Recovery is key to mental and physical health

“There is one thing that I am better at than anyone in the world, and that is recovery.”

• Eddie Hall, the only person to deadlift 500kg (1100 pounds)

So, you just finished a hard exercise session. The degree to which you will benefit from that physical stress is the degree to which you recover from it. If you don’t recover 100% before your next session, then you will decrease your physical health.

So, you just finished a hard day of knowledge work, creating and solving challenging problems. The degree to which you will benefit from that mental stress is the degree to which you recover from it. If you don’t recover 100% before your next knowledge work session, then you will decrease your mental health.

I have listened to Eddie Hall talk about all the recovery techniques that he does – massage, hot-cold therapy, shockwave therapy, oxygen therapy, foam rolling, chiropractic, and others. Very impressive. I understand why he is the best in the world at physical recovery. I am incorporating more and more recovery techniques in my daily routine.

To recover from mental stress, lately I have been reading mystery novels. I have found that beneficial. I can approach my knowledge work with a fresh (recovered) mind.

Body temperature after a hard workout and body temperature after soaking in a cold bath

Lately I have been taking a cold bath each evening. As the weather gets cooler it is becoming more and more difficult to motivate myself to continue taking the cold baths, even though I feel fantastic after taking them.

So today I decided to take a different tact: I would take a cold bath immediately after working out.

I did a hard workout and by the time that I was done I was sweating pretty good; then I immediately jumped into a cold bath that I had previously prepared, and soaked in it for 15 minutes. Ah, I felt wonderful.

Now this is really interesting: I took my body temperature immediately after working out (before jumping into the cold bath) and it was 94.1 degrees. Then I took my body temperature immediately after soaking in the cold bath for 15 minutes and it was 97.1 degrees. Isn’t that fascinating? Apparently, when one works up a sweat, the body responds by cooling down the inside; and when one cools the outer body, the body responds by heating up the inside.