Why are you afraid of rest and recovery?
Do you make time for rest and recovery during your physical activities, or do you just carry on pushing hoping the outcome of all that hard work will come quicker? I have a secret I would like to share with you that would possibly help you achieve your goal a little quicker, this is rest and recovery. Why it shouldn’t be feared and how to stop the constant cycle of injuries and fatigue.
Fatigue should be taken as a sign by the body as a self-protective mechanism to prevent further muscle damage, possibly leading to injuries. The body’s central nervous system helps protect itself from physical exhaustion or burn-out. Some people who take part in physical activities from the weekend warriors to professional athletes, they have lost the ability to listen and feel how their bodies are reacting to the stimulus of physical activity. There are some situations that we need to push that little further and be uncomfortable, which helps with adaption and progression. But the body will eventually stop responding from being constantly fatigued, and the opposite will start to happen.
For example, some people in the gym will carry on working out until they have nothing left just for the pump every session. Or as I would call them junk reps since the stimulus has become too much for the body. This accumulated fatigue is too much for the body to recover from meaning no gains or improvement will be achieved.
Some of the signs that you are overtraining or the physical activity you are partaking in is becoming too much for your body, and it's letting you know that it needs some recovery time. This just doesn't happen overnight fatigue accumulates over time via the constant external stresses put on your body.
· Heart rate is higher than usual
· Issues with sleep
· Not feeling motivated
· Loss of appetite
· Constant sore and tight muscles
· Muscle cramps
I know some people are fearful of rest and recovery, especially when it’s so engrained into their daily lifestyle, almost like a job. I always say if you find whatever activity you are taking part in and if you have stopped enjoying it or feeling the benefits of it any more, either change it up or take some time away/rest. Otherwise, it may come to a sudden stop because you have become far too fatigued or injured to continue. The questions that you may start to ask yourself, will you get weaker, will you lose strength or power, will you lose your performance skill and so on? I am not saying that you might lose a little strength or size, but it will not take as long as it previously did to get back your fitness level.
You shouldn't go back in at the same intensity levels you were previously but build back up to it, don’t get frustrated in the first few weeks, it will be worth it. What about your skill level? Like the saying goes, you never forget how to ride a bike or swim. You have muscle memory and depending on your injury the skill might be difficult to perform at first, but as you heal the skill will come back. Looking at most professional sports people, they have been injured and the majority of them are just as skilled when they get back to full strength. I have even seen their overall performance become better after injury. Time away from the sport and concentrating on their weaker areas possibly while the injured area heals.
People talk to me about their injuries being worried that they can’t take part in what they enjoy any more. Which causes more stress and accumulation of stress hormones in the body is not going to help the body recover, possibly even slow it down. People with an injury, usually have something that’s their weakness or something they don’t like to work on or train as much. Let’s say for example a runner who has a calf injury I would advise that they work on the core muscles and even their arms. Keeping them concentrated on some kind of training and removes the fear and stress of not doing anything.
Another technique I like to sometimes use is isometrics, again this depends on the kind of injury. With most injuries, there is a sweet spot of pain, let's take the shoulder as an example. The area of pain felt is about 90 degrees, but no pain was felt around 80 or 100 degrees above and below. Isometric work can be done in these areas. When performing an isometric hold the strength gains can be felt about 10 degrees above and below the area of the isometric hold has taken place. The best thing you can do to avoid an unplanned recovery session is to have plan recovery sessions, the unplanned ones will last a lot longer than the planned ones.
Three ways to reduce Fatigue and injury:
1. Plan your workouts/Training* – A (mesocycle) plan your training for a beginner 10–12 weeks, intermediate 10–8 weeks and athlete 4–6 weeks. This helps you seen if you’re overtraining in one area and also where you may need specific rest or recovery days. Then after the cycle you could have an active recovery week and start again. Bonus tip don’t forget about progressive over load.
2. Make the most of your recovery methods, and is there value in them? Meaning are they working for you, do you still feel the same after your recovery or recovery session? Maybe you require a better stretching or foam rolling routine. Possibly, your sleep isn’t the best which is key and excellent for recovery. Or could be that you need to see a professional like a Sports Massage Therapist to speed up muscular recovery and any injuries you might feel coming on.
3. Complete nutrition and supplementation - no matter if you want to build muscle, lose weight or taking part in a competition. The body has nutritional needs to be met and this also aids with recovery and muscle damage, it’s just as important as you're training they go hand in hand. You will not achieve your goal if your nutritional goals are not being met. If you struggle with your nutritional goals supplementation can help.
*To help with training periodization books by Tudor Bompa are a good place to start.