How I Recover Faster with YOLKED
by Evan Perperis, Professional Obstacle Course Racer for the Conquer The Gauntlet Pro Team
Without recovery, you won?t improve. It?s that simple. As athletes we put our body through periods of stress followed by periods of recovery, which allows for growth, muscle adaption and neurological recovery. Whether you training to run far, get bigger arms or simply to build an aesthetic physique, you need a way to recover faster.
Recovery Insight from Evan, Ultra-Endurance Obstacle Course Racing Athlete
As an ultra-endurance Obstacle Course Racing (Ultra-OCR) athlete who regularly races for 8, 12 and 24 hours at a time multiple times throughout the year, recovery is vital to my success. Here are a couple of lessons I have learned from my training that you can apply to your own physical improvement regardless of your goals:
Rest Days
The basis of any well thought out training plan incorporates rest days. Train hard, rest and repeat. This works well regardless of your sport and even works well for mentally demanding tasks (reference the book Peak Performance by Brad Stulburg for more information on that).
I have had a very diverse training background, which I why I tend to do well in OCR. Whether I was training for a marathon, a 5k running race, bodybuilding, powerlifting or triathlon, I always take a least one rest day a week and more often two complete rest days. Rest days help consolidate gains on a micro level but also allow you to push harder on your next day back in training. If you want to run fast or lift heavy on Monday, rest on Sunday.
Recovery Weeks
If you are always adding volume or intensity, you are never giving your body time to adapt. A recovery week allows for a break in training both mentally and physically. This helps prevent injuries, consolidates gains on a macro level and prepares you for the next big training block.
For endurance training, I attempt to use every 4th week (race schedule dependent) as a lower volume week. When I was heavily involved in strength training I would still take recovery weeks although sometimes it was after a longer training block like two months.
Fuel
After training your body is hyper-receptive to required nutrients to kick start your recovery. Consuming a meal rich in protein and carbohydrates within the hour is highly recommended. The protein will help rebuild muscle and carbohydrates will refill muscle glycogen (your body?s stored energy). To maximize the effects of muscle rebuilding I go with protein?s perfect partner, YOLKED.
Whether I?m endurance training, strength training or hybrid training (obstacle specific work or functional fitness type training), I continue to use YOLKED after each training session. The minimal clinically effective dose says at least once a day, but if I?m training twice a day, I double up.
Often endurance athletes seem to dismiss the importance of rebuilding muscle tissue, but that is how our legs can handle running further and faster. YOLKED provides that boost in recovery as demonstrated by their clinical research that allows me to maximize my periods of recovery.
I can talk concepts all day, but some empirical data from personal experience is always good to reinforce these models.
Let?s take a look at my personal performance and experience with YOLKED powered by Fortetropin.
Recovering Faster with YOLKED
After winning World?s Toughest Mudder Team Division, a 24 hour Ultra-OCR with temperature lows of 32 degrees Fahrenheit in November, I immediately started using Yoked to recover. My body was decimated from the 75 miles and around 300 obstacles but I had several events planned for early 2019 that I wanted to be ready for. In early February I flew to Kuwait and won 1st at Hannibal Race a 5k OCR (not my specialty), taking home the $1000 first prize. I followed that up in late February with a 24 hour treadmill/OCR run (1 mile run on a treadmill, do four obstacles; repeat for 24 hours), where I raised $2500+ for the charity Folds of Honor. Add in a 1st place team finish at the Hammer Race in March and a 1st place Tougher Mudder College Station race in April makes this the best start to an OCR season I have ever had.
I specialize in really long events with hard obstacles, but thanks to YOLKED I was able to perform outside my specialty including winning a 5k OCR with my largest cash prize, a 10k OCR team race while carrying an 8 lbs. sledgehammer and a 8 mile wet/muddy course. In between those events I ran for 24 hours on a treadmill.
People say the proof is in the putting, well I?ll say the proof is in the powder. Pick up some YOLKED today, start training, recover faster and crush your goals!
About Evan
Evan Perperis is a National Strength & Conditioning Certified Personal Trainer and a professional Obstacle Course Racer for the Conquer The Gauntlet Pro Team. He is an author of five books on Obstacle Course Racing as well as more than 200+ articles in print/digital formats and is the host of the Strength & Speed podcast. All his books including an autobiography called ?Ultra-OCR Man: From Special Forces Soldier to Record Setting Professional Obstacle Course Racer? is now on sale at Strength & Speed and 100% of the profits from Ultra-OCR Man will go to the charity Folds of Honor.