140: All Things Recovery and Protocols I Use

I break down the recovery protocols fueling my peak Ironman Arizona build—from sleep and nutrition to sauna, cold plunge, and red-light therapy. I share lessons, stress-balance tactics, and family moments that keep me grounded. Whether you’re training hard or seeking better daily recovery, this episode delivers practical tools to optimize performance and prevent injury. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Overview 04:44 Training and Recovery Challenges 08:53 Understanding Stress and Recovery 21:41 Balancing the Nervous System 28:41 Tracking Recovery Metrics 32:23 Prioritizing Sleep for Optimal Recovery 40:32 The Game-Changing Sleep Tool 46:42 The Role of Nutrition in Recovery 54:16 Sauna and Cold Plunge Benefits 01:03:48 Exploring Red Light Therapy 01:12:28 Compression Boots and Massage Guns 01:15:19 The Importance of Physical Therapy ORDER MY BOOK HERE: https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210 FOLLOW: Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 20% off FOR LIFE https://bpn.team/member IG: instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ YT: youtube.com/@nickbarefitness

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Nick Bare?

  Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today I am talking all things recovery.

• 0:15Nick Bare?

  And to be honest, I get questions all the time. I've been getting questions for years all about what I do for recovery. And when I was younger, I didn't do much for recovery. I slept, I ate, I trained and I recovered well. Now, as I'm getting older, I'm 35 years old now, still young, but I'm getting older.

• 0:42Nick Bare?

  I find that I don't recover as efficiently as I used to. So I have to incorporate more devices, protocols, just different things that I want to share with you guys today. All of what I incorporate into my daily or weekly routine

• 1:04Nick Bare?

  to optimize my recovery, especially in a high volume prep right now, such as my Ironman prep. We are about eight weeks out from Ironman Arizona, which is November 16th, full Ironman. So I'm deep into training right now.

• 1:22Nick Bare?

  And I'll share what my recovery routine and protocols are throughout this, this episode. But a few notes to share prior jumping in.

• 1:34Nick Bare?

  Storytime, moral of the story is that I have written down right here. Recovery and injury prevention aren't just for athletic performance related activities. It is for life.

• 1:47Nick Bare?

  So this past weekend, me and the family, myself, Steph, Charlie, Nico. We went to Austin to a coffee shop. It was called Mozart's Coffee. So it's a great coffee shop over, off of Enfield, downtown Austin, Austin, near the Terrytown neighborhood, right off of, of Lake Austin.

• 2:12Nick Bare?

  Great spot, good coffee, good food, live music. So we're sitting at this picnic table, watching this live music being played in front of us. Charlie's eating a croissant, Steph and I are sipping on coffee. Nico's sitting on the top of the picnic table. We're about to leave and I've been fairly injury free this entire prep. I mean, there's been a few things that have flared up. Tight calves, hamstrings, back, like just small stuff from mainly overtraining or overuse injury.

• 2:56Nick Bare?

  But we're about to get up from this coffee shop, sit at this picnic table. As I'm standing, I reach over and pick up Charlie, she's on my left simultaneously. And as I'm picking Charlie up and getting out of this picnic table and move her from my left side to my right side to put her on my hip to carry her back to the truck. I could feel this slip in my lower back and just the, oh. You know, like when everything just seizes up and you try to catch your breath and you can feel you strained something. Lower back strain. I was feeling that the rest of the day and then two days after. It feels pretty decent now. So that happened Sunday, it's now Wednesday.

• 3:41Nick Bare?

  It feels better. But of the many times that I have, I should say not many, of the few times that I've been injured in my life. Majority of those times aren't from athletic or performance related activities. It's just from living life. So the reason I share that is because a lot of these recovery practices that I'm going to share. Don't just have to be applicable to when you're doing high volume training or you're in a prep or a build or you're training for an Ironman like I am right now. It can be beneficial for all aspects of life, all injuries, injury prevention, but also.

• 4:31Nick Bare?

  Injury, maintenance and repair. So I had to incorporate some of these practices after I threw my back out. I had Mozart's coffee this past weekend. Some, something else to share, which might be unrelated, but I feel obligated to share because I just got off of a a 90 minute bike ride. So this morning I had an eight mile run, then a 90 minute bike ride. And then this afternoon I have a one hour swim, which I'll do about 3,000 yards. Tomorrow is a big day. I got a 20 mile run in the morning and then a one hour swim in the afternoon.

• 5:13Nick Bare?

  And two days ago, Monday, I had a five hour training day, had a nine mile run in the morning, four hour bike ride in the afternoon. Training volume is high right now. My body is recovering and adapting quite well. But something that is not adapting and recovering quite well right now. And I think this is, this is mainly because I've lost significant weight in this prep so far. I'm down to 185 pounds, which I haven't seen 185 pounds on the scale since post Ranger school in 2014, to be honest.

• 5:53Nick Bare?

  But I'm leaner right now, which means I've lost fat and muscle along the way. But I've lost some, some tissue in my butt cheeks. My butt isn't as padded as it used to be. So as I'm doing some of these big rides on my bike, I am, I'm feeling the, the seat a whole lot more, if you will.

• 6:18Nick Bare?

  And after Monday's ride, which Monday wasn't my longest ride in this prep yet. I've done a bunch of rides. I do a big ride every week. But I don't know what happened Monday. It was a four hour ride and I got extremely chafed. I chafed where the back of the thigh meets the butt cheek.

• 6:39Nick Bare?

  And it tore me up, tore me up. I got in the shower Monday night and I could just feel every part of that chafage. I'm almost even afraid to look. I haven't looked yet. I kind of want to go get in the mirror and just like bend over and see what's going on down there because it doesn't feel pretty and I'm sure it doesn't look pretty. But today on the bike, the 90 minute bike ride I had today, it was an endurance ride and endurance aerobic build.

• 7:13Nick Bare?

  It was painful. So I share that for a few reasons. One, I just wanted to share. I felt obligated. When I was on the bike, I thought to myself, I'm going to share this on the podcast.

• 7:28Nick Bare?

  Secondly, there's some stuff you can do for recovery for stuff like this, but mainly it's more padding, maybe some extra like lube down there before I hop on the bike. But if anyone's spent a lot of time riding during Ironman prep,

• 7:53Nick Bare?

  you've probably experienced saddle soreness. So this week, for example, see Monday, four hours. Wednesday, 90 minutes. It's five and a half hours.

• 8:09Nick Bare?

  And then

• 8:13Nick Bare?

  I'm not going to ride tomorrow. I'll ride Friday for two hours. It's five and a half, six and a half, seven and a half. This week will be eight and a half hours on the bike. It's about a

• 8:29Nick Bare?

  20.5 hour training week for Ironman prep. Okay, that's, that's all the stories that I wanted to share and get out of the way to kick off this podcast. If that was too much information, I'm sorry, but I felt like that's context that I have to share that I wanted to share. Next, recovery. It's all about stress.

• 8:56Nick Bare?

  The body, our body responds and adapts. Sometimes efficiently, sometimes inefficiently to all kinds of stress.

• 9:10Nick Bare?

  The body has a hard time differentiating between different types of stress. What I mean by that, there is physical stress. You know, when you do a workout, that is stress on the body. When you don't sleep well, that is stress on the body. So there's physical stress, there's mental stress, there's emotional stress. All these different stressors that we experience on a daily basis, they tax our body. And our body has to find ways to recover from that stress and/or adapt to that stress.

• 9:52Nick Bare?

  And that's something that's very important to recognize.

• 9:58Nick Bare?

  If you have a big, big, big training day, and you're also going through a very stressful time in your personal life and/or work, maybe something is going on with your, your relationship, your marriage, someone in your family is sick, you just got some bad medical news. All this stuff, all these stressors in life,

• 10:27Nick Bare?

  they compound and they will affect the way that you can recover, the way that you adapt, the way that you perform, the way you think. So you have to be mindful of not stacking too many stressors on top of each other in a given time.

• 10:45Nick Bare?

  And this does require some intentional proactive planning and thinking of maybe, hey, I'm going through a lot of mental and emotional stress right now. Maybe the best thing for me not to do is this 20 mile run I have tomorrow. Maybe I should dial that back. Maybe I should take an off day, let my body recover.

• 11:12Nick Bare?

  Let this, this other, or these other stressors, stress my body.

• 11:19Nick Bare?

  And I can recover from that, and then when I am ready, and more prepared, I can go knock out this big workout. So it's just being mindful of not stacking too many stressors on top of each other. Because what happens when we do this over a long period of time is we experience chronic stress response, which I'll talk about here in a little bit.

• 11:42Nick Bare?

  Something else to be mindful of,

• 11:45Nick Bare?

  in terms of how our body responds and adapts to all these kinds of stresses.

• 11:51Nick Bare?

  I believe that a lot of people, when we think of recovery from working out, in particular, think of muscular stress. "I just went to the gym, I destroyed my body in this big workout, my muscles are wrecked." Or you went and ran a marathon, and your body, your muscles are wrecked. You did a big bike workout, your body, your muscles are wrecked. The muscular system

• 12:20Nick Bare?

  does get damaged, and then through recovery, it repairs. Like, that is a big stressor to the body that our bodies itself have to recover from. But there's also central nervous system stress. And I believe that we oftentimes don't think of

• 12:38Nick Bare?

  the work that we're doing, the effort, and how it affects our central nervous system. And

• 12:50Nick Bare?

  these are both impacted in different ways, and the way our body responds might be differently. You know, if you've ever had,

• 13:03Nick Bare?

  say, for example, you did a big workout one day, or you ran a marathon, you did a race. The next morning, you wake up, and your body's trash. I mean, you can barely walk. If you've ever done an ultra marathon,

• 13:21Nick Bare?

  You wake up, your feet hurt, your legs hurt, your back hurts, your eyes hurt, your hair hurts. Like, everything hurts after a hundred mile race. You wake up the next morning, getting out of bed is, it's a painful process. But you've also taxed your central nervous system. Where you might have extreme fatigue and brain fog. You might be irritable and cranky and moody and you're just not a good person to be around. And you can't shake it. You can't, you can't figure out why.

• 14:02Nick Bare?

  Your nervous system has to also recover from some of these workouts, some of these efforts. I have found that my central nervous system gets taxed specifically with really big efforts or higher intensity, longer duration. Like, my central nervous system is, is more impacted and it gets more heavily taxed after, say, a tempo workout compared to an easy run. After a big tempo workout, I feel fatigued.

• 14:45Nick Bare?

  I am tired, not just from a muscular standpoint, but whole body energy. My brain is foggy. I don't have clear thoughts. My memory lacks. All these things occur and you experience because of central nervous system stress and being taxed. Now, our body responds, and like I said, adapts to all kinds of stressors.

• 15:24Nick Bare?

  And the reason I keep saying adapts is because when we put our body through stress, our body will respond in multiple ways. It wants to maintain homeostasis. Our body wants to facilitate recovery and repair. And when we...

• 15:47Nick Bare?

  Apply stress to our body in appropriate amounts at appropriate frequencies.

• 15:57Nick Bare?

  We feed it stress, a little bit here, a little bit there, a little bit here, a little bit there. And we add more stress over time. Our body then can efficiently adapt that stress, become more resilient and improve and get better. It's like an immune system. You know, you always hear one of the best ways to build a really strong immune system is by exposing it to micro doses of illness or exposure to some pathogens, maybe bacteria. And your immune system responds and it adapts and it becomes stronger and stronger and stronger

• 16:43Nick Bare?

  over time.

• 16:45Nick Bare?

  Well, the body does the same thing.

• 16:49Nick Bare?

  Now, there's different types of responses to stress, two that I want to focus on. There is a hormonal response and there is a chronic response. A hormonal response, we can view as good, beneficial and adaptive. A chronic response to stress is typically, in my opinion, viewed as negative and we have to make some sort of change. So a hormonal response to stress, it's short term. There's a rapid release of hormones that react to a stimulus.

• 17:28Nick Bare?

  We might experience increased heart rate and blood pressure. We might experience increased blood glucose levels for more energy. There's heightened mental activity and muscle strength.

• 17:43Nick Bare?

  So our body experiences stress. There's a hormonal response that we go and fight. We prepare for this stressor that we're experiencing in real time. And then when that stressor decreases or stops, hormones go back to normal, body responds, baseline is regained. Then there's a chronic response to stress. This is when there's long-term exposure. We have elevated stress hormones over a long period of time. And this can actually disrupt many bodily processes

• 18:21Nick Bare?

  when cortisol levels remain elevated for long durations in time. And this is what happens when there's widespread health problems, such as metabolic issues, cardiovascular problems, mental health concerns, immune system issues. A chronic response to stress is when we don't balance these stressors and then recovery and repair. Stressors, recovery, and repair. And if you stay in an elevated state of stress over a long periods of time, which I'm about to get into, you can start experiencing these chronic issues,

• 19:06Nick Bare?

  which can be and can result in disease. So it's really important that we balance, we try to balance stress in our life coming from physical, mental, and emotional patterns and practices, and then with rest, relaxation, recovery, and repair. Because if you don't prioritize recovery and repair, you end up in this chronic state. So the things I'm going to share are what I like to consider a recovery toolkit that you can choose from. These are some things that I personally choose from daily,

• 19:49Nick Bare?

  frequently, weekly. But you don't have to. I don't use all of these things every single day. I just choose some of these tools from my recovery toolkit for what is applicable for when I need it. And when I have time, when I can fit it around my schedule.

• 20:09Nick Bare?

  Like I said in the beginning of this podcast, I didn't actually realize

• 20:17Nick Bare?

  getting older was going to require more recovery tools. I know it sounds like common sense, but when you're younger, you don't, at least I didn't need all of these things.

• 20:31Nick Bare?

  I probably still don't need a lot of these things, but I like having them because they help me feel better. I'm prepared for upcoming workouts, sleep more efficiently, and just show up stronger day in and day out.

• 20:48Nick Bare?

  So there's more recovery tools and practices that I incorporate now than I actually realized as I started listing and writing them out.

• 21:00Nick Bare?

  Going back to, you know, talking about how the body responds to stress from a hormonal response and what could end up being a chronic response if not treated and if you're not aware of keeping your body in an elevated level of stress in a cortisol-producing state.

• 21:22Nick Bare?

  Goes into my next point before I start sharing some of these, these tools.

• 21:30Nick Bare?

  I think it's important that we learn and recognize that it is our responsibility to balance both the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system.

• 21:48Nick Bare?

  The sympathetic nervous system, this is, was oftentimes considered the fight or flight response. And when we're in the sympathetic or our sympathetic nervous system is activated, this mobilizes the body's resources for immediate, high-energy demands. Like I said, it is considered the fight or flight response. Your heart rate increases, blood pressure increases, breathing increases, and digestion slows down. So you get hit with something.

• 22:32Nick Bare?

  Something's thrown in your face,

• 22:35Nick Bare?

  or it could be as little as you wake up, you pick up your phone, you go to social media, you start scrolling, something grabs your attention, and you don't like it, it makes you angry, it throws you off. This will instantly put you in or activate your sympathetic nervous system. It is a stressor. It's high stress, it's cortisol producing. Some people live

• 23:05Nick Bare?

  with an activated sympathetic nervous system. And I've gone through periods in my life, high-stress periods in my life, where I've had a highly active sympathetic nervous system. And then there's the parasympathetic nervous system. This is often called the rest and digest system. This promotes the body's recovery and conservation of energy. It is when you're resting and digesting, you are calm. In this state, when it's activated, you have a decreased heart rate. Digestion is stimulated and your body conserves energy.

• 23:50Nick Bare?

  Before you go to bed at night, for example, you want to have an activated parasympathetic nervous system.

• 23:58Nick Bare?

  When you're eating a meal and after eating a meal, you want to be in the parasympathetic or you want to have an activated parasympathetic nervous system. Your body can rest and digest. This is why it potentially could be a problem if

• 24:16Nick Bare?

  you have a really busy day and say you give yourself a 10-minute window in between meetings to eat lunch. You finish a meeting, you go, you scarf down your lunch really fast. You're eating it stressed out because you're trying to eat within a 10-minute window to get to your next meeting. You get to your next meeting and this is a high-stress cortisol-producing, energetic meeting where people are yelling and screaming and there's all this stress involved. Your body is going to inefficiently digest that food. Inefficiently, because it has deprioritized.

• 24:59Nick Bare?

  Digestion.

• 25:03Nick Bare?

  It is slowed digestion. Now,

• 25:08Nick Bare?

  it is our responsibility to try to balance out the activation of the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system. The balance of these two systems is actually reflected in heart rate variability, HRV, which is a measure of the variation in time between your heartbeats. A higher HRV indicates a balanced nervous system, while a lower HRV suggests dominance by one system over the other. So we want a a high HRV. Again, what is HRV? Heart rate variability measures the slight variations in time between consecutive heartbeats,

• 25:52Nick Bare?

  reflecting the balance between your sympathetic, your fight or flight, and parasympathetic, your rest and digest nervous systems. A higher HRV generally indicates better adaptability, a more resilient body and healthier habits, while a lower HRV can signal increased stress, illness, or poor sleep. Measuring HRV often with a wearable device can provide insights into your stress levels and overall health.

• 26:26Nick Bare?

  Side note, there's a book that I highly recommend reading. I am rereading it right now for my second time ever. It is called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. The ruthless elimination of hurry. I highly recommend it. And I think this is applicable to setting up your life in a way that promotes both the activation of the sympathetic nervous system, but also the parasympathetic nervous system. We live in a very fast-paced digital age life.

• 27:09Nick Bare?

  And if we don't create boundaries, if we don't establish practices and routines, we will live in a

• 27:21Nick Bare?

  Activated state of the sympathetic nervous system with a low HRV and high cortisol.

• 27:31Nick Bare?

  And this is what produces a state of chronic stress that leads to disease and destruction, horrible sleep, brain fog, lack of performance, all the things that we don't want.

• 27:50Nick Bare?

  So I would argue that it's really important, it's really, really, really important that we find ways and we build in routines to rest and digest. I believe a great way and a great place to get started is by reading John Mark Comer's, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. Like I said, I'm reading it for my second time right now. And I personally love it. I really enjoy it. It's one that I recommend to everyone. It's probably one that I'll read every year, to be honest. Now, what are some ways that I track recovery?

• 28:33Nick Bare?

  So objectively, I am tracking through heart rate variability, HRV, resting heart rate, and some sleep data, which I'll get into here in a little bit.

• 28:50Nick Bare?

  And the wearables that I have, so I'm wearing an Oura ring right now. I've been wearing my Oura ring for about two weeks now. I have my Garmin on my wrist. I pulled data from my Garmin. And then we use the 8Sleep on our bed, which I'll talk about here more soon. And the 8Sleep actually provides a lot of data, sleep data as well, and recovery data, which I really enjoy. So objectively, I'm measuring it through HRV, resting heart rate and sleep data. Subjectively, I'm tracking recovery just based off of how I feel. How's my energy? What's my fatigue like? Do I have brain fog?

• 29:35Nick Bare?

  Uh, how's my mood? Am I irritable? If I'm moody and irritable, this can sometimes tell me that my central nervous system is taxed and fatigued. But after a big workout, the day or two afterwards, I can tell when my central nervous system is taxed and not recovered well. So I'm just a little, I'm a little moodier, a little bit more irritable. After every ultra marathon that I've done, for about the week afterwards, because my central nervous system is extremely taxed. Hormones are all out of whack.

• 30:13Nick Bare?

  I'm always really in a bad mood for like a week after an ultra.

• 30:20Nick Bare?

  I just can't, it's one of those things you just can't shake. You're just in this funk. And then as I start to recover and feel better, it kind of dissipates and goes away.

• 30:32Nick Bare?

  But I think there's also, you know, we, we have to have an awareness when we're training for a big race or competition or event.

• 30:44Nick Bare?

  You know, right now, like I've said, I'm in an Ironman prep and during a large training block, recovery will most likely not be optimal.

• 30:55Nick Bare?

  You know, we can do our best to try and recover and set up workouts and structure them appropriately around life to try to recover as well as possible. And there's ways that we can improve and maximize recovery, but.

• 31:10Nick Bare?

  There's many days where you're just gonna be under recovered and you still have to show up and train because being able to train on tired legs and a fatigued body, that adaptation itself, that stressor allows us to improve and grow and get better. So there's time and place, but I wanted to share, there's also just like a level of awareness to have that when you're in a big training block and you're working towards a big ambitious goal, it becomes challenging to recover effectively. And you might not always show up the next day fully recovered.

• 31:52Nick Bare?

  So we can't talk about any of the cool stuff. We can't talk about the sauna, the cold plunge, the red light therapy, compression boots, PT work, training deloads, without talking about sleep and nutrition.

• 32:08Nick Bare?

  And for a lot of people, this is myself included for a long time,

• 32:14Nick Bare?

  I didn't want to hear about sleep because that was one thing I was not willing to

• 32:22Nick Bare?

  negotiate or try to improve. But now I'm in the headspace, in the mindset that sleep has to be prioritized. That is the best way to recover. There is nothing, no recovery device in my opinion, that will work better than good sleep.

• 32:47Nick Bare?

  Now, even as I say that,

• 32:51Nick Bare?

  I have committed to

• 32:54Nick Bare?

  try to get more sleep recently.

• 32:59Nick Bare?

  And I've been trying to sleep until 6:00 AM.

• 33:05Nick Bare?

  I'll be very honest, it's not happening every day just because...

• 33:13Nick Bare?

  Life, uh, you know, two young kids right now, a three-year-old, a one-year-old, balancing, raising kids and training and work and, uh, my family and following Jesus and, you know, being in the scripture, reading my Bible. All of those things, it's a lot to try to time manage. And I sometimes, more frequently than I'd like to admit, will sacrifice my sleep in order to get these other things done.

• 33:58Nick Bare?

  With that being said, after this Iron Man prep is over, I am committing to sleeping in until 6:00 a.m. So I can get eight hours of sleep a night. Now, there will of course be nights where this doesn't happen. Our youngest, our son Nico, who like I said, is one-year-old right now. The last two, three weeks, he's been going through a sleep regression where he wakes up at like 1:30 a.m. And we give him a bottle and he tosses and he turns until sometimes 3:00, 3:30 a.m. crying and screaming and we're trying to get him back down. So either Steph or I, or both of us are up, uh, for a few hours in the middle of the night.

• 34:43Nick Bare?

  And that is just the season and chapter of life that we're in right now. But hopefully when Nico is out of this sleep regression and this Iron Man prep is over, we're in bed by 9:30, 10:00 p.m. and then waking up together at 6:00 a.m.

• 35:01Nick Bare?

  That is the goal. That is where I'm trying to get to. It's baby steps to get there. What I've also found, after years of waking up at 4:00, 4:30 a.m., your body becomes accustomed to a certain sleep routine. Sleep and wake cycle, your circadian rhythm. And after waking up at 4:00, 4:30 a.m. for years,

• 35:32Nick Bare?

  For the last couple of years, I would set an alarm and I set an alarm every night. But I would usually wake up right before that alarm clock went off. Cause my body was so routine and that that circadian rhythm was so just synced up that I didn't need the alarm clock to wake me up. So deciding to sleep till 6 a.m. My body is still on that, that time clock. It is still accustomed to that sleep and wake cycle. So I know it's going to take actually more time than I anticipated to actually break

• 36:14Nick Bare?

  that cycle and build a new routine in where my body naturally then wakes up at six, but it's not there yet. But like I said, post Ironman, that is, that is the goal. That's what we're working towards. Nego, let's, let's get through this sleep progression and give mom and dad some, some more sleep. That'd be much, much appreciated. I love you, man. I love you. All right, sleep. When I think about sleep and I look at my data from the night prior, like I said, I'll, I'll open up the next day, my Oral Ring app.

• 36:57Nick Bare?

  I'll check the eight sleep app and I'll also check the, the Garmin app and I'll compare the data from my sleep scores. So I'll look at total sleep, the hours of sleep that I get. Each one of these devices gives a different sleep score analysis and I'll look at REM sleep, deep sleep and awake time. And I just look for trends over time. And I'm also looking at heart rate variability, like I've talked about earlier. The reason I look at it awake time because

• 37:36Nick Bare?

  Sometimes when one of the kids wakes up in the middle of the night and

• 37:43Nick Bare?

  we put them back down, sometimes it's hard to fall back asleep. I'll lay there for a significant time trying to fall back asleep. And if I have a lot of awake time, where I have a hard time falling back to sleep afterwards in the middle of the night, I like to track that because I like to look at trends and reasons of what did the previous day of why that might have happened? Was it a big training day? Was there a lot of stress? Did I eat a meal too late? Did I not eat enough that day prior? I just like to look at the trends of the data and then try to

• 38:23Nick Bare?

  use that data to make better informed decisions to keep improving my sleep, my performance, my recovery, the way that I feel. I'm not necessarily trying to hit certain metric points, but I like to use the data just to reflect and learn from and make more informed decisions in the future.

• 38:46Nick Bare?

  So I've talked about a few different wearables in tech and devices so far.

• 38:54Nick Bare?

  The Oura ring, I've only been wearing for a few weeks, so I'm still getting used to it. It's still calibrating a lot of the metrics within the app because I haven't been wearing it long enough yet to provide me all the data. I've been wearing a Garmin for years now. I'm very used to that data that it provides me. I'd say they're all pretty comparable. But I wanted to highlight one device that Seth and I both love.

• 39:26Nick Bare?

  And for all the things that I talk about here, all the products, all the

• 39:33Nick Bare?

  the recommendations, the tech, the wearables, the devices.

• 39:39Nick Bare?

  I'm not paid to promote any of these things. These are items, these are tools, these are resources that we actually

• 39:49Nick Bare?

  buy, use, are friends with the companies like.

• 39:57Nick Bare?

  I'm talking about these devices or products because I believe they are actually beneficial.

• 40:04Nick Bare?

  Eight Sleep is one that I highly recommend to everyone. This is a game changer.

• 40:12Nick Bare?

  So the Eight Sleep is essentially think of it as a mattress, pad, topper that cools your bed temperature.

• 40:24Nick Bare?

  So there's this water tank you put next to your bed. It connects these tubes onto this mattress cover. You put the mattress cover over your bed. And within the app, I can control my side of the bed and Steph can control her side of the bed.

• 40:40Nick Bare?

  So we can set different temperatures of our bed based off of our sleep preferences. We know that the human body sleeps better, more efficiently in a cold environment. So if you don't want to buy a device like this, just crank your AC down at night and make your room cold. And you actually sleep better. You will sleep better in a colder environment. But the Eight Sleep is this device where it cools your bed temperature down. And it will actually auto-regulate the temperature throughout the night based off of your sleep performance. I think it's called like autopilot. So I put mine on autopilot and it will adjust the temperature of my bed

• 41:26Nick Bare?

  based off of how well I'm sleeping. And then it provides really good sleep data and analysis the next morning. I don't know how exactly it does it. It's pretty wild. It measures HRV, heart rate, all of these things, all the things that my Our Ring in my Garmin give me based off of this pad that I'm sleeping on. It's quite wild. But we have found that both Steph and I, we sleep much better with the Eight Sleep.

• 42:00Nick Bare?

  But we also just like sleep better in a cooler environment. Minimal clothing, cooler environment.

• 42:08Nick Bare?

  That's part of our, our sleep hygiene or sleep practices, if you will.

• 42:15Nick Bare?

  Some other things that I do to promote better sleep.

• 42:21Nick Bare?

  I wear blue light blocking glasses at night. Uh, because I don't want the blue light to be disturbing my sleep performance and sleep quality. So I will wear a blue light blocking glasses. Uh, I wear a sleep mask now. This is only as of the last couple of weeks, but I'm a big fan of the sleep mask. Uh, I, I make sure I'm not on my phone. Within that last hour of going to bed, I will lay in bed, really try to just like relax, digest, stimulate that parasympathetic state. I'll read a book for the last thirty minutes to an hour while laying in bed with my blue light blocking glasses.

• 43:07Nick Bare?

  I want to try to reduce high energy and or high cortisol producing activity. And this is one of the reasons I stay off my phone. And I'm reading a book, just relaxing, winding down, getting ready to go to sleep. And this is obviously after taking Peak Sleep. Peak Sleep is, uh, it's our being BPNs, sleep supplement. It's a gummy formula.

• 43:37Nick Bare?

  No melatonin, so it's, it's non habit forming. And I take a serving of Peak Sleep about forty five minutes before I go to sleep every single night. Helps me just wind down very gently, wind down, relax, fall into a more restful

• 44:00Nick Bare?

  just feeling. And it helps me fall asleep faster. My sleep data and in performance is stronger and I wake up feeling more refreshed. So I take a serving of Peak Sleep every single night. Uh, and I don't actually even like to talk about Peak Sleep in terms of being a sleep supplement. I like to talk about Peak Sleep in terms of being a recovery supplement.

• 44:27Nick Bare?

  One of the reasons we didn't add melatonin to it. Some people I found have positive reactions to melatonin. Some people have negative experiences with melatonin. I personally have negative experiences with melatonin. I just get extremely groggy. And it's been a few years actually since I've used melatonin. But two weeks ago, it was a Saturday night, it was after a long run. I decided to experiment with three milligrams of melatonin. I was like, let me just, it's been a few years since I've tried it. Let me add some melatonin to my nighttime routine. And I will say, it hit me like a bag of bricks.

• 45:10Nick Bare?

  I fell asleep so hard and so fast. But the next day, I felt horrible. Horrible. I was so groggy. I was so fatigued the entire day. It was a waste of a day. Like that whole Sunday, I was, nothing could bring me back to life. No amount of caffeine, no workout, like I felt horrible. So that will be my last time trying

• 45:39Nick Bare?

  melatonin ever again. It made me feel absolutely horrible. So I'm not personally a fan of melatonin.

• 45:47Nick Bare?

  You may be, you might not be, but I've found that it just makes me extremely groggy the next day. And that's why we haven't and didn't incorporate it into the peak sleep formula. And then second to sleep, we have to talk about nutrition.

• 46:04Nick Bare?

  If your nutrition is not dialed in and prioritized.

• 46:11Nick Bare?

  And this doesn't go just for athletes or someone in a prep or preparing for an Ironman triathlon. This is applicable to everyone. In order for your body to respond well to stress,

• 46:28Nick Bare?

  physical, mental, emotional, for it to be able to adapt and grow and develop and improve and respond,

• 46:37Nick Bare?

  our diet, our nutrition, the foods that we are consuming on a regular basis, they will make the biggest difference. And it can be a make or break it situation.

• 46:54Nick Bare?

  So total calories, if we are in a caloric deficit, that puts us at a disadvantage to recover well. So having calories at maintenance or in surplus are going to ensure that we are recovering effectively. If you're trying to lose weight, obviously you're going to be in a caloric deficit. So that's even more reason to be hyper aware of the stressors that you're putting on your body. Because a caloric deficit is a stressor on the body. So if we're now loading on physical stress and emotional stress and mental stress that are cortisol producing,

• 47:40Nick Bare?

  it could put you in a compromised position. So I'm not saying caloric deficits are bad by any means. You need to be in a caloric deficit to lose weight, to lose body fat. But that is a stressor on the body.

• 47:55Nick Bare?

  So when you go into a big fitness prep, for example, and you're going after a large goal, it's really important to be monitoring calories and making sure you're at maintenance or in a surplus. And it's looking at your macronutrient breakdown of are you consuming enough high quality protein? It helps and assists in the rebuild and repair of muscle breakdown. Are we consuming enough of dietary fat? Dietary fat is involved in many bodily processes, primarily and especially hormone production and regulation. And then carbohydrates. Are we consuming enough carbohydrates to fuel our performance,

• 48:39Nick Bare?

  but also replenish the glycogen that we're burning through during exercise, training and life? Glycogen replenishment is absolutely critical when you're in a big training block. You know, me being in a Ironman triathlon training block right now, I'm consuming

• 49:02Nick Bare?

  At the minimum, 700 grams of carbs a day. On some of these days, it's over 1,000 grams a day. And that's to fuel my training, but also to replenish glycogen. And glycogen is the way that the body stores carbohydrates in the muscles and the liver. More of a long-term or longer-term carbohydrate storage

• 49:32Nick Bare?

  compartment or capacity. Uh, keeping glycogen replenished is extremely important. And then just some supplements I have listed here that we offer here at BPN that I believe are essential for

• 49:48Nick Bare?

  maximizing recovery is our multivitamin, strong multivitamin.

• 49:55Nick Bare?

  Ensuring that you have all of your vitamins and minerals covered for a daily basis where you might have gaps in your diet.

• 50:04Nick Bare?

  You know, prioritizing micronutrients, not just macronutrients. Strong Joints is a great product that we have that helps maintain and build joint health.

• 50:19Nick Bare?

  Beneficial for not just endurance athletes and runners, but strength athletes as well. Strong Joints is honestly probably one of my favorite products that we have to offer.

• 50:31Nick Bare?

  More of a low-key sleeper of a product that isn't as sexy, if you will, as G and M Sport Plus or the Go Gels or Go Bar, but Strong Joints is one you don't want to sleep on. Protein Powder, uh, just to help ensure that you get enough protein in your diet outside of having to consume whole natural food sources. Creatine, and then we have an essential amino acid product called Recover, which is very applicable for what we're talking about today. Uh, Recover is EAAs, essential amino acids and BCAAs, branched-chain amino acids,

• 51:15Nick Bare?

  with some other ingredients in there to benefit and optimize your recovery.

• 51:22Nick Bare?

  The last thing I want to talk about in terms of nutrition,

• 51:26Nick Bare?

  which isn't necessarily something to add, but potentially remove or limit and subtract is alcohol. You know, alcohol could be considered the fourth macronutrient. It provides 70, not 70, sorry, 7 calories per gram. Protein is 4 calories per gram. Fat is 9 calories per gram. Carbohydrates, 4 calories per gram. Alcohol is 7 calories per gram.

• 51:59Nick Bare?

  Alcohol has an effect on the body that can delay or inhibit your body's ability to recover, primarily from impacting negatively your sleep.

• 52:14Nick Bare?

  So if you're consuming alcohol, even in a moderate amount, I have at least found that it does negatively, significantly affect recovery. So like right now in this Ironman prep, I'm not consuming any alcohol, if at all, it's, you know, a small glass of wine every 2 to 3 weeks. Uh, we're not big drinkers in our family anyways. It is maybe a drink or 2 with dinner or with friends a week. Uh, of a glass of red or even white wine.

• 52:57Nick Bare?

  But for me in a big prep where there's a lot of demands and stress in my body, it just has no positive. It's only gonna inhibit and hurt my body's ability to recover. Okay, now the fun stuff. Let's talk about sauna and cold plunge.

• 53:16Nick Bare?

  Now, I do the sauna and cold plunge daily.

• 53:21Nick Bare?

  I like to do it either midday or the evening. And the way that I do it, I'll get in the sauna for 15 minutes at about 200 degrees Fahrenheit. And I'll go directly into the cold plunge for three minutes at about 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, I've been doing this consistently throughout this entire prep so far. I'm actually finding that in the beginning of this prep, you know, before that, I've never been really consistent with the cold plunge. I've been consistent with the sauna for a few years now. But I always hated the cold plunge.

• 54:06Nick Bare?

  Now I'm addicted to the cold plunge. Sauna for 15 minutes and then cold plunge for three minutes. That is my daily ritual. That is my go-to. And in the beginning of the prep, getting in the cold plunge was mentally and physically challenging. Now, I itch for it. I can't wait to get in. And the initial shock of getting in that water isn't nearly as bad as it was eight weeks ago. And I actually can relax really well within 15, 20 seconds. And the three minutes goes by so fast.

• 54:49Nick Bare?

  And I think that I could actually start to lower the temperature if I wanted. Because getting in, especially after the sauna, at 45 degrees Fahrenheit, is not hard for me any longer. My body has adapted to the stress that I was providing it. But I love the sauna-cold plunge combination, and I do it daily. I try not to do it too close to workouts.

• 55:20Nick Bare?

  I'll do it when I leave work some days before heading home.

• 55:27Nick Bare?

  But I really like doing it at night. You know, after we eat dinner, put the kids down. And the night's winding down. Sauna and then plunge. Initially, I was afraid the cold plunge would wake me up too much. And stimulate the sympathetic nervous system. But I've actually found that does the opposite. I was listening to a Huberman podcast all about sauna and cold plunging a few days ago. And the guest that he had on the podcast was talking about how cold water immersion, cold plunging, actually activates both the sympathetic

• 56:12Nick Bare?

  and then the parasympathetic nervous systems. And I found that by bringing my body temperature down at night before getting to bed, I actually fall into a deeper sleep much faster. It doesn't keep me up. I'm definitely cold when I get out and I still get into bed, I'm still cold. But I fall asleep so easily when I cold plunge in the evening. So that has been my go to as of recently. That's how I use the sauna and cold plunge. Often, you know, daily, once a day.

• 56:53Nick Bare?

  And the way that the sauna and cold plunge, they both help with recovery is by reducing inflammation. And really, the blood flow benefits you get from hot and cold contrast therapy. Contrast therapy is hot and cold. It's sauna, cold plunge. With the sauna, there's similar effects on the body as a light cardiovascular workout. Your heart rate is elevated, breathing is elevated. You start sweating. I mean, you can get your heart rate up to, when I look at my watch sometimes at the peak of that session,

• 57:35Nick Bare?

  it might be 100, 110, sometimes 120 beats per minute, depending on how hot it gets.

• 57:45Nick Bare?

  When you're in the sauna and it starts getting warm, your blood vessels widen, your heart rate increases, and blood circulates more efficiently. That blood flow is going to help promote recovery. You'll see a common denominator and theme with a lot of these recovery devices and protocols that I'm recommending and that I incorporate. It's all about blood flow and circulation. Now, the cold plunge obviously does the opposite. It's vasoconstriction, but it also increases circulation.

• 58:23Nick Bare?

  So when I go from getting in the sauna, it's hot, blood vessels open up, blood starts pumping. Then I jump right into the cold and the blood vessels tighten up. They constrict and they're not pumping as much. And then when I get out of the cold and they open back up, there's more circulation going around. Cold plunge can actually help reduce DOMS, too. DOMS is delayed onset muscle soreness. I experienced this often. I experienced it this morning and you might be able to relate. So after a big workout, the day afterwards,

• 59:08Nick Bare?

  I oftentimes don't feel that trashed or fatigued. But two days afterwards, I feel worse than the previous day. That's delayed onset muscle soreness. So Monday, I had a five-hour workout. Tuesday, which was yesterday, I actually didn't feel that bad. Central nervous system wise, I felt taxed, but muscles felt okay, like my run felt great in the morning. Today, being Wednesday, two days post-big workout, central nervous system felt pretty good. Muscles felt more fatigued.

• 59:46Nick Bare?

  But cold plunging can help reduce DOMS. Uh, there's also an enhanced mental recovery aspect that comes with cold plunging.

• 59:57Nick Bare?

  And, and something that I want to point out that I heard on that same Andrew Huberman podcast in regards to the cold plunge that I found very interesting that I wanted to share. Uh, there's this thing called the after drop. When you get out of the cold plunge, which I found extremely interesting. And after hearing this, I then went cold plunged and

• 1:00:23Nick Bare?

  witnessed what they were describing, I experienced it. The after drop is when your core body temperature continues to drop even after getting out of the cold water. Because blood flow starts to recirculate. So the way that Huberman and his guest described the after drop on their episode is that when you get into cold water,

• 1:00:50Nick Bare?

  all of your blood vessels, they constrict. And then when you get out and your body starts naturally warming up on its own again, because you always want to end on the cold when you're doing contrast therapy. So if you start with the sauna, you can go sauna, cold plunge, sauna, cold plunge. You want to end with the cold plunge, you don't want to end with the sauna. Allow your body temperature to come back to baseline on its own. When you get out of the cold and your blood vessels were constricted, as they start to warm up again and open up, that blood starts recirculating and it goes to your extremities that are colder.

• 1:01:33Nick Bare?

  And then when it recirculates, it's bringing cold blood back in, which can cause uh, your core body temperature to decrease more than it was while you were in the water, which I found very interesting. But overall, contrast therapy, the sauna and the cold plunge, they both have great benefits on their own. But together, really powerful in terms of blood circulation.

• 1:02:01Nick Bare?

  And optimizing the recovery by getting more movement, more circulation, more blood flow, more oxygen going to the damaged muscles that need recovered, that need repaired. So it's part of my daily recovery protocol right now. The next thing that I want to talk about is red light therapy.

• 1:02:28Nick Bare?

  A few years ago, I had a red light panel at my house and I would use it, but I used it

• 1:02:37Nick Bare?

  infrequently and I would only ever do it at night. But what I found by using a red light for, uh, for recovery purposes. I remember a few years ago when I was doing it.

• 1:02:51Nick Bare?

  I would do 10 to 15 minute sessions before going to bed. And I could always tell it helped me fall asleep faster and better. And then I stopped using the panels for a while, ended up getting rid of them. And about two weeks ago, as I was doing more research, I decided to invest in a red light panel again. So we have a big full-size body panel in our closet. We went with this brand called Mitro Red Light. Red light therapy, also known as photobiomodulation.

• 1:03:33Nick Bare?

  It's not just red light bulbs. It is specific light wavelengths that benefit the body in very unique and specific ways.

• 1:03:49Nick Bare?

  Now, we know that light plays a vital role in our health and in today's day and age, we get less of it than we ever had before.

• 1:04:01Nick Bare?

  We are, for most people, working indoors, under fluorescent, artificial light. We're not outdoors.

• 1:04:13Nick Bare?

  And it significantly influences so many aspects of our life. Our energy, our mood, our sleep, our circadian rhythm.

• 1:04:27Nick Bare?

  So you don't have to by any means invest in red light therapy.

• 1:04:33Nick Bare?

  You can get all this for free by spending more time outdoors in the sun.

• 1:04:40Nick Bare?

  You can get all these benefits by just being in the sun.

• 1:04:45Nick Bare?

  You know, one of the things that everyone always tells you is one of the best ways to wake up. Wake up, go outside right away, let that sunlight just hit your body. Stand in your grass, barefoot.

• 1:05:00Nick Bare?

  Ground yourself and then you soak in some natural sunlight. And that will do exactly what this red light therapy can do. Now for me, most days I wake up before the sun rises.

• 1:05:18Nick Bare?

  And when I get to the point where I'm sleepy and consistently until 6:00 AM. Most likely my kids are waking up shortly after me and the day gets started. So I've invested in red light therapy.

• 1:05:34Nick Bare?

  Because it is a convenience for me, in all honesty. It can be used for increased cellular energy. And the way it does this by stimulating mitochondrial energy production. So energy at the cellular level. Increased blood flow, reduce inflammation, better sleep, which I can attest to. And the way it helps with better sleep is it actually produces naturally. Melatonin that has a positive effect on your circadian rhythm.

• 1:06:11Nick Bare?

  Now this red light therapy, I said it's not just red light bulbs. So if you've never seen red light panels or panel at home, it's probably.

• 1:06:25Nick Bare?

  Five feet tall, two feet wide, it's on this stand. And I do it right now, uh, 10 to 20 minute sessions as soon as I wake up. And I'll do about a 10 minute session before I go to sleep. So what I get from it personally so far, and it's only been a few weeks. I have found that right when I wake up, I go into my closet and I do a 10 to 20 minute session. I just stand butt naked in front of the red light panel. I can feel myself waking up significantly faster while I'm standing in front of this, this red light panel.

• 1:07:08Nick Bare?

  I'm, I'm dead serious. I can feel myself waking up. And then during my morning run, I feel more natural energy. And throughout the day, I feel since using the red light panel in the morning significantly better. My mood is better, my energy is better. I'm not grabbing for coffee or caffeine or an energy drink.

• 1:07:33Nick Bare?

  No lie, I, I have experienced, uh, significant benefits from using it right when I wake up. And then I will do another 10 minute session at night, right before getting into bed. And I have found that it really helps me fall into that sleep a whole lot faster and easier. So I, I do it in the morning right now and at night. There's some days where it just doesn't work out, but I'm trying to do it every morning, every night.

• 1:08:04Nick Bare?

  Now, as I said, these red light panels are not just red light bulbs. It's two specific types of light. It is red light and it is near infrared light. And what makes these two lights very unique is the wavelength and it's measured in nanometers. So red light is six to 700 nanometers, uh, based off this panel that I have. Near infrared light is 700 to 1200 nanometers. And it's the, then the, the wavelength of these lights that allow it to penetrate.

• 1:08:49Nick Bare?

  Beyond the skin to activate energy at the cellular level. Also to help naturally produce melatonin.

• 1:09:00Nick Bare?

  What makes it different from the sunlight, for example, is with the sun, you're also getting UV light. Which is why you get a sunburn and you have to wear sunscreen when you're in the light for extended periods of time. There's no UV light.

• 1:09:16Nick Bare?

  Primarily coming from these red light panels. It is, it is red light and near infrared light. And what makes a difference? Like I said, is the wavelength of the light.

• 1:09:27Nick Bare?

  Now, if you do it in the morning, as I've already mentioned, immediately after waking up, it simulates natural light. It helps you wake up by regulating your circadian rhythm, signaling that it's time to be alert and supports your body's internal clock for a productive day. In the evening, right before bed, it produces a warm, calming effect from the wavelengths that signal to your brain that it's nighttime, promoting the production of melatonin, which is the sleep hormone.

• 1:10:01Nick Bare?

  You can't stand in front of a red light, one of these red light panels, with clothes on because it won't go past your clothes. So it has to go directly on the skin, which is one of the reasons I'm naked in front of this full-length, full-body panel. But I'm a, I'm a big fan of red light therapy for, you know, as long as I've been doing it. And as I've mentioned, if you don't want to invest in a red light panel, you can just spend more time in the sun. And that also will help regulate your circadian rhythm. It'll help you wake up and also help you sleep better. And then some of the other devices that we keep in our house,

• 1:10:47Nick Bare?

  these are from Hyperice. We have the Normatec compression boots. And then the Hyperice massage gun. So I use the compression boots when I'm laying in bed at night. I do a 30-minute session. It's like, I just want to paint a picture for what my night looks like.

• 1:11:07Nick Bare?

  Typically, it's like get the kids down to sleep, get everything prepped for the next day, do my sauna and cold plunge session, get a shower, stand in front of the red light panel, get into bed, I have my blue light blocking glasses on, I'm reading my Bible, I have the compression boots on, and I'm preparing to just wind down after taking my peak sleep, and then, once the compression boot session is done, put my book down, put my sleep mask on, my eight sleep is rocking and rolling, and I'm falling asleep.

• 1:11:47Nick Bare?

  Compression boots enhance muscle recovery by using rhythmic air pressure control to improve circulation, flush metabolic waste like lactic acid from muscles, and reduce swelling and inflammation. The blood and lymphatic fluid flow from the compression boots delivers more oxygen and nutrients to damaged tissue, speeding up the repair process and alleviating soreness. Like I said, I like to do it at night as I'm laying in bed while I'm reading before calling it a night. And then, the Hyper Rice Massage Gun, it works similar to compression boots, but the percussive

• 1:12:30Nick Bare?

  pulses allow for a more targeted application to specific muscles. So, I use a massage gun specifically in the morning before I go run. So, when I go into the garage, put my running shoes on, I do some stretches, and then I hit my quads, my hamstrings, and my calves with the massage gun. And I can tell a big difference from when I use a massage gun versus when I don't, just from the first quarter mile.

• 1:13:07Nick Bare?

  I feel fresher, my legs feel better, not as just cinder blocky, tight, heavy. That's when I use massage gun, it's primarily on my lower body, quads, hamstrings, and calves, every morning before my run.

• 1:13:34Nick Bare?

  And the last thing I want to talk about, which is certainly not the least important, but might be harder for some people to build in in access. Now, I am very grateful. Here at BPN, every Tuesday, we have Dr. Jordan Tittle from Helix Sports Medicine, who's at BPN all day Tuesday, working on our team. And he provides soft tissue work, cupping, scraping, chiropractic, dry needling.

• 1:14:15Nick Bare?

  This brings our team back to life. And especially for me,

• 1:14:21Nick Bare?

  when I'm in a big prep, it brings me back to life. I have a one-hour session with him once a week. He's a PT. And,

• 1:14:31Nick Bare?

  you know, things that are either bothering me, we'll do some preventative maintenance, but then we'll be more proactive, working on on things that are bothering me. A few weeks ago, I had a calf strain that was bothering me, and he did a lot of work on my calf. He did some scraping, he did some cupping, some soft tissue work. And after a few sessions, it felt significantly better.

• 1:14:57Nick Bare?

  This might be one of the bigger investments in times of financial resources and time, but I believe has the maybe greatest return. You know, working with a PT. I do it once a week.

• 1:15:17Nick Bare?

  And it makes the biggest difference in my performance, in my recovery, especially staying on top of injuries that I'm experiencing or working through.

• 1:15:31Nick Bare?

  But I would put that maybe at the top of my list, even though I listed it last, physical therapy work.

• 1:15:40Nick Bare?

  Man, sometimes I'm like, I don't know what I'd do without Dr. Jordan Tittle because he keeps me alive and well, especially when training volume is a 20 to 20 plus hours per week.

• 1:15:56Nick Bare?

  But I love some PT work.

• 1:15:59Nick Bare?

  I love it and highly recommend it. So those are my recovery practices and protocols that I'm incorporating regularly, not necessarily every day. A lot of these things, most of these things are every day built into my routine to stay on top of recovery.

• 1:16:23Nick Bare?

  And promote prevention, but also, you know, being proactive on things that hurt, things that don't feel right.

• 1:16:36Nick Bare?

  You know, really balancing out that sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. So I hope this is beneficial. Really hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Uh, but as I'm getting older, I take recovery more serious. Not necessarily because I want to, but because I have to. And this is what I do. So thank you, guys. I appreciate you. I love you and we'll see you in the next episode.