Scalable Human Blog

Working in tech taught me that recovery isn’t just for athletes, it’s essential for developers too. Cold showers, Tabata training, and heavy deadlifts have become my tools for building resilience, managing stress, and staying sharp in a high-performance field.

Tech is a field of high pressure, constant change, and mental heavy lifting. After years of debugging code and pushing production deadlines, I realised something important: I can’t perform at my best if I don’t recover well. The same systems-thinking that helps me write clean code now shapes how I train, rest, and reset. Here’s how cold showers, Tabata workouts, and deadlifting have taught me more about recovery, and why they’ve made me a better developer.

🥶 Cold Showers: Resilience in 2 Minutes

Since 2016, I’ve started my mornings with cold showers. It’s not about being tough—it’s about training my nervous system. Cold exposure activates the sympathetic nervous system, increasing norepinephrine and dopamine levels, which can enhance focus and mood (Huberman Lab, 2022). In tech, where stress and uncertainty are daily companions, this small act of discomfort builds mental resilience.

• You can choose discomfort and stay calm

• Builds stress tolerance in a controlled way

• Helps sharpen focus and reset your mindset

⏱ Tabata: Peak Output in Minimal Time

Tabata training—20 seconds of intense work, 10 seconds rest, repeated for 4 minutes—is my go-to when time is tight. It’s brutal, but efficient. Studies show that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) like Tabata improves cardiovascular health and metabolic function in less time than traditional workouts (Gibala & Little, 2012). In tech, where your time and energy are limited, this mirrors the reality of working under pressure and bouncing back fast.

What it teaches:

• Push hard, recover fast

• Efficiency beats duration

• Constraints can fuel intensity

🏋️‍♂️ Deadlifting 200kg: Strength Through Structure

Deadlifting isn’t just about brute force, it’s about alignment, breath control, and mental clarity. When I lift 200kg, everything has to be dialed in. That’s exactly like shipping reliable code: structure matters. Poor form under load leads to injury, just like poor habits under stress lead to burnout.

What it teaches:

• Respect your limits and manage your load

• Precision matters under pressure

• Strength is built through consistency, not chaos

🧩 Recovery Is a Feedback Loop

In tech, we monitor systems, track regressions, and optimise feedback loops. That mindset applies to recovery too. I’ve learned that sleep, nutrition, and movement are not afterthoughts—they’re prerequisites for high performance.

Research backs this up: physical activity improves sleep quality (Kredlow et al., 2015), and sleep is directly tied to cognitive performance, memory, and emotional regulation (Walker, 2017). When I train hard, I sleep deeper. When I sleep better, I debug faster and think more clearly.

Recovery strategies that work:

• Walk after intense work, mental or physical

• Prioritize form and quality over volume

• Use exercise to prime your nervous system for rest

• Eat enough protein to support recovery

• Do one uncomfortable thing daily to build adaptive capacity

✅ Key Takeaways:

• Cold exposure builds mental resilience and sharpens focus under stress

• Tabata training teaches efficiency and recovery perfect for time-crunched developers

• Heavy lifting reinforces discipline and structure, both physically and mentally

• Recovery is a system—optimize sleep, nutrition, and movement like you would code

• Longevity in tech depends on how well you recover, not just how hard you push

🎉 Final Note:

Tech taught me to think in systems. Eventually, I realized: I’m one too. Cold showers, Tabata, and deadlifts aren’t just workouts, they’re tools for building resilience, clarity, and longevity in a demanding field. If you want to stay sharp, focused, and in love with what you do, don’t just grind. Recover like your performance depends on it—because it does.

💬 What recovery practices keep you performing at your best?

Let me know in the comments or share this with someone who needs a reminder to slow down and reset.

📚 Further Reading & Related Topics

If you’re exploring valuable lessons on recovery learned from technology, these related articles will provide deeper insights:

• Embracing the AI Revolution: Top 10 Jobs for Software Engineers – Highlights how adapting to technological shifts can foster personal and professional recovery, especially when facing career disruptions.

• Unleashing Your Potential: A Review of The 4-Hour Work Week for Achieving Freedom and Success – Offers insights on productivity and lifestyle design inspired by technology, aligning with recovery themes such as automation, rest, and efficiency.