Regeneration
How to turn off the mind?
You have to realize what a lot of activities to unwind mean for your mind. Every time you stare at a screen (watching a series, gambling, Instagram, ...) you physically shut down, but your brain is at work the entire time.
It is this point that Rasmus Ankersen highlights in the book "The Gold Mine Effect", explaining why African marathon runners regenerate so well and do a tremendous amount of training. After training, people are at home with family or acquaintances, interacting together, cooking together or making music. The difference between the two forms of leisure activity is that marathon runners are simply in the moment, "switching off" their bodies as well as their heads. You're "in the flow," so to speak.
This isn't to say that you should live just like them, just that you should be aware of these effects and integrate rest periods into your everyday life where you let go completely and allow your mind to regenerate. This is especially valuable right before going to bed.
Areas
In general, it is important to find a good mix. After a working day you want to unwind and not do a hundred things that feel like work.
Therefore, it's important to find an individual mix for everyone. Check out suggestions and incorporate the things that bring you pleasure and joy. Maybe do things together with your partner, too.
And then you can determine the routines you want to adopt as a result of the benefits they offer. Right before bedtime is ideal.
Breathing:
Unlike breath training, regeneration involves calm, deep, conscious and slow breaths. You will notice after just a few breaths how your whole body breathes through and relaxes. The important thing is to remember this regularly and make it a routine.
Just before falling asleep, you are putting yourself in a perfect situation to sleep restfully.
Stretching:
Stretching deep into the fascia is tremendously beneficial, particularly after physical exertion. Prolonged periods of intense stretching until you feel a release of energy, e.g. in the form of a tingling sensation, relieves tension deeply in the tissues and improves the transport of nutrients within the body. Combined with controlled and deep breathing, these are ideal prerequisites for good regeneration.
You can perform the stretches with loud music or in a silent yoga session. What matters is that you enjoy it. Keyword - emotions.
Mealtimes:
On nutrition issues, we have experts and I think that soccer plays a pretty good role there. Yet topics like meal prep (see routines) and when to eat before sleep are important disciplines to offer your body ideal conditions for regeneration. Eating before sleeping wastes valuable hours of regeneration, because your body has to use all its energy for digestion. Small things have a big impact.
Sleep:
Getting enough sleep and having regular bedtimes is crucial. If the body knows it usually goes to bed in about an hour, it prepares for it, and you sleep more restfully. Particularly if you support this with dimmed light and perhaps blue light filter glasses.
Sleeping position:
A small enhancement to your sleep, with great effect as well. We sleep about 8 hours, but nobody really thinks about what position we sleep in. Most of the time we have our favorite position. But these mostly support the body position of the day. A classic example of a sleeping position is sitting in a chair in the side position. This only further shortens the muscles, tendons and ligaments.
Adjusting your sleeping position is difficult at first. But when you think about the benefits of stretching your body overnight to no effort, it is well worth it. The body trains 24 hours a day and always adapts to the conditions.
Cold:
If one gets into an ice bath, with his whole body, or takes a completely cold shower, one switches directly into survival mode blanking out everything else around. If you manage to calm your body down and not give in to panic in that moment, you become very calm and alert.
Many people don't realize they are in survival mode most of the day. We turn worried about the past or we are already thinking about the future.
Stress, worry, anger, negativity, rushing oneself. All of these communicate that the body is in fight or flight mode, causing the majority of your body energy levels to go towards that. This neglects all other body functions, including digestion, (muscle) growth or (cell) regeneration.
Cold therapy helps you break out of it and helps you reduce inflammation, heal strained muscles, and improve digestion. It makes you more alert, focused and confident.
Your energy level is something else after an ice bath. And that kind of energy rules your life.
Sounds exhausting?
30 minutes will make the difference
I discuss many options and areas in which you can improve your own regeneration. As mentioned in other places, emotions and mood play a big role. Overloading oneself and wanting to do everything perfectly will backfire. Start small and focus on the things important to you (like the problem areas) and on what you enjoy doing (such as, “it feels good” or “I can do those with my partner”).