I had a great time at the Learn To Train 10 Weekend at the Elitefts compound this past weekend. What was really fun was seeing the surprised look on peoples faces when I told them I turned 49 the other day. A lot of attendees and even some of my Elitefts teammates found that surprising. Luckily they all thought I was quite a bit younger rather than older.

As a result, a lot of people asked me how I dealt with training at this age. They were curious if I reduced my training days, and or training volume. I proudly told them I actually train more now than ever and at the same intensity if not greater. That certainly piqued their curiosity causing them to ask how I recovered so well.

Now I certainly cannot discount the role nutrition plays in my recovery. However, I do not think it's the most important aspect. The most important recovery tool I use without any doubt is sleep. I can say this because years ago when I had undiagnosed sleep apnea, my recovery was garbage and back then at 328 lbs, nutrition was far from a priority. There were times when a lack of sleep caused me to cut my training down to two days a week.

Once I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and was put on a cpap machine, I started to make much better strides in recovery. Over the course of a few months I was able to increase the number of sessions I was training each week and my strength started to improve greatly. That always resonated with me.

Think about it, when you have a crappy night's sleep, your performance in the gym probably suffers. Now multiply that out if your sleep habits suck on a regular basis. If that anecdotal evidence isn't enough, just google the importance of sleep especially for an athlete. There's enough information to keep you reading for hours. But you don't need that, most people KNOW sleep is important. They just choose to overlook it.

Why do people overlook it? Becuase it's not sexy. You can't Instagram or tweet about it. It's not some shiny new toy or book that you can buy. Although, maybe I can trademark it like the guy from xfit basically trademarked exercising. Hmmm, I'll have to look into that.

Anyway, prioritize sleep and you will feel better and perform better. When the people at the sleep study clinic read the sd card from my cpap they always remark how they've never seen anyone who consistently sleeps as well as I do. That reminds me, invest in a great mattress. If you are doing it right, you'll spend a good third of your life on it. It's worth the money. I have a sleep number bed and highly recommend it. It's amazing.

There you go, the most underrated and overlooked recovery method by far is SLEEP. Start getting more and you'll be amazed at the results.