Recovery is the single most important part of any training or exercise program. Recovery allows for improved performance, permits time for our body to heal itself in preparation for the next training load, and decreases the risk of potential injury.
All these benefits allow for the attainment of new goals and PB’s. Factors influencing recovery include:
· Sleep
· Mental fatigue/stress levels
· Nutrition
· Hydration
· Frequency and type of training loads
· Alcohol intake
· Methods of warm up pre exercise and cool down post exercise
All of these can be manipulated, nurtured and controlled to have positive or negative effects on one’s recovery.
Training itself doesn’t get you fitter, faster, stronger, it’s the adaptations that occur during recovery that result in improvements. If you’re body isn’t recovering from and adapting to your training, then you’re just logging junk sessions that are wearing you down instead of building you up.
Regularly using different recovery techniques (self myofascial foam rolling, cryotherapy, compression therapy, active recovery) can promote better physical adaptations from training that allow you to train harder and more frequently.
This outcome produces greater performance/fitness improvements over time. Individually tailored recovery protocols also reduce fatigue, injury risk and illness – in a nutshell, they maximise the “bang for your buck” from your training and make every session count!
When it comes to exercise, sometimes less is more. Avoiding rest days can set you up for things like repetitive stress injuries or overtraining, which will eventually force you to take some rest days—whether you like it or not.
A well-designed exercise program—one that will help you meet your goals—includes adequate rest to fully recover from the stresses of hard exercise.