Get A Grip

Is your grip letting you down?

Struggling to pull your weight, grip the bar or carry 100 shopping bags to avoid 2 trips from the car.

Before you start thinking about ramping up your grip strength training

Or even consider becoming single

…

First look at your recovery

Your Central Nervous System might be cooked!

How is this possible?

Science!

There’s overwhelming evidence linking grip strength to the “readiness” of your nervous system. As a result we have seen significant decreases in grip strength correlate to poor neural functioning.

So if your grip fluctuates more than a teenager’s emotions you may be suffering from neural fatigue.

Here’s 5 easy strategies for nervous system down regulation and recovery.

1. Breathing

Diaphragmatic, Wim Hof and 2-to-1 breathing are some of my favourite ways to help increase blood flow to the brain and stimulate the Parasympathetic Nervous System (Rest and Digest) for relaxation.

In particular, 2-to-1 breathing is a simple and effective way to enter a recovery state. It works off the principle that our inhale controls the Sympathetic Nervous System (fight or flight), whilst our exhale control the Parasympathetic Nervous System. Therefore by doubling the exhale duration, in relation to the inhale, we are able decrease stress and increase relaxation quickly.

2. Meditation

Meditation has become a loosely, and often inaccurately used word in modern society. Deep thinking, daydreaming and fantasizing are just a couple misdirected associations with meditation - In fact it actually means none of these.

Meditation is the technique of resting the mind, clearing external distractions and drawing focus inwards. When you meditate, you are fully awake and alert, but your mind is not focused on the external world or on the events taking place around you. This offers time for relaxation and heightened awareness in a stressful world where our senses are often dulled.

There is no “right way” to meditate and there’s a variety of styles that yo can explore to find what works best for you. Mindfulness Meditation, Body Scans and Breath Awareness Meditation are some of our favourites.

3. Sleep (are you getting enough?)

Think of sleep as a nutrient for performance; If you constantly deprive your body of it, your gains will suffer!

The average person requires 7-9 hours of sleep each night for their body to effectively recover and just like with caloric intake, highly active people need more than those who are live a sedentary life.

4. Chilling the F*!%# out

Life is often fast paced and go, go go!

It’s hard to catch a “real” break in the chaos of the modern world.

So when we make time to chill… ACTUALLY CHILL OUT!

This doesn’t mean