Recovery as the Limiting Factor

As you age, stressful events occur in your life (even if they’re positive, like having a baby), and your priorities change, your recovery (and thus your adaptation) capacity changes.

To move toward your goal and stay healthy, maximizing recovery may make sense.

This area, though, often comes with harder-to-crack psychological underpinnings. On some level, you like to and are used to your habits (even if you are unhappy with where they have led you).

Ensuring you get enough protein and consistently eat high quality foods matters. Prioritize sleep (which comes with a host of habits you can build around sleep). Limit alcohol. Don’t pursue the unimportant and non-urgent in your life.

A new approach to training, especially in more stressful times of life, may need to occur. Building in some autoregulation and not beating yourself up if you don’t do what is programmed (the planned stress) matters.

For example, Niki and her sister were on vacation. They went to the gym and Niki’s sister did her last warm up and it was way heavier than expected. Niki decided to decrease the weight. The win was completing the workout, not beating themselves up about the weight on the bar, and not grinding out reps unnecessarily.

Recovery as the limiting factor is an important topic that needs more serious consideration.