Training recovery

Importance of training recovery

Human body isn’t made to work non-stop. You need to rest and let it recover before starting a new workout. A common problem especially among amateur athletes is that they think the more you train the better and stronger you will get. That is absolutely not true.

If you don’t allow your body to properly rest, sooner or later you will “burn” yourself out. Doing so you will not only harm your body but also lose all the progress you achieved during the last weeks or months.

Basic training recovery tips

• Sleep - It is not really a post workout recovery method, but you should take it seriously. Scientific studies have shown that teenagers should sleep 8 – 9 hours and adults require 7 – 8 hours of sleep. If you are a physically active person you should add up to one hour more of sleeping time.

  But this is not the absolute truth because every person is different. If somebody feels great with only 7 hours of sleep, other person may need 9 hours to fully recover. In the end it comes to personal preferences and individual body requirements. Take sleeping seriously or your body will never achieve its true potential

• Warm-up and stretch – Every training routine should consist of three parts – warm-up, workout and stretching. It doesn’t matter if you are lifting weights, going for a trail run or just riding your bike. Rules stay the same.

  First, do a proper warm-up session. It will slowly raise your heart rate, increase joint mobility, thus reducing risk of injury.

  Second, post-workout stretching is the best way to help your body recover faster. It will loosen tense muscles and improve the blood flow. Don’t skip your warm-up and stretching unless you like to wake up with a sore back next morning.

• Active recovery - Do active recovery instead of passive recovery. For example, if yesterday you worked very hard physically or had a sports competition, do not sit all of the next day at the computer or TV. You should do something active – walking, jogging, bike riding or gardening. But remember that this is recovery so the activity must be low intensity.

  Active post workout recovery will help your body to recover much faster than the passive. It is so because your muscle tissues will get more blood flow through them. They will get more oxygen and more nutrients. Active recovery should take at least 30 minutes.

• Heat - One of the easiest ways to loosen a tense muscle is to apply heat on it. It can be a hot bath or a hot towel. Probably the best thing to do is to buy a reusable hot/cold pack. It can be dropped in boiling water for a few minutes and then wrapped in an old t-shirt or a towel to avoid scorching your bare skin and applied to the tense area.

  Applying heat to the sore and/or tense area for 4-6 minutes will work well, especially if combined with stretching as well.

• Contrast Showers – Contrast showers consist of showering under hot water (not hot enough to burn yourself) for a minute and then showering under ice cold water for a minute. Repeat this for 6-8 minutes. You can apply contrast showers on your whole body or just one area. This is a really easy and effective way to loosen tense lower back muscles, although it works for any muscle group.

• Massage – It’s probably the best thing that you can do for a sore back. In the hands of a skilled masseuse, a good massage can work wonders for both relieving pain and increasing range of motion. An effective sports massage will not be very relaxing. In fact it can get pretty painful, especially if you have some muscles with a lot of trigger points.

  If you have swelling and soreness in your legs or arms self massage could also be an option. Start with a light rubbing to warm up the muscles. When you feel that the area is getting warmer and your skin is turning pink try to squeeze and loosen the tense muscles. It will definitely feel better but it takes practice to do it correctly.



• Nutrition and supplements – ingesting the required dose of vitamins and minerals are crucial in healthy lifestyle and fitness. If you are a hard working person and don’t ingest the daily dose of required vitamins and minerals you risk to “burn” yourself out. A complete diet is directly connected with physical recovery and wellbeing. Eating for energy can help you to develop your own diet.

  Don’t slack on eating right or you will never feel the real benefits of being healthy and active. Try to eat whole foods, vegetables and fruits. Stay well hydrated. Don’t drink sodas and coffee, but drink mineral water, natural teas and fresh juice.