November 6, 2025 • 38 mins
In this final episode of our recovery series, we’re diving into one of the most overlooked — yet absolutely essential — parts of recovery: your nervous system.
So often, runners think recovery is just about foam rolling, stretching, and getting enough sleep. But real recovery goes deeper. It’s about helping your body and mind shift out of “go mode” and into a state where true repair can happen.
Here’s what we cover in this episode:
🧠 Your nervous system’s role in recovery – How your body’s “fight or flight” and “rest and repair” modes affect how well you bounce back from training.
🍎 The nutrition connection – Why fueling with enough protein and carbohydrates isn’t just about energy — it’s about giving your body what it needs to rebuild stronger.
😩 The stress factor – How life stress impacts your running recovery (and why you can’t separate the two).
💨 Tools to calm your system – Simple, actionable techniques like intentional breathing, gentle movement, and mindfulness to help you tap into your parasympathetic system and recover more efficiently.
💤 Recovery as a lifestyle – How nutrition, stress management, and quality sleep work together to support your performance, prevent burnout, and keep you running strong for years to come.
Recovery isn’t just what you do after your run — it’s how you live in between the miles.
🎧 Tune in to learn how to work with your nervous system, not against it, so you can train smarter, recover faster, and run stronger — for the long run.
01:40 The Role of the Nervous System in Recovery
03:12 Nutrition: The Foundation of Recovery
08:29 The Importance of Protein and Carbohydrates
10:29 Understanding Low Energy Availability
18:02 Stress Management for Optimal Recovery
25:46 Breathing Techniques for Recovery
28:59 The Critical Role of Sleep
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker (00:01):
Welcome back to the Real Life Runners podcast,
episode number 434.
Today we're continuing ourrecovery series with our final
episode all about the nervoussystem because so many runners
think that recovery means foamrolling or sleeping in, but some
of the most powerful recoverywork actually happens at your
dinner table, in your mind, andof course in your nervous
(00:22):
system.
So we've already talked about.
Active and passive recovery.
We've talked a little bit aboutre recovery 1 0 1, the science
of Recovery.
In episode one, we've talkedabout, these, the recovery tools
like heat and cold andcompression and massage.
And today we're gonna go deeperinto what actually fuels your
(00:43):
recovery and allows yourrecovery to happen, and that is
your nervous system.
So stay tuned.
(01:11):
What's up runners?
Welcome back to the show.
I am happy to be doing episodefour.
You notice I said happy and notexcited.
I notice that I like, say I'm soexcited that we're doing this,
and it's yes, I am.
I feel like I'm always excitedwhen it comes to the podcast
when I get to connect with allof you listeners out there.
Thank you so much to all of youthat listen every week and that
(01:32):
share this podcast with afriend.
Thank you for all of you thathave left a review, because our
goal, our mission in this worldand in this business is to help
more runners to feel good intheir running so that people can
run for decades, not just do.
A marathon and be done.
We want people to understand howgood running is for you and how
(01:52):
to run in a very sustainable wayto not only improve your
performance, but also improveyour overall health and your
longevity in the sport.
So today we're talking about thenervous system because so many
runners don't realize thatwhat's happening in the body
when we recover, this is notjust physical, this is
neurological.
(02:12):
And I have talked about thenervous system throughout this
recovery series and.
Started to talk about thesympathetic nervous system
versus the parasympatheticnervous system and how we want
to be able, we want our body tobe able to switch from
sympathetic into parasympathetic'cause that parasympathetic
nervous system is our rest anddigest our recovery and repair
system.
(02:33):
So today we're gonna be talkingabout how nutrition and stress
and nervous system balance helpto drive your recovery, help to
improve your adaptation toexercise, which is exactly what
you want, and how that alsoimproves your performance and
how to.
Optimize these factors daily,not just after workouts, because
your recovery is not just aboutwhat you do in the 30 to 60
(02:56):
minutes after your workout.
It's about what you do the restof the day.
It's how you live your lifebecause all of that matters.
And that fits perfectly withexactly everything that we do
here at Real Life Runnersbecause.
Your running is a part of yourreal life, and the two have to
work together, otherwise there'sgonna be a mismatch.
And when that mismatch happens,that's often when injury occurs.
(03:17):
That's when plateau happens.
That's when people start to losetheir love and their joy for
running.
So we always wanna make surethat there is that match.
There's a match between the waythat you're exercising, the way
that you're running, and what'shappening in your real life.
Because that mismatches what wewant to avoid.
So let's start with some of thefoundational concepts here, with
(03:39):
nutrition and reallyunderstanding what are the
foundational concepts ofrecovery when it comes to
nutrition.
So all of this, everything thatwe do in our life, in our
training and including ourrecovery, requires energy.
And energy comes from food.
And so if we are not eatingenough food.
(04:02):
We are not able to recover inthe way that's going to allow
our body to adapt properly toexercise.
And when we talk about fueling,a lot of times runner runners
think about making sure theyhave enough fuel on board for
their workout, right?
Making sure a lot of runnersthink about it, mostly with long
runs.
So if you're running halfmarathons or longer, you think
(04:23):
about, okay, making sure to getenough fuel on your run.
But we need to think aboutnutrition before, during, and
after your run, to make surethat our bodies don't fall into
what's called low energyavailability.
That is a state that our bodiescan fall into, and that's when
your body does not get enoughfuel to cover both exercise and
(04:44):
your basic life functions.
So your body requires a certainamount of energy, a k, a
calories to live every day toperform certain bodily functions
like to a.
Allow your brain to work, toallow your heart and your lungs
and your digestion and yourmuscles just to walk around your
house and like to do all ofthese regular daily tasks
(05:06):
require energy.
And if you then add exercise ontop of that and you're running
and you're strength training andyou're doing all the quote
unquote things you're supposedto be doing, you have to
understand that also requiresmore energy.
And so if you're not eatingenough, if you are not providing
your body with the adequateamount of energy, AKA food,
(05:27):
fuel, calories, your body can gointo a state of low energy
availability.
And low energy availability canlead to hormone disruption.
It can lead to slower musclerepair.
It can lead to poor sleep and anincreased energy risk.
And this is actually.
Even more common, believe it ornot, in women that are over 40
(05:51):
because there's a lot of womenthat unintentionally under fuel.
Okay, lemme say that again.
Unintentionally under fuel.
They don't realize that they'reunder fueling because of maybe a
slower metabolism because ofwhat's happening with the
hormonal changes that we'reexperiencing in perimenopause
and menopause and even more.
(06:12):
The biggest thing that I thinkthat leads to under fueling in
runners and in athletes is thismentality of eat less and move
more.
This has been the mentality thatwe have been ingrained with for
decades.
I am a child of the eighties,and so I grew up in the eighties
and the nineties when dietculture, I think was really at
(06:33):
its peak.
everything was about.
Eating less.
It was about Weight Watchers andJenny Craig and, all the
different diet pills out thereand all the different exercise
fads out there.
And this is the way we grew up.
We were, we grew up thinkingthat the way to get skinnier,
the way to lose weight, the wayto feel good about our body is
to eat less and move more.
(06:54):
That has been a message that hasbeen ingrained in us, especially
as women since we were younger.
And that mentality, if we carrythat into endurance training.
You as a runner are an enduranceathlete and you have to start
thinking your of yourself as anathlete.
This is actually one of thefoundational concepts inside of
(07:14):
our Running Reconnected programbecause if you don't think of
yourself as an athlete, and ifyou just think of running as a
way to lose weight or running asa way too.
Have the body that you wannahave, the chances of low energy
availability, the chances of youunder fueling yourself increase.
I think, I don't know if that'sever been proven in the
(07:36):
research.
I'm gonna have to look that up.
Maybe I'll do my own researchstudy on it.
But it really comes from thismentality of I just need to eat
less and move more.
And so many women fall into thistrap even worse after 40 because
with the hormone changes that weexperience in perimenopause and
men.
Perimenopause and postmenopause.
(07:57):
When your estrogen declines, oneof the results of that is that a
lot of women tend to gain bellyfat.
More weight is deposited aroundthe belly.
And so when women notice thosechanges and they start to notice
that they're getting more fataround the belly that they don't
want, what's the first thingthat they do?
What's the first thing that wehave been taught to do?
(08:21):
We have been taught to restrictour calories.
I need to go on a diet, I needto avoid carbs.
And some of those things are oneof, are the worst things to do
for you as a runner, especiallyif you are trying to improve
your performance in any way.
Now, I'm not saying you have togo out and be winning marathons
when it comes to performance,but if you want to train for a
(08:42):
longer race than you've everdone before, if you're trying to
pr.
And run faster than you everhave before.
That is a performance goal.
You want to perform, your bodyneeds fuel to perform, and that
really starts with eating enoughoverall, especially protein and
carbohydrates to support yourtraining because protein is the
(09:04):
building block of muscle.
So when we work out, we arebreaking the body down, and it
is during rest and recovery thatbody builds back stronger than
it was before.
Your muscles repair themselves,your tissues repair, but they
can only repair if you give themthe building blocks, the cement,
the glue, the nails, all of thetools that they need to support.
(09:26):
Recovery and to support thatrepair.
And protein is the buildingblock of muscle.
So if you're not getting enoughprotein, your body doesn't have
what it needs to build strongermuscles.
So we should be aiming for onegram of protein per pound of
ideal body weight per day.
Okay, so if, for example, yourideal weight is 130 pounds, you
(09:50):
should be aiming for 130 gramsof protein per day.
Now, some people, when I saythat, they think, holy crap,
that's a crazy number.
If that's, so say right now, youstart tracking your protein and
you just see where you are andyou realize that you're only
eating about 60 grams ofprotein, which is probably about
average.
if most, if you're notintentionally eating protein,
(10:12):
there's a very high chance thatyou are not getting enough
protein.
And because in order to get 130grams of protein and really, I
would say anything over ahundred grams of protein, you
have to be very intentionalabout getting that protein in.
One of the first steps would beto start tracking, to see where
you are right now, and thengradually continuing to add
protein.
Okay?
So make that your goal.
(10:34):
Carbohydrates replenishglycogen, and glycogen is your
body's stored form of glucose,and glucose is your body's
preferred source of fuel,especially in running.
So we need carbohydrates becausecarbohydrates provide.
The fuel for us on the run, andthere's a lot of people that
(10:54):
say, oh, I wanted to go low carbbecause I want my body to burn
more fat while I'm running.
And in theory that soundswonderful, but scientifically,
physiologically, that's notactually what happens in the
body.
Your body wants to burn glucose,so it's going to burn up the
glucose.
And glucose is actually.
the, the flame starter, I forgetwhat it's called.
(11:16):
I need Kevin here to remind meof these words that I forget
about sometimes.
the lighter fluid, that's the,what, that's the word I'm
looking for.
I'm like, on the grill, you putthe stuff on the grill to
kickstart it.
carbohydrates, glucose is thelighter fluid that allows your
body to start burning fat moreeffectively, right?
So these are two differentenergy systems, but we need
both.
(11:36):
You need both.
As a runner, as an enduranceathlete, you want to be.
Using carbohydrates and fat forfuel.
And also, I just have to pointout here too, just because
you're burning fat in a workoutdoesn't mean you're actually
losing body fat.
That's a really importantdistinction that not a lot of
people realize.
They think, oh, if I can justburn more fat, then I will be
(11:58):
losing body fat.
And that's not always the case.
That's not exactly how it works.
So we need carbohydrates.
Are really good before a run,before a workout because that is
that fuel that we need to powerour workout.
They're great during a workout,especially a longer endurance
run or a longer workout.
And then they're really usefulafter the run to help replenish
(12:21):
the glycogen.
And it can also help to loweryour cortisol levels post-run
because when you get thatcarbohydrate in and you're
putting that fuel back in, yourbody gets the message that it's
safe and that fuel is comingback in.
We, it can help to naturallylower our cortisol levels after
the run as well.
And we also want to be eatingfats, healthy fats to help
(12:42):
support your hormones and alsohelp to support cellular repair.
One of the things that peopledon't realize that fats do is
fats are very important for yournervous system.
They hope to, There's a liningon all of your nerves in your
brain and throughout your bodycalled myelin.
And myelin is made of fat.
So we need healthy fats to helpsupport our nervous system
(13:04):
because that myelin sheath thatsurrounds your nerves helps the
messages from your brain andyour body to travel faster.
So when you're, those messagestravel faster, your body's able
to respond more quickly.
You're able to have morecoordination and more balance
and more speed and more power,which all we need all of that.
(13:25):
We want all of that too.
And then we also wanna thinkabout, so those are the three
big macronutrients, protein,carbohydrates, and fats.
We need them all.
And then we also need to thinkabout micronutrients as well.
So things like iron, magnesium,zinc, calcium, B vitamins are
also very important in recovery.
So recovery is not just aboutwhat you're doing right after
(13:47):
your run or right after yourstrength workout.
It's what you're doing all day.
It's what you're putting on yourplate all day to support your
body's recovery, because it'snot like your body just.
It recovers in that 30 to 60minutes after your workout.
It's recovering all day long,and you know this, if you've
ever been sore after a workoutor the next day, your body's
still repairing itself.
(14:08):
I did a heavy lift yesterday.
I did a bunch of squats and Idid a lot of glute work, and I'm
feeling it today.
If you've ever, noticed thatit's a little harder to get up
and down off the toilet or upand down off of a chair the next
day after a strength workout,that's your body.
Because repairing itself,because you broke those tissues
down in the workout the daybefore.
(14:30):
And so sometimes recovery takesmore than a couple of hours.
Sometimes it takes 24, 48, 72hours.
Like it can take time dependingon how much damage you've done
to your body.
If you've are, go out and run amarathon or an ultra marathon,
it's gonna take days for yourbody to recover, even weeks.
For some people to fully recoverafter a marathon, you get most
(14:53):
of the recovery.
Occurs within the first week,but some people can take a good
two to three weeks foreverything in the body to really
go back to baseline.
So it's very important that weare both fueling our workout and
making sure that we are gettingin that fuel after recco or
after the workout.
Now, there has been a lot ofquestions and debate about this
(15:16):
timing window of is there anideal recovery window for eating
after a workout?
And the answer is mixed outthere.
But most experts agree thatthere is not a strict window
with which we need to get in,the fuel because our body, like
I just mentioned, is recoveringfor hours afterwards.
(15:38):
So we need to be, it's moreimportant about what we're doing
throughout that whole day versuswhat we get in just in that 30
to 60 minutes afterwards.
However, with that being said.
If you remember what I just saidearlier is that when we eat
carbohydrates after a workout,it helps to lower cortisol
levels.
Same thing with protein.
So when we eat protein andcarbohydrates specifically after
(16:01):
a workout, it helps to shift ourbody from that sympathetic mode
into parasympathetic mode, whichis what we want.
We want to shift out of thatfight or flight, that stress,
that running and workout, right?
When you're working out.
You are in sympathetic mode.
We wanna get back over intoparasympathetic mode so that
your body can digest and repairand recover and when you eat.
(16:25):
So the sooner you eat, thesooner your body's able to
switch over into parasympatheticmode.
And that's a good thing, right?
So it's not that there needs tobe this strict recovery window,
but you should try to get infuel as quickly as you can, just
so that you can shift over.
So that your body starts torepair and go through the
adaptation that you want it todo from the exercise.
(16:47):
When we exercise, we're lookingfor our bodies to adapt, okay?
So when we eat protein andcarbohydrates, this can
together.
That can accelerate muscleprotein synthesis and also.
Restore glycogen levels, right?
So if we are skipping ordelaying things that can prolong
the stress response.
(17:07):
So it's not that this is like abad thing, it's not that you're
gonna miss your recovery window,it's just that the sooner you
eat, the sooner your body canstart repairing itself, and
that's a beautiful thing.
Okay, so that's really what thebig main ideas around nutrition
and.
So to summarize all of that,make sure that you're eating
(17:27):
enough and make sure that you'regetting enough protein and
carbohydrates especially, butalso healthy fats are very
important as well.
Because one of the biggestmistakes I see is just runners
not eating enough.
believe it or not, right?
there's so many people out therethat I'm eating too much.
That's why I'm gaining weight.
Probably not, probably, you'renot fueling your body well
enough.
You're either not eating enoughoverall, or you're not giving
(17:48):
your body what it actuallyneeds, when it needs it, and so
you end up binging later in theday.
That is going to lead to theoverconsumption of calories that
can lead to the weight gain.
Because if you fuel the bodybetter earlier and you gave your
body more of the protein and thecarbs that it needs, when it
needs it, you're gonna be muchless likely to binge eat at any
(18:10):
point in time.
All right.
Sip of coffee time.
Alrighty.
Now we wanna talk about one of,I would say the most overlooked.
Pieces of the recovery equation,and that is stress.
Stress is extremely importantfor us to be aware of and for us
(18:36):
to learn how to manage in ourlives, not just for our overall
health and wellbeing, because weare starting to realize just how
detrimental chronic levels ofstress can be on the body.
Including the weight gain thatnobody wants, right?
People don't understand how muchweight they're probably holding
onto because of chronic stressin their life, but stress is
(18:59):
something that we need to bevery aware of, especially as
runners, because running andexercise and lifting weights and
doing all of our training, thoseare all forms of intentional
stress that we're adding to ourbody because we can, lots of
different things are allconsidered stress, and so I like
to think of stress.
(19:20):
As a bucket.
Okay.
This is one of the metaphorsthat I've come up with
throughout my time in coaching.
and I think it's a reallyhelpful way to, to view this.
So imagine that your body is abucket and your recovery is a
bucket that fills with alldifferent types of stress.
So physical stress, likerunning, lifting.
(19:40):
All the things that wephysically go through.
Emotional stress, mental stress,hormonal family, friendships,
finances, psychological, likeall of these different stresses
that come into our life.
Bathroom renovations on myaccount.
All of these things are forms ofstress and all forms of stress
(20:01):
go into the same stress bucket.
So when you are just loadingstress into that bucket, it's
not gonna be long before thatbucket overflows.
And that's where we have tounderstand that like your body,
your nervous system doesn'tunderstand the difference
between different types ofstress.
So physical stress of runningand lifting and those kinds of
(20:24):
things, arguably is a goodstress that we are intentionally
adding to our body and to oursystem.
And I would agree with youthere.
However, if we are so overloadedwith all the other stresses,
then sometimes training justbecomes one more stress.
It's just adding more to ourbucket.
And recovery is what?
(20:44):
Starts to poke holes in thebucket.
It's what allows us to startemptying that bucket so that we
don't overflow.
Because if our stress bucketoverflows, that's when we end up
injured.
That's when we end up sick.
That's when we, things end up,we end up with panic attacks or
other psychological issues, orjust overwhelm and burnout.
So all of these different typesof stress are filling your
(21:08):
bucket and recovery is how youdrain it.
So if your bucket is alreadyoverflowing, adding more
training does not make youstronger.
It just makes you more stressedand more stress is just going to
increase your risk of injury andburnout in illness and all of
these.
And this matters even more ifyou're a runner over 40.
(21:29):
Because estrogen andprogesterone help to modulate
that stress response.
Estrogen has a controllingeffect on cortisol.
Cortisol is your stress hormone.
Estrogen helps you keep cortisolin check and controlled.
And so as we lose estrogen, ourcortisol levels are naturally
higher because they don't havethe guard dog of estrogen
(21:52):
watching over it.
So as those estrogen levelsdecline, cortisol can remain
more elevated for a longerperiod of time, and this chronic
stress state is what becomesproblematic.
Cortisol itself is not aproblem.
Cortisol is a hormone that doesa lot of good things in our
body.
We need cortisol.
Cortisol is not bad.
(22:13):
Chronic cortisol, chronic levelsof elevated cortisol due to
chronic stress.
That's what can be very damagingto the body.
'cause that shifts your bodyinto a stress state or a
catabolic state, which is whereyour body just breaks itself
down.
And that is not what we want.
That's where you, again, startto get injured.
(22:34):
You start to see yourperformance decline, and you
start to see ripples in otherareas of your life as well.
You'll notice that you're nothaving as much patience with
your kids, that you cry for noreason that you're having
significant mood swings.
And a lot of people say, this isdue to perimenopause and this is
why.
It's because when we go throughperimenopause.
Our estrogen levels are notcontrolling our cortisol levels
(22:57):
anymore.
And all of these hormonal shiftsand things are happening within
our body and our body goeshaywire, and it's this chronic
stress that we don't know how tohandle that's causing a lot of
these other things to occur,like the increased belly fat or
the mood swings or the brainfog.
All of these symptoms ofperimenopause are mostly from a
(23:18):
stressed out nervous system inmy opinion.
yes, there are actual.
Things that the hormones do andcontrol.
But the big thing I think is be,is their effect on the nervous
system.
And so our nervous system isjust like in a chronic state of
stress, and this is why.
Your recovery matters even moreafter 40.
(23:40):
So it's not that all of a suddenwhen you're over 40, you need to
completely start trainingdifferently.
You need completely differentthings.
We need all the same things.
We just don't have the samebuffer that we used to have
before.
We just have to have much more,we have to be more intentional
with our recovery choices.
When.
We are over 40, so some of theways that you might notice that
(24:03):
you have an overloaded stressresponse or an overloaded
nervous system.
Things like waking up during thenight.
If you're always waking up at3:00 AM If you are having sugar
cravings, if you're tired allthe time, even though you're
getting seven or eight hours ofsleep, you notice that tired but
wired feeling, you feel like I'mso exhausted and I also can't go
(24:24):
to sleep.
I can't come down because I'mjust like wired and anxious all
the time.
You might notice slower recoveryand mood swings and brain fog.
Again, these symptoms that are.
Symptoms that mimicperimenopause as well, and this
is why it can get very tricky inthat.
And this is why nervous systemregulation is so important in
(24:45):
our recovery and our performanceas runners and as healthy human
beings in this world as well.
So recovery requires thatparasympathetic state that rest
and digest, but so many runnersand so many people.
Today are living in this chronicstate of sympathetic activation
that go.
(25:05):
I always have to be going likeand I think that smartphones and
things like this and the 24 hournews cycle all are contributing
to this.
There's so many reasons that weare just stuck in this state of
sympathetic activation andchronic stress.
But without the ability to shiftstates, the body cannot
(25:26):
efficiently digest, repairtissue, or regulate hormones.
You cannot recover in this samestate that you train in.
We train in a sympathetic state.
We recover in a parasympatheticstate.
We need the ability to shiftfrom one to the other.
And that's where so many runnersare falling short, is that they
(25:47):
have, they go from running.
To work, to kids, to this, tothat.
Now I'm on my phone and I'mgetting 27 notifications every
10 minutes.
Like all of these things arekeeping us in that chronic state
of sympathetic activation.
So we have to be veryintentional to get ourselves
into that parasympatheticsystem.
(26:07):
And one of the best ways to dothis, one of the things I teach
all of my clients is breathing.
Because your breath is alwayswith you.
If you just take 10 secondsright now, I'm gonna actually be
quiet right now for 10 secondsand I'm just going to encourage
you to breathe, okay?
So just take a 10 seconds hereand take a deep breath in and
(26:34):
then take a deep breath out.
One more deep breath in and deepbreath out.
And you can count if you wantto.
There's a, there's techniquescalled box breathing where you
inhale for four seconds, hold itfor four seconds, exhale for
four seconds, and then hold itfor four seconds.
(26:55):
There's 4, 6, 8, breathing.
There's all sorts of differentbreathing techniques that you
can do, but just taking.
30 seconds, a minute, twominutes, five minutes to just
sit and take some deep breathscan totally transform and help
to regulate your nervous system.
(27:17):
It is one of the most powerfultools that we have to recover.
And so this is again, anotherreason.
That I encourage cool downs andbreathing after a run or after a
workout.
If you just take a couple ofminutes to just breathe before
you jump in your car and runhome and get the kids to school,
(27:38):
like I get it.
Like I woke up at five thismorning, I was running by five
30 with my friends.
Like we take a couple of minutesafter our run.
To do some stretching, to justbreathe, to reset ourselves
before we jump in our cars andgo home.
'cause when I get home, I haveto make lunches, I have to make
breakfast, I have to get thekids off to school, make sure
everybody's good, and then wegotta go again, right?
(28:01):
Then we're off to work, thenwe're here.
Then we're taking the card inFor an oil change, there's all
the different things that wehave to do.
So taking time throughout yourday to intentionally breathe and
reset your system can make aworld of difference in.
How you feel overall in your dayand also the progress that
you're making in you're running.
It's crazy and people don'tusually believe me when I tell
(28:25):
them that, but breathing is suchan underrated tool that you can
start using right now.
you can also do things likemeditation.
You can, be out in nature.
Walking barefoot in the grass.
there's a term nowadays that allthe kids are using, to go touch
grass, right?
But it's actually very goodadvice.
Go touch grass, right?
Go let your body connect withthe earth.
(28:48):
There's something very groundingabout that can help your nervous
system.
prayer things like gentlemobility or yoga.
All of these ways that we canjust pause and breathe and get
ourselves.
Out of sympathetic activationand into parasympathetic
activation and parasympatheticmode will help your body recover
(29:09):
and will help you to be a betterrunner.
It's worth it, and it also willhelp you in so many other areas
of your life that I canguarantee.
the last thing I wanna justtouch on real quick is sleep.
And sleep is one of thosethings.
I know I talked a lot aboutsleep in episode number one.
(29:29):
But we always have to go back tosleep because sleep is the
foundation of both physical andemotional recovery.
Sleep helps you consolidate yourmemory.
It helps to stabilize your mood.
It helps to regulate cortisollevels and emotional stress
impacts your recovery just asmuch as physical fatigue.
Remember going back to thatrecovery bucket that we're
(29:51):
talking about.
So how do these things worktogether?
Like just the things that I wasjust talking about with
breathing and helping your bodyshift into a parasympathetic
state.
When you can pair that withsleep, doing those things before
bed, things like reading orjournaling, gratitude, breath
work, limiting your screen time,all of those things will help
(30:12):
your body get into thatparasympathetic state before
bed, which is going to allow youto fall asleep and stay asleep
even better.
All of these things areconnected, and that is such a
beautiful thing.
So what do we need to take awayfrom this episode and from this
really this whole recoveryseries, right?
(30:34):
Hopefully you now understand howimportant your recovery is.
if not, if you've listened toall four of my recovery episodes
and you don't understand howimportant recovery is, then I
have not done a good job.
Recovery is super important andyou cannot forego recovery.
You cannot just continue totrain your way to better
performance.
(30:54):
You, your training has to bebalanced with your recovery.
Okay.
Sleep is the first thing.
Sleep is number one.
Nutrition, very important.
We have to be fueling our body.
We want to be making sure thatwe are eating enough before,
during, and after your workout.
Eating the balanced meals.
Okay.
(31:14):
Making sure that you're gettingenough sleep.
Did I already say that If I did,I'm just gonna keep saying it
because sleep is so foundationalhere.
Okay.
and then getting back into.
Nervous system regulation,really understanding the role
that your nervous system playsin on your physical recovery.
so many people think abouttraining and they only think
about the musculoskeletalsystem.
(31:35):
They think about the muscles andthe bones and the tissue and the
fascia and the tendons and theligaments and all of those
things.
But your nervous system plays ahuge role in helping to repair
your musculoskeletal systembecause you as a human are one
body and all of these systemswork together.
We need to be thinking about allof those systems when it comes
(31:59):
to wanting to improve ourperformance as a runner.
Because if you're just focusingon training and you're not
taking care of your recovery,you're just not gonna make the
progress.
You're gonna end up hurt.
You're gonna end up, one ofthose 82 plus percent of runners
that sustain a running injury.
It's wild.
Like it's.
It doesn't have to happen.
there are some people out therethat say you can't prevent
(32:21):
running injuries.
No one can promise that you canprevent running injuries.
Or, sometimes I'll use differentterms in my marketing of like
injury proof your body, which Ihesitate to use terms like that
because I don't wanna ever makea promise that I can't keep.
And it's true.
You can't, I can never tell you100% you are going to.
(32:43):
Never get injured as a runnerbecause injury is an inherent
risk that comes along withrunning.
I also know that doing thesethings like eating enough food,
eating enough protein andcarbohydrates, getting enough
sleep, all of these things,strength training, mobility
training, a lot of the thingsthat we talk about, all of the
foundational pillars andconcepts inside the Running
(33:06):
Reconnected program that I teachto all my clients, all of these
things will drastically reduceyour risk and your chance of
injury and recovery is a hugepiece of that.
Making sure that you're gettingadequate recovery is going to
drastically decrease your chanceof injury.
And that is going to help youimprove your consistency.
(33:28):
And when you improve yourconsistency, you are going to
improve performance because thenumber one thing that's going to
improve performance long-term isconsistency.
So the more runs you can get in,the more strength training
sessions you can get in, themore consistent you can be with
those things.
The better that is, and I saythat obviously with an asterisk
because it doesn't, those thingshave to be balanced with
(33:50):
adequate recovery.
We can't just continue to add onmore running, more strike more,
more, and not do more recovery.
So all of these things, it's therecovery equation, right?
Stress plus rest equals growth.
This is what we want.
So when we are looking at ourweek, what do we need to do?
We need to have high intensitythings, we have to need, have
low intensity things, and wehave to have recovery days where
(34:13):
we just rest and restore thebody.
So schedule your rest, scheduleyour recovery intentionally.
Don't wait until it's forcedupon you, because your body will
always protect itself to keepitself alive.
So if you are not taking theproper amount of recovery, your
body will force it on youthrough an injury, an illness,
(34:34):
burnout, lack of motivation.
If you're experiencing any ofthose things, try to honor some
of these.
Things like Ner your nervoussystem that we talked about
today and over the past fourepisodes.
So that you don't have to dealwith that.
You don't have to be forced todo it.
You can do it on your terms,okay?
Because recovery, again, isbuilt on energy, not effort.
(34:57):
You cannot adapt without fuel.
Stress management is performancetraining.
When you are better at managingyour stress levels, you are
going to improve yourperformance.
Nervous system regulationamplifies every other recovery
tool because heat.
Cold, the tools, the massage,all those things.
If you remember last episode.
(35:18):
When I was talking about a lotof those recovery tools, I was
also relating them back to thenervous system, right?
What does heat do to our nervoussystem?
What does massage do to ournervous system?
Like massage doesn't flush outthe tox toxins or break up
tissue adhesions.
It helps to relax your nervoussystem so your body can do what
it's naturally supposed to do.
Your body is amazing.
(35:39):
We are created.
In such an incredible way, yourbody has everything that you
need.
We just have to provide theright environment for that
healing and that adaptation tooccur.
All right, True recovery isholistic.
It is physical, it is emotional,it is spiritual.
You cannot perform or pour froman empty tank.
(36:00):
You have to recover.
You have to refill your tank orgoing back to the bucket
analogy, recovery helps to pokeholes in the bucket so that you
can drain that stress bucket sothat you have more room for your
training and for the otherthings going on in your life.
All right, That wraps up ourfour episode series, all about
(36:21):
the importance of recovery, andI thank you for all of you that
have sent me messages about howmuch you are loving this series.
I, I like this whole idea ofseries.
I feel like it's a good way toorganize the podcast, so I'm
gonna see.
What we've got coming up, in thenext couple of months and maybe
do a couple more of thesedifferent series.
So if you have any ideas for thepodcast, if you have a topic
(36:43):
that you would like me to talkabout, please reach out and send
me a message on Instagram.
At real life runners.
You can also, send me an emailor reply if you're on our email
list, reply to any of ouremails, and that will go to our
customer support people so thatwe can know, what kind of
episodes you all are lookingfor, what topics you're
interested in learning moreabout, so that we can help you
(37:03):
become the best runner and thehealthiest, strongest human
being that you can be.
Because that's our goal here.
As always guys, thanks forjoining us.
This has been The Real LifeRunners podcast, episode number
434.
Now, get out there and run yourlife.
Welcome back to the Real Life Runners podcast,
episode number 434.
Today we're continuing ourrecovery series with our final
episode all about the nervoussystem because so many runners
think that recovery means foamrolling or sleeping in, but some
of the most powerful recoverywork actually happens at your
dinner table, in your mind, andof course in your nervous
(00:22):
system.
So we've already talked about.
Active and passive recovery.
We've talked a little bit aboutre recovery 1 0 1, the science
of Recovery.
In episode one, we've talkedabout, these, the recovery tools
like heat and cold andcompression and massage.
And today we're gonna go deeperinto what actually fuels your
(00:43):
recovery and allows yourrecovery to happen, and that is
your nervous system.
So stay tuned.
(01:11):
What's up runners?
Welcome back to the show.
I am happy to be doing episodefour.
You notice I said happy and notexcited.
I notice that I like, say I'm soexcited that we're doing this,
and it's yes, I am.
I feel like I'm always excitedwhen it comes to the podcast
when I get to connect with allof you listeners out there.
Thank you so much to all of youthat listen every week and that
(01:32):
share this podcast with afriend.
Thank you for all of you thathave left a review, because our
goal, our mission in this worldand in this business is to help
more runners to feel good intheir running so that people can
run for decades, not just do.
A marathon and be done.
We want people to understand howgood running is for you and how
(01:52):
to run in a very sustainable wayto not only improve your
performance, but also improveyour overall health and your
longevity in the sport.
So today we're talking about thenervous system because so many
runners don't realize thatwhat's happening in the body
when we recover, this is notjust physical, this is
neurological.
(02:12):
And I have talked about thenervous system throughout this
recovery series and.
Started to talk about thesympathetic nervous system
versus the parasympatheticnervous system and how we want
to be able, we want our body tobe able to switch from
sympathetic into parasympathetic'cause that parasympathetic
nervous system is our rest anddigest our recovery and repair
system.
(02:33):
So today we're gonna be talkingabout how nutrition and stress
and nervous system balance helpto drive your recovery, help to
improve your adaptation toexercise, which is exactly what
you want, and how that alsoimproves your performance and
how to.
Optimize these factors daily,not just after workouts, because
your recovery is not just aboutwhat you do in the 30 to 60
(02:56):
minutes after your workout.
It's about what you do the restof the day.
It's how you live your lifebecause all of that matters.
And that fits perfectly withexactly everything that we do
here at Real Life Runnersbecause.
Your running is a part of yourreal life, and the two have to
work together, otherwise there'sgonna be a mismatch.
And when that mismatch happens,that's often when injury occurs.
(03:17):
That's when plateau happens.
That's when people start to losetheir love and their joy for
running.
So we always wanna make surethat there is that match.
There's a match between the waythat you're exercising, the way
that you're running, and what'shappening in your real life.
Because that mismatches what wewant to avoid.
So let's start with some of thefoundational concepts here, with
(03:39):
nutrition and reallyunderstanding what are the
foundational concepts ofrecovery when it comes to
nutrition.
So all of this, everything thatwe do in our life, in our
training and including ourrecovery, requires energy.
And energy comes from food.
And so if we are not eatingenough food.
(04:02):
We are not able to recover inthe way that's going to allow
our body to adapt properly toexercise.
And when we talk about fueling,a lot of times runner runners
think about making sure theyhave enough fuel on board for
their workout, right?
Making sure a lot of runnersthink about it, mostly with long
runs.
So if you're running halfmarathons or longer, you think
(04:23):
about, okay, making sure to getenough fuel on your run.
But we need to think aboutnutrition before, during, and
after your run, to make surethat our bodies don't fall into
what's called low energyavailability.
That is a state that our bodiescan fall into, and that's when
your body does not get enoughfuel to cover both exercise and
(04:44):
your basic life functions.
So your body requires a certainamount of energy, a k, a
calories to live every day toperform certain bodily functions
like to a.
Allow your brain to work, toallow your heart and your lungs
and your digestion and yourmuscles just to walk around your
house and like to do all ofthese regular daily tasks
(05:06):
require energy.
And if you then add exercise ontop of that and you're running
and you're strength training andyou're doing all the quote
unquote things you're supposedto be doing, you have to
understand that also requiresmore energy.
And so if you're not eatingenough, if you are not providing
your body with the adequateamount of energy, AKA food,
(05:27):
fuel, calories, your body can gointo a state of low energy
availability.
And low energy availability canlead to hormone disruption.
It can lead to slower musclerepair.
It can lead to poor sleep and anincreased energy risk.
And this is actually.
Even more common, believe it ornot, in women that are over 40
(05:51):
because there's a lot of womenthat unintentionally under fuel.
Okay, lemme say that again.
Unintentionally under fuel.
They don't realize that they'reunder fueling because of maybe a
slower metabolism because ofwhat's happening with the
hormonal changes that we'reexperiencing in perimenopause
and menopause and even more.
(06:12):
The biggest thing that I thinkthat leads to under fueling in
runners and in athletes is thismentality of eat less and move
more.
This has been the mentality thatwe have been ingrained with for
decades.
I am a child of the eighties,and so I grew up in the eighties
and the nineties when dietculture, I think was really at
(06:33):
its peak.
everything was about.
Eating less.
It was about Weight Watchers andJenny Craig and, all the
different diet pills out thereand all the different exercise
fads out there.
And this is the way we grew up.
We were, we grew up thinkingthat the way to get skinnier,
the way to lose weight, the wayto feel good about our body is
to eat less and move more.
(06:54):
That has been a message that hasbeen ingrained in us, especially
as women since we were younger.
And that mentality, if we carrythat into endurance training.
You as a runner are an enduranceathlete and you have to start
thinking your of yourself as anathlete.
This is actually one of thefoundational concepts inside of
(07:14):
our Running Reconnected programbecause if you don't think of
yourself as an athlete, and ifyou just think of running as a
way to lose weight or running asa way too.
Have the body that you wannahave, the chances of low energy
availability, the chances of youunder fueling yourself increase.
I think, I don't know if that'sever been proven in the
(07:36):
research.
I'm gonna have to look that up.
Maybe I'll do my own researchstudy on it.
But it really comes from thismentality of I just need to eat
less and move more.
And so many women fall into thistrap even worse after 40 because
with the hormone changes that weexperience in perimenopause and
men.
Perimenopause and postmenopause.
(07:57):
When your estrogen declines, oneof the results of that is that a
lot of women tend to gain bellyfat.
More weight is deposited aroundthe belly.
And so when women notice thosechanges and they start to notice
that they're getting more fataround the belly that they don't
want, what's the first thingthat they do?
What's the first thing that wehave been taught to do?
(08:21):
We have been taught to restrictour calories.
I need to go on a diet, I needto avoid carbs.
And some of those things are oneof, are the worst things to do
for you as a runner, especiallyif you are trying to improve
your performance in any way.
Now, I'm not saying you have togo out and be winning marathons
when it comes to performance,but if you want to train for a
(08:42):
longer race than you've everdone before, if you're trying to
pr.
And run faster than you everhave before.
That is a performance goal.
You want to perform, your bodyneeds fuel to perform, and that
really starts with eating enoughoverall, especially protein and
carbohydrates to support yourtraining because protein is the
(09:04):
building block of muscle.
So when we work out, we arebreaking the body down, and it
is during rest and recovery thatbody builds back stronger than
it was before.
Your muscles repair themselves,your tissues repair, but they
can only repair if you give themthe building blocks, the cement,
the glue, the nails, all of thetools that they need to support.
(09:26):
Recovery and to support thatrepair.
And protein is the buildingblock of muscle.
So if you're not getting enoughprotein, your body doesn't have
what it needs to build strongermuscles.
So we should be aiming for onegram of protein per pound of
ideal body weight per day.
Okay, so if, for example, yourideal weight is 130 pounds, you
(09:50):
should be aiming for 130 gramsof protein per day.
Now, some people, when I saythat, they think, holy crap,
that's a crazy number.
If that's, so say right now, youstart tracking your protein and
you just see where you are andyou realize that you're only
eating about 60 grams ofprotein, which is probably about
average.
if most, if you're notintentionally eating protein,
(10:12):
there's a very high chance thatyou are not getting enough
protein.
And because in order to get 130grams of protein and really, I
would say anything over ahundred grams of protein, you
have to be very intentionalabout getting that protein in.
One of the first steps would beto start tracking, to see where
you are right now, and thengradually continuing to add
protein.
Okay?
So make that your goal.
(10:34):
Carbohydrates replenishglycogen, and glycogen is your
body's stored form of glucose,and glucose is your body's
preferred source of fuel,especially in running.
So we need carbohydrates becausecarbohydrates provide.
The fuel for us on the run, andthere's a lot of people that
(10:54):
say, oh, I wanted to go low carbbecause I want my body to burn
more fat while I'm running.
And in theory that soundswonderful, but scientifically,
physiologically, that's notactually what happens in the
body.
Your body wants to burn glucose,so it's going to burn up the
glucose.
And glucose is actually.
the, the flame starter, I forgetwhat it's called.
(11:16):
I need Kevin here to remind meof these words that I forget
about sometimes.
the lighter fluid, that's the,what, that's the word I'm
looking for.
I'm like, on the grill, you putthe stuff on the grill to
kickstart it.
carbohydrates, glucose is thelighter fluid that allows your
body to start burning fat moreeffectively, right?
So these are two differentenergy systems, but we need
both.
(11:36):
You need both.
As a runner, as an enduranceathlete, you want to be.
Using carbohydrates and fat forfuel.
And also, I just have to pointout here too, just because
you're burning fat in a workoutdoesn't mean you're actually
losing body fat.
That's a really importantdistinction that not a lot of
people realize.
They think, oh, if I can justburn more fat, then I will be
(11:58):
losing body fat.
And that's not always the case.
That's not exactly how it works.
So we need carbohydrates.
Are really good before a run,before a workout because that is
that fuel that we need to powerour workout.
They're great during a workout,especially a longer endurance
run or a longer workout.
And then they're really usefulafter the run to help replenish
(12:21):
the glycogen.
And it can also help to loweryour cortisol levels post-run
because when you get thatcarbohydrate in and you're
putting that fuel back in, yourbody gets the message that it's
safe and that fuel is comingback in.
We, it can help to naturallylower our cortisol levels after
the run as well.
And we also want to be eatingfats, healthy fats to help
(12:42):
support your hormones and alsohelp to support cellular repair.
One of the things that peopledon't realize that fats do is
fats are very important for yournervous system.
They hope to, There's a liningon all of your nerves in your
brain and throughout your bodycalled myelin.
And myelin is made of fat.
So we need healthy fats to helpsupport our nervous system
(13:04):
because that myelin sheath thatsurrounds your nerves helps the
messages from your brain andyour body to travel faster.
So when you're, those messagestravel faster, your body's able
to respond more quickly.
You're able to have morecoordination and more balance
and more speed and more power,which all we need all of that.
(13:25):
We want all of that too.
And then we also wanna thinkabout, so those are the three
big macronutrients, protein,carbohydrates, and fats.
We need them all.
And then we also need to thinkabout micronutrients as well.
So things like iron, magnesium,zinc, calcium, B vitamins are
also very important in recovery.
So recovery is not just aboutwhat you're doing right after
(13:47):
your run or right after yourstrength workout.
It's what you're doing all day.
It's what you're putting on yourplate all day to support your
body's recovery, because it'snot like your body just.
It recovers in that 30 to 60minutes after your workout.
It's recovering all day long,and you know this, if you've
ever been sore after a workoutor the next day, your body's
still repairing itself.
(14:08):
I did a heavy lift yesterday.
I did a bunch of squats and Idid a lot of glute work, and I'm
feeling it today.
If you've ever, noticed thatit's a little harder to get up
and down off the toilet or upand down off of a chair the next
day after a strength workout,that's your body.
Because repairing itself,because you broke those tissues
down in the workout the daybefore.
(14:30):
And so sometimes recovery takesmore than a couple of hours.
Sometimes it takes 24, 48, 72hours.
Like it can take time dependingon how much damage you've done
to your body.
If you've are, go out and run amarathon or an ultra marathon,
it's gonna take days for yourbody to recover, even weeks.
For some people to fully recoverafter a marathon, you get most
(14:53):
of the recovery.
Occurs within the first week,but some people can take a good
two to three weeks foreverything in the body to really
go back to baseline.
So it's very important that weare both fueling our workout and
making sure that we are gettingin that fuel after recco or
after the workout.
Now, there has been a lot ofquestions and debate about this
(15:16):
timing window of is there anideal recovery window for eating
after a workout?
And the answer is mixed outthere.
But most experts agree thatthere is not a strict window
with which we need to get in,the fuel because our body, like
I just mentioned, is recoveringfor hours afterwards.
(15:38):
So we need to be, it's moreimportant about what we're doing
throughout that whole day versuswhat we get in just in that 30
to 60 minutes afterwards.
However, with that being said.
If you remember what I just saidearlier is that when we eat
carbohydrates after a workout,it helps to lower cortisol
levels.
Same thing with protein.
So when we eat protein andcarbohydrates specifically after
(16:01):
a workout, it helps to shift ourbody from that sympathetic mode
into parasympathetic mode, whichis what we want.
We want to shift out of thatfight or flight, that stress,
that running and workout, right?
When you're working out.
You are in sympathetic mode.
We wanna get back over intoparasympathetic mode so that
your body can digest and repairand recover and when you eat.
(16:25):
So the sooner you eat, thesooner your body's able to
switch over into parasympatheticmode.
And that's a good thing, right?
So it's not that there needs tobe this strict recovery window,
but you should try to get infuel as quickly as you can, just
so that you can shift over.
So that your body starts torepair and go through the
adaptation that you want it todo from the exercise.
(16:47):
When we exercise, we're lookingfor our bodies to adapt, okay?
So when we eat protein andcarbohydrates, this can
together.
That can accelerate muscleprotein synthesis and also.
Restore glycogen levels, right?
So if we are skipping ordelaying things that can prolong
the stress response.
(17:07):
So it's not that this is like abad thing, it's not that you're
gonna miss your recovery window,it's just that the sooner you
eat, the sooner your body canstart repairing itself, and
that's a beautiful thing.
Okay, so that's really what thebig main ideas around nutrition
and.
So to summarize all of that,make sure that you're eating
(17:27):
enough and make sure that you'regetting enough protein and
carbohydrates especially, butalso healthy fats are very
important as well.
Because one of the biggestmistakes I see is just runners
not eating enough.
believe it or not, right?
there's so many people out therethat I'm eating too much.
That's why I'm gaining weight.
Probably not, probably, you'renot fueling your body well
enough.
You're either not eating enoughoverall, or you're not giving
(17:48):
your body what it actuallyneeds, when it needs it, and so
you end up binging later in theday.
That is going to lead to theoverconsumption of calories that
can lead to the weight gain.
Because if you fuel the bodybetter earlier and you gave your
body more of the protein and thecarbs that it needs, when it
needs it, you're gonna be muchless likely to binge eat at any
(18:10):
point in time.
All right.
Sip of coffee time.
Alrighty.
Now we wanna talk about one of,I would say the most overlooked.
Pieces of the recovery equation,and that is stress.
Stress is extremely importantfor us to be aware of and for us
(18:36):
to learn how to manage in ourlives, not just for our overall
health and wellbeing, because weare starting to realize just how
detrimental chronic levels ofstress can be on the body.
Including the weight gain thatnobody wants, right?
People don't understand how muchweight they're probably holding
onto because of chronic stressin their life, but stress is
(18:59):
something that we need to bevery aware of, especially as
runners, because running andexercise and lifting weights and
doing all of our training, thoseare all forms of intentional
stress that we're adding to ourbody because we can, lots of
different things are allconsidered stress, and so I like
to think of stress.
(19:20):
As a bucket.
Okay.
This is one of the metaphorsthat I've come up with
throughout my time in coaching.
and I think it's a reallyhelpful way to, to view this.
So imagine that your body is abucket and your recovery is a
bucket that fills with alldifferent types of stress.
So physical stress, likerunning, lifting.
(19:40):
All the things that wephysically go through.
Emotional stress, mental stress,hormonal family, friendships,
finances, psychological, likeall of these different stresses
that come into our life.
Bathroom renovations on myaccount.
All of these things are forms ofstress and all forms of stress
(20:01):
go into the same stress bucket.
So when you are just loadingstress into that bucket, it's
not gonna be long before thatbucket overflows.
And that's where we have tounderstand that like your body,
your nervous system doesn'tunderstand the difference
between different types ofstress.
So physical stress of runningand lifting and those kinds of
(20:24):
things, arguably is a goodstress that we are intentionally
adding to our body and to oursystem.
And I would agree with youthere.
However, if we are so overloadedwith all the other stresses,
then sometimes training justbecomes one more stress.
It's just adding more to ourbucket.
And recovery is what?
(20:44):
Starts to poke holes in thebucket.
It's what allows us to startemptying that bucket so that we
don't overflow.
Because if our stress bucketoverflows, that's when we end up
injured.
That's when we end up sick.
That's when we, things end up,we end up with panic attacks or
other psychological issues, orjust overwhelm and burnout.
So all of these different typesof stress are filling your
(21:08):
bucket and recovery is how youdrain it.
So if your bucket is alreadyoverflowing, adding more
training does not make youstronger.
It just makes you more stressedand more stress is just going to
increase your risk of injury andburnout in illness and all of
these.
And this matters even more ifyou're a runner over 40.
(21:29):
Because estrogen andprogesterone help to modulate
that stress response.
Estrogen has a controllingeffect on cortisol.
Cortisol is your stress hormone.
Estrogen helps you keep cortisolin check and controlled.
And so as we lose estrogen, ourcortisol levels are naturally
higher because they don't havethe guard dog of estrogen
(21:52):
watching over it.
So as those estrogen levelsdecline, cortisol can remain
more elevated for a longerperiod of time, and this chronic
stress state is what becomesproblematic.
Cortisol itself is not aproblem.
Cortisol is a hormone that doesa lot of good things in our
body.
We need cortisol.
Cortisol is not bad.
(22:13):
Chronic cortisol, chronic levelsof elevated cortisol due to
chronic stress.
That's what can be very damagingto the body.
'cause that shifts your bodyinto a stress state or a
catabolic state, which is whereyour body just breaks itself
down.
And that is not what we want.
That's where you, again, startto get injured.
(22:34):
You start to see yourperformance decline, and you
start to see ripples in otherareas of your life as well.
You'll notice that you're nothaving as much patience with
your kids, that you cry for noreason that you're having
significant mood swings.
And a lot of people say, this isdue to perimenopause and this is
why.
It's because when we go throughperimenopause.
Our estrogen levels are notcontrolling our cortisol levels
(22:57):
anymore.
And all of these hormonal shiftsand things are happening within
our body and our body goeshaywire, and it's this chronic
stress that we don't know how tohandle that's causing a lot of
these other things to occur,like the increased belly fat or
the mood swings or the brainfog.
All of these symptoms ofperimenopause are mostly from a
(23:18):
stressed out nervous system inmy opinion.
yes, there are actual.
Things that the hormones do andcontrol.
But the big thing I think is be,is their effect on the nervous
system.
And so our nervous system isjust like in a chronic state of
stress, and this is why.
Your recovery matters even moreafter 40.
(23:40):
So it's not that all of a suddenwhen you're over 40, you need to
completely start trainingdifferently.
You need completely differentthings.
We need all the same things.
We just don't have the samebuffer that we used to have
before.
We just have to have much more,we have to be more intentional
with our recovery choices.
When.
We are over 40, so some of theways that you might notice that
(24:03):
you have an overloaded stressresponse or an overloaded
nervous system.
Things like waking up during thenight.
If you're always waking up at3:00 AM If you are having sugar
cravings, if you're tired allthe time, even though you're
getting seven or eight hours ofsleep, you notice that tired but
wired feeling, you feel like I'mso exhausted and I also can't go
(24:24):
to sleep.
I can't come down because I'mjust like wired and anxious all
the time.
You might notice slower recoveryand mood swings and brain fog.
Again, these symptoms that are.
Symptoms that mimicperimenopause as well, and this
is why it can get very tricky inthat.
And this is why nervous systemregulation is so important in
(24:45):
our recovery and our performanceas runners and as healthy human
beings in this world as well.
So recovery requires thatparasympathetic state that rest
and digest, but so many runnersand so many people.
Today are living in this chronicstate of sympathetic activation
that go.
(25:05):
I always have to be going likeand I think that smartphones and
things like this and the 24 hournews cycle all are contributing
to this.
There's so many reasons that weare just stuck in this state of
sympathetic activation andchronic stress.
But without the ability to shiftstates, the body cannot
(25:26):
efficiently digest, repairtissue, or regulate hormones.
You cannot recover in this samestate that you train in.
We train in a sympathetic state.
We recover in a parasympatheticstate.
We need the ability to shiftfrom one to the other.
And that's where so many runnersare falling short, is that they
(25:47):
have, they go from running.
To work, to kids, to this, tothat.
Now I'm on my phone and I'mgetting 27 notifications every
10 minutes.
Like all of these things arekeeping us in that chronic state
of sympathetic activation.
So we have to be veryintentional to get ourselves
into that parasympatheticsystem.
(26:07):
And one of the best ways to dothis, one of the things I teach
all of my clients is breathing.
Because your breath is alwayswith you.
If you just take 10 secondsright now, I'm gonna actually be
quiet right now for 10 secondsand I'm just going to encourage
you to breathe, okay?
So just take a 10 seconds hereand take a deep breath in and
(26:34):
then take a deep breath out.
One more deep breath in and deepbreath out.
And you can count if you wantto.
There's a, there's techniquescalled box breathing where you
inhale for four seconds, hold itfor four seconds, exhale for
four seconds, and then hold itfor four seconds.
(26:55):
There's 4, 6, 8, breathing.
There's all sorts of differentbreathing techniques that you
can do, but just taking.
30 seconds, a minute, twominutes, five minutes to just
sit and take some deep breathscan totally transform and help
to regulate your nervous system.
(27:17):
It is one of the most powerfultools that we have to recover.
And so this is again, anotherreason.
That I encourage cool downs andbreathing after a run or after a
workout.
If you just take a couple ofminutes to just breathe before
you jump in your car and runhome and get the kids to school,
(27:38):
like I get it.
Like I woke up at five thismorning, I was running by five
30 with my friends.
Like we take a couple of minutesafter our run.
To do some stretching, to justbreathe, to reset ourselves
before we jump in our cars andgo home.
'cause when I get home, I haveto make lunches, I have to make
breakfast, I have to get thekids off to school, make sure
everybody's good, and then wegotta go again, right?
(28:01):
Then we're off to work, thenwe're here.
Then we're taking the card inFor an oil change, there's all
the different things that wehave to do.
So taking time throughout yourday to intentionally breathe and
reset your system can make aworld of difference in.
How you feel overall in your dayand also the progress that
you're making in you're running.
It's crazy and people don'tusually believe me when I tell
(28:25):
them that, but breathing is suchan underrated tool that you can
start using right now.
you can also do things likemeditation.
You can, be out in nature.
Walking barefoot in the grass.
there's a term nowadays that allthe kids are using, to go touch
grass, right?
But it's actually very goodadvice.
Go touch grass, right?
Go let your body connect withthe earth.
(28:48):
There's something very groundingabout that can help your nervous
system.
prayer things like gentlemobility or yoga.
All of these ways that we canjust pause and breathe and get
ourselves.
Out of sympathetic activationand into parasympathetic
activation and parasympatheticmode will help your body recover
(29:09):
and will help you to be a betterrunner.
It's worth it, and it also willhelp you in so many other areas
of your life that I canguarantee.
the last thing I wanna justtouch on real quick is sleep.
And sleep is one of thosethings.
I know I talked a lot aboutsleep in episode number one.
(29:29):
But we always have to go back tosleep because sleep is the
foundation of both physical andemotional recovery.
Sleep helps you consolidate yourmemory.
It helps to stabilize your mood.
It helps to regulate cortisollevels and emotional stress
impacts your recovery just asmuch as physical fatigue.
Remember going back to thatrecovery bucket that we're
(29:51):
talking about.
So how do these things worktogether?
Like just the things that I wasjust talking about with
breathing and helping your bodyshift into a parasympathetic
state.
When you can pair that withsleep, doing those things before
bed, things like reading orjournaling, gratitude, breath
work, limiting your screen time,all of those things will help
(30:12):
your body get into thatparasympathetic state before
bed, which is going to allow youto fall asleep and stay asleep
even better.
All of these things areconnected, and that is such a
beautiful thing.
So what do we need to take awayfrom this episode and from this
really this whole recoveryseries, right?
(30:34):
Hopefully you now understand howimportant your recovery is.
if not, if you've listened toall four of my recovery episodes
and you don't understand howimportant recovery is, then I
have not done a good job.
Recovery is super important andyou cannot forego recovery.
You cannot just continue totrain your way to better
performance.
(30:54):
You, your training has to bebalanced with your recovery.
Okay.
Sleep is the first thing.
Sleep is number one.
Nutrition, very important.
We have to be fueling our body.
We want to be making sure thatwe are eating enough before,
during, and after your workout.
Eating the balanced meals.
Okay.
(31:14):
Making sure that you're gettingenough sleep.
Did I already say that If I did,I'm just gonna keep saying it
because sleep is so foundationalhere.
Okay.
and then getting back into.
Nervous system regulation,really understanding the role
that your nervous system playsin on your physical recovery.
so many people think abouttraining and they only think
about the musculoskeletalsystem.
(31:35):
They think about the muscles andthe bones and the tissue and the
fascia and the tendons and theligaments and all of those
things.
But your nervous system plays ahuge role in helping to repair
your musculoskeletal systembecause you as a human are one
body and all of these systemswork together.
We need to be thinking about allof those systems when it comes
(31:59):
to wanting to improve ourperformance as a runner.
Because if you're just focusingon training and you're not
taking care of your recovery,you're just not gonna make the
progress.
You're gonna end up hurt.
You're gonna end up, one ofthose 82 plus percent of runners
that sustain a running injury.
It's wild.
Like it's.
It doesn't have to happen.
there are some people out therethat say you can't prevent
(32:21):
running injuries.
No one can promise that you canprevent running injuries.
Or, sometimes I'll use differentterms in my marketing of like
injury proof your body, which Ihesitate to use terms like that
because I don't wanna ever makea promise that I can't keep.
And it's true.
You can't, I can never tell you100% you are going to.
(32:43):
Never get injured as a runnerbecause injury is an inherent
risk that comes along withrunning.
I also know that doing thesethings like eating enough food,
eating enough protein andcarbohydrates, getting enough
sleep, all of these things,strength training, mobility
training, a lot of the thingsthat we talk about, all of the
foundational pillars andconcepts inside the Running
(33:06):
Reconnected program that I teachto all my clients, all of these
things will drastically reduceyour risk and your chance of
injury and recovery is a hugepiece of that.
Making sure that you're gettingadequate recovery is going to
drastically decrease your chanceof injury.
And that is going to help youimprove your consistency.
(33:28):
And when you improve yourconsistency, you are going to
improve performance because thenumber one thing that's going to
improve performance long-term isconsistency.
So the more runs you can get in,the more strength training
sessions you can get in, themore consistent you can be with
those things.
The better that is, and I saythat obviously with an asterisk
because it doesn't, those thingshave to be balanced with
(33:50):
adequate recovery.
We can't just continue to add onmore running, more strike more,
more, and not do more recovery.
So all of these things, it's therecovery equation, right?
Stress plus rest equals growth.
This is what we want.
So when we are looking at ourweek, what do we need to do?
We need to have high intensitythings, we have to need, have
low intensity things, and wehave to have recovery days where
(34:13):
we just rest and restore thebody.
So schedule your rest, scheduleyour recovery intentionally.
Don't wait until it's forcedupon you, because your body will
always protect itself to keepitself alive.
So if you are not taking theproper amount of recovery, your
body will force it on youthrough an injury, an illness,
(34:34):
burnout, lack of motivation.
If you're experiencing any ofthose things, try to honor some
of these.
Things like Ner your nervoussystem that we talked about
today and over the past fourepisodes.
So that you don't have to dealwith that.
You don't have to be forced todo it.
You can do it on your terms,okay?
Because recovery, again, isbuilt on energy, not effort.
(34:57):
You cannot adapt without fuel.
Stress management is performancetraining.
When you are better at managingyour stress levels, you are
going to improve yourperformance.
Nervous system regulationamplifies every other recovery
tool because heat.
Cold, the tools, the massage,all those things.
If you remember last episode.
(35:18):
When I was talking about a lotof those recovery tools, I was
also relating them back to thenervous system, right?
What does heat do to our nervoussystem?
What does massage do to ournervous system?
Like massage doesn't flush outthe tox toxins or break up
tissue adhesions.
It helps to relax your nervoussystem so your body can do what
it's naturally supposed to do.
Your body is amazing.
(35:39):
We are created.
In such an incredible way, yourbody has everything that you
need.
We just have to provide theright environment for that
healing and that adaptation tooccur.
All right, True recovery isholistic.
It is physical, it is emotional,it is spiritual.
You cannot perform or pour froman empty tank.
(36:00):
You have to recover.
You have to refill your tank orgoing back to the bucket
analogy, recovery helps to pokeholes in the bucket so that you
can drain that stress bucket sothat you have more room for your
training and for the otherthings going on in your life.
All right, That wraps up ourfour episode series, all about
(36:21):
the importance of recovery, andI thank you for all of you that
have sent me messages about howmuch you are loving this series.
I, I like this whole idea ofseries.
I feel like it's a good way toorganize the podcast, so I'm
gonna see.
What we've got coming up, in thenext couple of months and maybe
do a couple more of thesedifferent series.
So if you have any ideas for thepodcast, if you have a topic
(36:43):
that you would like me to talkabout, please reach out and send
me a message on Instagram.
At real life runners.
You can also, send me an emailor reply if you're on our email
list, reply to any of ouremails, and that will go to our
customer support people so thatwe can know, what kind of
episodes you all are lookingfor, what topics you're
interested in learning moreabout, so that we can help you
(37:03):
become the best runner and thehealthiest, strongest human
being that you can be.
Because that's our goal here.
As always guys, thanks forjoining us.
This has been The Real LifeRunners podcast, episode number
434.
Now, get out there and run yourlife.
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