10 Strong
Commandment 2
RECOVER
“Men Over 40: You Don’t Grow in the Gym—You Grow in Recovery.”
Muscle is built while you rest, not while you train—and recovery is the secret weapon most men over 40 ignore.
Learn The Basics
Why Recovery is the Real Growth Phase
Training is the spark. Recovery is the fire.
When you lift weights, run, or push your body, you break down muscle fibers. That’s good—it’s how you signal your body to adapt. But the actual rebuilding—the stronger, leaner, more powerful version of you—happens after the workout while you rest and recover.
If you keep breaking your body down without giving it the tools and time to rebuild, you’re just digging a deeper hole. Over time, that leads to stalled progress, chronic fatigue, low testosterone, and even injury.
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Sleep: The Master Recovery Tool
The most powerful recovery tool you have isn’t in the gym—it’s in your bedroom.
Science shows that adults need 7–9 hours of quality sleep each night for optimal health. For men over 40, the lower end isn’t enough if you’re training hard—8 hours should be the target.
Why? Because deep, restorative sleep:
• Boosts testosterone & growth hormone (key for muscle growth and fat loss)
• Improves metabolism & insulin sensitivity
• Enhances muscle repair & recovery
• Reduces inflammation so joints and tissues heal faster
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The Enemy of Deep Sleep: Light & Electronics
Your body’s sleep cycle runs on a natural rhythm called the circadian rhythm—and blue light from phones, tablets, TVs, and computers tells your brain it’s still daytime.
That means melatonin (your sleep hormone) is delayed, your REM and deep sleep are cut short, and you wake up feeling groggy even after “8 hours” in bed.
Sleep comes in stages:
1. Light Sleep – Your brain starts to slow down, body relaxes
2. Deep Sleep – Physical restoration, muscle repair, immune system boost
3. REM Sleep – Memory consolidation, creativity, mental recovery
Miss deep sleep and REM, and you miss out on the real benefits.
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The 10 Strong Way: Progress Over Perfection
Recovery isn’t about being lazy—it’s about being strategic. You train hard so you can recover well… and you recover well so you can train harder next time.
