I ask a lot of my body. On a big day of surfing, I’m up before 5 am and can be in the water for six hours—and that might be after a week or two of high activity. The extreme conditions demand an excessive amount of output, and if I’m coming into that with already-depleted reserves, I’ll emerge from the water totally spent. Recovery days are critical to my training, and that holds true for any athlete. Here’s how to determine if you need a break and how to make the most of the time off.Ìý

Listen to Your Body

Though I try to take a rest day once a week, I let my workload and how I’m feeling dictate my routine. I know I need downtime when I don’t have any high energy left to tap. Overall, my senses feel dulled and I lack my normal acuteness and focus. If I have an intense surf session and I’ve taxed my system, one day isn’t going to be sufficient for me to reload. In that case, I might take an extra day off and reduce my training for a few days after that.

Fill Up the Tank

I normally have a calorie-packed mushroom coffee for breakfast and a big lunch and dinner. But when I’m resting, I’ll make a point to eat more than usual, adding in an extra meal or a few nutritious snacks. When I’m operating at a high activity level for days on end, I actually lose my appetite. When I slow it down my appetite returns, and I end up hungrier on low-activity days than I do on high-output ones. Because my body is trying to repair muscle, I’m going to need more nutrients. I make sure I’m hydrating, and I’m careful to eat a wide range of foods that really complement recovery, like fresh fruits and vegetables.

Don’t Go Cold Turkey

Even when I’m exhausted, I still try to add some gentle activity into my day. If I’m totally sedentary, my sore muscles stiffen up. I want to create blood flow, because it helps me recover. Normally, I’ll take a walk or do some kind of stretching—maybe not an intense power-yoga sequence but a longer, mellower class. I don’t want to stress my body in any way, so I’ll pass up deep dynamic moves for gentle static ones that keep my heart rate down.

Remember to Breathe

Breath work is an everyday practice for me, and it’s an excellent restorative tool. On my down days, I take extra time to do breathing meditations that calm me and help me recuperate. Extending your inhale and exhale helps drop your body into parasympathetic mode, meaning your anxious fight-or-flight impulses become reduced. I do many types of nose-breathing meditations, but you don’t need to be an expert or follow a strict routine. Box breaths are a good place to start: extend your inhales and exhales to seven seconds each, with a seven-second hold in between. As long as you bring consciousness to your breath and follow a pattern, you’ll benefit.Ìý

Get Some Work Done

Rest days are the perfect opportunity for bodywork. I fill the time I’d typically spend training with restorative practices, like acupuncture and massage, and plenty of heat and ice therapy. I like intense soft-tissue work. Most importantly, you have to find someone whose work you believe in.

Zone Out

A sore body is an obvious sign that I need to rest, but my brain needs time to rebound, too. Focus fatigue is definitely the hardest for me to bounce back from. When I’m mentally and emotionally exhausted, it might take weeks before I feel like I’m back to my normal acuity and my reserves of willpower have returned. My favorite strategy is to turn my mind off with something entertaining. I’ll lie down and watch something, be a spectator. Good sleep is also critical. When you dial back your activity, it’s easy to feel wired come nighttime. I’m careful to avoid caffeine late in the day and make sure I have a cool, dark place to sleep—and a down pillow.Ìý

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Pleasure is definitely a part of my diet, and I regularly eat delicious whole foods. But my main priority is to eat in a way that nourishes and protects my body and the planet. Everyone’s dietary needs are different, and it has taken me decades to develop nutritional habits that work for me. Here’s what I eat and drink in a typical day.

Breakfast

I wake up early and start my day by turning my coffee into a meal. I’ll pull three or four shots of dark-roast espresso and add one scoop of my custom-blend coconut-milk creamer, one scoop of turmeric creamer, a teaspoon of ghee or raw butter, a half-teaspoon of fair-trade red palm oil, a teaspoon of raw coconut, and a mushroom blend that includes shiitake, maitake, lion’s mane, and cordyceps. I emulsify the combination until it’s smooth and drink it before I head out to my morning surf or training session.

There are enough calories—about 200—to hold me over until lunch. Plus, it tastes great.

Lunch

Midday I usually eat enough for two, because I haven’t had solid food since the evening before. I build my lunch around a serving of high-quality animal protein, like sustainable local fish or chicken. I’ll eat it on a bed of lettuce, cabbage, or kale, topped with avocado or crushed macadamia nuts and dressed with olive oil and vinegar. If it’s available, I’ll add raw-milk cheese to the salad. I try to get my carbs mostly from vegetables. When I’m in Hawaii, I’ll indulge in mashed purple sweet potatoes with coconut milk. While traveling, I do my best to enjoy what’s seasonal or indigenous to that particular location.

Dinner

I always eat dinner with my wife, Gabrielle, and on most nights we have a smoked or roasted meat like lamb with a lot of veggies. My favorites are broccoli and brussels sprouts drizzled in olive oil, or cabbage and butternut squash tossed with coconut oil. You want to have diversity in your diet. Too much red meat can leave me feeling sluggish, and sometimes my body will clue me in to the fact that I need to take a break from animal protein and go big with the greens. A classic meat-free meal is a one-pot slow-cooked stew with plenty of seasonal veggies, served over quinoa. We keep it simple but pump up the flavor with turmeric, curry, or ginger.

Fluids

Drinking enough water helps me in every way: performance, recovery, flexibility, even sleep. I pay close attention to my body, because my hydration needs vary depending on my diet, my activities, and the climate. For instance, if I do a recovery session in the sauna, I make sure to hydrate with coconut or mineral water to replenish my nutrients.

Snacks

I’m not much of a snacker, but I will grab a handful of nuts if I get hungry between meals. I seldom eat dessert and find I don’t miss it unless I just didn’t get enough calories or good fat that day. The less sugar I eat, the less I crave it. The same goes for alcohol—I used to be a big wine drinker but gave it up for San Pellegrino almost 12 years ago. If you’re going to cut something out of your diet, it’s helpful to find a substitute so kicking the habit is manageable.

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I’ve dealt with plenty of injuries in my career, including six broken ankles and a torn ACL. Three years ago, I had a hip replacement on my dominant leg. When you spend decades in the ocean, you’re bound to hit a few rough patches, and the same is true for any serious athlete. So I started investing in resilience. Now everything I do—what I eat, how much I sleep, the way I train—is designed to protect me from being hurt. Here are my top tips for building a body and mind that can handle the load.Ìý

Train Smart

The potential for injury from outside forces is everywhere—so don’t contribute to it with bad training. When I’m doing highly repetitive motions, I get creative and compensate with oppositional movements to avoid the hammering. (If you’re doing quad extensions, do hamstring curls, too; complement your ab workout with supermans to strengthen your lower back.) When I’m training for a long run, I won’t go out and put in a ton of miles. I’ll shift to shorter distances with unique challenges: running on sand or wearing a weighted vest, for instance.Ìý

Lighten the Load

When you weight train, take your ego out of the equation. If you pick up a giant rack and start squatting, you can throw out your back in a heartbeat, but you’d have to do hundreds of bodyweight squats with poor alignment to hurt yourself. Instead of adding ten more pounds, subtract ten and do five more reps. And remember that you’re only as good as your weakest link—so train to your weaknesses, not your strengths.Ìý

Focus on FlexibilityÌý

A big part of protecting yourself involves devel-oping range of motion. Work on increasing mobility wherever you happen to be tight. Each body is unique, so your stretching routine will likely look different from someone else’s. I do yoga once or twice a week, but I also fill my time with activities that create flexibility naturally—like swimming and surfing.Ìý

Fuel Wisely

There’s no one-size-fits-all diet. Each individual needs to find out which foods help them excel. I aim to drink an ounce of water per poundof body weight daily, and I avoid sugar—it’s one of the most inflammatory foods around. Instead I eat a wide array of nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables and high-quality fats, and I focus on staying hydrated. A dehydrated, inflamed body is an inflexible one.Ìý

Get Back on the Horse

After I had hip-replacement surgery, I returned to diligent physical training as soon as I was able to stress the new hip. In two weeks, I was in the pool jumping, standing on my board, and paddleboarding. I used my body as a guide to determine when I was pushing it too far, and I rode that line of discomfort really carefully. The only way to learn what kind of pain is a signal that you should back off—and which kind of pain you can push through safely—is experience.

Shake Things Up

If you need to take some time off, you don’t have to do less, just adjust your routine. If you’re used to a certain volume of output, direct it into things that you don’t normally get to do—stuff that’s lower on the priority list when you’re operating at 100 percent. I spend more time focusing on diet, hydration, recovery techniques like massage and acupuncture, and physical therapy.Ìý

Harness the Power of Your Mind

After dealing with so many injuries, I’ve learned to cope with the psychological impact. Of course doubt creeps in: Will I ever be able to surf again? My brain throws all this stuff at me. But I know I can handle it, because I’ve been through it before. Even if you come out of an injury with half the range of motion and half the strength you had before, it’s mind over matter. If you’re confident and patient, you can get your body back to where it was—or even better.

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My morning sets the tone for the whole day, whether I’m gearing up to work, surf, or spend time with my family. So I’m religious about practicing a few key habits that prepare me mentally and physically for the hours ahead.

Take Sleep Seriously

I always start my day well rested. I usually wake up around five or six o’clock, and I’m strict about getting plenty of sleep. Nine hours is good; ten is even better. I can’t sleep in, even if I stay up late the night before. So if I begin the day with a sleep deficit, I try to listen to my body and maybe take a 20-­minute power nap later on.

Prime Yourself for Productivity

I make my bed without fail. Admiral William McRaven, a retired Navy SEAL, famously explained that a neatly made bed isn’t just about orderliness: completing a task first thing in the morning sets you up to be productive all day. I usually straighten up the kitchen, too, which helps ready my brain for whatever comes next.

Drink Up

I drink a couple of big glasses of water with lemon and salt while I make my coffee, which I mix with a coconut-based creamer packed with healthy fats. It keeps me energized throughout the morning without putting too much strain on my stomach. I also like to add a dash of turmeric, which is an excellent anti-inflammatory and digestive aid. I don’t eat a full meal until lunchtime—fasting in the morning helps my body stay in ketosis, a great way to burn fat and keep blood sugar low.

Don’t Skip the Warm-Up

Despite consistent morning habits, my training changes dramatically based on the season and the day of the week. My day might include surfing, weight lifting, or pool training, but I always make a point to warm up slowly, whether that’s with light cardio or a session in the sauna. I’m also a big believer in the power of a hot shower—it loosens me up and takes the creaks out.

Feel the Love

Even though my wife, Gabby, sleeps a bit later than I do, we’re pretty serious about spending some time together in the early morning before the day picks up speed. Our busy schedules can pull us in different directions, so we really value alone time when the rest of the world (or at least the house) is still quiet. That is, unless there’s a giant swell. When the ocean’s firing, all bets are off. But I’ll still make the bed.

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I love food. Not just because it tastes great, but because it’s fuel for my body. When it comes to powering my life in the water or on the beach, proper nutrition is just as important as my training regimen. And while I tend to take a fairly simple approach to my eating habits, focusing predominantly on nutrient-dense and locally sourced whole foods, I also believe in occasionally challenging my body and trying out new ingredients or methods that seem promising. Once I give something a reasonable shot, I’m quick to move on if I don’t see results.

Take the fruitarian diet, for example. Years ago, people were calling it a surefire way to detox, so I decided to see for myself. For a few weeks I ate only fruit and low-starch vegetables for breakfast and lunch. I'd heard that it might give my digestive system ample chance to rest and reset on a daily basis, so I could put more energy toward supporting my physical efforts. The effects were disappointing: mood swings, bloating, and sluggishness during my workouts. Shortly after, I returned to my normal routine.

Nutrition trends get a bad rap—and for good reason. We’re constantly crowning a new superfood and celebrating different supplements before there’s sufficient research to back up the claims. However, every so often a certain food or way of eating does, in fact, offer serious health and performance benefits. I am a big believer in butter coffee, turmeric, and medicinal mushrooms. These items have a material impact on how I feel and perform, and I’ve made them part of my daily diet.

When it comes to deciding what to test, I stick to real foods, steering clear of anything that seems like it was made in a factory. I’d rather eat fish eyes than a manufactured substance whose name I can’t pronounce. I live half the year in Hawaii, where there are a huge number of ingredients that aren’t readily available on the mainland—like cherimoya—and many of them are extremely nutritious.

Thankfully, our collective culture has begun to focus more on what we put into our bodies and where it comes from, and grocery stores are reflecting that shift. With a large selection of products that align with a whole-foods-only approach, it’s easier than ever to experiment healthily.

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Exercising with other people, ideally those who have different strengths than you, is a natural performance enhancer. It’s easy to slack off when it’s just you and the mirror, but as soon as you put someone else in the room, your competitive side kicks in, and going hard becomes the only option. Push yourself like that for a few weeks—you’re guaranteed to see results.

When I’m home in California, on most days I train with a group of about five guys. While the specific mix of people has changed over the years, one theme has remained constant: everyone gives maximum effort. To me, that’s the most important characteristic in a training partner. If he doesn’t give it his all, it’s easy for me to walk away.

It’s also key to find someone who challenges your weaknesses. Our morning sessions run the gamut—hot and cold therapy, breath work, stretching, strength training in the pool, and a bit of cardio. While I’m dominant in the water, I struggle with some of the mobility work, which is when I turn to the guys who excel at that and can spur me on. Nobody should try to be the best at every discipline, especially not you. If you are, you’re bound to plateau. Instead, train alongside someone who can correct your form, keep you hustling, and force you to push yourself on the things you hate most.

Don’t forget about the mind game. Look for a partner who crushes not only their physical limits but their mental boundaries as well. The ideal person is someone who’s a little bit fearless, actively pursuing new goals, trying something that seems impossible, and getting comfortable with the uncomfortable. It’s a lot easier to embrace the pain cave when you’re doing it with someone else.

Remember that looking for a good workout partner isn’t all that different from looking for a new friend. (And often it lays the groundwork for a relationship that goes beyond the gym.) Find an athlete who has similar goals, shares your work ethic and attitude, and drives you to be your best. After all, a little friendly competition never hurt anyone.

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Don’t Skimp on Sleep

No more scraping by on four or five hours. For top performance, shoot for seven to eight (or, in my case, nine) every night. To support the recovery that happens overnight, I drink chaga tea before I turn in, which kick-starts the anti-­inflammation process. And since overheating in bed fre­quently leads to restless sleep, I use a , which slips underneath the sheets and drops to a temperature as low as 55 degrees to keep me cool.

Fuel Your Body

Simple whole foods have powered our bodies for generations. You can’t game the system with meal replacements, fake ingredients, or fad diets. Start to think about food as a fuel source and you’ll see real results. It’s tempting to make nutrition feel restrictive. But rather than count calories or macros in a meal, I simply avoid most processed foods and focus on the distance between its origin and my plate. If the distance is short, I’m OK with eating it.

Sweat the Small Stuff

You don’t need to make peak performance your full-time job like I have, but you should think of it as an all-day mentality that goes far beyond the gym. It requires near constant attention and a holistic approach to health. I spend about 40 hours per week training. People think they have no time, but I’ll crank out squats while dinner cooks or hop on my foam roller while watching TV. I’ll even flow through a few mini breathing sets when I have to work from a desk.

Challenge Your Weaknesses

My asymmetries have always plagued me and are largely a result of surfing for so many years with the same lead leg. That’s partly why I started paddleboarding—to develop strength on the other side of my body. Don’t shy away from the things you’re worst at. Focus on mobility if you lack range of motion. Incorporate endurance efforts if you’re a natural power athlete. This rule also applies to areas like mindfulness and nutrition. Add a ten-minute meditation to your weight-room routine, or put more veggies on your plate if you’re a chronic carbo-loader. Without a well-rounded approach to health, you’ll always be limited by your greatest weakness.

Find Your Crew

One of your biggest assets is the company you keep. I’m at my best when I’m around people who value health and performance the same way I do. We experiment with workouts, debate recovery methods, and share our go-to health podcasts and books. If you can take the time to listen to and learn from that group, you’ll find that it challenges you to improve.

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I spend several weeks a year chasing waves around the world. Traveling throws your body totally out of sync. It limits your access to healthy foods, sends you into different time zones that alter your hormonal balance, disrupts your sleep, and stiffens your muscles and joints. Rather than responding to that strain with high-intensity workouts that raise cortisol levels, I rely on a stretching and breath-work routine. It counters all the sitting and subsequent hip tightness, and also resets the sympathetic nervous system, which regulates the body’s response to stress. Begin with a breath pattern and then progress through the different stretches. Hold each position for 30 to 60 seconds and repeat the stretching sequence twice. Consider it a cheaper, healthier way to survive your journey than a drink at the hotel bar.

Breathe

To boost energy: Sit up straight with your legs crossed. Inhale deeply through your nose, forcing your diaphragm down. Then exhale rigorously from your mouth. Complete three to five sets of 30 breaths.

To create calm: Lie down flat on your back. Inhale slowly through your nose for seven seconds, pause at the top for seven seconds, and then exhale gently through your nose for another seven seconds. Keep your jaw relaxed and repeat for three to five minutes total.

Bridge

Lie flat on your back with your arms by your sides. Bend both knees and place your feet on the floor hip width apart. Press your feet into the floor, inhale, and raise your hips. Your spine should roll off the floor slightly so that most of your weight is pressed into your arms and shoulders. Engage your glutes and legs to lift your hips higher. To release, exhale slowly and roll your spine back down to the floor.

Plow

Begin by lying flat on your back. Inhale and lift your hips and legs off the floor, holding your legs straight in the air with most of your weight resting on your shoulders. (Use your hands to support the lower back as it raises.) Then, keeping your legs as straight as possible, bend from your hips to slowly lower your toes toward the floor behind your head. Hold here, keeping your torso as straight as possible and maintaining a comfortable, strain-free curve in your neck. To release, exhale and slowly unroll, lower your feet, and return to your starting position.

Pigeon

Start in downward-facing dog, your hands and feet on the ground so that your body forms an upside-down V. Swing your right knee forward to the ground between your hands, placing your right ankle near your left wrist, and fold the leg so that your shin is touching the ground. Extend your left leg to the ground so that your kneecap and the top of your foot can rest on the floor. Sink into your hips. Press through your fingertips, lift your torso away from your right thigh, and try to square your body—if needed, tuck a folded towel under the right hip. After holding, release the pose and switch sides.

Bow

Lie on your stomach with your hands by your torso, palms up. As you exhale, bend your knees, bringing your heels as close as you can to your glutes. Reach back and gently grab your ankles, keeping your knees no wider than hip-width apart. Then inhale and lift your heels away from your glutes and your thighs away from the floor, pushing against your hands and keeping your shoulder blades gliding down your spine. Once you’ve held the pose, exhale and gently release.

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