Taking a rest day from your workout routine is no longer considered the best way to recover from demanding workouts or get great workout results. Whether you're training to burn fat, run a marathon, or build muscle to reverse osteoporosis, taking a day off from your workout routine can be counterproductive. Here's the 411 on why recovery workouts are a much better option, how to choose the right type of recovery exercises for your needs and how much time to spend on recovery workouts to boost results from all your other workouts.
What Are Recovery Workouts & Why You Need Them
A recovery workout is simply a workout that helps you recover from all your other routines. It's purpose is to undo any tension or damage and to help your body heal faster so when it's time to workout again you can continue to make progress.
In the old days a rest day was considered the ideal way to recover from workouts and that may have worked back when our society was not so sedentary or so stressed. These days going for a long run or performing tons of weighted lunges creates muscular tension that is then aggravated by sitting at a desk or standing for long hours. Pile on some stress and a handful of poor food choices and you've got the beginning of postural imbalances that lead to injuries or pain syndromes that interfere with your workout results.
Incorporating recovery workouts is the easiest way to improve performance and stay injury free the trick is to find the right type of recovery exercises for your goals.
What Recovery Exercises To Choose & How Much Recovery Do You Need
There are many ways to incorporate recovery workouts into your weekly workout routine. What you choose depends on your preferences and your needs. If you have a ton of tension then yoga or mobility work that includes circular movement is your best bet. If you're a runner and you're dealing with potential injuries, flexibility issues, or pain then mobility drills and myofacial release with a foam roller or Yamuna balls is ideal. Highly stressed people who can't relax with yoga would be better off going for an easy walk or swim and then finishing up with some dynamic stretches. All the options below release tension, boost mobility, flexibility, joint lubrication, and blood flow. The key to getting results from recovery work is to find something that's a good fit for your personality and your goals.
Flow yoga
Foam roller therapy
Mobility drills
Dynamic stretches
Relaxing swim
Easy cardio workouts
Circular movements (hula hooping or belly dance)
Corrective exercise (Egoscue method
)Yamuna body rolling
Thai massage
So how do you choose what's right for you and how much of it you need? According to my Rolfer your recovery work should be equal to your other workouts and if you're dealing with serious injuries or pain then the ratio needs to be 2:1 recovery to workout. This is difficult for most exercise junkies so a great solution for those who find recovery work too boring or too time consuming is to incorporate a quick 5 minute post workout recovery regimen into your daily workouts and then add 1-2 days of longer recovery work (20-60 minutes) weekly. Your weekly routine could look something like this:
Sunday 40 min. recovery
Monday strength + 5 min. recovery
Tuesday cardio + 5 min. recovery
Wednesday 20 min. recovery day
Thursday strength + 5 min. recovery
Friday cardio + 5 min. recovery
Saturday hybrid day (strength + cardio) + 5 min. recovery
Keep in mind that finding something that feels good and gets the job done is going to be what will keep you consistent.
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