Breathing Techniques for Post-Workout Recovery

After completing your training, lie down in a quiet, dark space and cover your eyes. Practice structured breathing, such as box breathing, with a consistent tempo for inhaling, holding, exhaling, and another hold. Aim for at least three minutes, but ten minutes is even more beneficial. This can even be done in the shower by closing your eyes and focusing on relaxation breathing for three minutes.

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In this episode 5 of a 6-part special series on fitness, exercise and performance with Andy Galpin, PhD, professor of kinesiology at California State University, Fullerton, he explains how to optimize post-training recovery and how to avoid overtraining in order to better achieve your fitness and exercise goals. He explains the cellular mechanisms of muscle soreness and pain, why adequate recovery is essential for all physical adaptations, and how to enhance recovery using breathwork, thermal, movement, and pressure-based techniques. He describes how overtraining impedes exercise progress and how to assess if you are overreaching or overtraining, by using specific biomarkers and indicators. Like other performance metrics, recovery is a skill that can and should be trained, and that can be learned. This episode provides an actionable toolkit for how to monitor and improve your exercise recovery abilities, which will improve your overall mental and physical health.

For the full show notes, visit hubermanlab.com.