In this episode Mo and Miles catch up with Rebecca Hammond after her 2nd place finish amongst a STACKED field of pro women at the recent Spartan Race West Virginia North American Championships. We talk about:
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In all of my years of training and coaching I have found that and athlete’s quest for fitness, weight loss, weight gain, and/or performance can be hindered not only by poor nutrition, lack of recovery, etc., but also by simply thinking that what they are doing is not sufficient enough. All too often athletes chase perfection in training and when they don’t hit a workout goal it can send them into a tailspin of negative self-talk that can 100% affect performance and goals, or they see other athletes doing different workouts and think that’s what THEY have to do too in order to succeed. Our desire to do the perfect workout in the perfect amount of time has consumed us and we often forget the real purpose of what we are training for.
If you have ever said, “I’m slow”, “I suck”, “I’m not fast/strong enough” STOP. Stop chasing perfection in your routine and focus on each movement, each rep, and each set being the best you can make it. If you’re physically or mentally tired, note that, but give 100% of you best effort in that moment. If you can’t “finish a workout” maybe you need to rest more. If you set out on a training session and you thought it was going to take 60 minutes but it only took 52 minutes don’t think that you MUST keep going for 8 more minutes. If you put in 100% effort for those 52 minutes then you have done exactly what you needed.
Hear me, I am not saying that you should not set goals in your training, I am saying that more often than not we don’t give ourselves enough credit for the work that we DO put in and that is what is creating negative self talk that can prove detrimental in competition and even in life. Stop searching for the perfect training session or the perfect routine to get to your goals. Focus instead on the journey you are on to reach your goals and strive to learn from every session every day.
Are carbs bad? Are carbs good? When should I eat them? When should I limit them? What if I eat too many? What if I eat too few? What if I am trying to get pregnant? If you have asked yourself one or more of these questions, Alix and Mo breakdown the basics of carbohydrate consumption. OH and we hope you enjoy the bonus songs by Alix 🙂
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Coach Mo recaps last week’s NORAM championships and give some insight, tips, and suggestions on how to better approach grip obstacles and improve your chance of keeping your band, but not before being serenaded by Miles Keller as Vic slurps down a massive bowl of Pho….
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Here are a couple of the videos from Urban Sky and the Force 5 rig Coach Mo talked about in the show
5 Must’s to Improve Your Recovery Time
Whether you’re a hard charging athlete, outdoor adventurer or a full time working parent, the last thing you want is to be sidelined from being too sore or injured from training, a race, an expedition or simply doing life. When we train hard or race we create tiny micro tears in our muscle tissue. These tears produce a slight inflammatory response, which starts a process of healing and repair. This is how we grow bigger, stronger, faster, etc. However, too much intense training, or after a long/hard race our bodies are riddled with inflammation which require adequate recovery. Without proper recovery, the inflammation in our bodies begins to cause negative affects like excessive soreness, muscular weakness, tight/stiff muscles and joints, and more. Inflammation left unattended will likely result in reduced performance and injury. What I have compiled for you below are my guidelines that I give to every athlete/client of mine to help reduce inflammation and speed recovery. This protocol has helped my Ironman, Ultra-marathon, and Obstacle Course clients recover in record time.
Eat anti-inflammatory foods:
The foods you eat have a profound impact on your ability to recover from hard training sessions, adventures or races. Eating highly acidic foods, such as processed refined grains, poor quality grain-fed meats, artificial sweeteners, vegetable oils, and excess sugar (anything over 7g/serving) can actually increase inflammation and impede recovery time. Instead of reaching for one or more of the aforementioned foods, choose foods that will reduce acidity in your body, reduce inflammation and speed recovery. My “go to” anti-inflammatory foods are:
Breathe:
Diaphragmatic breathing, or belly breathing, has been used for many years to calm our bodies down from the sympathetic “fight or flight” nervous system and engage our parasympathetic “calm relaxed” nervous system state. Mindful relaxed breathing has been shown to lower blood pressure, reduce stress/anxiety, and if done daily, before or after a stressful situation, with the proper mindset can actually aid in reducing inflammation and speeding recovery. If you can calm your breath and calm your mind, you will calm your body.
Move:
A common misconception, especially when we are really sore from a workout or race, is that we should rest and not move at all. Allow our bodies to rest and recover, not unlike the old R.I.C.E. Rest Ice Compression Elevation protocol after an injury. What if I told you that following those theories actually lengthens the recovery process and can create stiffness and tightness in your connective tissue and joints? Even after racing a full Ironman distance triathlon I, and my clients, will go through an easy recovery movement protocol the following day. The more you sit still the less circulation, blood flow, and therefore nutrients used to heal your tissue, get to sore muscles. Incorporating non-impact movements i.e. an easy swim, an easy spin on a bike, or MOGA for 15-20 minutes a day can greatly improve recovery time.
To begin incorporating MOGA into your recovery protocol – follow us on Instagram for weekly movement posts – @themogamovement
Cold contrast shower:
The benefits of cold therapy are well documented in aiding in reduction of inflammation, improving immune function, and hormonal balance to name a few. For the purpose of this article, when combined with heat, hot/warm water, it can greatly improve your recovery time. When you are in a cold shower your blood vessels & muscles constrict and blood is shunted to your core/vital organs, then when warm/hot water is introduced, your blood vessels open up and fresh blood & oxygen are re-introduced. In the latter process you are delivering nutrients and oxygen to damaged tissue that help to reduce recovery time. A typical protocol is to take a shower as normal. At the end of your shower go through the following protocol 10 times: 20 seconds of cold water followed by 10 seconds of warm water. Be sure to end on cold water. This again, is something I prescribe to all of my athletes with great success.
Supplementation:
There seems to be a bazillion supplements on the market that tout recovery benefits, and there are some legitimate ones out there, but to avoid any confusion and to keep your bank account from busting by buying multiple products here are my top 3:
These 3 supplements have been tested and proven to help reduce inflammation and aid significantly with recovery from hard training sessions, races, injury, and more.
There you have it – my five, must-do, go-to’s for faster recovery! I am certain there are other methods you can implement, and/or may have implemented in your own recovery plan that have worked. If so, keep doing it! If not, give my suggestions a try and let me know how it works for you. If you have any questions or need help creating a custom recovery protocol for your needs please contact me at mo@linkendurance.com. Until then, train hard & recover smart my friends.
Life’s Detours are not Dead Ends
Have you ever been driving and hit a road detour? Sure you have, we all have. Sometimes we encounter the detour just a few blocks or miles from our destination. Sometimes you can even see where you need to get to, but instead of driving straight there you now have to take a turn, weave through some neighborhood streets, take another turn or two, until you are eventually guided back to your original path and onward to your destination. No one likes hitting a detour. It cuts into our time, our plan, our ——. But you know what? You still get to your destination.
We get hit with detours throughout our fitness journey and our life journey. We get injured, we don’t hit the goal for a race, we get fired from our job, we lose motivation personally and professionally, and the list goes on. In each of these instances in sport and/or life, and more often than not when this happens our mind turns negative. We think things like “why is this happening to me”, “I’m not good enough”, etc. We think our “road” has come to an end, but it hasn’t, we have just hit a detour.
In the documentary 180 Degrees South Yvon Chouinard , founder of Patagonia Clothing makes a profound statement when the main character in the film has to call off his almost 12 month long journey a mere 200 meters from his goal of summiting a mountain in Patagonia that he has dreamed about since he was a child. Yvon says, “If you get to the edge of cliff and can’t take another step further or you’ll fall off the edge what do you do? You don’t go backwards. You turn 180 degrees and take a forward step towards a new path, a new direction”.
If or when you get injured in training, lose your job, or whatever your “detour” may be, don’t lose hope. Don’t allow your mind to go to that negative space. Instead, reroute your journey to a new direction. If you are injured in sport, this is a great time to focus and learn about foods and supplements to heal quickly, or it can be time to focus on other areas of your fitness that may have been lacking. This would be a great time to focus on mindset and meditation. The same goes for your professional and personal life. If something happens at work, instead of blaming someone else, look within yourself and see what you could have done better/different and learn for the next time. The aforementioned have all happened to me, more than once, and each time I have had to redirect my path. It has made me wiser, more patient, and given me the ability to not lose hope, rather, I see these detours as a chance to take a few right turns and weave through a neighborhood or two. Each time this happens I learn something new, and each time I still reach my destination, even if it took a little longer to get there.
In this episode Miles, Vic (the vegan), I have some fun and talk about
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In this episode Mo and Alix discuss how we are not destined to our parents/families genes of disease, obesity, diabetes, etc. Through the study of Epigenetics, scientists have learned, and proven, that we in fact have the ability to alter our DNA for a more favorable & healthy outcome. Take a listen to learn more!
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