Recovery is super important in the workout process.
Not only does it help you avoid all of those negative side effects, but when those micro-tears heal, your muscles grow. Overtraining, or under recovering, negatively impacts your performance. If you're more into cardio, this still applies.
Why is recovery important?
Your muscles don't actually grow while you are working out; they grow while resting in between sessions. Exercise is essentially stress, and when you repeatedly stress your body it becomes better adapted to respond to the stimulus.
Working out, specifically weightlifting and body weight exercises, creates micro-tears in your muscles. If you don't give them adequate time to heal, then the tears grow and your muscles feel inflamed, swollen and exhausted. Not allowing yourself adequate recovery time can lead to decreased performance and even overtraining syndrome. Overtraining syndrome, or OTS, is ugly. It compromises your immune system, makes you feel exhausted and causes chronic joint and muscle pain.
Aerobic exercise, especially running, follows the same progressive overload principle as weightlifting. This is a fancy way of saying that the training programs are also designed to pile an increasing workload onto your body. Then, you recover, and your body adapts to better respond to that stress.
The specific adaptations depend on what specific exercise you do, but in REGULAR LANGUAGE we generally know the adaptation effect as getting "into better shape." For example, if you run a lot, cycle or do another aerobic activity, your VO2 max increases. Essentially, this means that your body is able to use more oxygen while working out, which boosts endurance.
If you lift weights or do body weight exercise, the main adaptation is called muscle hypertrophy and increases the size of your muscles to make you stronger. The list of physical changes your body makes after working out is endless, but the point is that they all take time and rest to occur. ........, if you don't give yourself time to recover, you won't get as fit.
When athletes (and yes, you) are able to recover quickly, they can hit the next workout with their full ability and maximize performance. If you don't take enough rest after each session, you won't give your body enough time to reap the full effects of your exercise and may even fall victim to overtraining.
If you enhance your recovery, your body will adapt better to the stress you're putting yourself through and you may even get fitter for the same workout intensity and frequency.
General tips to follow TO RECOVER AFTER AN INTENSE WORKOUT (usually using weights)
Get hydrated. Rehydration is essential, especially if you've exercised intensely or broken a sweat. ...WATER, WATER AND WATER or I highly recommend HYDRATE CLICK HERE
Eat a healthy snack. Plan to eat a healthy snack or meal within 45 minutes of completing your workout. ... or I recommend RECOVER PROTEIN CLICK HERE
Do light exercise on rest days. ... or FOAM ROLLER CLICK HERE TO SHOP MY FAV ONE
Don't forget to cool down.....cold shower or warm bath with EPSON SALTS - my favorites are here CLICK HERE
