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How to Recover for Better Performance with Miesha Tate

Miesha Tate is an American mixed martial artist and submission grappler who competes in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and is a former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion. She has also won a silver medal in the FILA Grappling Championships.

Outside of MMA, Tate has modeled for numerous websites and publications, including ESPN The Magazine and Fitness Gurls. In 2015, Tate was announced as a cast member in the feature film Fight Valley. Her fighting style, which focused on wrestling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, has earned praise from multiple peers and media outlets.

After retiring in 2016, Tate is returning to Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) this year.


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How can you use recovery not only to bounce back but bounce forward?

There’s a formula to success: Reaching, recovering, and repeating. A lot of times, the focus is on the first and third steps. But recovery is a vital piece when it comes to achieving your goals.

Today, we’re back with UFC Champion Miesha Tate to talk about the importance of how to use recovery to prepare for your next steps.

Last week, we focused on how to reach your goals by building the mindset for resilience and mental toughness. If you missed that episode, you can listen, here.

No matter what your goal, you need to make time to recover. Listen in, as we talk about what questions you should ask yourself to help choose the best path of recovery.

"Take small pieces of your day and dedicate those moments to slowing down. Allow yourself recovery time, even if it’s just improving your state of mind."

MIESHA TATE

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Less Is More

  • People in general—and fighters in particular—believe more is more.
  • The harder you go, the harder you train, the stronger and better you’ll be.
  • But constantly working or training 24/7 is not realistic.
  • All you’ll end up doing is feeling like you’re burning the candle at both ends.
  • When you work and train hard, you have to slow down and evaluate where you need to recover.
  • For Miesha, she was pushing her body and mental health too hard.
  • She felt like she was just digging a hole, making things worse.
  • She simply lacked the knowledge and awareness of how important recovery is.
  • You have to slow down, sometimes even stop, if you want to move forward again.
  • Most people overlook recovery or think it’s just for athletes.
  • But recovery is necessary to improve your quality of life no matter what you do.
  • If you have the opportunity to take care of yourself, always take it.
  • This doesn’t mean you need to spend money.
  • Focus on developing the mindset of putting recovery first by dedicating moments in your day to slowing down.
  • Even taking time to improve your state of mind is putting recovery first.
  • Slowing down will actually speed you up.

The Power Of Recovery

  • There are mental and cognitive benefits to recovery.
  • The brain isn’t always looked at as closely as other organs.
  • If you have problems with your heart, doctors and health care professionals focus all their attention on your heart.
  • But if you struggle with your mental health, doctors and health care professionals may not necessarily look at your brain.
  • That’s why understanding how to take care of your brain health is crucial to not just reaching your goals but your overall health.
  • Both Jim and Miesha talked about the benefits of using a hyperbaric chamber to aid in their recovery.
  • But that’s just one example. You can do breathing exercises and meditation.
  • The important thing is finding habits that help you stay dedicated, consistent, and focused on how important recovery is.
  • Schedule recovery time every day.
  • Start with just twenty minutes a day where you can focus on yourself.
  • Being able to mentally decompress is so important.
  • You are able to better serve others when you’re able to give time to yourself.
  • It can feel like there’s no time in the day, but that’s why scheduling your recovery time is so vital.
  • When you don’t have that time, your mentality, energy, and focus for the entire day can go on a downward trajectory.
  • Downtime helps prevent the feeling of burning the candle at both ends.
  • If you don’t take care of yourself, eventually you just won’t have a lot to give.
  • It’s important to disconnect to reconnect.
  • Scheduling is also necessary because you schedule the things that are important to you, the things you absolutely don’t want to miss.
  • The things you don’t schedule can easily slip away.
  • Make time for recovery.

Recovery Is Essential For Success

  • A little bit of recovery goes a long way.
  • Taking time to breathe, meditate, and relax is going to give you so much more energy and focus in the long run.
  • When you start to feel burnt out, taking a step back is the only way to keep moving forward.
  • It can be easy to get addicted to the hustle.
  • You can get so used to being busy that you wear it as a badge of honor.
  • You start designing everything in your life to be frantic and stressful.
  • That can feel like hustle, but it isn’t.
  • There is a time to hustle, but there’s also time for harmony.
  • It’s also important to get rid of the perfect standard.
  • Life, success, work: it’s never going to be perfect.
  • When you have balance, you can have productivity and performance along with peace.
  • Find the right tools and techniques to help with recovery.
  • Jim and Miesha have both used hyperbaric chambers to aid in their recovery.
  • Red light therapy can be an effective treatment.
  • The red light recharges mitochondria which then produces more energy.
  • There’s a lot of interesting research to learn about using red light as a way to recover.
  • Using a small red light on your face can be a relatively affordable at-home treatment.
  • One of the easiest things to do is simply go outside in the morning.
  • Vitamin D doesn’t come through windows, so sitting in front of a window won’t have the same benefits.
  • Being vitamin D deficient is common; we simply weren’t designed to be inside most of the day.
  • Sunlight also wakes up your brain, so being outdoors in the morning is a win-win.
  • Intermittent fasting can also help boost energy levels.
  • Miesha pairs intermittent fasting with fasted low base workouts.
  • These are low impact workouts that help stimulate mitochondria and flush the body.

Self-care Is Not Selfish

  • You can become the upgraded version of yourself.
  • Take all your skillsets, drive, and desires, and become that much better.
  • But you have to incorporate recovery in your daily routine.
  • Prioritize taking care of yourself.
  • Self-care can be little things throughout your day.
  • Go for a walk, or meditate, or practice deep-breathing.
  • Even playing with your kids can help shift your mindset and help regain your focus.
  • Be patient with yourself.
  • Don’t try something once and give up.
  • Habits take time to develop.
  • You can’t try something a few times and decide it didn’t work.
  • For anything to work, you have to stay consistent and give it time to see results.
  • Give yourself time to get used to scheduling recovery time too.
  • You have to actively practice recovery.
  • When all else fails, learn from children.
  • Babies don’t decide they’re just not going to walk because they fall down.
  • They keep getting up, they keep trying.
  • Consistency and effort compounds.
  • Do a little bit every day because it adds up.
  • Sometimes subtraction can end up multiplying.
  • Taking something away that is holding you back will pay dividends in the end.
  • You don’t have to do everything to reach your goals, you just have to do what matters.
  • Whether you’re young or old, not matter your age or stage, it’s never too late.
  • Make self-care not just a regular part of your day, but a regular part of your life.
  • Try new things and be open to experimenting.
  • Life is too short to live in one small box.
  • Life is a balancing act: It’s all about putting it on the weigh scale and making it as even as possible.
  • Take the time to balance yourself.
  • Be sure to check out the unedited, extended episode on YouTube, here.

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  • Take a screenshot of this episode, tag us on social media (@MieshaTate & @JimKwik), and share your greatest “aha!” moment from this episode with us.
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