With winter starting to bear its mighty grip on my part of the world I felt it time to shift gears and go into a more restful topic for my blogs.

Over the next few months it is time to slow the body, mind and spirit down as we work our way into sleep, breathing and recovery. All of which are important aspects of our health, but can often be looked over because they are not the fanciest tools in the toolbox. For those who are often feeling burnt out, run down or just don’t want to keep pushing yourself day in and day out then it is time to listen up.

Following the Seasons

Since winter is the time when much of nature slows down and even goes into hibernation it is not bad to let ourselves do some of the same. This is certainly something that is not always easy to do with many people’s hectic lives, but even if done sparingly it can have a dramatic impact on one’s health. I have read some books by people who do follow the sun and actually sleep 10-12 hours in the winter time. I feel that this certainly is a fantastic thing that can be done, but is not always very practical. This is why I want to show you how you can slow yourself down a little so that your body can catch up, but not so much that life passes you by.

I Don’t Have Time for More Sleep

Now this is one that I just can’t buy. It is not that we don’t have time for more sleep, but we find other stuff to be more important and would rather do that. This is certainly an option that I have even opted for, but only for short periods of time. Other options will include just getting to bed earlier to fall more in line with when the body can help repair itself better at night and then getting the work done in the morning. Certainly there is also the discussion of quality of sleep and how when quantity is lacking you can optimize it in other ways.

How Long Can You Hold Your Breath?

I’ll bet that you can go a few weeks with no food, maybe a few days with no water, but only a few minutes without air. Not to say that the others are not important, but really making sure to optimize your breathing can help with mental clarity and focus, improve your sleep quality as well as improve physical performance just to name a few.

How to Recover Faster

Sure, everybody wants to be able to recover faster, but not everybody is willing to do the work to make this happen. During our winter stage of the year it is important to give your body this ability so that it is ready for spring and summer to excel at your chosen endeavor. Making sure to take care of your body can really help with the aches and pains and can be as simple as using a lacrosse ball to work on your soft tissue or even shooting some hoops when your are normally a bike rider. The little different stimulus can really help prime you to get out for your best ride ever.

Make sure that you keep checking in over the next few weeks to see how I slow down my body a bit to get the most out of it that I can. Without this recovery my energy, health, strength and drive would all begin to plummet. Together let’s keep feeling good and staying healthy.

Have a Great Day!

Nick Horowski