Benefits of Active Rest and Recovery

Benefits of Active Rest and Recovery

Workout Recovery is important for getting the most out of your fitness programming and an essential component of a personal training education. I spend a good amount of time talking with my clients about proper recovery techniques to avoid burnout and injury due to over-training.  It’s hard to get a dedicated fitness junkie away from exercise sometimes – but it is important for recovery and repair of muscle fibers, resetting your central nervous system and increasing cardiovascular efficiency.

We all know how our bodies feel the day after a challenging workout. It’s common for exercisers to experience one or more of the following after a tough workout session: delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), muscle damage (small microscopic tears that can occur when a muscle is stressed beyond what it’s used to), inflammation, and a feeling of physical fatigue.

When you’re super sore after a workout, it might be tempting to lay down and binge-watch your favorite show to avoid any unnecessary muscle contractions. However, research suggests that doing absolutely nothing might not be the best recovery technique.

There are three ways to approach active rest:

1.Between exercise sets. Example: Cycling at a low intensity between lifting sets or a light jog between a set of sprints.

2. Immediately following a tough exercise session (aka the cool-down).
3. Between exercise days. Example: Performing light cardio or doing a low-intensity movement session like yoga.

Not only does active recovery help you reset your metabolic pathways , but research also suggests that active recovery is better than passive recovery when it comes to how well you can perform during your workout. The High Altitude Exercise Physiology Program research team from Western State Colorado University conducted a study comparing active recovery and passive recovery when it comes to performance during an exercise session.  So instead of sitting on the bench surfing the interweb, jog a slow lap or cycling lightly on a stationary bike is better

Cool-down is important after exercise in that it allows your body to come back to a normal/resting (not true resting) heart rate.  In addition to some light cardio and stretching, foam rolling is also a great post work-out recovery technique to reduce Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS).

Active rest between exercise days can consist of many activities.  Typical active recovery activities include walking, swimming, cycling, jogging, yoga, or active stretching. The key is to find an activity that’s low-intensity and keeps your heart rate at 30-60% of your maximum heart rate. 

How is all of this put into practice?  The goal is to balance out your week with a healthy mix of medium to high-intensity training with some low-intensity training for recovery. Rhea et al. (2003) recommends spacing out strength training days with 1-2 rest days in-between. Here are a few examples of what your training schedule might look like:

STRENGTH TRAINING TWO DAYS/WEEK:

STRENGTH TRAINING THREE DAYS/WEEK:

STRENGTH TRAINING FOUR DAYS/WEEK:

You may be thinking, “when are my days off?”  If done correctly, active recovery should feel like an off-day compared with your regular training.

When you see active recovery on the schedule, it doesn’t mean that you have to do a structured workout. The key is to do some easy movement to keep your blood flowing.