Contrarian Thought: Rest Less
YES, rest is important.
Who doesn’t love feeling rejuvenated, replenished, re-energised, and revitalised? Only thing is that loving something doesn’t necessarily make it great for you, especially when you are on the cusp of greatness.
Overindulgence in rest is the single greatest hindrance in the realisation of maximum human potential that has ever existed….. ;)
That got your attention. Play devil’s advocate with me for a second, in at least considering the position, and lets walk before we sprint with a few friendly caveat bullet points:
- We spend at least a third of our lives sleeping/resting. As such it’s an important area of our existence to reflect on. How much rest/sleep is needed to accomplish a task with maximal outcomes? The answer tends to be subjective, circumstantial, and dependent on factors such as our unique bio-mechanical circadian rhythms for instance.
- Some may disagree with this extreme position (rest hinders our potential), and simultaneously completely overlook the irony of accepting the dogmatic position that rest is essential. That you should always have 8 hours minimum a night, else you are a plonker. To you, my friend, I’d say have a cold glass of milk; take a good look yourself in the mirror; & read on.
- Whilst the general consensus seems to be that more rest = better performance; there is such a litany of anecdotal evidence to the contrary (amongst high performers especially) that it is worth exploring.
- All points to the contrary are welcome, in the comments, and will be swiftly dealt with!
There’s no peace for the wicked
Human behaviour swings wildly with reckless abandon when it comes to rest. Zoom out and some rudimentary characterisations of the last few decades capture this. The fervent rock & roll of the swinging sixties, the acid trip tinged chill vibe of the hippies in the seventies, the madcap wall street heyday of Gordon Gekko’s ‘greed is good’ eighties, to the emergence of the satellite television age of MTV & F.R.I.E.N.D.S.’ languorous sofa binges in the nineties etc…
Zoom in and these energy swings are similarly evident at the micro-level in our lives, at work for instance. We veer erratically from the exaltation of being “busy” as a badge of honour; to demonisation of excessive working culture. From the faux-wellness of getting up at 4am to squeeze in yoga, meditation, jog and kombucha before work; to the epically relaxed “work from home” lie in till seconds before the alarm morning Skype chat (if you are reading this, and I work with you, I definitely NEVER do this)
Here’s the bottom line.
Some rest is crucial, of that we can be certain. In fact, a rudimentary understanding of the human experience tells us this.
Take Pheidippides, the ancient Grecian messenger who ran flat out from Marathon to Athens in 490 B.C. He ran so hard to the Capital to announce Greek victory over the Persians, that he famously keeled over and died immediately thereafter. What could we deduce ?
zero rest = burnout, fatigue, exhaustion (bad things happen)
On the other hand, it is hardly difficult to envisage how maximum rest (whilst certainly appealing and undoubtedly refreshing) leads to the kinds of losses in productivity and purpose that suck the light right out of your soul.
Ever woken up, from a too deep slumber, and been even more tired than you were when going to bed? This is a classic opportunity cost dilemma. Hence the eternal, infernal, question — and the object of our investigation — is a rather classic dialectic (when two seemingly conflicting things are true at the same time). Too much, or too little, rest are both good and bad.
So how does one determine one’s most effective balance (of rest vs. activity) in the pursuit of maximising effective performance?
The utterly remarkable FREE SOLO documentary features Alex Honnold’s rope-less ascent to the top of El Capitan in Yosemite (a 3,000-foot sheer granite monolith). A sublime achievement. In the documentary, Alex describes the kinds of opportunities for rest, during the sub-4 hour gargantuan fitness feat, that (to me) sound patently outrageous. Think having a snooze, whilst hanging by a fingernail, miles in the sky and you won’t be far off! His account speaks to an invaluable truth that, I believe, informs our exploration.
In Alex’s case, climbing on the edge of the elements, eons above the ground, rest is consumed sparingly and with great focus. The fortitude of fingertips, tiny packed pockets of dense muscle, enable climbers like Alex to latch onto the most minute crevices upon which they then depend for survival. Rest up here looks like legs wedged into jagged overhanging rock-faces. An ungodly trust in body & granite to hold one’s entire body weight so as to languish precipitously, enabling precious moments for hands & fingers to recover absent of strain. This precious rest makes the climb possible.
Too much, you lose focus & die. Too little, your arms fatigue, bye bye.
Consider the world of running, particularly at long distance, where gliding gladiators (Mo Farah, Eliud Kipchoge — I see you!) typically run 22–25 miles (35–40km) at around 5:40 min/mile (around 3:30min/km) as part of a gruelling training routine. Mo Farah, in the run up to his thrilling Olympic successes in London 2012 and Rio 2016, ran up to 135 miles (217km) per week with no rest days. Two sessions every day but Sunday, staggering!
And the absolutely incredible ultra-athlete Courtney Dauwalter completely obliterated all competition (male & female) at the Moab 240 mile race (2017). With over 29,467 feet of elevation gain and descent through the mountains of eastern Utah, Courtney finished 10 hours ahead of the next fastest competitor, a full 22 miles ahead. Over the 57 hours she dominated that course, her “rest” entailed 21 minutes napping!
To be specific — she had one twenty minute nap, where she doubts she was able to actually switch off, then a one minute nap after which she was enjoyed a short reprieve from the hallucinations that are typical of the ultra-marathon experience at this top level.
Three superhuman endeavours (Alex, Mo & Courtney) that are as anecdotal as they are informative (and incredible). Despite their low statistical significance as representative data samples there is undoubtedly value in piecing together commonalities that arise here. As we seek to truly understand the opportunity cost on offer here with respect to performance, its only right that we draw a modicum of inference from these gladiators to guide us in our personal evaluations of the balance between rest and activity.
First, It’s important to say that in the context of rest: clearly, humans have to sleep — that is a biological imperative. Research suggests there are significant benefits to getting the right amount of rest in the form of sleep and/or naps. Moreover, fatigue from lack of sleep has been demonstrably shown to diminish performance. It’s fair to assume that during all phases of training these basic building blocks must be adequately attended to.
Second, What stands out is that top performers tend to inculcate the necessary (but not sufficient) conditions of becoming masters in the art of a certain level of active rest. That the sparse, but concentrated, consumption of rest unearths enormous advantages. We see this with high achievers across a whole spectrum of human excellence: Elon Musk & Steve Jobs in technology; Jocko Willink & David Goggins in the armed forces; Marc Marron, Joe Rogan, and Rich Roll in podcasts. Pure industry yields results whilst rest and recovery, to this group, doesn’t entail long vacations — utterly disconnected from the work that they do.
Take running for example, the most lethal thing you can do halfway through a long run is stop! The lactate build up, combined with the mental fatigue derived from the difficulty in getting started again, becomes a burdensome combination. Then again at rest, especially if you’re doing something mindfully, then your brain is much more able to connect across it’s entirety between each of it’s regions. Einstein advocated for this (gentle walks).
We can conclude then that any conception of resting which seeks to maximise performance should wholly reject the idea of being completely still and doing nothing. There are things you can do that are very restful for certain aspects of the body and brain. In sport this might include yoga, swimming, cycling and walking for instance. In life beyond sport, the concept of active recovery acts as a reminder to build strength even during dips in full blown motivation/activity. Through activities like Music, Art, Writing, Dancing, Acting and/or Magic! Enabling different forms of rest: social, physical, mental, sensory, creative, emotional or spiritual — sparingly and with great focus may just be the key to unlocking the gladiatorial performance in whatever you choose to purse.
And to the question of determining one’s most effective balance (of rest vs. activity) in the pursuit of maximising effective performance? One suggestion might be to acknowledge that at peak moments, just before or during a race/exam perhaps, we can put away the usual playbook. Your body is at another level. Aim to do as much of the recommended (healthy) stuff in the weeks/months/years running up to those moments: revise, rest, eat clean, etc. But, during those peak moments — cut loose; go with the flow; stay present, relaxed, focused, hungry and driven.
All the usual rules go out of the window. Win.
Huge Love and thanks for suggestions, edits, feedback and inspiration to Neel, Sarah, Dave, Rachel, Muthoni, Sandy, and Katie.
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