Relaxations

Relaxations are voice-guided recordings that help you come down off the tension — after a workout, after a day's work, or in the evening when your body has stopped but your head has not. They need no equipment and no change of clothes: just somewhere to lie down or sit comfortably, and a quarter of an hour without a phone in your hand.

The sessions differ in where they lead. Some work through body awareness, scanning one part at a time; some are built on slow, lengthened breathing; others are made specifically for falling asleep and have no real ending, because you are not meant to reach it.

Recovery is part of training, not a reward for it. It is at rest that the body rebuilds what effort has taken out of it, and how well you sleep decides how much you can handle in the next session. That is why a relaxation is worth treating as part of the plan rather than an extra if there happens to be time left.

Close a workout with one, use it mid-day as a break, or make it a short ritual after which you put the phone down and go to bed.