This article series and video companion is designed to help you get radical results with your body transformation. It is from knowledge and experience collected from hundreds of clients. For more information on how to succeed you can contact Omar at omar_isuf@hotmail.com.

I can hear the confusion now, “but I thought you said to go intense!”. Yes I did, but in order to maximize your gains in the gym you must recover just as hard. Our pillar of a successful transformation is threefold: exercise, nutrition, and recovery. If you remove one, the whole stack falls down (or you become a work-out zombie- dead to the living!). Let me illustrate my point.

The Dark Side
Yes I’ve seen it happen. Heck I’ve had it happen. You don’t feel like working out. Your performance in the gym sucks. You go through the motions but can’t give a 100%. You can’t go to sleep (or worse you dream of dancing Twinkies with black bow ties). You my friend, could be suffering from Adrenal fatigue.

Signs Include:
-Burn out, fatigue, depression, irritability, reduce gym performance, loss of appetite, lack of weight loss, death, ugliness, stinkiness, ok maybe not the last three aren’t true but you get the point.

Listen friend, you aren’t over trained, you are under recovered. Heck your performance in the bed might even suffer! NOBODY WANTS THAT. I once trained myself into the ground. I was working 60 hours a week, training 6 days and getting no results with fat loss. Now that’s frustrating, working out a lot and seeing NO results.

Lets prevent that from happening by recovering properly.

Real Recovery: How To Sleep Like its Your Job

1. Sleep- Yes it sounds obvious but no you do not get enough sleep (eight hours is what we are after). Make this a priority! Even one night of impaired sleep can affect your nervous system (i.e. your mental mood and physical performance). Fix this by getting effective sleep.

Heres how:
-Keep your bedroom as dark as possible(no LCD lights, put on a sleep mask)
-Develop into an evening routine (avoid TV late at night), stimulate the mind with something relaxing: a fictional book, jazz (no Whitney Houston), my blog, a picture book, whatever.

If you can’t get enough sleep consider power naps (just don’t wear a power suit) where you’ll sleep anywhere from 30min-2hours. Remember we are after total time for sleeping.

2. Nutrition

Yep another no brainer, you should be eating food that fuels recovery. I’m talking proper post-workout nutrition (to help accelerate recovery from the gym) and day to day eating to fuel a more balanced body. Top recommendations are fish oil for anti-inflammation (its also used to treat depression in Europe), Vitamin D (for overall performance) and Vitamin C (post-workout or pre-bed to lower cortisol).

PS In the video that shake is a product called Surge by Biotest, excellent for fuelling performance, pretty much the only company I trust.

3. Active Recovery: Foam Rolling, Epsom Salt Bathes, Contrast Showers, NEPA
You want to do activities that help your body recover, whatever they may be (yes even doing that helps). Here are some of the most effective.

Foam Rolling- Great to relieve built up muscle tightness and adhesions that might be stopping you from optimal gym performance (don’t worry if people look at you strange in the gym!)

Epsom Salt Bathes- Soaking in a hot bath with two cups of Epsom salt helps detoxify your body and releases magnesium into your blood

Contrast Showers- In a shower turn the water cold for 30 seconds, followed by 2 minutes of warm water, repeat for 10 minutes.

NEPA (Non-exercise physical activity)- Aids in peripheral blood flow into muscles that are sore and affected, walk, throw a Frisbee, whatever relaxes you thats active

These things should be an essential component to proper recovery. Now writing this post has made me sleepy, so I think I’m going to catch up on my ZzZs, I suggest you do the same.

What are you doing to recover?