ROD 102509

ROD

Sunday, 25Oct09

Rest Day

Tips on Recovery From Exercise

Recovery from exercises involves more than simply having a bottle of water after a workout. Recovery encompasses the time between sets during your workout, your cool down, and the amount of rest you have between workouts. All of these types of recovery help form a comprehensive workout plan to keep your body on track and injury-free. Over-training can be a real problem for enthusiastic individuals who want immediate results. What they don’t realize is that exercise recovery is just as important as the exercise itself.

What happens when we exercise?

During a workout, our heart rates elevate, our muscles warm up, and our bodies pump energy to the muscles to help with vigorous movement. This takes a toll on a body. Everything focuses on helping the muscles perform the activity. The body directs nutrients to the task, helping keep energy levels high enough until the exercise is completed. The pumping of blood and oxygen gives your body what is commonly called a cardiovascular workout. The rejuvenation of our energy stores takes place between sets of exercises, immediately after exercise, during active rest, between exercise days, and during nighttime sleep.

Nighttime Recovery
An inviting bed

Proper rest can be the ultimate deciding factor in the success of your exercise routine. If you aren’t getting enough sleep, staying motivated to work out will be hard. A comfy sofa or bed calling to you will win out almost every time. Get enough sleep each night to keep yourself on track mentally, reduce stress, and keep you moving forward with your fitness routine. This regenerative time is important for our bodies because it gives the body a chance to rebuild damaged tissues and muscles.

Active Recovery
Recovery can also take the form of moderate exercise on your off days. Alternating weight lifting with light cardio work allows the body recovery time while still continuing regular workouts. This type of active recovery allows the body to continue performing some type of exercises such as walking, yoga, or stretching. Maybe you feel the strain of a hard workout and choose to perform chores that don’t strain the muscles. This type of “active resting” allows you to recover while still elevating the heart rate and gently working the muscles.

Recovery between Sets
Rest between sets involves short-term breaks to quickly rejuvenate the body. We catch our breath, take a sip of water, or stretch our muscles between sets. These breaks allow a minimal amount of recovery for muscles but are necessary to keep us moving to prevent muscle fatigue.

Recovery between Exercise Days
Very strenuous exercise begs for a day off every now and then. In fact, this premise is even more important with strength training. Allowing time for your muscles to recover from fatigue prevents injury and keeps you motivated.

Hydration and Stretching
Water is important.

Common forms of exercise recovery include hydration and stretching to cool down the muscles. Drinking adequate water before, during, and after exercise will give you more energy and help limit muscle damage. Staying hydrated all the time will improve your workout and affect your overall attitude about the workout. Having a light snack after exercise restores the body to equilibrium. Gentle stretching will relieve general soreness and increase flexibility. Always use stretching as a recovery method after exercise to lengthen muscles. But go gently and work slowly to allow adequate recovery during this cool-down period. Remember the exercises that you perform at NLP, are done at high intensity. On rest days take advantage of recovering by eating right and strecthing to release those bad toxins.