Are You Recovering?

Nowadays there seems to be a trend of thought in training that you must kill yourself day in and day out in the gym. Those who believe this classify the success of a workout based on their ability to walk and talk afterwards. If they don't look like someone who has had one too many, than the workout was a waste. Those are the people that have it all wrong. Those are the people who look the same and perform the same year after year after year. They are neglecting, outside of nutrition, the most important aspect of achieve your athletic performance and fitness goals, recovery.

Without recovery you will never progress. Without recovery, you will never succeed in training. Recovery allows your body to acknowledge the stress of the workout, and thus repair itself to a point above and beyond your previous levels. When it comes to training, the more is better philosophy does not apply. 

So what rules should you be following to assure for optimal recovery? Well here they are:

1. Your main lift (squat, deadlift, bench, military press, etc.) of the day needs to be the focus of your program. Less is more in training. If you are making progress on your main lift without extra work, then assistant exercises might do more harm than good, cutting into your recovery time. Consider getting in an effective warmup and then hitting your main lift and quickly getting out of the gym, reaping the benefits.
2. Keep the volume of the assistance work low if it is needed to correct imbalances or bring up weak points. Again, everything in your training session should be done with an eye towards recovery and improving your main lift.
3. Leave the gym wanting more. While you can have your 'gut check' days to challenge your mental toughness and your conditioning, on most days you should leave the gym feeling like you still have more in you. This will give you a chance to better yourself the next workout.
4. Avoid going to failure. Leave 1-2 reps in the tank on all sets. Slow grinding reps only serve to further stress your central nervous system and impair recovery, and can also lead to injury. With exercises such as deadlifts, it can take 2-3 weeks to fully recover.
5. Get 8+ hours of sleep a night. Bottom line, you need to sleep.
6. Don't forget your soft tissue, flexibility, and mobility work. Making those elements a part of your recovery plan will help you avoid injuries and bounce back faster from injuries when they do happen. Also, take the time for psychological recovery. Meditating, reading, or whatever else allows you to calm your mind will go a long way in avoiding burn out and keeping your spirits in a fresh state.
7. Avoid chronic elevations in cortisol. Acute cortisol increases are actually very beneficial(like it's role in the 'fight or flight' response). Chronic elevations however, can lead to depression, a loss of interest in training, weight gain, and depressed immune function amongst others issues. So how do you avoid this? Implement the first 6 steps.

No Nonsense Relaxation,

Kyle Bohannon, CSCS

Owner/Head Trainer

kyle@trainstrive.com

513-571-2950