Rest and Recovery

Everyone who trains at a high degree whether it's running, swimming, biking or whatever the sport knows that getting enough rest after exercise is essential to high level performance.

Every time a hard workout is achieved, it provides a stimulus for the body to improve in some way. The lactate threshold, fat- burning ability and VO2 max are a few indicators that show improvement. One workout though, provides only a mild stimulus for improvement but, with several workouts over time, that will create the total stimulus needed to improve specific components to overall fitness.

The training stimulus is only half of what is required for performance improvement. To improve, the body must recover from training so as to adapt to a higher level. When recovery is managed properly, it will optimize training. Actual physiological gains occur during rest and recovery!

Recovery from training is important both from day to day and over the course of a training cycle. A training program lacking enough recovery time to repair and replenish will only cause the body to continue to breakdown due to over training. Over training simply overwhelms the body's ability to respond positively to training. Signs of over training include a feeling of general lack of health, staleness, depression, decreased sports performance and increased risk of injury, among others. Continuous training may also actually weaken the strongest athlete.

If someone is feeling fatigue or soreness from a hard workout after three days then you need to cut back on intensity of your workouts and maybe take another look at you training schedule. You may be trying to do too much too soon or not getting enough rest leading to overtraining as stated above.

Rest days are critical to sports performance for a variety of reasons. Some are physiological and some are physical. As stated above rest is physically necessary so that the muscles can repair, rebuild and strengthen. Building in rest days can help maintain fitness goals and give better balance between home and work.

So what happens during recovery?

1. Again, this is the time that the body adapts to the stress of exercise and the real training takes effect.
2. Hard training causes changes in the body such as:

1. Immediate fatigue
2. Muscle tissue breakdown
3. Depletion of glycogen
4. Dehydration. Recovery allows the body to replenish energy stores and repair damaged tissues.

Recovery can be broken down into two categories, short term and long term. There is immediate (short-term) recovery from a particularly intense training session or event, and there is the long-term recovery that needs to be built into a year-round training schedule. Both are very important for optimal performance.

Short-term recovery,

1. Also called active recovery, occurs in the hours right after intense exercise.
2. Active recovery is engaging in low-intensity exercise after workouts during both the cool-down phase immediately after a hard workout as well as during the days following the workout; both types of active recovery are linked to performance benefits.
3. Short term recovery calls for time to:

1. Replenish energy stores and fluids lost during exercise.
2. Optimizes protein synthesis (the process of increasing the protein content of muscle cells, preventing muscle breakdown and increasing muscle size) by eating the right foods in the post-exercise meal.
3. Active Recovery also allows time for soft tissue (muscles, tendons, ligaments) repair and the removal of chemicals that builds up because of cell activity during exercise.

Long-term recovery,

1. Includes recovery techniques that are built into a seasonal training program.
2. Well-designed training schedules will include recovery days and or weeks that are built into an annual training schedule. Make changes to the training schedule throughout the year.

1. Add cross training
2. Modify workout types
3. Make changes in intensity
4. Make changes in duration
5. Make changes in distance and all the other training variables.

Adaptation to exercise states, when under the stress of physical exercise, the body adapts and becomes more efficient. It's just like learning any new skill; at first, it's difficult, but over time, it becomes second nature. Once adapted to a given stress, additional stress is necessary to continue to make progress, recovery time is essential to continued improvement in adaptation.

There are limits to how much stress the body can handle before it breaks down and risks injury. Doing too much work too quickly will result in injury or muscle damage, but doing too little, too slowly will not result in any improvement. Increase time and intensity at a planned rate and allow rest days throughout the program.

It all boils down to balancing exercise with rest and recovery; it is this alternation of adaptation and recovery that takes the body to a higher level of fitness. When training at a high level, realize that the greater the training intensity and effort, the greater the need for planned recovery.

Runners vary greatly in how long it takes to recover from and adapt to a workout and is determined by genetics and life style. Genetics determine the tendency to adapt to training. Lifestyle factors, such as diet, quality and quantity of sleep, health, age ( you tend to recover more slowly with age), gender ( women tend to recover more slowly because of lower testosterone levels), and everyday stress such as work and relationships all have a part to play in how quickly you recover from and adapt to training.

Besides taking time off and or reducing training load during a training cycle, you should always follow the hard/easy principle. A hard day followed by (depending on the intensity of the workout) one or more recovery days of easy running, cross training, or total rest.

Monitoring workouts with a training log, paying attention to how the body feels and motivation levels are all very helpful in determining recovery needs and modifying training programs accordingly.

Enjoy every step,

Al