…Or more accurately, when the voice inside your head gets drowned out by the one in your back, neck, elbows and knees,
We all love training. We don’t always like to admit it, especially when it hurts, but we do love it. It helps us to grow in our discipline, it makes us stronger – both mentally and physically — and spending time with our training partners gives us a sense of community, friendship and belonging.
Heck, why would we not want to train as many hours and as many days in the week as possible?
With all that love of training, we still can’t ignore the elephant in the room: training is hard – both physically and mentally. At the same time we admit that training IS HARD, many of us love to train because of the simple fact that doing hard things is good for us.
We have been told over and over again that discipline always beats motivation, so we create disciplined routines for ourselves. We often have pretty fixed training schedules. Sure, some of that is because we can only train after work and before we have to run home to put the kiddos to bed. But let’s be honest – a lot of us train on the schedules we create because we crave routine, and the routine brings comfort to the often uncomfortable aspects of our training. At least it does for me!
But what happens when we want to train, or even feel like we have to train, and our bodies aren’t quite up for it? What happens when we tweak our neck or our knee, or maybe waited a bit too long to tap to an armbar the night before?
We’ve all been there, and if you haven’t yet, trust me — you will.

The concept of hurt vs. injured
You can find many different discussions and explanations of the phrase hurt vs. injured, but it basically boils down to this: if you are hurt, you can likely continue to train but if you’re injured, you should probably stop for at least a little while. It that a day, a week or even longer?
Regardless of the length of time, we need to be able to sit with ourselves and ask the question: are we hurt, or is it worse than that… an injury? Or do we simply need some rest and recovery time?
Let’s not focus on injuries for now, but spend some time looking at what it means to be hurt, overtrained or simply needing to take some time to rest and recovery. What do we need to be on the lookout for, and what are some ways that we can incorporate rest and recovery into our training discipline? Hopefully, this can help us avoid the injury scenario alltogether.
[Stretching for Recovery, Performance and Injury Prevention]
Are you just overtrained?
Sure, we have all been sore after training, but how about something a little more than just sore? Can you stretch the stiffness and soreness away? Or does it feel pretty constant?
Has training been making your weight act peculiar? Is the training that previously made you feel calm and relaxed started to make you feel irritated or even sad?
Does sleep not leaving you feeling recovered, or you find you’re having trouble falling asleep and staying asleep? Does it feel like your performance in training is just getting worse?
You may be overtraining, and that might mean time to consider some recovery activities or take a few days off. You may need to listen more closely to your body, give yourself a little grace and not be so hyper-focused on the discipline you’ve worked so hard to create.
Remember, rest and recovery takes discipline too!
[Signs Your Body Isn’t Recovering Properly]
What does rest look like?
Rest can look like many different things to each of us, but there are some pretty well researched, and if we’re being honest, really enjoyable ways that we can incorporate rest into our discipline. Some rest and recovery techniques even fit directly into our love for finding the comfort in the uncomfortable, and we’ll get to those later.
One of my favorite rest and recovery activities is sleep! It sounds obvious, but here’s the thing — when I reference sleep as part of my recovery routine, I’m not talking about sleeping in a little bit on Sunday morning. I’m talking about creating a discipline (wow, that word comes up a lot) around sleep.
Just like we create discipline around the food we put in our bodies to help us perform our best, sleep is very much the same. I like to think of sleep as another “macro” I am aiming to hit each day. I strive to have a consistent “go to bed time” and a consistent “wake up” time every day. I also use some technology to track the quality of my sleep, thanks to which I’ve learned the connection between a consistent sleep schedule and quality sleep.
[Improve at Any Age with Better Sleep, Diet and Stretching]
Meditation and breathwork can also aid in recovery, both of which can be incorporated and interpreted very differently from person to person. From my perspective and personal experience, the major element in these approaches comes down to stillness.
If you’re having some back or neck issues, be still and try to focus your mind and breath into that area. If you truly commit to the focus, you’ll likely find that after just a few breaths, you end up focusing on nothing. BOOM, you just tricked yourself into meditation!
As long as you are meditating, you might as well investigate what massage can do for your recovery. With so many different types of massage to explore, definitely consult your practitioner to discover what works best for you.
Tapping into discomfort
Sleep, meditation, and massage all sound pretty comfortable, and while considered an important part of your recovery routine, but what about those more uncomfortable rest and recovery activities I mentioned earlier?
Many athletes add cold plunges and sauna to their recovery discipline, and there are studies that support the benefits of these, both mentally and physically. Much like my sleep practice, I try to incorporate both cold and hot into my daily routine as well.
Do you need these every day? Heck no! But if you feel you need some extra help with your recovery, I strongly recommend both cold plunging and heat exposure.
The important thing to remember is that if we want to keep engaging in these incredibly intense, yet rewarding, activities, we may need to slow down and listen to our bodies to give them the time and things they need to keep performing for us.
We should probably thank them too for all the wonderful things they allow us to do in this life, and give them the treat of a break from training every once in a while.
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