EP18, Mastering Active Recovery with Anna Terry

In this episode of 'Unstoppable By Design,' host Matt Terry and guest Anna Terry discuss the vital role of active recovery in fitness and overall well-being. Anna shares her personal journey from experiencing chronic hip and back pain to discovering the benefits of intentional recovery days. They delve into the key practices for effective recovery, including stretching, using recovery tools like lacrosse balls and Thera guns, and maintaining low-intensity, enjoyable activities. They also cover the mental and emotional advantages of active recovery, providing practical tips and debunking common myths about rest days. This episode offers valuable insights for anyone looking to enhance their fitness journey by incorporating smart rest and recovery.

00:00 Introduction to Unstoppable By Design
00:17 Meet Anna Terry: The Power of Active Recovery
00:36 The Importance of Slower Days
03:09 Planning Your Active Recovery
04:36 Using Fitness Outside the Gym
07:01 Sleep and Mobility Tools
10:54 Kid-Friendly Active Recovery
11:39 Coaching and Encouraging Recovery
21:13 Myth Busting Recovery
27:14 The Unstoppable Challenge

Transcript

Let's go. Welcome to Unstoppable By Design, where we talk all things fitness, mindset and what it means to truly be unstoppable inside and outside the gym. I'm Matt Terry, and today we're slowing down on purpose. My guest is my partner in life and in lifting. Anna Terry. Anna, how are you? Great. How are you?

I'm great. Uh, after years of grinding through hip and back pain, Anna discovered the superpower, hiding in plain sight, active recovery. If you think rest day means a Netflix only marathon, or that recovery tools are just for the pros, stick around. We'll show you why slow days can turbocharge progress and give you more energy to enjoy the life you're training for.

Grab a lacrosse ball or lace up for a walk and let's dive in. So, Anna, give us the snapshot. What finally convinced you that slower days are as important as squat days? I think the easy answer is I wasn't getting better and. You would be surprised the amount of times that people gave me this advice, specifically Mike and Liz, but I was being stubborn for a long time and finally I just got sick of hurting and not being able to play with the kids and do things that I enjoy.

I think that common right, that people are stubborn, uh, because doing recovery stuff isn't as flashy or. As sexy as increasing your percentages for weights or doing interval work for running. It's uh, it's the more tedious, more smaller, focused things. Yeah. And it's hard, man. Like I'm not flexible, so you want me to hold this stretch for how long?

Yeah, exactly. Like there's nothing enjoyable about it. For listeners with nagging aches, how did honoring recovery shift your pain story? It. Within two days, I truly committed to everything that people have been telling me. And within two days, my pain probably approved by about 60% just on like the day-to-day standing, sitting, existing.

And it completely reduced like my, I don't even know what the word is, like I guess my threshold. Like I was like revving right up against my threshold constantly. And so with that reduction of pain, like I became a happier person. Yeah, within a couple of days you could probably sense that as my husband.

Yeah. I got to, I got to see you go through pain and to describe it, like you had days where you were just fully covered in sweat just because of the pain, not from working out, or not movement. It was just pain. Yeah. So that's good. So two days. Two days, yes. Of intentional recovery. Yeah. Not just. Hanging out.

Yeah. Not throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing the six. No intentional recovery specific to what my needs were. Yeah. Made that much of a difference. Uh, when you plan the week, how do you decide which day gets the active recovery label? Thankfully, for me, working with Mike, those are some really good, I would consider them active recovery days, especially just with where I'm at in my journey.

So that's an easy way to get at least two. And then outside of that, it's kind of where it fits in our lifestyle. So definitely, definitely for us, the weekends always get some of it. Yeah, without a doubt. Like a Sunday, right? Yeah. Sunday's typically the best. Sundays are a big recovery day for me. What does a perfect, easy move morning look like for you?

Is it a walk stretch coffee or fit aid in your case? Well, definitely a fit aid that really gets my day going well. I think, you know, again, also depends on time. The kids, the weather. Yeah. I love going for an early morning walk. Emily definitely has pushed that with me through our time working together and how beneficial it is for the body's natural rhythm and ability to recover of getting that sunlight first thing in the morning.

So I love going for a quick little 10, 15 minute walk in the morning. Um, but lately outside of that, sometimes I usually do it when you're not home. But I'll walk it up and down the stairs a couple of times just to get like the blood flowing and um, my joints moving. Other than that, it's hitting my stretches and I like to use the Thera Gun, the tens unit as I'm getting ready throughout the morning, but those are kind of the key things that I add to start my day off.

That's great. We talk a lot about using your fitness outside of the gym and going for a walk or a hike, which are both things that you love to do. So how do these like use your fitness outings act as the ultimate recovery tool? I think it allows space for you to just move. So I think there's this misconception that recovery is kind of just laying down and being a couch potato, but really it's more about reducing the intensity and still moving in ways that are joyful for you.

Because, yeah, most of us go to the gym because we like it. A lot of us like it because there's that little bit of competition or we're pushing our bodies to a point that's exciting for us to see. Like, what can we do? I overcame a challenge, like we're kind of getting the endorphins through wins. Um, so there's different stressors that go in the body through doing that, even though it's still fun.

So if you're doing just casual activities like hiking, like going for walks, like kayaking, playing with the kids at the park, you're moving at a lower intensity without those. Other stressors that don't feel like a stressor to you on the outside, but internally your body is still processing it in the same way.

Yeah, and that's kind of, I mean, the next question is how do you keep intensity in check on these adventures so they stay restorative? Kind of just nailed that one. Just making sure that we're not. Turning it into like a hike for time and sprinting up the hill or something. Yeah. 'cause that's a workout in itself.

Yeah. And playing with the kids. Sometimes it can cross the line a little bit because once you get going, but really it's like, are you pouring in sweat? If it's a 90 degree day, that's a little bit different. Obviously you're probably gonna sweat a lot just standing outside, but like what's your breathing Like?

Can you feel your heart pounding through your chest? Or sometimes I can like feel it in my ears and my head. It's too much. So it's really keeping that intensity low. Can you still have a conversation? Yeah. Move and walk and talk. And does it feel like a workout? Yeah, if it feels like a workout's too much.

Yeah. You feel like you're just moving and enjoying yourself, then you're probably in a good space. Yeah. It's probably more on the restorative side. Yeah. It's not, it's not one thing. It's not, like you said, it's not, are you sweating? 'cause that could be, uh, attributed to a bunch of other things. Yeah. All these other boxes are, if they're all starting to check off, then it's probably not restorative.

It's probably a little mini workout or something in that way. Uh, let's talk sleep. What bedtime habit and has had the biggest impact on morning stiffness using that body pillow? Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, like, you know, I bought it when I was pregnant, right? Because putting it between your knees helped your hips and your back.

Well, why would, why would I ever stop that if I'm having hip and back problems? Like why would I not do that? So using, I now have the body pillow, sometimes a secondary pillow, but I change up how I prop my legs throughout the night. So sometimes it's like when you go and get a massage, they put that roller right under your ankle slash calf area, your knees, depending if you're on your back or on your stomach.

However, I'm laying down, I use the pillow for that. If I'm on my side, I put it in between my legs. Sometimes I put it under my legs if I need a higher elevation of my hips. So really just utilizing that pillow to put my body in the proper positions while I sleep was another thing that really improved my pain and allowed me to sleep better at night.

Yeah. That's good. Favorite low tech mobility move when your hip flares up? Love me. A good old lacrosse ball and a foam roller. We have that in our house. We have a couple different variations of lacrosse balls, but that's, I'm usually rolling around on one of those, depending on which area it is. If it's right on the bone, I'm, I'm probably gonna use a foam roller instead, but I'm usually doing one of those while we're watching a show.

Sometimes I'm laying down using it. Sometimes I'm on the wall using, it all depends, but that's kind of like the easiest low effort way to help everything going on. Can't go wrong with lacrosse ball. I mean, sometimes I question it, but yeah, I, it's painful sometimes, but usually that, that tells you you're in the right spot.

Uh, if it's a little bit of dis discomfort, I should say. Yeah. We don't want pain, but a little bit of like, oh God, yeah, you might be in a good spot. Uh, high tech toys. So opposite of the low tech mobility move up there, the high tech toys. How do you work a Thera gun or a tens unit into a chill evening? The Thera gun's a little hard because it's super loud.

So usually for me, if I'm using the Thera gun in the evening, even in the morning, honestly, I just try to go into another room. I only use it for like 10 or so minutes to it. It more quickly loosens things up for me. The TENS unit is a fantastic device that I love using because it doesn't slow me down from whatever it is I need to do and I can use it while cooking dinner, doing dishes, doing laundry, like I can have it on.

That is probably one of my favorite things to do is use that and it doesn't impact, like I said, anything that we're doing as a family or you can even use it at work. Yeah. For people who don't know what a TENS unit is, can you. Kind of explain what it does. It's really just giving like little pulses to your muscles, so it's like depending on the intensity that you have it on.

Like for me, I tend to put it on pretty high because I'm trying to, I have some overreactive muscle groups, so I tend to put it on those areas so it fatigues them. So it'll turn off and then my other muscle groups will kick in. So I tend to have it higher. Um, sometimes it can help with your nerves and how they're responding.

'cause it, the constant simulation from it can, let's say, trick 'em up a bit. So it's nice for, if you're just having kind of like those tooth achy pains, that's when I tend to use it. 'cause it just shakes things up and confuses that area, but, and allows my muscles to relax. Hmm. It's probably a much better scientific explanation if you Google it, but that's kind of my interpretation of it and how I use it and how it helps with my body.

Yeah. For busy parents, what's a kid friendly active recovery activity that everyone enjoys lately? Squi gun fights. Yeah. Uh, Nerf gun fights and getting outside in the backyard and using that. We try to do like weekend walks with the kids, so they'll go out and we do little exploration, nature walks. I've been trying to take them on some like woodsy trail walks.

We haven't done a full blown hike yet, but getting some walks in the woods and having things for them to explore is really helpful. The Dam, Franklin Falls Dam, like practicing riding bikes around there. We're walking, they're moving. They're learning something new. So just things that allow their minds to also explore while you're moving is helpful.

Yeah. How do you coach athletes who feel lazy on slower days to trust the process? I think it's, for me, speaking for myself and other athletes I've worked with who have a similar mentality as me is sometimes it's as simple as giving the permission to relax or to recover, I should say. 'cause I am one of those people where if someone's like.

Don't move today, go for a walk. I'm like, that's not enough. Like it's really hard for me to accept that. That's okay. Um, so I think giving the permission and essentially like programming it for the athlete and be like, if this is what you want for your goal, then I need you to do X for Y minutes two times a week or on the weekends or whatever.

And like giving them that loose permission is really helpful. And then the second thing would be a way to show the results. So getting them to commit, can you do this for four weeks? We're gonna do some sort of test or now to see how your body's feeling, whether it's a scale of one to five, what kind of pain are you experiencing, or how far can you bend over whatever is going on with a person's body?

Like just some way to show them results so then they see for themselves that it truly does work and they're seeing those changes on their bodies. Yeah, kind of, uh, encourage the rest day, let their body rebuild. Recover. And then maybe when they come in, they can push back into that pace back to where they're capable of doing, uh, where maybe they wouldn't be able to if the body is just constantly breaking down.

Yeah. And not rebuilding. And there's a lot of ways like to track that. I mean, we started talking recently about HRB. Mm-hmm. You know, and like the different highs and lows of that rating. For anybody who has some sort of fitness, watch what those numbers mean, what impacts them. It's really. It's becoming more of like a common thing in society to start tracking those recovery days and how they impact your body.

Yeah. Especially if you're into data, I guess. Yes. Data nerds. Show me a graph. Uh, ever notice recovery days, improve mood or patients outside the gym, and do you have any stories? Oh yeah, a hundred percent. Like that's earlier on when I mentioned that my pain threshold was just maxed out before I committed to the recovery piece.

And then. Now that I've committed to it, I'm not at the same level of pain 24 7. And so when I was at the top of my threshold, like I wasn't talking like I had people giving feedback that I just looked like there's. Happiness in my life anymore, or like, I just always had a face like you would try and talk to me and I would just grunt at you because I was like too busy trying to breathe.

And that was just literally existing. Like I couldn't be present as present as I wanted to with the kids, helping them do standard things like Sophia with potty training. Like I like if she didn't move fast enough, like I would. Yell because I was in pain having to like help her on and off the the toilet, like I just couldn't do it.

So that stuff was really challenging to work through and there was layers of guilt that would come with that and just frustration and an unhappiness with myself and my behavior, but I couldn't get over it because how much everything hurt. So committing to managing my pain and discomfort through recovery techniques has helped me be a much better wife, mom.

Employee manager, like all of the above. I just have much more patience for whatever life is gonna bring to me. It's crazy how little patience or how not in a good mood people can, can be if they're not listened to their body and they're not, didn't care of recovery. Uh, I could think of a few times where it's like I didn't get the right amount of sleep.

Oh, yeah. You know, and it'd be like going in, coming in from like a sleep deprived moment. And I was supposed to hit a big, maybe an hour long workout that day, and I just listen to my body. I'm like, I can't do this. I need to take the day off and just take a rest day. Um, so you don't, sometimes they're not exactly scheduled, but as long as you have that relationship with your body where you're starting to pick up and like, Hey, I'm being really sensitive, or like, I, I am not here with patients, or These small things are really irritating me, maybe it's time to incorporate arrest day.

And I think to add to that, it's important to note that it doesn't have to be physical things that drive your need for a rest day. Like if you have a super stressful day or two or a week at work, you're still gonna have that same feeling of just like, I don't got it today. Mm-hmm. And so it don't get trapped in the mindset of, well, I've only worked out once this week.

Why do I feel like I, I need to rest more? You probably got a lot of other stuff going on that you're not acknowledging. So taking some space to sit back and really reflect on the full circle of everything that you have going on in life is critical. 'cause they all, they all add up to. You need to take a recovery day and finding out for you in that moment what is the best recovery option.

Do you need a massage? Do you need a facial? I love getting a facial for my recovery techniques. Do you need a foam roll? Do you need a walk to be outside? Do you need to take a nap? Like all those things count. Hmm. You just gotta pay attention to it, like, like you said. Yeah. It's in your body. What's your rule of thumb for walk pace or heart rate?

That still counts as recovery. Kind of like we mentioned earlier. I think my biggest thing is can you have a conversation? Mm-hmm. So if you are doing an activity and you can't still tell somebody about your day or talk about what you wanna do tomorrow, you're probably past the point of recovery. Heart rate.

I, for me personally, I don't pay too much attention with that because there's, everybody's just so unique. Some folks will probably be able to give you specific. Ranges to stay within. There's a lot of studies out there that have those ranges. For me, I think it is the most simple way to look at it is, can I have a conversation?

Mm. Because if you don't have a fit, a, a watch that tells you these things, like the heart rate is useless. So what can any single person use? Especially like if you're with somebody, right? Like if you're doing a recovery thing and the person you're with is struggling to talk to you. You might wanna check in with 'em, but you're not gonna be like, Hey, what's your heart rate?

Maybe you will, I don't know. I wouldn't, I would just address their breathing and their ability to converse with me and, and, you know, move from there. I just think that's much, a much more universal method to use. Yeah. Yeah. Like there's, uh, there's, there's so many different parts that you could jump into with heart rate percents, you know, like zone two training.

Like there's a ton of stuff out there that focuses on heart rate, but if you're looking to just be in a place of recovery. Maybe you don't focus on the heart rate as much as how it feels like you're saying. Yeah. And obviously like your standard average Joe who's just trying to work out and be fit for life, the breathing and the conversing is all you need.

Yep. If you're trying to be a competitive athlete, well, we probably would absolutely dive more into your zone one, zone two, zone three training and all that jazz, because it's a different, a different goal. Mm-hmm. But for the most of us. How are you breathing? How are you feeling? Yeah. Are you like, Hmm, this is like, I would say like, like a RPE, right?

Your rate of perceived exertion. If you're exceeding like a four, five, I would probably calm down a bit. Like five, I would say is like the max that I would go before I would consider Like you're borderline working out. Yeah. Movement's the goal, not, yeah, not another workout. Yes. Uh, all right. Stretch. Only rest days.

Helpful. We're missing the point a hundred percent helpful. And again, like it, it all just depends what, what you're trying to do. But if you're stretching, like your body needs that I don't care who you are, what you're, what you do, your body needs to be stretched. Think about like to your, I know we talked about this earlier, but like yoga, like how many people do yoga all the time and the benefits from that, they don't.

Weight lift. They don't necessarily go running, but they have a toned physique that can move well and they're ready for whatever life throws at them. It's a total mind, body, soul thing. Yeah. Mobility's important. So stretching, let's say you don't work on mobility or flexibility. During your normal training week, it's a great time to do that on your rest days.

Keep that, that heart rate low, that not feel like you can't hold a conversation. Get into some stretching. Well, I don't know, some yoga poses. I definitely can't hold the conversation. Yeah, neither can I. But we're, 'cause we're focusing on breathing. Yeah. Keeping the heart rate down. Yeah. You know, nice, deep, long breaths.

Um, but stretching so important, you gotta have good mobility to move safely sometimes. And we can see that in class where maybe somebody doesn't have the best mobility, they end up in not the safest positions, and we have to work around that. Yeah, a hundred percent. And for longevity, right? Not only lifespan, but health span.

Having your joints move through full range of motion is critical for that. Mm-hmm. So if you're not stretching and you're losing the ability to. Reach full range of motion. Now you're inhibiting essentially your ability to live freely and have fun as you age. Yep. All right. Rapid fire myth busting time.

Myth number one. Rest day means zero. Movement. Negative. It can sometimes, right, but in general, again, it's intentional movement. You still want a little blood flow because getting that oxygen oxygenated blood into your system and your muscles is fantastic for healing and recovery. So just light movement is going to really move the needle for you.

Yeah, I used to take rest days to the no movement part and I was, I was, I really enjoyed playing video games, and so my rest days would be no movement. Gaming hard, and then the next day felt worse because I was ridiculously stiff. Yeah, and you were stressed. Video games, man, I've seen you like that. That is like a full blown competition.

I think anybody who plays video games, like I get the same way when I'm really into it. Like I will get so mad if I lose. So you still, again, it's like I mentioned earlier, you're having fun. You're getting those endorphins through competition, through trying to win through like challenges, like those still put stressors on your body.

Slightly competitive, just slightly. All right, myth number two, only elite athletes need recovery protocols. Why is that backwards? The body's the body. I don't care what you're using it for, what level of an athlete you are, it still needs the same things. It still needs to move, it still needs to recover.

It still needs to be challenged at any level. It's just different tweaks and different focus points depending on where you're at and what you want out of your journey. But the body is the body and it needs to be taken care of. Yeah. Myth number three. A few stretches cover all of my recovery needs. I would say on top of the stretches, some strength building.

And I will say this is like one thing that, well, one of the many things that Mike has really drilled into me is. It's not just about stretching your muscles, it's also about strengthening those really small muscle groups around your joints that help stabilize things because you don't want those to be too loose.

They 'cause you want them to be able to stabilize your joint through all the different range of motions. And to me, doing those small strength building routines falls under the same bucket as mobility for me because they're a very similar process there. Not sexy, they're, you're not feeling like you're lifting the world, you know, like you're not getting that challenge out of them.

But they're so critical for you. And again, the point of recovery is not to challenge yourself and light up those stressors, stressors, it's to help your body feel better and prepare it for the next day, or prepare it for whatever else is coming at you. And relaxing areas that are often tight from the stressors that cause you to tense up.

Yeah, so adding some intentional movement in there. A hundred percent. Also, I mean, for recovery, like you can't forget sleep, nutrition, all that stuff. Yep. Resting the mental piece too, like read journal. It's all like, it's not just physical. Yeah. It's not just hamstring stretch of good to go. Yeah. Get my recovery.

Now your body probably needs a little bit more than that. For someone starting from zero, what's the simplest 15 minute active recovery routine they could do tonight? I would say go for a walk. A quick little five to seven minute walk. Don't tell me you don't have time for that 'cause I know you do. Put your phone down.

Go for a walk. Yeah, come in. Hit like three to five stretches. Do something that hits your upper body. Honestly, most of us probably need some good like thoracic rotations in there with all of our sitting gaming desk jobs, whatever it is, using our phones. Hit some of that. Do some like cat cows. Get the core moving something for the lower body, depending on where you're at.

But I bet like a nice couch stretch would be good for most of us. And then. Finish it off with some box breathing, so go YouTube, some 5, 5, 5, 5 box breathing. I think that's a great place to start. Really good for the nervous system. If that thing is still revving at its threshold, then all this other stuff that you're doing just isn't as effective as it could be.

If you cater to that piece as well, you could even flip flop it. Hit the box breathing first, get things to calm down, then do your walk, then do your stretching. Play around with it, see what your body responds best to. But that'd be, I think, a really good place to start for the majority of people. Yeah. How does mastering recovery make us unstoppable inside and outside the gym?

Again, I think this just loops in with that threshold talk, right? If I didn't master recovery, I would still be walking around like a big old grump. It would hold me back from everything that I'm tackling. I've had to stop working out completely. Like I'm still not back yet 'cause I'm just really focused on the recovery piece.

But it impacts your entire life. Like if you're just in constant discomfort or maybe you don't feel uncomfortable 24 7. But you go to a family barbecue and they wanna do like flag football or something, or your friends all wanna go golfing or wanna go for a hike and you can't because your knees hurt.

When you go hiking and you come down a mountain or you can't spring up out of things to play flag football or whatever it may be. Those are all things that need to be addressed through some form of recovery. And if you don't address them, what happens to your mental health? Then what is the spiraling effect that comes after that?

It's just this never ending cycle of something's holding me back. Oh my God. Like I'm so upset with myself. I can't hang out with my friends anymore. Like just things just keep going down for you. At least they did for me. Like I got trapped in that spiral until I acknowledge that like, okay, I guess I should start listening to the professionals that we have here because we trust them.

Right. And work on my recovery. Yeah. All right, unstoppable challenge Schedule one. Intentional active recovery session This week, walk the dog a mile farther. Hit a 20 minute mobility flow, or test that ragone that's gathering dust. Notice how your next workout pops. Remember, progress isn't forged by effort alone.

It's sealed during smart rest. You are unstoppable by design. Need a coach guided plan that balances, grind and recover. Visit juggernaut fitness.com to book your free Get to Know You session today. Hit follow Drop. A quick review if this episode gave your foam roller a new purpose. And keep notifications on new shows.

Drop every Tuesday. Next week's mini episode is a lightning fast nutrition tip to fuel all that fresh recovery. Until then, be well. Be unstoppable now.