Hey guys I'm Dr. Jason Barker with the Natural Athlete's Clinic and today I want
to share with you my top tips for recovery. Recovery of course is
when your body is getting over the beatdown you just gave it from an
intense race or a very hard workout. So first things first - recovery starts
during the workout or during the race. What I'm talking about, is that you need
to make sure that you are hydrated and you need to make sure that you've eaten
and you didn't bonk. Because if you come into the recovery period already
dehydrated and bonked out, you've put yourself at a huge disadvantage to
completing that recovery process because you're pulling yourself out of a deep
hole. So make sure you drink. Make sure you get the adequate fuel during
that event or during that race. Ok second most important thing is to make sure
that you eat. Sounds like common sense but I know a lot of athletes who like to
go do the race and then celebrate with a couple of beers, a burger, and a greasy
pizza - something gross like that. Don't do that after the race, or after your
workout. You want to get clean, whole foods in. So healthy lean proteins, good
complex carbohydrates and healthy fats. Super important because you want those
nutrients to get in your body because those are the raw materials that your
body is using to recover and to rebuild from the beatdown you just gave yourself
so eat well and eat clean. Ok next thing I like are the adaptogenic herbs - so think
of Siberian ginseng, ashwgandha and my favorite is rhodiola. So adaptogens like
their name sounds, they help the organism or your body adapt to stressors. So they
have numerous physiological effects that will help blunt the effects or the
negative effects from those workouts and help you overcome and restore and repair
from the damage you just inflicted. So use adaptogenic herbs. Next thing you
want to do is make sure that you control your cortisol. Cortisol is your body's
natural anti-inflammatory. Now a little bit of inflammation is good. It helps
repair and rejuvenate the breakdown of your body. However if you're
an endurance athlete, you are probably tending towards too much cortisol, too
high elevated cortisol chronically that shuts down that
inflammatory process and leaves you at a disadvantage for recovering adequately
so you want to make sure that you keep your cortisol down.
We made cortisol recovery just for that specific purpose. We put some very unique
botanicals in there like relora. There's ashwagandha of course. There's
banaba leaf. There's a few other things in there that have shown to be really
good at lowering that cortisol. So you want to load up on that stuff during
that recovery period. And then the third thing I like to take is nitric oxide
synthetase okay because you want to keep your nitric oxide levels up. Nitric oxide
is a chemical that has kind of made beetroot juice famous. Beet juice is full
of nitrates which of course are converted into nitric oxide in your body.
We love nitric oxide because what it does is it helps dilate the blood
vessels and increase blood flow throughout your body. So if we can
get that blood flowing everywhere, blood of course delivers the nutrients and of
course it clears away the waste products that we want to get out of the tissues.
So think of nitric oxide support during the recovery process. I love using
that stuff. I just feel more vital. My recovery is on point when I use that
stuff. Okay next thing is getting sleep. Sounds like common sense again -
your body is shredded, you're wiped out, but if you've maxed yourself out, you've
gone all out, you know that feeling where your core is still rattled. Your
body's exhausted, but your neurological system is still running right.
Your brain is running, your nervous system is on - we want to get that shut
down and the best way to do that is using PharmaGABA. PharmaGABA
contains GABA which is also known as Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid and GABA is a
natural inhibitory neurotransmitter that we make in our brains. You can
supplement with this stuff and that'll calm the nervous system down so that you
can actually get some restorative sleep. Okay last things for sleep that I like
are magnesium. Magnesium also helps support that GABA system in your brain
so it helps calm things down. And then if you're going to take magnesium, you need
to take some vitamin B6 along with that. B6 helps escort the magnesium
inside of the cells so it can do its work. Okay and then the final thing you
want to do is active recovery. You've heard of this before -
think of active recovery as hair of the dog. So a little bit of exercise getting
the legs running, maybe some restorative yoga like some Yin. The purpose of this
is just to get the muscles moving so that you can move the lymph around the
lymph flow is what all of your cells are bathed in and all those metabolic nasty
byproducts from that workout come out through the lymph. The lymph moves it
back in your bloodstream out of your body through the kidney and the liver of
course. So think of active recovery. Okay guys thank you for watching. I hope these
tips help your recovery out. Please give the video a like if you enjoyed it. Of
course please share it with your buddies who need help getting recovery down and
of course please subscribe to our channel. Thanks again for watching!