Ep. #438: Dan John on How to Optimize Recovery and Avoid Injury

Getting injured sucks.

It’s not just the pain of the injury itself that’s annoying, either. You also have to alter your diet and training or even take time off altogether.

Under-recovering sucks too. Push yourself too far and your training becomes a slog. You’re sore all the time, your lifts stagnate (or worse, regress), and you increase the risk of hurting yourself.

Such are the reasons why it’s smart to make sure you’re playing good “defense” in your fitness journey by ensuring you’re not just pushing hard in the gym (“offense”) but also taking steps to prevent injuries and optimize recovery.

As you probably know, the basics get you most of the way here, like proper sleep hygiene, a nutritious diet, and a well-designed training plan.

There’s more you can do, however, and that’s why I invited Dan John on the show—to dive a bit deeper into this side of training and share some non-obvious tips on how to not only decrease the risk of injury and improve recovery but also better deal with nagging issues that we all have to deal with now and then.

In case you’re not familiar with Dan, he has quite the resume—he has competed in the Highland Games, written 14 books, and coached athletes and weightlifters for over 40 years now. As you can imagine, he has seen and heard it all, and in this episode, we discuss:

- Easy ways to prevent injuries
- The surprising benefits of loaded carries and farmer walks
- How to better recover from your training, especially as you age
- Powerful fitness lessons that can be applied to life and finance
- And more...

6:37 - How can weightlifters prevent injury?
7:19 - What kind of injuries do box jumps cause?
16:22 - How do you do shoulder rocking?
21:59 - Why are you a fan of loaded carries and farmer walks?
26:35 - What’s a good milestone for the carry family?
28:15 - How do you like to run the sled?
29:43 - What is a good milestone for the sled?
30:33 - Is there value for the sled with everyday people who want to get fit?
31:46 - How can people over the age of 40 prevent injury?
34:57 - What can people over the age of 40 do to recover better?
43:13 - Where are your seminars and what are they like?
46:43 - What are lessons that you learn in fitness that can be applied to your personal life?
50:50 - What type of financial goals should I have?
54:18 - What type of vegetables do you eat every day?
54:36 - What type of peepers should I eat?
1:05:25 - Where can people find you and your work?

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