[Practical Workshop] The Recovery Scan: Frickin' Laser Beams for Your Body
How to use your attention like a diagnostic tool to map tension, rebuild body awareness, and actually reset after training
Most athletes treat recovery like a waiting room
You finish training, stretch for thirty seconds, grab something to eat, then scroll your phone until tomorrow. The assumption is that recovery just happens by doing… nothing. That if you stop moving long enough, your body figures it out on its own.
But recovery isn’t passive. It’s not something that happens to you. It’s something you can actively engage with: a skill you can train, just like strength or focus.
The Recovery Scan is one of the simplest ways to build that skill. It’s a short, quiet practice that helps your nervous system shift from “performance mode” to “recovery mode,” using the one tool you always have with you: your attention.
This version uses a visualization I’ve found more engaging for athletes than traditional body scans: a futuristic laser grid that moves slowly over your body, mapping tension, fatigue, and energy as it goes. It’s part mental imagery, part awareness training, part sci-fi (well not really). But it works.
Why should I learn to scan my body?
When training stops, your body doesn’t immediately return to calm. Your muscles stay slightly tense. Your nervous system stays alert. Your mind replays moments from the session: mistakes, close calls, things you should have done differently.
Have you ever caught yourself in bed after a big game thinking about a high tension moment and you realise you are clenching your teeth, or your fists while you are still thinking about it?
A body scan creates a bridge between those two states. It teaches you to notice rather than numb out. By turning your attention inward, you start picking up signals that usually get drowned out by noise: fatigue in specific areas, tightness you didn’t realize was there, or unexpected pockets of calm.
That awareness helps you:
Recognize early signs of overtraining before they become injuries
Identify hotspots that may need a bit of foam rolling
Separate physical tiredness from mental tension
Wind down more effectively before sleep
It’s not magic. You’re just giving your system a chance to actually reset, instead of assuming it will.
The mindset behind the scan
This isn’t about forcing relaxation or controlling your thoughts.
It’s about observation. You’re mapping what’s there, not trying to change it.
Think of yourself as a technician running diagnostics on your own body. The laser grid is your tool. It doesn’t judge what it finds, it just records. Your job is to watch and notice. That’s it.
The act of noticing itself is what allows the body to shift toward recovery.
When to use it
The Recovery Scan works best:
After intense training or games
On rest days when your body feels “off”
Before bed, especially after evening sessions
Five to ten minutes is enough. If you make it a regular ritual, it becomes a psychological “off switch.” A clear signal to your nervous system that the work is done for the day. It is actually used a lot in meditation.
How to do the Recovery Scan
You don’t need equipment, music, or dim lighting. Just somewhere you can sit or lie down comfortably without interruption.
Power down
Close your eyes.
Take two slow breaths in and out.
Let your body settle wherever it is. No need to sit perfectly straight or lie completely still. You’re just powering down from “on-field” mode to “maintenance” mode.
Before you start, just notice all the points on your body where it is making contact with whatever you are sitting or lying on. Just notice it, notice the pressure of your body on the chair or surface.
Activate the scan
Now imagine a thin, glowing laser grid hovering just below your feet.
Picture it like something out of a sci-fi film: horizontal lines of light stretching from wall to wall, humming faintly with energy.
When you’re ready, let the grid begin its slow, steady rise.
As it moves upward, it scans your body inch by inch, mapping how each part feels. Warmth, tightness, pulsing, heaviness, stillness. Whatever’s actually there.
Scan slowly from the feet upward
Let the grid move from your toes to your ankles.
Notice what the “laser” reveals. Maybe your feet feel heavy. Maybe there’s a dull ache in one ankle. Maybe nothing at all. That’s fine. Keep observing.
Then move through:
Calves
Knees
Thighs
Hips
As it travels upward, imagine the grid collecting data, like a diagnostic scan running on a machine. You’re not changing anything. Just reading the system.
For me, I really slow the laser down when it scans my knees. These are problematic for me so I cant to collect as much data as I can here.
Continue through your torso
Let the beam move through your lower back and stomach.
Notice your breathing. Not to control it, but just to feel its rhythm.
Do you feel constricted anywhere?
Then up through your chest and shoulders.
If you sense tension there, acknowledge it, then move on.
Think of it like this: you’re reporting what you find, not trying to fix the code.
Move to arms, neck, and head
Let the laser grid sweep through your arms, wrists, and fingers.
Then up through your neck and face: the jaw, the eyelids, the forehead.
Imagine the light softening everything it touches, as if your muscles realize they don’t need to stay “online” anymore.
Full system view
When the scan reaches the top of your head, imagine the entire grid surrounding your body. A faint field of light pulsing gently around you.
You’re looking at the full system now. Everything has been checked.
Stay there for a few breaths. Feel the quiet hum of the system idling. Not off, just at rest.
What you might notice
When you finish, open your eyes slowly.
You might feel calmer. Or just more aware. You might notice fatigue in a specific muscle group, or that your breathing feels steadier than it did ten minutes ago.
None of that is the goal. It’s just feedback.
The point is to rebuild communication with your body, which modern training and constant screen time often drown out completely.
Over time, you’ll start to notice patterns:
Which areas tighten after specific drills
Which evenings your mind races while your body doesn’t follow
When you’ve actually recovered versus when you’ve just stopped moving
You may even understand early warning signs of impeding injuries
That awareness gives you real insight into how your body responds to training. Insight you can’t get from any app or device.
The nightly version
You can also run a shorter version before sleep.
Lie in bed, close your eyes, and imagine the grid scanning from your feet upward.
As it passes each area, silently think: “Scanned, clear.”
That’s it. No deep breathing exercises, no stretching. Just awareness.
For many athletes, this becomes a kind of mental “shutdown sequence.” It creates separation between the effort of the day and the rest that follows.
The real value of the Recovery Scan
The Recovery Scan isn’t about relaxation or spirituality.
It’s about feedback. You’re learning the language of your own body.
When you can interpret that language, when you know what fatigue, readiness, and calm actually feel like, you start making better decisions:
You rest when you need to
You push when you can
You recover smarter, not just longer
Challenge
Try this for five nights in a row:
Do the Recovery Scan before sleep or at the end of the day
When you wake up, rate how recovered you feel (no tracking app, just your own sense)
After five days, look for patterns
Do you notice different levels of energy or calm depending on how thoroughly you scanned the night before?
Are there any correlations between daily activity level, work stress, or training types and the data you discover on your scans?
You might find that awareness itself becomes your best recovery tool.