Finding my way in the world and other adventures
 
New Habit “Monday”: Use a Targeted Recovery Strategy

New Habit “Monday”: Use a Targeted Recovery Strategy

On their best behavior while I was working.
You can barely see the bandages on his tail.

Okay, okay… so I’m a few days late.  It’s been a weird week, made weirder by my weird dog that chewed a chunk off of his tail which required a vet visit.  The best part is that now he gets to wear a Donut of Shame (much like the Cone of Shame, but a little more dog-friendly).

Now that all of us Lean Eaters are into the swing of eating healthy and working out on a regular basis, the next step is to start thinking about recovering from those workouts to maximize the gains we’re working so hard to get.

PN lays out three strategies:

  1. Take BCAAs after workouts
  2. Eat an LE-friendly postworkout meal
  3. Do another form of purposeful recovery
I’m not entirely sure what I make of #1.  I know I made a promise to keep an open mind about anything that the program throws at me, but I’m feeling some resistance and push-back from my head on this one.  Mostly it’s saying:  “But you don’t work out hard enough to warrant supplements!”.  So, I don’t know.  I haven’t run out to buy any to try out yet, so that gives you an idea of where I stand on that at the moment.

(to be fair, I’m working from home this week, so aside from the vet visit, I haven’t actually left the house once, so a run to get supplements isn’t in the future)

The other two?  Sure, they make sense to me.  Eating a good protein + smart carbs after working out is something that I’ve had in my bag of tricks for awhile now.  And as far as #3 goes, more recovery in the form of stretching, foam rolling, meditation, etc can never hurt.

I’m not convinced about the BCAAs but I’m going to noodle the idea around for awhile and once I decide to leave the house, maybe I’ll swing by my local GNC and pick up a bottle just to try it out.  I’m not paying money for coaching advice to ignore it — I need to keep reminding myself of that.