Why Recovery is Essential to Perform at Our Best
What can an elite sports mental health expert teach us about the effect of wellbeing on the workplace?
And is it true that rest and recovery are the keys to high performance?
In a recent episode of the Build Your Ideal Day podcast, I spoke with Dr. Phil Hopley to find out what he’s learned about wellbeing and high-performing teams from working within elite sports.
Phil is a London-based medical doctor and performance / leadership coach. As a former professional rugby player for Wasps, he is now recognised as the UK’s leading expert in elite sport mental health. He lives with his wife Andrea and has four adult children.
These days, Phil works across the mental health spectrum, whether working in the clinic accessing and treating people with common mental disorders, or coaching elite athletes and leaders in optimising their performance, wellbeing and resilience.
Due to his expertise, he’s also spending more time advising groups and organisations on how to get these things right for their teams, so he’s got some fantastic advice for those of us wanting to optimise our own wellbeing and performance at work and beyond.
Below, we’ve shared five of Phil’s top wellbeing lessons, and you’ll also learn how to apply these techniques to your life and workplace.
5 top wellbeing lessons from an elite sports mental health expert
1. Use rest and recovery in a smart and sustainable way.
What differentiates an elite athlete’s performance and resilience from that of the average person? The answer might surprise you: it’s all about their commitment to rest and recovery.
Hopley points out that amazing humans who achieve amazing things have learned how to effectively prioritise physical downtime every single day.
‘Rest allows our bodies and our minds to recover and reset which is really crucial because we’ve only got finite amounts of biology or energy to work with and we have to be smart enough to use that in a sustainable way.’
Not convinced? Phil recommends reading Running with the Kenyans: Discovering the Secrets of the Fastest People on Earth by Adharanand Finn, in which Finn spent a year in Kenya’s Rift Valley to find out why this area had produced so many running champions. The answer? Rest and recovery were built into their routine and culture. When these athletes moved away from their communities and into Western lifestyles, their performance deteriorated.
So, like these athletes, Hopley recommends that we bury recovery into our routines.
For example, in a work set-up, Hopley suggests stopping back-to-back one-hour meetings running into each other. Instead, insist on stopping meetings at 55 minutes on the clock, and assign someone to manage the clock to ensure that happens.
Organisations can also encourage downtime by honouring staff boundaries outside of work hours, allowing employees to log off early on Fridays provided work is complete (and specifically without having to announce it) or arranging proactive time off when a big pitch or big game is coming up, knowing that employees will be fully at their best in those moments.
2. Micro breaks are essential
Recovery comes in many forms, including taking micro-breaks throughout the day.
Why are these micro-breaks so important? Because they allow people to switch their minds off, get some fresh air if needed, and reset for a moment.
Unfortunately, Phil has seen a correlation between professionals who feel unable to take breaks - take lawyers, for example - and those with high levels of negative health outcomes, such as stress or depression. Each moment of their time is broken down into financial outcomes, with tasks being broken down into as small as five to seven-minute slots. Taking a break can feel like an outrageous suggestion if you’re pressured into thinking you’re losing the company money.
Between digital accessibility making work seem limitless and a reluctance to prioritise wellbeing over client demand, Phil has seen some workplaces find the idea of taking breaks seem entirely unfeasible.
So Phil reminds us that taking breaks is a long-term strategy that allows us to be on our game for longer periods throughout the day.
Going forward, organisations should ask themselves: ‘How do we enable people to take short breaks throughout the day?’ Not just at lunchtime, but throughout the day, even if it’s just 2 to 3 minutes regularly.
Anything that shifts your focus of work for a moment is great; grabbing a glass of water, listening to music, popping outside - if you can’t stop thinking about the next job, try and mindfully choose a short break that will help you think about something else.
3. Effective feedback and goal-setting
Feedback is woven into sports culture, where explicit feedback and processes are needed to help achieve specific goals.
When Hopley transitioned from amateur to pro rugby, he saw how focused and structured feedback was. Targets were often periodised throughout the year. For example, in rowing, a huge chunk of the year is focused purely on training your cardiovascular base and strength.
However, there’s no reason why smart goals can’t also be effective in other work environments.
Goals need to be specific, measurable things that you can actually relate to. And after goals have been set out with a plan to meet them, it’s important to regularly check in with employees to see how things are going. Don’t wait weeks or even months to come back to goal-setting, as this makes it harder for individuals to take responsibility and focus.
For an easy win, start team meetings with an easy question such as ‘How’s it going and what have you done between this specific goal?’ Find simple ways to add movement to your work routine. Conversation is a crucial skill for managers to work on. When checking in, give people the opportunity to continue to learn and change.
4. Find simple ways to add movement to your work routine.
Sustainable behaviour change needs to be something that you can do just a little bit of each day.
So when it comes to movement, it’s not about joining a gym each January or taking on a detox plan after Christmas, but finding easy ways to add more exercise throughout the working week.
Hopley recognises how difficult it can be, initially, to build wellness and exercise into your routine. When he first transitioned away from pro-rugby when his training sessions were hard-wired into his schedule, he found it difficult to get in the amount of movement he needed daily.
So, to get more exercise into his day, Phil took a good look at his Monday to Friday work schedule to see where he built in more movement.
Noticing that his sedentary work routine and reliance on his car meant he was getting far under the recommended amount of steps for his age group, Phil decided to shelve the car from Mondays to Fridays. Now, he automatically has more movement into his work routine by taking the train instead of driving to work. Now, he gets far more steps in while working to and from the stations. Sometimes he gets off a step or two early to double his steps.
But don’t overdo it! He also knew this change was simple and sustainable, whereas taking too big a leap such as running to work every day wasn’t realistic long-term.
5. Combine multiple wellness activities into one easy daily activity
Overwhelmed by work and not sure where to start with wellbeing? Combining multiple wellness activities into one is a great place to start.
Hopley’s favourite wellbeing activity is walking his dog, Lottie. Firstly, it’s a good way to get some exercise. These walks also have the second benefit of being outside in daylight.
Finally, he ideally does this walk with his wife, so it’s also a quality time activity. When he’s particularly on his game, he can also use this time to lean into an expression of gratitude.
When you can wrap up a few essential wellbeing activities into one simple dog walk, it can make a huge difference.
Summary:
Health is the key to long and happy lives. Regardless of his coaching clients’ success, material possessions, or immense wealth, Hopley knows first-hand that it doesn’t mean they’re happy or healthy. If we can get wellbeing right, then the quality of our lives will improve and we can be the best version of ourselves.
Recovery is absolutely the most important thing. If we don’t recover, we can’t sustain. Human beings have finite energy levels, ‘so unless we recover it’s at your peril, people!’
Micro-breaks should be encouraged. We work better when we have a few minutes to shift our focus away from work and do this regularly throughout the day.
Pick something small you can adapt and make it part of your daily routine consistently. Sustainable behaviour change needs to be something that you can do just a little bit of each day, most days.
Today’s Action:
Look at your weekly calendar or daily schedule and find one or two spaces when you can make time for a break. Perhaps this will be scheduling a five-minute recovery break in between one-hour meetings, planning a technology-free evening with the family to fully shut off from work, or scheduling downtime before a big pitch or project to ensure you’ll be at your best.