subject: Recovery from Strength Training [print this page] Sometimes you just need a little time off from working out.
It can be a hard thing to do. When you love training to give it up for even as little as a week. For me its hard to skip a day!
But if you've been training hard for a period of time you may need to back off a bit. Not necessarily drop all your training, but ease up and not push everything to the max.
You can work on your flexibility, mobility or your conditioning. Though if you are resting I wouldn't push the conditioning too hard as that can be as taxing as strength training. For example, hill sprints the day after squats may not be the best option (though in certain cases it could be).
If you don't take the time to recover then your body will make you take the time to recover be it in the form of getting sick, injuring yourself or something of the like.
Personally, I'm not one to follow periodization plans or anything like that. I just learn and listen to my body. If you get in tune you know when you need a little extra time to recover. This is actually pretty easy to do, when you pay attention.
The thing is when you come back you're likely to be stronger than ever.
Since I took most of the last week off I expected this to happen. Now expecting to improve each workout is something you should always possess. But now I expect to blow by the previous weeks workouts.
Make no mistake about it. Your muscles and strength only grow when they recover. The training is the stimulus to force them to do so but without proper recovery you'll get no where. Many beginners make the mistake of thinking if workout out is good, then twice the volume will give twice the results. But it doesn't work this way.
In most cases a good night's sleep and good food will be enough. But sometimes you need to go beyond the basics.
Gauging your muscle soreness can help but its not the end all be all indicator of recovery.
When I saw Dan Gable, the legendary wrestler, speak, he talked about working as hard at recovering as he did at a workout. This was his secret to being able to train with all he had every single day.
If you grasp this and put it into action your gains will go through the roof.
Of course, you need to balance hard training with recovery. Don't allow yourself to fall into the under training category either.
