Questions I get asked daily as a trainer: Recoverability threshold

I am working out all the time, obsessive about my food and adding all sorts of cardio. Why am I not seeing any results? Why am I crashing out? How am I supposed to keep this going?

The thing about our own individual lives is that we are all different from each other, but we are also different from ourselves. Twenty year old me is not in the same life set as me now, a full-time working mother. And because of this, our recoverability threshold within our lives and training will be different at these times of life.

But what is recoverability threshold and why does it matter?

Our recoverability threshold is the amount of stress we can take on before our levels of stress exceed efficiency. Our body views stress all the same. So while working out, meal prepping, school, work, family handlings, etc. are all good things to keep our lives moving, they are all stress. Our body still sees them as stress.

That means twenty year old me who didn't stress about finances, ate whatever was convenient, lived on the beach (an automatic de-stressor for me) had much more excess space for extra stress, which was work and a lot of exercise. Adult me has bills, a child (which, while a blessing, is great stress on mind and body), work, meal prepping as well as food for my family. This leaves much less space for extra stresses.

So now you're probably asking, what does this excess or lack of space mean for stress? Or for my progress in my health and fitness goals?

It means we need to be strategic with our beneficial stress intake (and lower our non beneficial stress is possible). If we run a firm, have kids, and a partner, that's a solid plate to juggle. So we want a fitness and nutrition program to support that plate, not overwhelm it and send it crashing to the ground. The hours that I could afford to add to my twenty years old self's plate wouldn't be beneficial now. It would end up being a hinderance.

So in order to find my success now, it's more purposeful. We'll keep the efficiency, and slim out the excess. It's not going to be hours of HIIT classes (vs actual HIIT training), or intermittent fasting to one meal a day. Mine is lifting, mobility, and cardio that directly impact my goals and progress me from exactly where I am at. It's nourishing my body as much as possible and taking in as many calories and nutrients as I can to move forward in progress.

In order to make way for more stress, rejuvenation and recovery tools are great to bring in. Sauna, meditation, journaling, nature walks, light yoga, and many more are ways to bring down stress and raise our recoverability threshold. This way we can see results in our fitness and nutrition journeys. Then we can give the stress of fitness, nutrition, and life the proper focus and efficiency!