during the day, and that's just because mentally, like even though I'm not like training until a certain time, in my brain, I'm like, I'm today I'm doing this, you know. So I like to like so I don't want to be like, oh, and then I'm doing the stretching thing. So anyway, so yeah, I started that and I'm pretty excited for it. It's cool.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And if you also struggle with doing mobility, unlike Liz, then maybe check it out.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I did you like I did that ROMWAD for like months. Like I did it. You did it for years. I did it for a long time, and I would do it every day. And I think eventually, like I just kind of learned, which you brain dumped them, but I did not. So I still have most of those stretches like in my brain, essentially. And I honestly do a lot of the stretching that I do came from like the stretches that they're doing on there. I just I guess like pick and choose which ones like I need to do for that day. Well, and I'm really good at how my know how my body feels, and I know what needs to be stretched in that moment.
SPEAKER_00:You also are really good at like because like you also are really good at just doing it, and that's kind of what I'm saying. It's like my weakness is like I just I'm not gonna do it. Like, yeah, and I think it's just like anyone else, like hiring a coach or something like that. Like if I pay for it, I'm doing it. Like, or I'm gonna cancel it. Like, yeah, I am no longer ever gonna be the person who's paying for subscription that they don't use.
SPEAKER_03:So, like that's yeah, I mean it's just like an accountability factor. The same reason why you would hire a coach, a personal trainer, like you need some accountability for it. Cool, here's your accountability.
SPEAKER_00:And so that's what I need because like otherwise, I just like I just don't. I'm like, I could stretch or I could do like there's just so many things that I have on my plate.
SPEAKER_03:And to be fair, yes, there are other things I could be doing besides stretching, but you make it. But also for me, yes, I was just gonna say that. But I've decided that in my life, for what I'm trying to do, I have to make it a priority, or else like I would crumble. Like, I don't think I could still be doing half of what I'm doing right now if I didn't do what I've been doing for recovery.
SPEAKER_00:Little known fact, um because well no, I mean everyone really knows this, but just a quick tidbit. Liz is 36, still getting after it, still encroaching on PRs. Um and you know, for your if you want your body to be able to like perform at these high levels, like no matter the age, but specifically as you do get older, like it definitely matters a lot more.
SPEAKER_03:I turned 30 and my knees started hurting real bad. Yeah, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:My knees start hurting when I was like 18, so I don't know what to tell you on that. Um but anyways, so so yeah, so stay tuned. I'll I'll update you guys if I think about it on here, but you can just follow me on Instagram for more daily updates. And I am excited to be doing something because it's good, I enjoy it, and then I do them and then I feel good at the end.
SPEAKER_03:Crazy. It's like more people should do things that they enjoy that make them feel good.
SPEAKER_00:Um so yeah, so I think that's basically it. Um, make sure you guys are recovering and like prioritizing your recovery just like you would prioritize your workouts.
SPEAKER_03:Um also with prioritizing your workouts, if you are someone that's like, I do all of these things, like I sleep, I eat, I drink, I mobilize, I get massages, I do all of the things, and you're still having a hard time recovering, you might want to talk to your coach about like your programming because you could possibly be doing like too much work for what your body can recover from. Because there are people that I mean, you are an example that can push too hard. Like I 100% could put like probably twice the amount of work in and you would get it all done. You just wouldn't recover, and then your progress would very quickly and rapidly decline.
SPEAKER_00:Um so that's just you could probably put like three times the amount of work in. Yeah, I could just keep going.
SPEAKER_03:You would just do it, but that's not great. So my point is though, like if you are still struggling with your recovery, you feel like you know things are just like always hurting or always tired, and you just can't seem to like ever catch up, maybe just try and have I'm not saying like blame your coach, but like have an open conversation with your coach, like let them know that you're super fatigued all the time, explain your situation, explain what's going on. Um, any coach should be receptive of that and be able to just have a conversation with you about it, um, and then kind of, you know, maybe make a plan from there. Maybe they have other things that they could suggest for you to do for recovery that you're not thinking about. Um, or maybe your workload needs to be managed differently.
SPEAKER_00:I will say though, in my opinion, what you are describing is extremely rare. I think there's a lot of people that maybe aren't recovering well that aren't doing any of the things that we just had mentioned. Yeah, that's not what I'm talking about. I know. I'm just telling you. Because I don't like or I think there's people that maybe like could be like structuring their workouts or whatever, which I guess would be like programming, a little bit differently to help them recover. But what you're saying specifically, I feel like it's hyper specific. I mean maybe like someone that's like already doing all of those things and still not recovering.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I just think I would just make sure you're like working through that. Also, I would like talk with your coach, I guess, and communicate to them, like maybe like well, I was gonna say, maybe not so much about the programming, but like maybe also about like uh those different recovery modes.
SPEAKER_03:Well no, I just meant like talking to your coach like in general about like, hey, you're super fatigued, like what can we do? Yeah, and that's why I said maybe they have some other suggestions for recovery or other things that they might want you to try.
SPEAKER_00:Let me rephrase what I'm talking about. So I think like for like general fitness, I think this is like a hundred percent correct for what Liz is saying. But I do think because I know we do have powerlifters that listen to this, and like some powerlifters that listen to this may want to like take it to the next level. If you want to take it to the next level, your body's gonna be cooked. So even if you're doing all this, you're still gonna be sore. So it's an important conversation to have with your coach for sure. I do agree with Liz. However, you also will have to learn the difference, which maybe this will be another podcast. Learn the difference between like being over-trained and just being like cooked from the week of training. So, because that is a difference. There is a difference between that and one that generally has to do with like numbers actually going down, like you'll be able to tell. Um, but yeah. Um, let me see. Check my notes. Let's see. Check my notes. Um yeah, I think that's basically it though. Okay. Yeah. Hopefully, you guys enjoyed this episode. If you did, please remember to uh like it, share it, uh, subscribe to the podcast if you're not already a subscriber. We'd love to have you on our podcasting journey. I think this is episode 200 and plus something. I think this is like 201. So we're closing in on 365 podcasts.
SPEAKER_03:Oh my god.
SPEAKER_00:What?
SPEAKER_03:What?
SPEAKER_00:One whole year's worth of podcasts.
SPEAKER_03:We're at 200.
SPEAKER_00:If you can't figure out any type of sleeping podcast to listen to, you can always listen to our podcast. Great for sleeping, great for being awake. Either way, you can absorb the information. Um I don't know if Liz is gonna do that. She'll probably stick to her brown noise, but yeah. Uh yeah, we appreciate you guys for listening, tuning in each week. Um, and we appreciate you guys reaching out, letting us know what you like, what you didn't like, what you're looking for in future episodes. Uh so yeah, we enjoy interacting with you guys, and we will see you on the next episode. Peace. Bye.