Recovery is by far the most underrated and overlooked component in any endeavor and any life goal pursuit. Again whether it is exercise, academic or work related, the principles are the same. You'll see little improvement if you're not taking time to rest, recover and let your body and mind respond to the stimulus you're blasting it with.
The most obvious thing that comes to mind to help you rest or recover from whatever you've been putting yourself through is sleep. We are all familiar with the 7 to 8 hour rule. However we are not all blessed with such luxury. Arnold Schwarzenegger once said we have 24 hours in a day, 18 for working and 6 for sleeping. He'd say people would often respond saying "Hey, wait a minute, I sleep 7 or 8 hours". He'd respond saying "sleep faster, I'd recommend". HOW OH HOW do you sleep faster?! I hear your cry. Well its quite simple. You have to increase your quality of sleep, HOW?!
1. Don't consume any caffeine 6 hours before bed No coffee, no tea, save it for the morning. Any stimulants floating around your system before bed are only going to make it harder for you to relax at bed time.
2. PUT YOUR FREAKING PHONE AWAY! Don't look at any screens a least an hour before bed, unless you have a sleep filter on them. You brain responds to the back lighting of most screens as if it were sunlight, ultimately messing up your body clock making it think it is still day time, i.e. not time for sleeping. If you need to occupy your mind somehow before bed; READ A BOOK YO.
3. DARKNESS, get some blackout blinds or a mask OR BOTH. Get those lights off, block out any ambient light, you'll get better quality sleep without a doubt. JUST KILL THE LIGHTS.
4. Temperature. The cooler the room the better you'll sleep and get some recovery going, optimal room temperature for sleep is around 15 degrees C.
Don't be like the Germlin... Looking at screens late at night with tea in her system, radiator on full blast... tut (
There we go, we now have the most important aspect of recovery dealt with. So what can you do in your waking life to help with the stressors and stimuli you're putting yourself through. If you're an office drone climbing the corporate ladder, sat at a desk 8 or more hours per day 5 days a week, you're gunna have to deal with the physical issues related to that. We're not designed to be sat down all day every day, its as simple is that. You gotta get active, or a lot of what I just wrote about sleep will be wasted on you. If you're caffeinated all day every day and mostly sedentary, your body is going to have little reason to sleep, yes I'm sure you will have worked hard mentally, and will be exhausted in that sense, but your heart and lunges and muscles won't have done much.
How to get around this..?
SIMPLE. move more. Take the stairs instead of the lift. Go for a walk at lunch. Drink more water, so you have to get up and move more. Get off a few stops further from work, add some walking. You don't need to run a marathon every morning. Just enough to retain some bone density. So when you wake up and find out you're now 80 years old and you try to get up out of bed your legs don't literally crumble beneath you.
Also, sitting at a desk all day destroys your flexibility. So if you are pursuing some kind of exercise endeavor while simultaneously working as an office drone, you're gunna have to tackle the related issues with that. Your hip flexors and glutes are going to take the brunt of the abuse. So its time to hit up that yoga class. (If this is anyone's particular interest, with regards to flexibility and posture, hit me up in the comments and I'll do an entire post dedicated to that, as most of us steemit-ians are required to sit in front of computers for prolonged periods of time).
I have picked a pretty big topic here granted so I'm gunna leave it here FOR NOW, I'll turn this into a small series. Because this applies to everyone, whatever you're doing.