GoodFriday: On the best exercise, unpleasant truth, & hydration

Happy GoodFriday!  

Here’s something I heard, thought, and did this week.

Something I Heard: Alchemical Axiom

“In sterquiliniis invenitur.” Translation: “In filth it will be found.”

This early alchemical axiom reminds us that what we most need; wisdom, growth, or a deeper understanding of ourselves, is often discovered in the very places we least want to go: the unpleasant, the disturbing, the parts of life we’d rather avoid.

It’s not about learning to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. It’s about being brave enough to face what you fear most. In that space, you won’t find comfort, you’ll find courage.

Something I Thought: The Best Exercise for You.

There may be an exercise that, on paper, seems like a highly stimulating movement, but when you actually try it, you don’t feel like it works much. In that scenario, it’s okay to try something else instead of forcing that lift just because you’ve heard it’s supposed to be good. I’d rather be doing something that I feel a lot from, can hit consistently, and progressively overload, than doing something someone else swears by but I don’t respond well to. Figure out what works best for you, then do it consistently, and then overload it. That’s how growth is made.

Something I’m Doing: Hydrating to Improve Recovery

I’ve had my WHOOP for about a month now and I’ve been on a mission lately to improve my recovery scores. One of. the things that I noticed about the WHOOP band is that it seems to favor HRV heavily when scoring recovery. Since I’ve become aware of this I’ve tried just about everything in my power to get this number to a consistent place, instead of looking like a Richter scale. Such things have included NSDR, cutting back on screen time, breath work, stretching, etc. All of those techniques are supposed to help, but for me, nothing seemed to move the needle in a consistent way.

Then on Monday something interesting happened. After a brutal leg day, I was insanely thirsty and decided to hammer down water. I drank a ton right after training and kept sipping throughout the day. The next morning, I woke up to a huge bump in both HRV and recovery.

At first I thought it might’ve been a fluke. So I tried it again Tuesday… same result. On Wednesday, I decided to really put this theory to the test. I was going to pound water throughout the day to see if, yet again, there’d be an improvement. Sure enough, my numbers jumped.

Here’s how the week played out:

• HRV: 89ms → 109ms → 122ms → 123ms

• Recovery: 57% → 85% → 95% → 86%

Turns out the thing I was overlooking might be the simplest of all: staying hydrated. Now, I don’t know exactly how much water is required to make these improvements. That answer will come over the next few days. But man, it’s crazy to see how massive the improvements in my recovery have been just from staying hydrated.

Let this be a friendly reminder: stay hydrated my friends.

Until next week!

-Cameron Harn