You cannot call yourself efficient if recovery only happens after collapse.

A system that only rests after breaking down is not running well, it is running until failure. When recovery is treated as what happens after collapse rather than as part of the ordinary cycle, the cost shows up as lost weeks, missed work, and slow returns to form. Efficiency that ignores this is only counting the fast part and leaving out the repair.

Build recovery into the schedule while things are still going well, when it feels least necessary. A regular evening, a day, a proper break between hard pushes. Planned rest is far cheaper than the unplanned kind.