January Kickstarter: how to make 2023 your year of rest and relaxation

This January, we’re on the search for quick, accessible hacks to kickstart 2023 in the strongest way possible. Today’s energy kickstarter: why we could all do with more rest this year. 

If you’re anything like me, you’ll have spent the past few years hobbling from one injury to another. From traffic accidents and rolled ankles to tendonitis and hip pain, it seems like I only ever get a few months of pain-free running before the next mishap happens. Now, some of this is undoubtedly my fault; my warm-ups probably aren’t good enough. But I’m sure that another key factor is also at play: a lack of rest and recovery.

I don’t mean that I’m out there running every day – far from it. But recently, it’s started taking days for DOMS to subside after a pretty tame gym session and cycling home from the office can feel like it requires a Herculean effort… which it shouldn’t do.  

You may also like

Muscle recovery: 5 things you should do every day to support your training

I – and I’m sure you – need more rest. Physical needs aside, according to a study of 66,000 women in 122 countries, worry in women is at a 10-year high and that can be mentally and physically draining. Think about how you feel after an intense moment of panic – say, when you think you’ve locked yourself out of your house. After the flood of relief on finding the keys in your bag, your energy crashes. If you’re that exhausted after a five-minute worry hole, imagine what effect months or years of worry is having on our nervous systems.

Obviously, we have limited control over the things that might be causing that worry – we can’t control the rate of inflation or stop our landlord from upping our rent – but we can do something about how we react to stress, whatever the source.  

Now, ‘rest’ is a tricky word because (to me at least) it conjures images of spending the whole weekend glued to the sofa or making like Ottessa Moshfegh’s anti-hero and taking to bed for an entire year. But rest doesn’t have to be passive. And making it a goal for 2023 doesn’t have to mean giving up on your more active goals or a desire to have a more involved social life.

Here are just a few ways that you might want to add more rest to your year.

Enjoy more non-exercise wellbeing activities

Wellbeing goes far beyond exercise and sleep, but we often don’t have the time, resources or energy to look into what other things might do us good. Meditation and yin yoga are great, but they’re quite active practices that force you to do something rather than just letting go.

I recently went to a reiki sound bath at Re:Mind where, for one blissed-out hour, I got to lie in the dark feeling gong vibrations wash over me – allowing whatever thoughts came into my mind to seep in and out. It was pretty emotional; the reiki was focused on the heart chakra and by the end of the hour, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude to the other people in the room, my partner and even myself for turning up and pressing pause. More importantly, I felt really refreshed the next day. 

Do more self-massage or invest in more regular massages

Massages can be expensive, and dropping £100 on a deep tissue pummelling might feel like an unjustifiable expense. But massage can help with tight muscles and if you’re intent on being active, then you’ve got to invest in muscle maintenance (both strengthening and loosening) to avoid injury.

I went for my first massage in about 18 months at the Lanesborough Club & Spa, where my tight shoulders and painful hamstrings took a pounding. The therapist remarked just how much my back and legs had needed attention, and it was only after I got up and started moving around that I realised how much lighter and more mobile I felt.  

If you’d rather take things into your own hands, a massage gun can offer great relief post-workout. Or go for an even softer approach with one of Lush’s new magnesium massage bars (£10). Simply rub into your quads, calves, arms – wherever needs a bit of attention – and then use your fingers to massage the muscles. Magnesium can be topically absorbed and is the mineral responsible for reducing inflammation and promoting muscle and nerve function by helping to move glucose into the muscles and dispose of lactate. 

Go for low-intensity over sweat fests

HIIT is great. It’s time effective, improves cardio health and can be really energising. But if you’re already knackered, are dealing with stress and/or experiencing injuries then it might be time to give those frenetic classes a miss for a while.

Pre-pandemic, I used to go to a HIIT class after work every day. While my overall fitness was pretty good, I used to struggle with the most chronic bloating. Nothing seemed to make it better, despite experimenting with eating different foods. My sleep was all over the place, too. Both stopped when I cut down on gym time and started changing up my weekly routine to include cycling, easy runs and pilates. 

You may also like

HIIT workouts: is doing regular HIIT workouts making you ill?

This year, I’ve decided to make pilates a regular part of my workout schedule – even taking part in a month-long programme to help cement a pilates regime.

Seriously slowing down on easy runs

Urgh, we’ve said it before but we’ll say it again: most runners run most of their runs too fast. I’m one of them. It’s so easy to run every run at 60-70% effort when, in fact, we know that for better results, you want to run 80% of your sessions super slow and easy.  By doing that, you don’t overload the muscles, allowing your body a chance to run faster when you want to do a speed session.  

Understanding active rest days are as important as workouts

We bang on about rest days quite a lot on Strong Women, but if you’re deep into an exercise regime, then it really can be hard to not exercise most days. So if that is you, now’s a good time to think about what active recovery you can do instead. That might simply be cycling to and from work (which is a cardio workout anyway), getting your 10,000 steps or doing a 10-minute mobility session first thing in the morning. 

Reframing what we see as rest days – those days when you don’t do a structured workout but are moving naturally – can help to take away any guilt you might have about missing gym or run sessions. 

Wake up at the same time most days…

Speaking at the inaugural Strong Women Wellbeing Summit, sleep therapist Natalie Pennicotte-Collier gave our audience one key tip for more energy and better sleep: don’t hit the snooze button. She said that, as a rule, we should aim to wake up at the same time on six out of seven days. Why? Well, any extra snoozing counts as ‘junk sleep’ – sleep that’s not long enough or good enough to restore your energy, and instead leaves you feeling more drowsy. 

… and take more naps

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t nap later on; we know that short naps of up to 20 minutes offer real health and energy benefits. And if you are struggling with energy during workouts or continual injury, then napping might help.

Research has been honing in on the benefits of napping for physical performance and reduced fatigue, although various studies have found afternoon naps work best to improve the performance of those who haven’t slept adequately at night.

“There is a lot of data that shows that napping improves physical and cognitive performance in athletes. It also helps with perceived exertion and psychological states like mood and stress. They [naps] help in reducing perception of fatigue, muscle soreness and sleepiness,” says psychiatrist Dr Meeta Singh. 

Tweak your diary habits

Another stand out from the Wellbeing Summit was a brilliant tip offered by Dr Tara Swart, a neuroscientist who specialises in mental resilience and peak brain performance. I’ve kept a diary ever since I was seven, but often, these diaries are filled with negative thoughts (as opposed to unloading on friends or family). In 2020, however, I made the active decision to write more positively, focusing on what’s gone well in the day, what I’ve achieved and what I’m grateful for. For me, writing my diary for 10 minutes a day is my ultimate pre-bed routine and without jotting down my thoughts, I can’t relax. 

You may also like

“Is a gratitude journal the secret to a better night’s sleep?” A sleep expert answers your questions

Dr Swart suggested, however, that perhaps a more useful and positive thing to focus on might be internal – rather than external – gratitude. Rather than thinking about who or what you’re grateful for all the time, she advises contemplating what you’re grateful to yourself for that day. It might be your resilience in whatever situation, your patience or creativity. Perhaps it’s gratitude for heading to bed slightly earlier or for booking that gym session.

I’ve been giving her tip a go and have found that there’s something deeply relaxing about thanking myself for the way I am or the things I’ve done. Obviously, you can go too far into the ‘aren’t I fantastic!’ territory, but the truth is, most of us never thank ourselves for anything and are all too focused on the things we haven’t done. 2023 feels like the perfect time to change all that. 

Images: Getty

Source: Read Full Article