The sunny allure of summer brings with it longer days, outdoor workouts, and, for many parents, the delightful (yet often hectic) presence of children enjoying their summer break. As you juggle work, childcare, and athletic pursuits, it might seem nearly impossible to prioritise rest and recovery. Added to that, the allure of a warm summer evening and looming race start lines can often be irresistible when it comes to adding in an extra cheeky training session…However, integrating this essential component into your schedule is vital – after all, it’s not the workout where the magic happens, it’s during the rest and recovery that the adaptations happen! So, how are we going to integrate the essential art of recovery into a household where you often struggle to grab five minutes by yourself in the bathroom…?
1. The Art of ‘Micro-recovery’
Don’t have an hour? What do you have?! While long periods of good quality rest are the best, that’s not realistic. But you can still find some psychological and minor physical benefits such as lowered heart rate and blood pressure, decreased anxiety and overwhelm and increased focus from practicing just 5-10 minutes of focused deep breathing, stretching, or meditation. Something is definitely better than nothing when it comes to recovery.
2. Active Rest with the Family
Of course, not all recovery needs to be sitting still alone in a cold dark room. Active recovery is a great opportunity to incorporate family activities into your day and benefit from the mental and physical benefits of light activity. Transform recovery into a family activity:
- Nature Walks: Take the family out to explore local woodlands, beaches or other countryside – this really can be fun in any weather!
- Swimming: Take the opportunity to visit the local “float fun” at a nearby pool and take a break from the usual regimented clock-dictated lane session to enjoy some really low-impact movement with the family.
- Bike Rides: A slower-paced ride without your Garmin can be a fantastic opportunity to get your kids involved in sport and keep your pace down to a slow minimum to force you to take a break from proper training!
3. Prioritise Sleep
Depending on the age of your kids, this may be super easy or super hard! Younger children will naturally tend to be early risers while teenagers reap the benefits of long lie-ins for brain development. With younger children, you can try syncing your bed times and wake up times with them if feasible, or taking naps when they nap during the day. Although their nap time can also just be a great opportunity for you to sit and do nothing – just rest even if you can’t sleep! Whatever your sleep challenges are remember the golden rules of sleep:
- No screens for at least an hour before bed: Make bedrooms and living rooms “phone free zones” to avoid the harsh wake up signal of blue light from screens and overwhelming your mind with useless doom scrolling “information”.
- Watch your drinks: Caffeine and alcohol can be big no-nos for a lot of us when it comes to getting good quality sleep. Watch how your sleep quality changes in response to caffeine or alcohol later int the day and try and to avoid it where possible to help you naturally unwind for a restful night.
- Avoid late night snacking: When the body is heading into rest mode, the last thing it needs is a belly full of food – especially junk food! Try brushing your teeth an hour before bed time to avoid the temptation of boredom snacking later into the evening, which can hinder your body’s ability to “shut down” and sleep properly.
- Keep rooms cool and dark: Open windows and use blackout blinds where required to make sure you have a nice cool sleep environment to head off to with no artificial light glaring in. Sleep masks can also be a saviour here.
4. Meal Prep for Nutritional Recovery
Always always always make enough for leftovers! Nutrition is as important as physically allowing the body to recovery so making sure you have good quality post-workout food available is paramount. When you’re making big batches of nourishing food for the family, put a small portion aside for yourself to have as a post-workout recovery snack or larger portions for instant recovery food when you won’t have time to cook anything more substantial.
5. Delegate and Share Responsibilities
Remember that the summer holidays are not all about kids getting exactly what they want! They are an opportunity to teach about the importance of getting chores done and sharing responsibilities. You could even consider setting up a “pay schedule” with a list of chores and “wages” as a way for kids to earn their pocket money over the summer! This avoids any one person being overloaded with chores and makes sure everyone gets the opportunity for a little more down time instead of you simply being swamped by all the extra washing and cleaning involved with having smaller humans at home…
6. Set Clear Boundaries
It’s okay to communicate to your children that you need some time alone or that there is going to be half an hour of “quiet time”. This helps kids build independence and also consider having their own “me time”, a vital skill in adult life and a period of down time they might now know they needed! Being stimulated and entertained constantly, isn’t good for anybody, adult or child and can lead to burnout and overwhelm in many senses. So you’re actually doing your kids a favour when you tell them they need to entertain themselves quietly for a short period of time.
Ultimately, it’s easy to get caught up into the messaging that kids need to be constantly entertained and that the six weeks of summer needs to be all about them. But this is simply not the case. You do yourself AND them a favour when you set a precedent for down time. The summer holidays are drawing to a close, but there are strategies here we could all use and employ for the final weeks…and actually, during term time when things go back to normal! Avoid the parent guilt feelings and remember that the example you set now, is what your kids will come to expect of themselves as adults.