Five Awesome Recovery Methods

If you train hard, you need to recover.

You need to recover so your body can train at higher intensities and frequencies.

Training at higher intensities and frequencies is how you get serious results!


Focusing on recovery allows us to “bounce back” faster, and keep building momentum.

To be clear: a little soreness is ok, and not something to be afraid of!

But for everyone, at the end of the day, we just want to know what works.

Whether or not you do all 5 of these recovery methods all the time doesn’t matter. (But you should!)

What matters is than if/when you feel the need for recovery, you can go with this proven list, rather than pay $99.99 for some bullshit scam.


The Fitness Recovery Industry has preyed on an intentionally confused public for years.

The problem is; if we don’t know what actually works for recovery, when that moment hits and we’re brutally sore, we overlook tried and true methods for a magic bullet.

Armed with the information below and just a touch of foresight, you should be able to manage your recovery and avoid burnout.


  1. Walk
    • Improves blood flow and gets your body moving!
    • 7,000 steps/day is our MINIMUM threshold at RCTF. Make sure you’re at least getting that.
  2. Drink Water
    • When we exercise, we’re stressing our tissues.
    • Your cells need to be hydrated for general function and to specifically adapt to that stress.
    • Half your Bodyweight (pounds) in ounces of water is a decent benchmark to start.
  3. Sleep
    • Serves as a metabolic “reset” for the body and allows for several essential physiological changes.
    • This process takes time, so the common recommendation of 7-8 hours of QUALITY sleep still applies for most people.
  4. Eat
    • Your body needs fuel to recover and to rebuild those muscles, tissues, and other physiological changes! Nutrition is complex, so if we’re gonna focus on a singular thing to start, Protein is your best bet.
    • The top two protein recommendations are:
      • Your Bodyweight (in pounds) in grams of Protein
      • Your height (in centimeters) in grams of Protein
      • These should come out to similar numbers. Go with whichever feels best for you.
  5. Relax!
    • Your Autonomic Nervous System has two modes:
      • “Fight or Flight” (Sympathetic)
      • “Rest and Digest” (Parasympathetic)
    • If we can’t relax, we can’t switch to rest mode, and we can’t properly recover.
    • I know, life is stressful. I promise you, I get it. But this is where you have to find some sort of outlet that works for you.
    • Gratitude and a hobby that you enjoy are, in my opinion, the best combo to consistently achieve this state.

What about Stretching? It’s great, but we should view that as preventative maintenance.

What about massage? Great! But you should be doing those other things first.

What about Ice Baths? Same deal.

What about Red Light therapy? The current data is really promising! But same deal. Do the other stuff first.

What about the pills this dude at GNC is pitching to me? Well, that stuff is probably bullshit, but either way;

Same. Fucking. Deal.


This is not different than someone coming into the gym and wanting to do a double backflip barbell snatch (not a real thing – I hope) as their very first exercise.

Nail down the basics first, then do as you please.

That seems to apply to most things in life, and it’s certainly true here.

See you at the gym.

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