POST WORKOUT RECOVERY

You’re training hard and eating well but how is your post workout recovery regime? To become, fitter, leaner, stronger, faster we need to train hard which puts stress and strain on the body. 

But in order to progress from stress and strain into repair, development and growth, we need to rest and recover and recover well. 

During our training we cause microscopic muscle fibre tears, energy depletion, hormone stimulation, inflammation, system fatigue, neurological, cardiovascular and respiratory sympathetic responses. 

These are all good and natural responses and changes that lead to improved health, fitness, fat reduction, strength and muscle development, bone strengthening, reduced toxic load, reduced inflammation, strengthened immune system and lower stress cortisol levels. 

The repetition of stress and strain followed by rest and recovery will lead to improved health and fitness, but only if we actually follow through with the rest and recovery. If we don’t, the load and fatigue can lead to overtraining, performance decline, muscle breakdown, hormonal imbalance, reduced immunity, injury, exhaustion and chronic fatigue symptoms. 

So how do we rest and how best should we recover? 

The most obvious form is passive recovery. To cease the action. Stop, sit down, lie down and have physical rest. We can actively recovery with low impact movement, gentle mobility, stretching, yoga flows and animal flow movements and routines. Recovery whilst training can be done by swapping training between exercise disciplines or swapping between body parts with resistance training on different days. We can be resting our muscles by doing a cardio session. We can rest our lower body by training our upper body. Outside of this we can include deep tissue manipulation; massage, foam rolling, trigger point ball therapy, dry needling. We can recover nutritionally, by eating or refuelling after training with good quality nutrients, supplements and hydration and we can recover most importantly with long, deep, good quality sleep. 

It’s all important and all needs to be included. If you want progress, growth, development and change from your training, then put high value and prioritised time into rest and recovery.