Dr. Michele G Ionno DPT

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Let’s do some simple math. A person has worked extensively with the FMR Team on a training program and a dietary plan. Here are the results.

 

• This person has devoted 4 hours a day, every day, to execute this plan.

• 1 hour is devoted to the personalized training program that Alex built.

• 3 hours are devoted to the planning, prepping, and consumption of the meal plan.

• This person is killing it!  She should be very proud of her effort and discipline.

 

And yet, that leaves 80% of every day to undo all that work. This is where recovery becomes essential.
 

Recovery is necessary because of stress.  Everything you do in life can be considered stress. Stress has a reputation as only being a negative thing when really any activity that uses energy (mental or physical) is considered stress.  Stress is what your body feels when you exercise.  Stress is what your mind feels thinking about all the planning and prepping you do for your meals.  Stress is what your body feels when you’ve been awake at work for 20 hours.  Stress is what you emotionally feel when you have a fight with your spouse.  In this section of the Fuel. Move. Recover. (FMR) System, we will discuss how the 80% can be optimized by managing stress inputs from our lives

 

In the Fuel. Move. Recover. system, we address stress via three domains:

 

• Active recovery

• Passive recovery

• Mental skills

 

Active recovery (AR) is defined by the activities you can do that directly impact your body and mind’s ability to deal with stress.  Common examples of this are stretching after a challenging workout or meditating after a stressful day.

 

Passive recovery (PR) is defined by the actions and decisions you make that indirectly impact your capacity to deal with stress.  The primary example of this is sleep but may also include things like massage, heating, icing, compression, or journaling. In these examples, you are using a modality that doesn’t require your active participation to accommodate the stress you have been through. 

 

Mental Skills (MS) includes tools you develop to deal with the challenges and unexpected outcomes in your tactical life.  FMR focuses MS on three components.

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• Mental resilience

• Anti-fragility

• Performance enhancement

 

For example, we may discuss the All-or-nothing (perfectionist) fallacy where a single error in a pursuit leads you to decide the entire pursuit is a failure.  Related topics that we will discuss are anti-fragility (post-traumatic growth) and performance enhancement.

 

In total, the Recover section will give you the tools to process the stress that you experience, intentionally or otherwise.  You will start to view your recovery as a skill you can improve, so life-changing events become opportunities for growth rather than reasons to spiral.