Why is rest and recovery important?

Summer is well and truly here and that usually means summer holidays! A time to rest, relax and let your mind and body unwind.

However, if you have been hitting the gym hard and seeing progress it can sometimes feel like taking a break is taking 3 steps backwards. But it's not! Giving your body time to recover is important for all levels of athletes (yes if you are exercising, that’s you!)

Encourages Muscle Recovery

Training, especially at higher intensities can deplete our bodies energy stores and also causes muscle tissue to break down (Think about the muscle soreness that occurs sometimes after exercise). It's important to give your body enough time to repair the muscle - this is how we get stronger! And replenish energy stores.

Not giving your body enough time to recover will leave it fatigued and more prone to injuries, and you might also start seeing plateaus in your progress.

Prevents Over Training

Once we get into the rhythm of training it can be easy to push our bodies past the point where they are comfortable. This might not come just from too many sessions at the gym. Pushing ourselves to work out after a busy workday or weekend could also lead to exhaustion. Some other signs of overtraining are increased tension, depression or anger, an inability to relax, poor quality sleep and not feeling joy from things that were once enjoyable.

Promotes Relaxation and Balance.

If you are like me, once I find a new thing I like to do I devote as much of my time to it as I can. But life is about balance. Taking a break from something is not giving up it is giving your mind and body a break and a chance to do something else.

That might be connecting with friends or family or having some self care time. Taking a rest day is dual purpose as you have time to do something else while giving your body the time it needs to recover.

How long do I need to recover?

Recovery starts as soon as the exercise is over. In the short term this is known as a “cool down”. It is important to do 5 - 15 minutes of low intensity exercise while the heart rate slows down and the breath returns to normal. Stretching is also helpful to flush out any lactic acid build up and can help prevent DOMS (Delayed onset muscle soreness - The thing that makes you walk like Michael Jackson in thriller after squats day!)

How many rest days you should take each week depends on how intense your workout program is, but a good rule of thumb is a minimum of two. Either together or spread out throughout the week.

Active recovery

There are two types of rest days, passive and active. Passive involves having a day completely off from exercise, which might be useful if you train intensely, but most people will be able to recover with active recovery. This is low impact movement like walking stretching or yoga.

Active recovery promotes good blood circulation which helps with the removal of waste products from muscle breakdown and brings the nutrients needed to help build and repair.

If you would like to know more about which training program is right for you or how much rest and recovery you need contact me on maxineellison@me.com or 07747676414