Why Skipping Recovery Steals Tomorrow’s Progress

Recovery isn’t a timeout from training; it’s the process that turns reps into results. We dig into the habits that actually move the needle—earlier wind‑downs, better sleep hygiene, smarter hydration, and stress management—so you can train hard without burning out. Think of this as a field guide for making gains in busy, messy, real life.

We start with sleep as the biggest lever and get practical fast: set a bedtime reminder, dim the lights, take a hot shower, hydrate earlier, and skip the doom scroll. We talk melatonin, why some sleep aids can trigger wild dreams, and how to build a calm nightly routine you’ll keep. Then we zoom out to “loud weeks” when life is chaotic. The rule is simple: maintenance is a win. Shorten sessions, lighten loads, and stack easy victories. Swap high‑impact finishers for 10–15 minute walks after meals to boost blood flow, digestion, and recovery. Keep cardio volume but ease the pace, focus on form, and let soreness drift down without losing momentum.

Nutrition and hydration anchor the plan. Bump protein at each meal, front‑load water in the morning, and use portable staples like tuna packs and deli turkey when you travel. To cut the guesswork, we share a simple recovery dashboard: rate sleep one to five each morning, check midday energy and mood, track conditioning smoothness, and note how reps feel. Use “data, not drama” by watching trends instead of fixating on daily weight swings. On recovery days, stretch, add light isometrics, roll out tight spots, and aim for sessions that feel refreshingly easy. Hold the line with one‑lever changes—adjust just sleep, or just protein, or just walks—then reassess after two weeks.

If you’re done treating recovery like a bonus and ready to make it your competitive edge, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share with a friend who trains, and leave a quick review to tell us which lever you’re pulling first.

Transcript

Friendly Disclaimer And Banter

Don 0:00

Friendly disclaimer, we're not medical professionals. We're sharing what's worked for us and our clients. If you have medical conditions or specific concerns, consult the licensed pro.

John 0:13

Welcome back to Better Every Rep. I'm Don. And I'm John. Today we're talking recovery and the part of training that no one wants to schedule, but everyone pays for if you skip it.

Don 0:25

John, ask me how I know this.

John 0:28

Donovan, I already know how you know this. You know how I know? Tell me. Because you usually text me at 5 a.m. I can't feel my legs.

Don 0:35

Yeah, but I should feed hurt. But you like those. In all honesty, that was all my wife is actually getting concerned.

John 0:41

Like, who's texting you at 5 a.m.? I said, those days are over, babe. Yeah, whatever.

Don 0:46

Well, I gotta keep I gotta keep you uh involved in my life here. Um, you know, and the the key is that was just a legend.

John 0:53

But you keep texting me like I care.

Don 0:54

I well I hope you care. I care. Uh you better care.

John 0:58

I care. People on the people out there in podcast land care because they want to know that you're gonna not cramp up and make it to the next podcast.

Don 1:06

Yeah. Well, you know, we did set we have podcast recovery. Yes, we do. They're they're called the times that we're not together. Thank God. Uh so you know, John, we're making uh podcast history for uh we're breaking the law of averages for podcasts. With this being our eighth recorded episode, most podcasts die after seven episodes. So we have beat the average podcast.

John 1:31

Wow, thank you, thank you, everyone. What's the applause button on there? Do you have an applause? Just hit a button there. We've he's got this cute Yeah, we did it. We hit it, we hit number eight. Yeah. Now, does that mean we have people still listening that make it today? Or we're or we're just uh delusional.

Beating The Seven‑Episode Slump

Don 1:49

Probably, probably the latter. Oh, that's okay. That's all right. We'll take it. So, John, let's get back to our topic of this week's episode. Why recovery isn't optional?

John 1:58

All right. Think of recovery as the bridge between today's work and tomorrow's progress. If you don't build that bridge with sleep hydration, stress management, your reps won't become results.

Don 2:11

That's great, John. It's kind of like cooking. You know, you can throw everything into the pot, but if you don't give it that time to cook and simmer and really kind of all those juices start working, you're just eating raw onions and regret.

Why Recovery Powers Progress

John 2:26

I like onions. I like onions. And I try not to have regret. But recovery is where it happens, Donovan. You break down in training, you build it back up in recovery. Does that make sense?

Don 2:36

It does. So let's talk about one of the first things that you mentioned was sleep. That is your biggest recovery lever. I'm gonna admit it, sleep is a big miss for me, and I think it is for you too. Yeah, yeah. We're working on it, but it's still a miss.

John 2:50

You know, I don't know. There's probably people out there that suffer through sleepless nights just like you and I.

Sleep As The Biggest Lever

Don 2:56

I I I I do stress about those texts that you don't recover to.

John 3:02

He didn't, it's 5.15. He hasn't responded. I know. I just did it in 30 seconds ago. I just want you to know I finally fell asleep at 4.30. So I was finally getting into my deep sleep mode. But sleep is is a huge part of recovery. And I think everybody, if you don't know that, you're gonna find that out like tonight or today in our I'm sure they already know, John.

Don 3:24

So so what are some what are some moves or some things that that we can even ourselves can try and put into Yeah.

John 3:32

So some of the things that I've tried to do is I try to bump my sleep time back by like 15, 30 minutes. So unlike you, Donovan, people that don't know you and don't follow you, Donovan has a very stressful job in real life. This is this podcast is not his real job.

Don 3:49

Yeah, I I have to be John's friend. That's my it's a full-time job.

John 3:53

And I have to pay him for that too, by the way. Not well. Well, that's the kind of friend you are. Yeah, that's and coffee and water bottles. Yeah, I I I have Girl Scout cookies tonight if you want some of those.

Don 4:05

Oh, geez.

John 4:06

I can get those out.

Don 4:07

Yeah.

John 4:08

But sleep is tough. And so what I've been trying to do, me personally, is if I want to go to bed at 10, if I really want to start falling asleep at 10, so I can get up at 6.30, like I my normal schedule, I start trying to bump myself back to around 9, 9.15 saying, okay, this is wind down time. I set it in on my mo my watch and say, okay, put on that Barry Manalo music. Start winding down.

Don 4:33

I always took you for a Barry Manalo guy. Mandy. I was thinking uh two ships that pass in the night.

John 4:40

I thought that was Toto.

Don 4:42

No, no. Wrong episode. Bang. You set your your watch in your phone and you say, all right, it's sleepy time. It's sleepy time.

John 4:54

Winding down. I try to drink water a little bit earlier in the night, so hydrate a little bit more throughout the day. I don't want to be getting, you know, oh, it's 8 30, 9 o'clock. I think I better go drink my 36 ounces of water. Yeah, it's a little late in the day for that. That could have uh havoc on a guy in his late 50s.

Wind‑Down Routines That Actually Help

Don 5:13

I yeah, and and those of us who just turned 61 as well. Happy birthday, Donovan. Oh, well, well, thank you. That's like seven months early, but sounds great, son.

John 5:23

Yes. So people in our 50s and up, we want to hydrate earlier in the day, not so much right at bedtime.

Don 5:31

Sure, that makes sense. What what else are some of your action moves that that kind of get you in the in the uh in the mood? Well, no, environmental mood. Hippopotamus, hippopotamus. What are some other things that kind of get you ready for for your sleepy time, John? Okay. I like how you say that. Sleepy time. Yeah, that's that I just watch you text me. You're getting ready for your sleepy time. Sleepy time.

John 5:54

So I try to take, I like to take a hot shower.

Don 5:58

Okay.

John 5:58

I like to do that. I might start reading a book like War and Peace.

Don 6:03

I know, I know that's a lie.

John 6:06

A book on tape. I asked you once and said, Do you read nope? You know, I would you know what I miss about reading the newspaper. Yeah. Well, when was the last time anybody picked up a newspaper? I would love to read the newspaper.

Don 6:19

Probably when you were 41.

John 6:22

Seems like yesterday.

Don 6:24

I'm sure it does. Yesterday. All my troubles so far away. So so I get it. You pet the dog. Yes. Not me, John. The dog. Right.

John 6:34

Yes. I like to pet my dog Nala. Start winding down with a warm glass of milk.

Don 6:41

I took you for. You took me for a warm glass kind of milk. Warm glass of milk.

SPEAKER_03 6:50

Yeah.

John 6:51

My my alarm clock goes off at nine o'clock saying, all right, start reading the book, take a hot shower, wind down. You know what else you want to stay off of?

Don 7:01

Social media. Social media. Yeah, that's a kill.

John 7:04

Uh do not turn on cable news. That's probably something you want to stay away from.

Don 7:09

Yeah, don't go to sleep with the news. I think it affects your dreams.

John 7:12

Oh my gosh, yes. The other thing that that we don't have on here to talk about, but you know, melatonin. Sure. Can we talk about that? Do you take melatonin?

Don 7:24

No, I I I do not take melatonin.

John 7:26

Okay. I've I take a low dose melatonin. Okay. And that seems to help me. If I take sometimes I if I really want to get to uh sleep, I'll take some ZQL. Now I have some weird dreams. Every time I take ZQL, there's some dreaming going on.

Don 7:44

There's a reason why. It's spelled ZQL. So is it? Yeah.

John 7:48

We don't want them to sponsor us. No, I don't think so. I do get to sleep, but it's just dream ridden. Now, melatonin, not so much. Yeah. Pretty good. Just kind of takes the edge off a little bit.

Don 8:00

That's good.

Melatonin, Zzz Aids, And Caution

John 8:00

So again, set your alarm, wind downtime. That tells you to like, okay, maybe, you know, pet the cat, pet the dog. Don't do anything excitable, you know. Those are kind of things that I kind of do, Donovan.

Don 8:17

That's good. I like those. I like the 15 minutes. It's not scary, it's super easy, and and that's something we can do today. So let's talk about stress and soreness. What do we do when life gets loud? Because honestly, sometimes in some weeks it does. You have a lot of travel, you have some weird sleep because maybe you're traveling and you're in strange locations. Stress.

John 8:44

What do we do, John? Well, you want to kind of zoom out a little bit. Chaos, don't let it win. All right. Don't let it overtake you. I want you to hold the line, start taking those walks, walk off that stress, increase your protein intake, increase your hydration, drink a little bit more water. And when you're in the gym, make shorter lifts. Make make them successful lifts. Does that make sense?

Handling Loud Weeks And Stress

Don 9:09

It does. So let's let's say it again for the folks in the cheap seats.

John 9:14

Maintenance is a win. Yeah. You always want to make sure that your soreness is just not at that same level. So you're trying to take that edge off. All right. So nutrition, bump up the protein at each meal. Okay. Okay. And I know you can do that. Just like, you know, when you traveled in last episode, we talked about, hey, get those, those little tuna packs that you like, your little turkey, all those little things that we talked about in the last episode. So up your protein, add 10 to 15 minute walks three days this week, you know, just to take off that little edge. Okay. Edgewalking. Again, we're recovery. So your your your body needs a recovery time. So you're going to be a little more recovery, a little more protein, shift your bedtime earlier, like we just talked about. Yep. Get that little extra sleepy time in. Now you got me saying it. Sleepy time. Well, that's what she texted me, John.

Don 10:09

That's that's your word, not mine. And and also get that shower in, right?

John 10:13

Yeah, yeah. That's and it's it's you can shower two or three times a day. It's okay. And it's gonna relax you. You know, you're taking that warm shower, let it just sit there, hit your muscles, relax your muscles a little bit. That'll help with that soreness for sure. Absolutely. And then and then it's just time to hit the cool side of the pillow.

Don 10:34

I like that one lever rule. It keeps me from over-correcting my whole life in one day because you have a bad day, you feel like everything went wrong, so you got to fix everything. But it it's not it's not that complicated, right, John? It's just that one lever.

Maintenance Wins And Easy Movement

John 10:49

Do the things you already like to do, Donovan. Like you like to take those walks 10 to 15 minutes after meals or in the afternoon. I'm gonna I'm gonna give my my wife a little kudos because she she really controls her weight. All right. And you know what? She eats early. Okay. So she's she's she's determined, and I would encourage other people to do this if you can in your lifestyle. She likes to eat at four or five o'clock as her last meal. Wow. Then you know what she does? She takes that, she I don't this this is her root, this is her workout. So for guys like you and I are in recovery days, after you eat, let that digest, and then take a short walk. So she'll go out and walk two or three miles after like an hour after she eats. And then she'll come back in, she'll take her shower, and then she'll wind down with a little reading, and then she'll go to bed. And that girl sleeps like sleeping beauty.

Don 11:46

Wow. Then there's me. Maybe I should talk to your wife about being my co-host.

John 11:51

Well, she's well, you know what? She stick with me.

Don 11:56

Okay. You'll just stick with me. Please. I need a friend. I I just keep the checks coming, John.

John 12:04

But the walk after dining is really good. So I've been starting to do that now. So as far as my window, we talked about walking the dog or you know, petting the dog is what you said. I try to eat. Petting the dog, not me, John. Correct. Yes. Yeah, but you're almost as furry. I have my moments. So I like to take her for a little walk. I take come back, I'm taking a shower. I mean, it has actually helped me get to sleep and then sleep through the night a little bit more until about 5 a.m. when I get those texts from you.

Don 12:33

Yeah, well, you you you told me to text you anytime, John. So I was just I was just doing it. I didn't want you to worry about me.

Walking After Dinner And Sleep

John 12:39

But we're talking about recovery and things that you can do. And I was saying, like things that you like to do, Donovan. Like you'd like to walk. Yep. You're going to lighten up your cardio load. So maybe stairmaster, make them a little easier. I know we've talked on episodes how you've gone up to 35 floors. I think is that right? 33. 33, 35. Okay. Yep. So, but you're going to keep those floors, but you're going to go at a lower pace because I was talking about trying to increase your pace in a couple episodes, but you're going to keep that pace a little bit easier. Jumping jacks we've talked about. So you're going to do those maybe a little lighter. We're not so intense. Again, we're doing recovery workouts.

Don 13:23

Right. So maybe not jumping jacks, but maybe more like just some easy marching. I know we did a lot of that when we were working out together, you know, those high steps.

John 13:32

True. But maybe let's say you're doing the bench press. Okay. Maybe you're doing a lighter bench because you've overworked the arms so much. Maybe you're doing a light bench when you do your one set of 10, get up from the bench, walk, walk across the gym, and then come back. Okay. It without doing the jumping jacks.

Don 13:51

Yeah, I know we we've had a couple days where we we lifted hard earlier in the week, especially with bench, and then, you know, come that the next day we were doing upper body in our rotation. And I'm like, man, I I don't have it today. And we would go down on the on the weight and the reps.

John 14:10

But but what did we do? We did, it's always doing something. And then that's what we're trying to portray in this this episode is that on those days of recovery, they don't have to be just forgotten.

Don 14:22

That's right. Forgotten days in the gym. Absolutely. Because what what I discovered is even though we weren't doing the same type of weight and the same type of reps that we had done earlier in the week, I felt I was stronger when we picked it up for the next set because we had not abandoned that course of action.

John 14:42

Yeah, the the motion, you know, the ocean and the motion. Yep. The motion and the ocean. I think that's right.

Don 14:47

So, and if you only have 30 minutes, you can still win. You just alternate short circuits with easy cardio, or just walk hard and go home.

John 14:56

Yeah, I mean, you you you like we talked about in episode one, you walked in the door, you showed up, you did a little bit of something. That's right. We love that about you.

unknown 15:06

Yep.

Lighter Lifts For Recovery Days

Don 15:06

And and the the bottom line is the best plan is the one that you're actually doing. So there is no right or wrong answer. The wrong answer is not to do anything, right, John?

John 15:16

Correct. Yeah. Show up, be there, show up and show out.

Don 15:21

That's right. So let's talk about some recovery dashboards. This is let's talk about a recovery dashboard. So you can pick three of these or you can do all of them. Sleep. After you wake up in the morning, give yourself a rating. How did you think you slept? One to five. You want to track that over the week to see how you're doing versus the other days and what changes, what one lever did you pull to make that adjustment? And how did that adjustment affect your recovery sleep? How about your energy or your mood in midday? We all get those two o'clock crashes in the afternoon, but is it more severe today than it was the other day? Refer back to your sleep score and see how did that affect it. Conditioning, how did your stairmaster flights or your 777 pace, was it smoother? Did you not struggle as as much? Were you getting to that seven-minute mark and said, Man, I can go for another two to three minutes? Then another marker that you could use is strength, is your reps getting easier as you're doing them. If that's the case, then your recovery's up. And then let's talk about non-scale, just stuff that we've talked about several times in our episodes. Those belt notches, how do those belt notches are you are you one less? How's your clothing fit? That truth shirt that we talked about in a previous episode, something that you mentioned was photos every two to four weeks. Those are great dashboard markers to kind of see how your recovery's going.

Data Not Drama: Tracking Progress

John 17:00

And talking about recovery and your gym workouts, I I want to really emphasize again, when you first get to the gym, stretching is a big part of it. And on days like this, I'm thinking back to when we worked out together, Donovan. There were days when we first started with you, you know, your body's getting acclimated to the gym. So stretching, we did the the figure eight with the ball. Yep. We did a lot of ball work. We just did a lot of isometric stuff. And those are things that I think a lot of people forget about. It's like, well, I've been coming to the gym and I've always done, you know, bench, back, by, tries, sleds, all these things. And that they forget that when they're working out, you it's okay to on the recovery day to have a lighter workout day. Stretch, a little bit of cardio, lighter weights, lower reps. You know, we talked about lower reps. Being in the gym is is I want it to be everybody's happy place, and recovery is part of building. Could could not agree more. You know, it's nutrition, stretching, hydration, sleep, perfect things that you guys need to do to build that temple.

Don 18:18

I'll tell you a little bit of truth here, John. One of the hardest workouts I've had in probably three months. I had the other day, and it was all with a 10-pound dumbbell. I was tell what you do. Tell me what you do. I'm curious. Darn near sore after that. Had you been I I don't remember. I I'm gonna have to do the workout again to try and remember some of the things, but it was like it was core workout where we would like one of them was like Angel Halo or Halo's, I think they're called when you go out. Yep. That that was one because he he told me the name, and then we did some one of the things that you said we were gonna do when we lunges. Lunges, yeah. We did some. I knew you were gonna say about lunges. Yeah, and and I mean it it was it really it's 10 pounds. It was 10 pounds, but it kicked me. It it kicked me pretty hard.

John 19:07

So use your weekly averages with your weight, data, not drama. Okay, does you know what I'm saying by that? Yes.

Don 19:15

Because you are the drama guy when it comes to weighing in. I I do like weighing every day, but you know, as I've said before, I I don't let it rule my life. I I I take the number and and then I think about how my day before was, yeah, and I can pretty usually, especially now, point to okay, well, this is what why the the number has changed, either up or down.

John 19:40

Well, remember I talked about some seven ten, then I said I was doing 1010, then I'm doing twenty twenty.

Don 19:45

Yep.

Simple Recovery Checklist And Habits

John 19:46

Well, Johnny, Johnny Rocket over here. If I dare give myself a nickname, which would not be Rocket, but No, it wouldn't was or Johnny. Years old, I've called myself Johnny. Yeah. Johnny, Johnny, John, John, John got up to 220 pounds over the holidays. Congratulations. Yeah, no, not something I was really proud of. So I got up to 220 and I looked at my wife and I'm like, oh no. So what I told you, I was doing 30 30-30. Yep. 30 minutes on the treadmill. I just want you to know we could we could bring a scale out right now. I'm thank God I'm back down to 216. That's awesome. Well, it's not where I want to be, but it for the last week and a half, 30 minutes, I've been on the treadmill running. That's not something you and I really like to do.

SPEAKER_03 20:38

No.

John 20:39

But I did not like the the hangover that was coming over my. And when I say hangover, I don't mean I drank too much. Right. I'm talking about my belt.

Don 20:48

Absolutely.

John 20:49

So don't let it the the weighing in, I get that from you now. Because I wake up, I'm like, okay, 219.

Don 20:55

Yep.

John 20:56

Okay. It's a salad. It's water in the morning, like Donovan always said. Water before coffee. That's right. I I I listen to you. Yeah. I'm doing it.

Don 21:05

It's about time.

John 21:06

So you helped me lose five pounds. You're welcome. It's a lot to people. Just trying to if you could see his ego right now. If you could see my ego, that'd be pretty awesome. So don't let the weight drama you out. If nothing's moving for two weeks, tweak it one lever, like we talked about, nutrition. Make sure you're doing 30 30-30, 20-20-20, whatever kind of movement you got to do. Make sure you get proper recovery and keep the training going and then reassess. Those are just the key factors. People on the podcast that are listening, don't think that the two guys here don't have the same struggles that you have.

Don 21:51

Oh, and that that's one of the reasons why we started this is this podcast, is because we do have these struggles.

John 21:56

I didn't have these struggles until I started this podcast.

Don 22:10

There is. There is.

John 22:11

You know it. I I don't.

Don 22:13

Yeah.

John 22:13

I I don't remember it. If anybody knows the joke about denial, that's right. It's somewhere in Egypt. It's somewhere in Egypt, right?

Don 22:21

Egypt, right? And Egypt is in what kind what here we go.

John 22:25

It's Africa.

Don 22:26

Oh, you did great. You've been studying, haven't you?

John 22:30

I asked chat GPT. What's this?

Don 22:33

So so John, uh speaking of uh checklist and trying to get back on track here. What what is some simple recovery things that people can do?

John 22:45

We talked about sleep, right? Give yourself 15 minutes, 15, 30 minutes earlier before you go to bed. So a little timer on your phone or wherever it is, right? Set that timer for sleepy time. Yep. Take that hot shower. Or if it's a bath, you want to take a bath, go ahead, put some bubbles in there. I don't care what's going on. And whatever works for your sleep. Whatever winds you down. Yep. Hydration earlier throughout the day. Make sure you're staying hydrated so that right before you go to bed, you're not like, I'm dying of thirst. And that's just going to keep you up even more. Make sure you're getting that movement in, get those walks in for recovery. If that's what you got to do. Like I said, I'm walking the dog after dinner. Stress, pick one nightly switch off. So you stretch, you read, you breathe. You know, if you're doing a little bit of yoga, or like you said earlier, pet Donovan.

Don 23:37

I mean, I did the dog, the dog, not me. Hippopotamus. Yeah, hippopotamus. No doubt. And then training. Remember, don't forget training. Even on those loud life weeks, you want to aim for maintenance. Maintenance for the wind every single time. Hold the line, but shorten the session, but make sure you're keeping that habit, right, John?

John 23:58

Yeah, you want to you want to get in there every day. Don't take a day off. You don't hurt yourself. I mean, your day off is this recovery we were talking about.

Weekly Challenge And Closing CTA

Don 24:07

That's right. That's exactly right. So, and remember, John, to wipe your bench, even if your bench is the driver's seat, right? That's right, Donovan. Yeah, see, I I listen too. So let's talk about a challenge. Because once you're gonna have something explode, what was gonna happen? Yeah, that was on the outtakes. And there was a reason why it was on the outtakes. So let's talk about the the challenge of the week. That was hilarious. It's in the outtakes. It's in the outtakes. Okay. Yeah. So let's talk about the challenge of the week. Two simple steps, simple but doable. Move your bedtime 15 minutes earlier for five nights, then rate your sleep one to five each morning. Is it getting better? Has it made a difference? Also add a 10 to 15 minute walk on three days. And if you catch your breath faster between sets, that's fantastic. Made a note, make a note of that.

John 25:03

If life is loud, maintenance is a win. Hold the line, then build when the volume drops.

Don 25:10

Because, John, remember every rep counts, and so does every step. And yes, wipe your bench. Hey everyone, thanks for listening. If you'd like to get in touch with us or you have questions or feedback, we'd love to hear from you. Use our email, better every rep 25. That's the number 25 at gmail.com. That's better every rep 25 at gmail.com. Look forward to hearing from you. Welcome back to every yeah intro every time. You can't get it. The leadoff. I can't get it. Welcome back to Better Every Rep.

John 25:49

I'm Don. And I'm John. Whoa. I was waiting. That's a slow. Okay, start over.

Don 26:00

So does that make sense, Donovan? It does. But let's get let's have you do that again. What? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

That's not a deal.