This is a theory I have been working on for a very very long time. The basic idea has been there in my mind for 3-4 years now. Somewhere at the time, I came to the conclusion that the biggest factor influencing gains was not training, but recovery.
We all know people who seem to recover fine no matter what they do, while some of us cant recover at all. Initially I too blamed it on genetics until I came across a pattern. But before we get into that, let us analyse the basic premise of my theory:-
"Recovery is matching the amount of stress you subject yourself to, to the same amount of reward."
Essentially, if the reward your body gets is the same as the stress you experience, you will recover.
Thus there are two basic ways we can improve our recovery-
1. We can reduce stress
2. We can increase rewards
Then there are 2 extra methods to deal with it-
3. Prevent accumulation of stress
4. Let rewards accumulate
Now we have 2 situations in which we can have optimum recovery- high stress, high reward, low stress, low reward. For most of us low stress is not an option, thus we have to increase our rewards.
Now I do think that high stress high reward leads to better results, but its important to go to a low stress low reward situation once in a while, otherwise high stress high reward in itself becomes a source of stress.
Now the pattern I observed was this- People who recover well are hard to stress and easy to reward. Its their Psychologies that enable them to be so, as a rule they are emotionally stable people. This idea will make a lot more sense once we analyse the components of stress and reward.
The second premise of my theory is that the appropriate reward must be given for the appropriate stress.
The types of stress in my book are-
1. Physical Stress-
This is self explanatory. Workouts, standing in the heat, moving around too much are all physical stress.
2. CNS Stress-
This is a little harder to explain. Basically any time the body is charged up for performance, it stresses the body. For example- getting excited about doing a meeting well is CNS stress. Performing a heavy (in terms of weight) set of any exercise is CNS stress. Trying to jump as high as you can is CNS stress. Listening to a power metal song that pumps you up to no end is CNS stress- even though you think its relaxation. Even stuff like surfing on the net and other electronic stimulation is actually CNS stress.
This is one of the most common and overlooked forms of stress, simply because people dont think of it as stress.
3. Emotional Stress-
This is essentially the stuff you build up inside your head because of the things you experience and the way you choose to look at it. For example- the stress of a relationship in terms of expectations, living up to the false hopes of childhood, emotional noise and garbage built up due to frustration. I do not know the exact Psychological term for this, but I am sure you get the idea.
4. Mental Stress-
This is anytime your brain has to work really hard. For example- studying for an exam, planning a new project.
Now people who recover well in my experience are basically people who tend to not accumulate CNS stress as they dont get charged about every little thing. They also tend to be emotionally stable. Thus they undergo half the stress others do, just by the nature of their personalities. Modifying your behavior to prevent the accumulation of stress is probably one way to improve recovery.
Now rewards are of 4 types as well-
1. Food
Eating is a reward. Now the problem is, food only rewards physical stress and nothing else. If you exercise more you need to eat more- that's it. It has nothing to do with sleep as we will discuss in the sleep section. The problem is many people eat in order to compensate for other stresses like emotional or mental, whereas that is not the appropriate reward. People call this stress eating and all it does is make you fat, it only provides temporary relief as it is not the appropriate form of reward.
It is extremely important to match your physical stress and the amount of food you consume. Getting this wrong, like eating too less or too much, leads to serious metabolic disorders in the long run. It is important to identify how much of your stress is physical and eat the correct amount for that amount of stress. Then reward yourself using the other 3 methods to ensure good recovery.
2. Sleep
Sleep is an interesting phenomenon. Every study into the matter proves that physiologically sleep does not help in recovery of the body. Yet every study also proves that sleep deprivation drives you crazy and can kill you and in some depraved un-explainable way is essential for life.
Here is my take on it- I believe that sleep is the method through which the Psyche is rewarded. It has nothing to do with the body- its to do with the mind. Think about it, in times of high emotional stress you will have dream filled sleep, yet crazy physical stress will only make you sleep soundly. I really don't know how to justify it other than by looking at the strange and crazy patterns brain waves follow during sleep. The only thing recovering during sleep is your brain. The rest of the body, internally of course, is actually more active. Its the primary stage when anabolism happens, yet somehow anabolism seems to happen without sleep as well.
Essentially if you reach high levels of emotional and mental stress- you need to sleep more. Now this only works to a degree. There is a point when emotional stress gets so high that sleep no longer helps, at which point you need to get help and also look at point 4. If you can match the amount of sleep you get to the amount of emotional and mental stress you experience, you will find that these stresses do not accumulate. You need to make sleep a priority for your mental and emotional stability.
It is also a secondary method to compensate for CNS stress.
3. General Recreation Activities
I use the phrase for the lack of a better term. This is all the stuff you do that you find enjoyable and relaxing yet is not an added source of stress. For example- listening to soothing music, smelling roses, going for long rambling walks. This is the primary reward for CNS stress. You have to compensate excitement and performance with relaxation and an auto gear. This is the biggest form of reward that people ignore.
It is also the secondary method to compensate for emotional and mental stress.
4. Sex
Sex is the reward for high threshold stress. What this means is sex compensates for all four stresses whenever any one or combination thereof of stresses crosses the threshold of tolerance of that person. It is simply the ultimate reward for extreme stress. Different people have different thresholds and therefore require different amounts of sex. The higher the stress threshold a person can take, the lesser sex he/she requires. The threshold may also increase with time and experience depending on the person. The important thing to remember is that you have to find what your threshold is and how often you need sex.
This makes sense when you think of it from an evolutionary point of view. In the wild the only time the human body willingly undergoes life threatening amounts of stress, is in order to acquire a mate. Thus are genetics are programmed to expect mating after extra high stress, as that is the only reason the body whould have undergone that stress in the first place.
To summarize
Physical stress- Rewarded by food
Mental and Emotional Stress- Rewarded by sleep and secondarily by general recreation.
CNS stress- Rewarded by General Recreation and secondarily by sleep
Over the Top High threshold Stress- rewarded by Sex
The third and final premise of recovery is-
"There must be balance between the catabolic and anabolic processes in the body."
Basically, if you spend too much time just catabolizing- that is destroying tissues, your stress levels get too high. If you spend too much time anabolizing- that is creating tissues, you get fat and lazy. Catabolism is basically triggered by undereating and stress (like exercise), while anabolism is triggered by over eating and reward. If you really think about it, it the same as premise 1.
To conclude my theory-
1. Your total rewards and stresses must be kept in balance.
2. You must match the appropriate stress to the appropriate reward.
3. You must spend the same amount of time anabolising as catabolizing.
Finally I am working on quantifying all this.
We all know people who seem to recover fine no matter what they do, while some of us cant recover at all. Initially I too blamed it on genetics until I came across a pattern. But before we get into that, let us analyse the basic premise of my theory:-
"Recovery is matching the amount of stress you subject yourself to, to the same amount of reward."
Essentially, if the reward your body gets is the same as the stress you experience, you will recover.
Thus there are two basic ways we can improve our recovery-
1. We can reduce stress
2. We can increase rewards
Then there are 2 extra methods to deal with it-
3. Prevent accumulation of stress
4. Let rewards accumulate
Now we have 2 situations in which we can have optimum recovery- high stress, high reward, low stress, low reward. For most of us low stress is not an option, thus we have to increase our rewards.
Now I do think that high stress high reward leads to better results, but its important to go to a low stress low reward situation once in a while, otherwise high stress high reward in itself becomes a source of stress.
Now the pattern I observed was this- People who recover well are hard to stress and easy to reward. Its their Psychologies that enable them to be so, as a rule they are emotionally stable people. This idea will make a lot more sense once we analyse the components of stress and reward.
The second premise of my theory is that the appropriate reward must be given for the appropriate stress.
The types of stress in my book are-
1. Physical Stress-
This is self explanatory. Workouts, standing in the heat, moving around too much are all physical stress.
2. CNS Stress-
This is a little harder to explain. Basically any time the body is charged up for performance, it stresses the body. For example- getting excited about doing a meeting well is CNS stress. Performing a heavy (in terms of weight) set of any exercise is CNS stress. Trying to jump as high as you can is CNS stress. Listening to a power metal song that pumps you up to no end is CNS stress- even though you think its relaxation. Even stuff like surfing on the net and other electronic stimulation is actually CNS stress.
This is one of the most common and overlooked forms of stress, simply because people dont think of it as stress.
3. Emotional Stress-
This is essentially the stuff you build up inside your head because of the things you experience and the way you choose to look at it. For example- the stress of a relationship in terms of expectations, living up to the false hopes of childhood, emotional noise and garbage built up due to frustration. I do not know the exact Psychological term for this, but I am sure you get the idea.
4. Mental Stress-
This is anytime your brain has to work really hard. For example- studying for an exam, planning a new project.
Now people who recover well in my experience are basically people who tend to not accumulate CNS stress as they dont get charged about every little thing. They also tend to be emotionally stable. Thus they undergo half the stress others do, just by the nature of their personalities. Modifying your behavior to prevent the accumulation of stress is probably one way to improve recovery.
Now rewards are of 4 types as well-
1. Food
Eating is a reward. Now the problem is, food only rewards physical stress and nothing else. If you exercise more you need to eat more- that's it. It has nothing to do with sleep as we will discuss in the sleep section. The problem is many people eat in order to compensate for other stresses like emotional or mental, whereas that is not the appropriate reward. People call this stress eating and all it does is make you fat, it only provides temporary relief as it is not the appropriate form of reward.
It is extremely important to match your physical stress and the amount of food you consume. Getting this wrong, like eating too less or too much, leads to serious metabolic disorders in the long run. It is important to identify how much of your stress is physical and eat the correct amount for that amount of stress. Then reward yourself using the other 3 methods to ensure good recovery.
2. Sleep
Sleep is an interesting phenomenon. Every study into the matter proves that physiologically sleep does not help in recovery of the body. Yet every study also proves that sleep deprivation drives you crazy and can kill you and in some depraved un-explainable way is essential for life.
Here is my take on it- I believe that sleep is the method through which the Psyche is rewarded. It has nothing to do with the body- its to do with the mind. Think about it, in times of high emotional stress you will have dream filled sleep, yet crazy physical stress will only make you sleep soundly. I really don't know how to justify it other than by looking at the strange and crazy patterns brain waves follow during sleep. The only thing recovering during sleep is your brain. The rest of the body, internally of course, is actually more active. Its the primary stage when anabolism happens, yet somehow anabolism seems to happen without sleep as well.
Essentially if you reach high levels of emotional and mental stress- you need to sleep more. Now this only works to a degree. There is a point when emotional stress gets so high that sleep no longer helps, at which point you need to get help and also look at point 4. If you can match the amount of sleep you get to the amount of emotional and mental stress you experience, you will find that these stresses do not accumulate. You need to make sleep a priority for your mental and emotional stability.
It is also a secondary method to compensate for CNS stress.
3. General Recreation Activities
I use the phrase for the lack of a better term. This is all the stuff you do that you find enjoyable and relaxing yet is not an added source of stress. For example- listening to soothing music, smelling roses, going for long rambling walks. This is the primary reward for CNS stress. You have to compensate excitement and performance with relaxation and an auto gear. This is the biggest form of reward that people ignore.
It is also the secondary method to compensate for emotional and mental stress.
4. Sex
Sex is the reward for high threshold stress. What this means is sex compensates for all four stresses whenever any one or combination thereof of stresses crosses the threshold of tolerance of that person. It is simply the ultimate reward for extreme stress. Different people have different thresholds and therefore require different amounts of sex. The higher the stress threshold a person can take, the lesser sex he/she requires. The threshold may also increase with time and experience depending on the person. The important thing to remember is that you have to find what your threshold is and how often you need sex.
This makes sense when you think of it from an evolutionary point of view. In the wild the only time the human body willingly undergoes life threatening amounts of stress, is in order to acquire a mate. Thus are genetics are programmed to expect mating after extra high stress, as that is the only reason the body whould have undergone that stress in the first place.
To summarize
Physical stress- Rewarded by food
Mental and Emotional Stress- Rewarded by sleep and secondarily by general recreation.
CNS stress- Rewarded by General Recreation and secondarily by sleep
Over the Top High threshold Stress- rewarded by Sex
The third and final premise of recovery is-
"There must be balance between the catabolic and anabolic processes in the body."
Basically, if you spend too much time just catabolizing- that is destroying tissues, your stress levels get too high. If you spend too much time anabolizing- that is creating tissues, you get fat and lazy. Catabolism is basically triggered by undereating and stress (like exercise), while anabolism is triggered by over eating and reward. If you really think about it, it the same as premise 1.
To conclude my theory-
1. Your total rewards and stresses must be kept in balance.
2. You must match the appropriate stress to the appropriate reward.
3. You must spend the same amount of time anabolising as catabolizing.
Finally I am working on quantifying all this.
Interesting read!
ReplyDeleteThanks! This is part 1 of a 5 part series.
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