Before we get into today's episode, if you want to actually improve your body composition and are sick of random workouts that just wear you down and burn you out, that's exactly why I built Evlo. Evlo is science-backed strength training designed to help you build muscle, improve body composition, and feel better in your body without beating yourself up or living in the gym. You can try Evlo now for two weeks free if you visit evlofitness.com. Welcome to the Dr. Shannon Show Body Recomposition Capsule. There's so much fitness advice out there and quite frankly, much of it isn't true. So in this 10 episode series, we're covering all the science-based tools for body recomposition. You may have heard me cover many of these topics before and some things will be brand new. I wanted to create one organized capsule of information that will give you all the important concepts for improving your body composition. Because we know improving your body composition isn't just external. It has incredible benefits for your health, energy, mood, and longevity. I'm your host, Shannon Ritchie. Welcome to the show. How much exercise is too much? The simple answer is if you aren't recovering, you're doing too much. It can be difficult to know what a normal amount of soreness or fatigue is versus what are signs that you're overdoing it? Recovery is not an optional part of this process. If you aren't recovering, you aren't adapting. Exercise is the stressor. It's the stimulus. Recovery is where the adaptation happens. Recovery is where we see our results. So if we are overdoing it and under fueling, we won't recover. When you aren't recovering, you won't be able to hit the strength training intensity. So training close to failure necessary that triggers the adaptation. So see recovery as productive. See it as part of your plan. Don't see it as optional. And take care of yourself if you notice your recovery is suffering. This is why we build Evlo workouts to stimulate your muscles without overwhelming your nervous system. You get enough intensity to grow, but not so much systemic stress that your body struggles to recover. Pair that with good sleep and stress regulation and good nutrition, and your results compound very quickly. So in this episode, I'll teach you how to build recovery into each workout, into your week, and into your year with reset weeks. Then we'll talk about tools you can use to measure your recovery. By the end of this episode, you'll understand the tools to use so that you know if you are doing too much, if you're doing not enough, or if you're doing just the right amount. So how to build recovery into a workout. Let's start there. The workout is obviously the stimulus and not recovery time, but you can use tools in your workout that help you regulate your nervous system, that help you recover faster and better. We do this through the structure of every EVLO class. The structure of every EVLO class is pretty predictable. We activate, challenge, then relax. So you'll see us doing joint mobility and breath work in the beginning of each workout just for a few minutes. Then we move into the strength portion of class and then we end with a few minutes of mobility and relaxation And this is so that we're working with your nervous system not against it You're welcome to borrow any of these even if you aren't a member, but I want to explain a little bit more Why we do this and why it works. We start with breath work and gentle mobility This is the activate portion of class and this serves a few purposes Number one, you ease into the work. Not only is it easier to show up for a workout that you know isn't going to hammer away at your body right away when you press play, it primes your nervous system to activate. We start with breath work, focusing on a long and deep inhale. This long, deep inhale stimulates the sympathetic nervous system and helps improve focus so that you're ready to load your body and challenge your body. Then we move into joint mobility. This not only brings synovial fluid to the joints to lubricate them, it increases blood flow to the muscles and it increases neuromuscular awareness to the joints and tissues that will be loading. This all takes less than five minutes and can really help you feel focused and ready. Next, after we warmed up our body, we challenge our body. This is where we're training each muscle group close to failure in a few sets. This is obviously the majority of the class. During the workout, we are still considering the recovery that you're getting for each muscle in between sets. We want to make sure that the targeted muscle group gets enough load without unintentionally overstressing other areas or joints. So we do this in how we're structuring the class itself. For example, we wouldn't wanna do too many hinged movements in a row because that would be stressful on your lower back So we wouldn want to do a lunge like a hinged lunge and then a bent over row and then a bent over tricep kickback That would be a lot of load on your lower back. So we're considering those things when we're programming classes so that not only is the targeted muscle getting a break in between sets, but other peripheral areas are getting breaks in between sets. This is a strategic way to plan your workout so you aren't overstressing your body and joints. So each muscle is getting enough rest between sets and other muscle groups aren't getting overly stressed and influencing your recovery. After we work, we end with three to five minutes of relaxing time. The goal is to stimulate your parasympathetic nervous system. And I always say, don't skip the cool downs because they are just as important as everything else. Stimulating the parasympathetic branch of your nervous system is what is responsible for rebuilding muscle tissue. So we do this by incorporating easy joint mobility that has been shown to improve the parasympathetic state. We also cue longer exhales, which is shown to improve parasympathetic state. We end each class with final relaxations, shavasana. And this is just a few minutes of stillness in a comfortable position with long, deep exhales, cuing you to relax your muscles, relax your body. And this allows you to, again, bring yourself down from that sympathetic state into your parasympathetic state where you ultimately rest, digest, and heal. This is where you will see results and recover better. In the beginning, this kind of shavasana and relaxation at the end feels like the hardest part. But just like you can train your muscles, you can train this branch of your nervous system to get better at activating. When you do that, you can handle more training volume, recover better, and therefore see better results. So that's recovery within a workout itself. Let's now talk about recovery on a weekly basis. Three things to cover here. Number one, don't work the same muscle group on two consecutive days. Muscles need about 48 hours to recover. So structure your week so you work each muscle group on non-consecutive days. Number two is to periodize your intensity throughout the week. This is something that I don't talk about a lot just because I honestly kind of take it for granted, but you don't want to be afraid of intensity or fatigue. In fact, you do want some of it. You just don't want every single workout to be super high intensity. And there are endless ways to periodize your weekly routine so that you have some workouts that are more intense, some workouts that are less intense. How we do it is we kind of ramp up. So our upper body workout on Monday is low to the mat. We're still training everything close to failure. And then on Tuesday, that's one of our more systemically stressful days. It's our lower body day. Wednesday, we come back down to the mat. So that's mat build. So our systemic stress lowers a little bit. Then Thursday, we bring it back up with our build plus class. And then Friday Again, Friday is kind of like a mix, is on the mat with a little bit of intensity and a little bit of mat work that's less intense. So we're hitting all of your muscle groups, but we are varying or periodizing the intensity throughout the week so that you are adapting and you are getting more fit with periods of intensity. But the whole thing doesn't feel super intense. So not only is this really effective because it balances intensity and recovery, but it's really easy to show up for knowing that you have that variety. And then finally, when we're thinking about weekly recovery, plan to take recovery days. I recommend at least two days off lifting where you do lighter cardio, some zone two work or any cardio that isn't going to overly stress you or influence your recovery. When you take your recovery days, it doesn't matter. So I take both of mine back to back. I take mine on Saturday and Sunday, but many members like to take their workouts or their classes on the weekends, and then they'll put their recovery days on weekdays. So any of that works. They don't have to be back to back. Just put them wherever you can stay the most consistent with. So we talked about how to structure recovery within a workout, how to structure recovery within a week. Now let's talk about how to structure recovery over a year. So there's a concept that I call reset weeks or deload weeks. And this has been game changing for me and for our community. So what it is, is every eight to 12 weeks, you plan to take four to seven days off lifting. During this time, you want to continue to stay active doing whatever form of activity you want, but we're not lifting weights. We're not stressing our muscles. The reason these are so effective is because it gives you a mental and physical reset. And so many times our members say that they feel stronger after they come back from a reset week I personally experienced the same thing And you won likely lose any muscle by taking just a few days off but it can be a super helpful tool to keep yourself consistent over the year. You give yourself permission to rest a few times a year, and that can be huge for staying in the game. In 2022, when I body recomped the first time, I took, I think three or maybe four reset weeks over that time where I took between four and seven days off and I still built muscle over that year. So don't be afraid of losing significant mass just by taking a few days off. As far as how many days to take off, I've experimented with different lengths of reset weeks and I recommend that you do the same so that you find your sweet spot. But I've found my sweet spot to be like four or five days. After that time, I always come back stronger. I feel more motivated and I feel mentally and physically refreshed. So I tend to keep my reset weeks around five days. So now let's talk about measuring or tracking your recovery. So far in this season, you've learned how much strength training you need, how much cardio you need, how much food you need, and how much recovery you need. Although I've given you a lot of tools, there is still individualization within this process. So how do you know if you're doing too much and you need to adjust? And on the flip side, how can you tell if you're ready for more? So let's go over some easy recovery tools. The first one is grip strength. Grip strength is a proxy for neuromuscular readiness, including central nervous system output and peripheral fatigue. What does that mean? When your grip strength is weaker at baseline, it means your nervous system is fatigued and your recovery may be suffering. If you want to use grip strength as a tool to measure your recovery, you can get one of those hand dynamometers on Amazon. I looked it up once. I think it's like $30. Just make sure that you take your baseline measurement when you're feeling really fresh so that you have that to compare it to. You could do your hand dynamometer throughout the week, or you can do it if you are getting some subjective symptoms that you might not be recovering. You can test your grip strength just to be sure. But that is one tool that can give you more of an objective measurement if you're someone that likes numbers. Number two is the CO2 tolerance test. I love this one because it's free. You don't need any equipment. You can do it at any time. This is a measure of your autonomic flexibility or the balance between your sympathetic and your parasympathetic nervous system. Better tolerance of carbon dioxide is associated with better stress resilience and improved emotional regulation. This is an easy way to measure if you are recovered, but maybe more linked to overall emotional stress than physical stress, but it is one tool you can use. So here's how to do it. Take five of your deepest breaths in through your nose and out through your nose. On your final breath in, start a timer and breathe out through pursed lips, letting out as little air as possible for as long as you can. Towards the end of that, it's going to feel difficult and uncomfortable, but keep letting out as little air for as long as you can. So, and then stop your timer as soon as the last little bit of air has left. So here are the results. If you can do this for less than 20 seconds, that indicates your recovery is poor. If you could go anywhere from 20 to 40 seconds, that's average. And 40 to 60 seconds is more ideal. Anything above 60 seconds is advanced. So that's the CO2 tolerance test. It's one of my favorites again, because it's free and it's easy. Next we have heart rate variability. So what is this? HRV is a variation in between your heartbeats. It's a marker of parasympathetic activity and nervous system recovery. This can be measured using a fitness wearable like the Oura Ring. HRV is pretty reliable indicator of autonomic nervous system status, especially when measured consistently in the morning. Chronically low HRV correlates with overreaching, not recovering, poor sleep, increased inflammation, and reduced performance. Since everyone's HRV will be different, I can't give you a number that I would recommend for you. You want to look at your trends and it isn't necessarily helpful for you to compare your numbers to your friends' numbers because everyone's will be so variable. So look at your own trends, understand where you lie at baseline, and you want to see yourself trending up over time. So if you do have an aura ring, or I think other fitness trackers do this now, maybe whoop, you can use HRV as a way to signal if you're recovering properly. Finally, we have fitness tracker recovery or readiness scores I know whoop and aura have this I don know about other trackers right now I use an Aura And I do find that this readiness score that takes resting heart rate it takes HRV it takes sleep activity load, temperature, and respiratory rate, it takes all of that together to kind of create a score for you. I've found over the three years that I've been using Aura that this is pretty accurate based on my subjective symptoms of readiness. So when I'm sick and feeling horrible, it always picks that up and gives me a really low readiness score. Or when I'm feeling really good, or if I had a really good workout and I'm like, wow, I was super strong in that workout. I checked my aura ring. Sure enough, my readiness is really good. So for me, it's been a pretty reliable thing to look at. But honestly, it's not necessary because again, my subjective symptoms always line up with the readiness score. So I don't necessarily need the readiness score to validate that I'm feeling good if I'm feeling good, if that makes sense. The truth is, you know, if you're recovered or not, it sometimes just takes paying attention to your body. So what is normal and what is not normal? What is to be expected from a strength training and cardio routine? And what are flags that you're not recovering? So it's normal to feel tired a little bit or even lightly sore after a workout. What's not normal is feeling like you got hit by a truck every single day. Lots of joint pain, heavy limbs, brain fog. So heavy limbs as in like it feels hard to walk or like go up the stairs. It just feels like you're kind of trudging through mud. Sleep issues, feeling weak in your workouts. Those are all subjective symptoms that we should be paying attention to and are indications that we're doing too much and need to adjust something. those are not normal. I used to think all of those things were normal and that meant that I am hitting it hard, but those are not normal and those aren't good, right? Because you're not going to adapt if your body can't handle the training stress that you're putting on it. So if you are seeing those things, it means you need to do something, change something in your routine. I recommend adjusting cardio first. So I recommend taking out HIIT if you're doing that, and then maybe lowering the dose of your cardio. It doesn't need to be a lot. You can also try removing some volume. So doing fewer sets in your workout. If you're an envelope member, you could do one or two sets of the workout and then skip to the cool down. So you can still do the workout on your schedule, just do fewer sets. You may also try taking a short reset week, maybe four days off where you do some easy light activity, or maybe you adjust nutrition a little bit and eat a little bit more. There's lots of factors to play with, but choose one of those factors instead of doing a bunch at once, because if you do a bunch at once, then you don't know what variable was the one that worked. So that's if you're not recovering, what do you do if you are recovering well? Should you add more? So if you find that you're recovering well, maybe you're choosing some of those things to measure your recovery and you're feeling strong in most of your workouts. You're not dreading to move and lift. Your joints feel good and not achy and irritated. Your mood is stable or even elevated. Your sleep is good. Does that mean you need to add more? Short answer, only if you aren't getting stronger. If you're getting stronger over about a month and longer, you don't need to add more. You've hit the sweet spot for your exercise dosing. I think so often we feel good and we're like, something's not right. That must mean I need to do more. I should feel bad. And that is not true. If you're doing all of this right, you should feel good and you will start to see results. It doesn't mean that you need to add more if you're not super, super sore and depleted and exhausted and your joints hurt and you're not sleeping and you're crabby. When you feel good, it means you're adapting. And as long as you're getting stronger from workout to workout, you're in the right spot. So in this episode, I taught you how you can build in recovery within a workout, within a week and within a year. We also talked about some tools to track your recovery. If you can recover harder and better, you will stay in this for the long term. So see recovery as a necessary part of the body recomposition process. Tomorrow, we're talking about how to track and measure your progress. I will help you set a realistic muscle and fat loss goal for the year and teach you how to measure it throughout the year. See you tomorrow. Before we get into today's episode, if you want to actually improve your body composition and are sick of random workouts that just wear you down and burn you out, that's exactly why I built Evlo. Evlo is science-backed strength training designed to help you build muscle, improve body composition, and feel better in your body without beating yourself up or living in the gym. You can try Evlo now for two weeks free if you visit evlofitness.com.
