3 Things CrossFit Masters Need To Do For Better Recovery

Keep Up Your Fitness
in Your 30's, 40's, 50's & Beyond

If we’re training hard, eating well, and have a great night cream, we might look like the younger athletes at our gyms. But we Masters Athletes are different.

Younger athletes can get away with only thinking about recovery in the hour after training - cool down, stretch, and slam some protein. That's a good start.

But to get all the benefits from your training, you need to think differently! Think about your recovery in days, not hours to maximize your current fitness and your fitness longevity.

As we age, our muscles, joints, energy & nervous systems all become less efficient at responding to training stress and rebuilding fitter & stronger. We need more time, energy, and resources for recovery. 

But you can manage your recovery, maintain and improve your fitness as a Masters Athlete - and keep up with the 20-somethings in your class.

Here are the 3 most important things you can do to improve your recovery:

Recovery is Foundational For Your Fitness.

1. Sleep. It is Your Most Important Recovery Tool.

Sleep is not dead time. It's when your body gets busy healing and recovering.

The majority of growth hormone production happens during deep sleep, so it’s vital to your fitness gains and recovery that you protect this time and make sure that you get adequate amounts of good quality deep sleep each night. 

Learning and skill work also get consolidated and turned into movement patterns in your brain while you are sleeping.

In short, better sleep translates to:
• Bigger gains from your training
• Faster recovery
• More energy and motivation
• Better hormone regulation & improved mood

Sleep is as foundational to your fitness as nutrition and exercise. It should be prioritized, tracked, planned for, and supported with the same level of importance.

All athletes benefit from getting better at sleep. But sleep quality and efficiency naturally decline with age. So to keep training hard, Masters Athletes need to plan for high quality sleep in sufficient amounts, especially after challenging training days. 

Prioritize Sleep.
It's when training gains happen.

2. Stop Training Like a Dummy. 

We get it. You’re fit. And you’re not going to let some young 20-something beat you at your sport that you’ve been training at longer and harder.

But if you go in everyday and throw down 100% effort to stay top-of-the-class, you’re charging towards a cliff with burn out and injury waiting for you over the edge.

If you’re following a generic program – like the one your box posts everyday – it’s up to you to track your intensity to make sure you are not training beyond your ability to recover.

Your programming should be set up with you in mind:
• Keep your perceived exertion below 70% a couple of days a week;
• Take at least 1-2 real rest days per week; and
• Don’t work the same muscle groups intensely 2 days in a row.

Listen To What Your Body Needs.
Prioritize Balance Between Your Training And Recovery.

3. Use Supplements.

Aging means your body becomes less efficient at making the things that it needs to build and maintain your muscles, joints, hormones, brain chemistry, and other tissues and systems. 

For Masters Athletes these changes mean supplements have an even greater beneficial effect.

There is sometimes a resistance to taking supplements because we want to be ‘natural’ but we simply cannot get everything we need to support our training even from a healthy diet.

A great example of this is collagen. Collagen production declines starting in our 20’s, meaning less material to support joint and tissue maintenance and repair. Collagen supplementation can help make up for your bodies’ declining production, allowing you to maintain healthy tissues longer!

Thirdzy products have everything you need for optimal sleep and recovery, including collagen.

 The benefits of supplementation increase with age.

Is there an adult who hasn’t
wished for better sleep? 

The whole idea behind Thirdzy is that you can get more out of the sleep that you’re getting.

You shouldn’t have to sleep 12 hours a night to keep up with your training and life demands.

You should be able to get more quality out of the hours that you spend in bed so that you can wake up feeling your best. That’s why our founders, Dr. Justine & Adam, originally created our first product – PM Recovery Collagen – to help fitness athletes support the quality of their most critical repair and recovery time – sleep.

While other companies sell products aimed at knocking you out, we’re focused on supporting the active processes that your body should be doing while you sleep.

Feeling good in the morning is a product of your body doing things while you’re sleeping, not being shut down. Good sleep quality is an active fitness process.

The key is better sleep – not just more.

Thirdzy is obsessed with performance – Your performance. You should be able to have great quality deep sleep, REM sleep, and muscles and joint recovery EVERY NIGHT.

“Tastes great - similar to BCAAs and way better than other collagen drinks. More importantly, when I drink it before bed my recovery scores have been consistently higher than when I didn't and I've gotten way more deep sleep according to my Whoop. Definitely a keeper for my sleep and recovery routine!”
- Mark (Santa Barbara, CA)

At Thirdzy, we want you to catch all the Z’s you can.
Our products help to support efficient, great quality sleep & recovery. 

Available exclusively on our website, Thirdzy products are safe, natural all-in-one sleep and recovery performance supplements:

PM Recovery Collagen – Helps you get the most out of the hours you spend in bed. It gives your brain and body the nutrients you need for efficient sleep cycles and muscle & joint repair.

Our co-founder and sleep expert, Dr Justine, spent years working with patients and athletes around the world.

Across 3 continents and thousands of patients, one common thread was sleep challenges.

Even fit patients and those with healthy diet and exercise habits, often struggled with poor sleep quality.

A few years ago 3 things happened that made sleep the puzzle she had to solve:
1. Elbow and shoulder overuse injuries ended the hands-on part of her clinical practice,
2. She and her partner Adam (our other co-founder) got their first wearable sleep trackers,
3. Adam’s father passed away.

Confronted with the reminder of how precious and finite our lives are amid a major setback in her career - she was stressed, burnt out, and now had the objective data from her Whoop to show her that her sleep was terrible - even though she was getting a lot of it!

Adam and Justine recognized that despite being really focused on their fitness, they had been neglecting their sleep.

Much of their sleep time was poor quality and they were under recovering.

They were expecting the one-third of their lives spent sleeping to just be great by itself – and it wasn’t.

So they poured themselves into research and self-experimentation. They tried countless nootropics, nutrients, herbs, and techniques to get better at sleep. Not just more sleep – better quality sleep, with better recovery stats.

The result is Thirdzy.

Our PM Recovery Collagen (Dr J's brain child) is a real innovation. A functional sleep & recovery supplement. A tool for active people to have effective, active sleep processes. Not a sedative or a knock-out punch.

Our dedication to sleep performance is helping fitness athletes across North America to wake up every day with better recovery, more energy, and more motivation for their training.

What Other Masters Athletes are Saying About Thirdzy 

“What I noticed right away was the immediate down regulation of my nervous system. I felt like 30 mins after taking it, my body was calming down and more relaxed. I’m definitely dreaming more. What I like so far is the state of calmness I feel because it allows me to fall asleep faster. I’m still waking up a few times during the night but I know I’m getting restful sleep because I wake up feeling great.

 I’m super grateful for you for sending this to me to try and I'm excited to continue using it and reaping the recovery benefits!! 🙏🏼🙏🏼”
- Mandi Janowitz  (Crossfit Games Athlete)

Try our PM Recovery Collagen to get your strongest sleep! 

All Thirdzy products are made with fitness athletes in mind.

We care about making our products safe and natural so they compliment your healthy lifestyle. That’s why we use only natural ingredients and put no sugar, chemicals, or artificial fillers, colors or flavors in our products.

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