Today’s topic: Good To Go – What The Athlete In All Of Us Can Learn From The Strange Science Of Recovery, by Christie Aschwanden
In this book, the author dives into all of the claims that have been made in the fitness and recovery industry. She investigates everything from from the birth and growth of Gatorade, nutritional bars, blood lab work, sauna and cryogenic chambers, sleep, and most importantly – “recovery beer.”
The book is fascinating and insightful with humor and worth the read. The author offers objective data on this multi-million dollar fitness industry side show and how it’s littered with unproven concepts that all of us have fallen for.
There are two main takeaways we wanted to share with you.
1) Sleep is your #1 recovery supplement, tool, strategy, and priority. There is nothing more beneficial to your performance in life than getting adequate sleep.
Whatever you’re doing or looking into for improved performance, analyze your quality of sleep first.
2) With all of the Garmin watches, Oura rings, Whoop straps and other devices in the market – no matter what they’re showing you, your intuition knows more than those devices on what your exercise intensity should be based on your recovery.
Don’t let one of these devices steer you from having a strong training session if they tell you you’re not recovered. If you feel good, go for it.
On the flip side, if you feel like crap but you’re seeing data that shows you’re recovered and ready, listen to your body. Run through a mobility session, neural charge program, or a lighter version of the session you had planned, or skip it all together and go for a walk or do some steady state heart rate conditioning.
Those devices all have their own proprietary algorithm and they’re designed to give estimates and cannot accurately determine exactly where you’re at.
And without actually monitoring your brain waves, they aren’t able to determine what stage of sleep you’re in.
If you want to hear the author speak about the book, our friends Eric Dagati and Mike Perry interviewed Christie on their Principles Of Program Design podcast. You can listen here.
Thanks for allowing us to share this book review with you today. We hope you found it helpful.
As a “bonus,” check out the video below about how to begin practicing the Kettlebell 1-Arm Clean if that is a skill and movement you want to to add to your arsenal or if you’re looking to refine your technique.