Wellness Wednesday – Maximize Your Ability to Recharge Your Body
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By Destiny Clarkson
Have you ever been in a situation where your phone is about to die and you’re not sure you’ll get your hands on a phone charger anytime soon? It’s kind of stressful, right? You start becoming more strategic on how and why you use your phone. You put it in battery-saver mode, you close your open apps, and you start thinking how you should’ve been smarter about preserving your battery. Now, I want you to imagine your body is like your phone.
When you’re feeling great and stress-free in all aspects of your life, your “body battery” is at or close to 100 per cent. When you encounter different variations and levels of stress (could be physical, mental, or emotional) your body battery goes down.
Acute stress is not a bad thing. But you can run into problems when your body battery gets low, doesn’t get a chance to recharge, and that acute stress turns into chronic stress. That would be like trying to operate all the apps on your phone all day but you woke up and your phone was only at 50 per cent.
The goal of this article is to provide you with strategies to:
- Keep your body battery as high as possible at all times
- Recharge your body battery faster when you do experience high levels of stress
The goal is NOT to eliminate stress. Stress is unavoidable, but by creating a blueprint around four “charging cables” (breathing, sleep, nutrition, and fitness), you can be a little more in control of how much stress impacts your body battery.
Breathing
We often take breathing for granted because we do it all the time. We don’t have to think about it, we just breathe.
An air tank is part of your standard equipment as a firefighter, and you’ve likely been trained in specific breathing techniques, such as skip breathing or box breathing, to consume oxygen more efficiently.
Box breathing is an effective and simple strategy to help you regulate your nervous system. Inhale for four seconds, hold it for four seconds, exhale for four seconds, then hold for four seconds. Then repeat the pattern over and over.
You can also use different yoga breathing techniques, such as the breath of fire. To do this, inhale through your nose for a count of five while placing your hand on your stomach so you can feel it rise. As soon as you finish inhaling, exhale forcefully through your nose, engaging your abdominals. Make sure your inhale and exhale are the same length, even though they are done with different amounts of force. Repeat this 10 times quickly.
Think about those moments where that fight-or-flight mode really kicks in. This could be when the tones first drop, when you’re in the truck heading to a fire, or when you actually enter a burning building. This is when intentionally trying to slow your breathing can make the biggest impact. Having a mindset that YOU are in control of your breathing, NOT your circumstances, is a powerful mindset that can be practiced and improved over time.
I also want you to think about getting back to the station after a traumatic incident, or pulling into your driveway after a really tough shift. These are perfect opportunities to take three to five minutes to simply sit in silence, focus on slowing your breathing, and essentially resetting your system. Something like this doesn’t have to look like a structured, guided meditation session, but simply practicing intentional mindfulness with breathing will make a huge difference physiologically and psychologically.
Sleep
Sleep deprivation comes with firefighting, so it can be easy to dismiss sleep and fall into the “‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead” mindset.
Like breathing, we take sleep for granted sometimes. Yet, prioritizing sleep can make a monumental impact on our health and performance. Now, I get it. You’re not going to get eight hours of sleep if you work at a busy station, or if you’ve got a newborn at home, so I’m not going to suggest that because it might be unrealistic. However, even in situations like these, there are strategies that can improve the quality of your sleep. You can even adapt them to your on-shift/off-shift sleep habits.
A few examples to help manage your circadian rhythm are investing in a sleep mask, blackout curtains, and/or blue-light blocking glasses. And if you feel sleep deprived, you can always take a nap.
Lastly, and probably the most important, is to develop a nighttime routine and stick to it. Going to bed at a consistent time every night, whether you’re on shift or off shift, is critical for improved sleep quality. The main theme here is control what you can control, prioritize consistency, and your sleep quality will improve.
Nutrition
You probably already know you should avoid eating a lot of fast food, and eat more fruits and vegetables.
Like sleep, consistency is the most important aspect of a strong nutrition plan. This applies to the food you fuel yourself with, and also how you hydrate yourself. I always tell our firefighters to treat hydration like a 24/7 job. You should make a consistent effort to stay ahead of your hydration because once you fall behind and start to feel the effects of dehydration, it’s harder to play catch up.
Also, think about how nutrition affects the other charging cables. For example, poor dietary habits will limit your ability to make progress in your physical training, essentially draining your fitness. Additionally, consuming caffeine and alcohol in excess will affect the quality of your sleep. I won’t tell you to avoid caffeine, alcohol, sugar, fats, or anything like that completely; just be mindful of what you consume, how much you consume, and how that will impact your ability to recharge.
Fitness
Unless breathing, sleep, and nutrition are prioritized, you will severely limit the ROI you can get from your physical training.
It’s critical to have self-awareness when you’re struggling or thriving in each of these four pillars. When one cable is extra drained, lean into the other cables that are still operating at a high level.
For example, if you slept badly a couple of nights in a row, take some time to mindfully focus on breathing, make sure your nutrition is dialed in with healthy, sustaining meals, and take 30-45 minutes to exercise.
Your ability to recognize the state of each pillar and addressing the suffering one(s) with intentional strategies you can control will help you recharge faster and limit negative effects of chronic stress. Apply these strategies, and you will be able to keep that body battery high and recharge faster when it gets low.
Destiny Clarkson is a strength and conditioning coach
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