Recovery is often overlooked during training/workouts. Recovery is an essential part of your workout. It allows you to train more often and harder so you can get more out of your workouts. It can have a big impact on your fitness gains or performance.
Recovery after exercise is essential to muscle and tissue repair and strength building.
A muscle needs anywhere from 24 to 48 hours to repair and rebuild, and working it again too soon simply leads to tissue breakdown instead of building. For weight training routines, never work the same muscles groups two days in a row.
Here are at least 4 ways to help you recover:
1. Sleep: Sleep is one of the most important ways to recover. You might notice you need more sleep on the days you lift verses the days you do cardio. When you sleep your tissue growth and repair happens, so get plenty of it!
sleeping beauty
2. Food: When and what you put into your body after a workout is hugely important! Make sure you fuel yourself within 60 minutes after a workout with high quality protein and a good carbohydrate (fruits or vegetables).
3. Stretching: Stretching is essential after any type of a workout. It helps prevent soreness and injury, helps elongate the muscles and it helps the muscles recover.
4. Listening to your body: Listening to your body is key and something most of us do not do enough of. For some reason we feel that we need to run as far as we did the day before or lift as much as we did last week. Remember, each day is unique and it’s own, don’t compare or judge it to any other day, especially when it comes to your workouts. If you are feeling tired you may need more recovery time, a walk instead of a jog, or lighter weights than you used last time. Don’t blow off listening to those signals your body is giving you, who knows, you might even need two days off from your last workout.
Good luck with your workouts and don’t forget to recover!
Thanks for asking about this topic Jamie, hope this helps.
Do you take the time needed to recover properly?
Ali
