Recovery: A Hidden Ancient Rhythm

REFLECTIONS IN MOTION

Talking recovery through the lens of purpose

When I was having trouble last week with finding the balance between recovery and training, I stumbled across a philosophical concept from the time of the Stoics.

To reach one’s full potential was, in their view, one of the highest aims in life. They searched for a word to capture that pursuit. A life lived with intention, discipline, and excellence.

The word they landed on was arete.

It wasn’t just about winning or being the best. It was about becoming the most complete version of yourself. This idea of arete helped me rethink what recovery is. Not just rest, but a part of the climb.

Why should you care about recovery?

For the Greeks and Stoics, the pursuit of Arete was not a straight upward climb. This pursuit was a rhythm. The following three principles form the foundation of Arete:

• Ponos - the struggle. For us athletes, this is the training.

• Anapausis - the rest. For us athletes, this is the rest.

• Kalos kagathos - to be ‘‘noble and good’’. For us athletes, this is the way we behave inside and outside the game.

In light of these three principles, you can see that recovery isn’t separate from the work; it’s part of it. Recovery and work shouldn’t battle each other for your time. They should work together in harmony to help you conquer your goals.

Where recovery often goes wrong

When I see athletes struggle with recovery, they often recover too little or too much.

By recovering too little, your body doesn’t get the time to repair the damage from training, and it builds up. After a couple of workouts without enough rest, you risk overtraining.

You also have other athletes who take the other side by resting too much. Resting too much won’t damage your body, but it will damage your long-term performance. You’re training too little to get adaptations.

Be honest, are you overtraining because you’re scared to slow down? Or undertraining because comfort feels safer than progress?

THIS WEEK’S STOIC INSIGHT

A moment this week that taught me something

Live from Eindhoven, Netherlands

This Sunday morning, I came off the train at the station while listening to some music. I saw a shabby young man coming towards me, talking while smoking a cigarette, but I couldn’t hear him because of the music. My first instinct was to ignore him, but I didn’t. I stopped my music, and he asked if he could call his mother because she was picking him up. I chose to help him.

As I was walking off, this quote from Marcus Aurelius came to mind:
"Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one."

We often say we’ll help when someone needs it, but the real test is in the moment. That’s when it counts. Your actions are who you are.
A small act of kindness might cost you nothing, but it can mean everything to someone else. It leaves you with something even more valuable: a deep sense that you did the right thing.

How to recover the right way

Whether you’re doing too much or too little, the answer isn’t universal. Because recovery is a personal thing. Anyone who says there’s one best way to recover is selling you something. The truth? What works is what works for you, and that takes trial, error, and honesty.

I can tell you how I approach recovery, and it may work for you, but it might just as well not. Finding out what works will be trial and error. Many factors will weigh in, like weight, age, intensity of workouts, daily tasks, enz.

There are some general guidelines you can use to program your recovery, like stretching, foam rolling, good nutrition with high protein, and drinking enough water. But recovery isn’t about copying what’s popular. It’s about learning what your body needs to perform at its best. Because if you want to train hard, you need to recover even harder.

If I could follow only one rule for planning my recovery, it would be this

There’s a lot of information out there about recovery. If I had to follow just one rule, it’d be this:
Never train the same muscles two days in a row.

How you fill in the recovery is up to you. But this one rule will help you build structure into your rest.

I give each muscle group at least a day off. That doesn’t mean full rest, I just train a different group. For example: chest on Tuesday, back on Wednesday, then chest again on Thursday.

This way, I give my muscles enough time to recover while still getting all my workouts in to make progress.

Because in the pursuit of arete, rest isn’t the opposite of work, it’s part of it. Recovery is not stepping away from your potential. It’s what allows you to reach it.

TRAINING IN PRACTICE

What I’m Building With

▶ Current exercise I am testing out: Sled push during my leg day

▶ What I am reading: Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield

▶ Current clean protein snack: A whole avocado

▶ One quote I am obsessed with: ‘‘Man must have enough faith in himself to have adventures, and just enough doubt of himself to enjoy them’’

END ON PURPOSE

One question to ask yourself…

What would you do to make today horrible?

An interesting question to ask because it makes you reflect on what you shouldn’t do instead of should do. It’s often easier to avoid bad decisions than to make perfect ones. That’s why this question works: it exposes the traps, not just the goals.

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