The importance of Sleep in Recovery |
Golfers ask me all the time, ‘what are the best tools for recovery?’ Everyone wants to know all the new and
greatest gadgets and tools to help with recovery. This list can get lengthy and expensive as
there is no shortage of different “recovery” tools on the market. Foam rollers, trigger point balls, NormaTec
compression boots, MarcPro, massage guns, hyperbaric chambers, saunas, float
tanks….I could go on for a while. We
offer a lot of these tools in the office to help with injury recovery and most
do have a lot of benefit. However, most aren’t really necessary for everyday
recovery unless you are competing at a very high level. The three questions I follow up with
when asked about recovery tools are; ‘How’s
your sleep? How’s your hydration? How’s your nutrition?’ Very few people say that all 3 are
great. Most people can’t even say they
do well at just one of those. Using
recovery tools and not sleeping, eating, and hydrating well is like taking
supplements but still eating fast food for every meal. I know we all want that magic bullet to help,
but the best tools are sticking to the basics. If there was one recovery tool I think
most people should invest in it would be the Whoop band. For the past year I have been wearing a Whoop
band and really getting into tracking my recovery and sleep habits. You may have heard of Whoop through watching
the PGA and LPGA tours as many of the players wear the band. It has made headlines from detecting COVID in
Nick Watney before he had symptoms, the first PGA player to test positive on
tour, to the talk of the optimal recovery Justin Thomas had the weekend he won
The Players. Some of the most important
data that the Whoop tracks is everything related to your sleep habits, the type
of sleep you are getting, and your HRV (heart rate variability). I would love to bore everyone with talk
about HRV and all the research about how important it is at predicting
readiness and recovery. But let’s get to
the point. Better quality sleep equals
better HRV. So what do you need to do to
get better sleep? Good sleep starts with your daytime behaviors:
Lock in your pre-bed routine.
Here are some suggestions of sleep-promoting activities to think about
including in your bedtime routine:
Create the perfect environment for optimal sleep:
One of the most, if not THE most, important thing you can do for better sleep is to maintain sleep consistency. Going to bed and waking up at the same time each day helps maintain your circadian rhythm. Better sleep consistency increases time spent in REM and deep sleep (the restorative stages of sleep) and also improves sleep efficiency. Try making some of these changes to get a better night’s sleep
and better recovery. If you really want
to track all your data and find out what actually works for you the best then
check out Whoop. Get
a free WHOOP strap and your first month free when you join with my link: |