Are you always tired, sore or lacking progress in the gym? If you are, then you may not be over-training, but rather under-recovering! The biggest difference between over-training and progress is how well you recover from your workouts.
Recovery is the most important part of every workout plan. Without proper recovery, all you are doing is breaking your body down. Recovery is where your body repairs and rebuilds itself. To continuously get stronger and make progress towards your health and fitness goals, you need to not only train hard but recover hard. Every progam is not complete without a recovery plan.
Recovery is especially important to protect against overuse injuries. Therefore it is critical for anyone already suffering from overuse to prioritise recovery. Everybody is different and will have different recovery needs. It is important to observe your body’s needs and explore recovery options to see what works best for you.
Post-Workout Stretch
Your workout recovery should start before the workout is complete, by finishing with some mobility and flexibility work. Adding stretching and/or foam rolling for at least 10 minutes to the end of each workout will help keep your muscles and joints healthy while preventing injury. Healthy muscle is both strong and flexible, so don’t skip out on this part.
In addition to your post-workout stretch, a yoga class between workouts as part of your weekly workout plan is the perfect addition to increase your flexibility and recovery.
Get Enough Sleep
Your body needs proper sleep to function properly. While you sleep your body grows and recovers. You can refill depleated fat and glycogen stores (muscle fuel) while you’re awake, but you can only grow and repair muscles while you are asleep.
How much sleep you need depends on many factors. Everyone is different and will require different amounts of sleep to recover from everyday life and the additional stress of exercise. However, generally adults need beteen 7 and 9 hours of quality sleep a night and should wake up feeling refreshed and revived.
Eat For Recovery
Good nutrition is also a vital part of proper workout recovery to get enough calories for your body to rebuild what it has lost during your workout. For most people, eating a healthy balanced diet is enough to recover from a 2-3 workouts a week. However, if you are an athlete or do any form of intense training, then you may have higher needs for nutrients to recover and repair your body.
Eating to recover may be as simple as an additional meal, a pre or post workout snack or larger meal portions throughout the day. It is important to consult a dietician who can provide expert nutrition and diet advice tailored to your needs. Your nutricional intake will be different if you want to build muscle or lose weight.
Planning and preparing nutricional meals and snacks ahead of time can make it easier for you to keep to your plan and make the best choices for your body’s needs.
I hope you can use some of these tips to get the recovery needed to meet your health and fitness goals. Contact us if you would like to discuss how to program recovery into your workout plan.
Exercise your mind and body,
Shaun