How to Recover from a Workout + Buffing Bar Summer 🧼
My tips for how to recover from an intense workout
GM everyone! HAPPY FRIDAY!!!
To celebrate a recent milestone, I’m going to do an AMA. Send your questions to jake@jb.studio, or drop them in the comments, or join the Who Do You Know? thread. Send them ASAP.
In Today’s Newsletter—
Global IT Outage Breaks the World
JD Vance’s Beard
Soft Service’s Buffing Bar
How I Recover Post-Workout
NEWS
A global IT outage has seemingly broken the world. Okayyyy so hopefully you didn’t have a flight or anything super important to do this morning because major airlines, banks, broadcast networks, and even the Las Vegas Sphere seem to be experiencing a massive IT crisis.
The issue reportedly stems from the cybersecurity company Crowdstrike, which is used by major Fortune 500 companies. I am being told this may be the largest outage in history, basically what Y2K should have been. I haven’t checked but maybe Microsoft Teams and Slack will also be down…
J.D. Vance is the first Vice Presidential Nominee to Have a Beard in 75 Years. While it seems like the beard barrier has been broken in nearly every professional industry, the White House may be the final frontier. Vance (a son of Ohio like me) sports a pretty robust beard, unseen from a Presidential ticket since the Thomas E. Dewey in the 1940s (he lost) The NYT wrote that typically politicians only sport a beard after losing a pivotal election and coming back.
David Letterman famously grew out his beard post-Late show. The beard symbolizes a changed man, who has seen the ills of the world, and entered a new stage of just not giving a f*ck. It may be the best rebrand tool us guys have.
It’s Buffing Bar Summer. Soft Services, the skincare company famous for their exfoliating buffing bar, has launched an expansive social media campaign, partnering with tastemakers across social like Duda from Eliou to share their experience with the buffing bar. They’ve also sent out some really great influencer packages (I didn’t get one ahem….) I like this! I think its a smart use of IG’s collaborative post tool and provides excellent social proof from people with amazing taste.
🏃 HOW I RECOVER FROM A WORKOUT 🏋️
As many of you know (because I won’t shut up about it) I am currently training to run the 31 mile perimeter on Manhattan next month. So I’ve been significantly upping my mileage each week.
This has caused some pretty significant wear and tear on my body. But I’ve been able to combat fatigue, soreness, and exhaustion with a recovery strategy I think you guys could see some benefit from no matter what you’re training for. Let me break it down—
Steam Room: Immediately after lifting weights or running I head to the steam room at Equinox. Its truly one of the few places of tranquility in New York. There are a number of benefits from steaming for 15-20 minutes post workout, such as increasing your VO2 levels (how much oxygen is in your blood), lowering stress, increasing immunity, and sweating out your demons.
Ice Cold Shower: Right after the sauna, I take a shower on the coldest temperature possible. I don’t have regular access to a cold plunge so this does the trick. Not only does it help me stop sweating, cold showers/plunges provide similar health benefits as the sauna.
Side Note: If you want to really lean into relaxation, I highly recommend heading to Bathhouse, they have wet steam rooms, dry saunas, a cold plunge, a heated pool, massages, body scrubs, and more. And the vibe is immaculate. Its a perfect way to escape from the city for a few hours and get some R&R.
Foam Roller: I use this Nike foam roller to massage muscles pre and post workout. Its improves circulation and relieves muscle tension. This thing has cured several debilitating pains I’ve gotten from running.
Protein + Creatine: Nutritional experts like Max Lugavere are leading the charge on bringing protein back to the forefront. We all need to be protein-maxxing. It helps us build muscle, increases bone strength, and cognitive function. I like to have protein and creatine right after working out, and then eat about 1g of protein per my body weight a day. I weigh 175lb so I eat around 175g of protein a day, mostly from chicken, grass fed beef, etc.
Electrolytes: After a long run, your body is depleted of electrolytes, minerals in your blood that carry an electric charge and help keep you hydrated. I like to get mine via coconut water, specifically Harmless Harvest, the best coconut water in the world.
I have some brands sending me some new supplements in the coming weeks. I’ll be sure to share my thoughts as I incorporate them into my recovery routine.
If you have a fitness/wellness brand and want me to review it on this newsletter, send me an email.
BTW, I am still hosting my weekly run club. We takeoff every Saturday morning at 8am for 5 easy miles. Sign up on Strava here. See you tomorrow morning!
Jake Bell is a content marketing, creative strategist, designer, and writer based in NYC. He specializes in brand building, content strategy, creative direction direction, business development, and making things cool.
Want to chat? Email me: jake@jb.studio
my question for the AMA - what are your bar recs in NYC? Ideally some for meeting friends and catching up over great cocktails but also some that are good to meet new people/dance/etc. Always looking for new spots!