Along with its ugly twin strength training, recovery is often the most overlooked aspect of exercise. More isn’t always better, and people who push and push with no respite will find a stall in progress.
Your body doesn’t recover during exercise. It recovers through sleep, nutrition and some well deserved rest. Exercise is a stress to the body so recovery is an essential component that should not be overlooked.
Your body is like a bank account. Exercise debits from the account and recovery strategies credit. At the end of the year you want the account to be balanced and not in the ‘red’. By paying back into the account by doing massage, stretching, foam rolling etc you are prolonging your training life and shortening the risk of injury.
Often these practices are over-looked as they are not as glamorous. People want to ‘feel the burn’ and like to push themselves to the limit every time they workout. These people can only go on for so long until something gives.
Don’t be the person who is in the gym doing 5-6 half arsed workouts a week. Get 3 good workouts in and give it your all each session. Choose quality over quantity everyday. This at first is a tough concept for people to understand, but if you’re truly giving your all 3-4 times a week, there’s no chance you’d want to train anymore on top.
Use that time to employ recovery strategies so you come back the following week fully rested and ready to go again.
If you have any questions on the above or would like some advice on how we could help you with your fitness goal, don’t hesitate, visit our gym and try one of our small group personal training sessions.
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