Recovery is the forgotten ingredient within training and working out.
I’ve always found it’s the component I can easily not put enough focus on. But I notice the impacts and drawbacks when I neglect this fundamental ingredient.
I believe recovery can get forgotten about because it doesn’t have the same fun/fancy/sexy feeling that working out has, it’s a bit boring (the nuts and bolt like bushing out teeth).
Over the past 10 years I’ve found it so easy to keep pushing hard, maybe this is because of messaging that goes around like
I want to bring an awareness to the importance of putting some emphasis and focus on your recovery.
Because for you to build stronger muscles/get faster/fitter recovery is the essential building block.
You must give your body the conditions needed for the repair and adaptation to occur following working out.
Continuing to always push hard will ultimately result in you getting tired and become slower, your change of injury raises too.
When it comes to the recovery the three key principles, are:
- Refuelling (food), after your workouts, nutrition is fundamental. Your body needs protein and carbohydrates to repair damaged muscles and cells. If you don’t put this fuel into your body it’s going to need to get the required energy from your bodies stores by breaking down existing muscle within your body (you can become catabolic, your body primarily breaks down existing muscle mass).
- Hydration, our bodies are approximately 60% water, fluids are needed to help with cell, joint and muscle repair. The same as energy if there isn’t enough water your body will draw fluid reserves from joints and discs. Not including working out we need approximately 35ml per kilogram of body weight of water per day. (70kg person needs 2.7L water per day).
- Sleep, yes sleep is fundamental to your recovery. This is when our bodies get the chance to do most of the cellular repair work. Check in with yourself, how much sleep are you getting? Are you waking up rested? If you’re dehydrated this will affect your sleep.
On top of these principles there’s also your foam rolling, yoga, massage, sauna etc.
Do you need MORE recovery?
Are you starting to lack energy? Your workouts are feeling more taxing? You’re not feeling well rested when you wake up? You notice your moods change become more irritable?
These are all signs you might want to back off your workouts for a few days and check in with your sleep, hydration, and food intake.
When planning your weeks note we do need more time to recover from high stress workouts.
I recommend
Happy Running!
Leonie
