Recovery Days

Recovery days are present in most workout plans you will see on the internet or read about in a magazine, but very few programmes will explain the importance of these days. Here is a quick summary of why rest days are so important.

• Muscle Recovery- you should be putting your body through an awful lot of stress by doing your training plan, which subsequently causes micro-tears in the muscle fibres. These micro-tears need time to repair properly. If you do not have a rest day, chances are you are not allowing your muscles to fully recover.
• Mental Recover- while this is not as noticeable as muscles aching, your mental strength begins to get worn down by constant training. A day of relaxing allows you to refresh your mind and prepare yourself for the next training session.

While it is called a rest day, your ‘rest’ day does not have to be spent doing nothing. You are resting from your weight training and cardio workouts. This leaves a whole wealth of activities that you can still enjoy doing if you have the desire to be active. Lots of people employ what is know as an active rest day into their training plans. Active rest means doing a light from of activity, like walking or going for a bike ride. While your body is remaining active, it is not being push anywhere near to the limits you are constantly testing during your training sessions. Active rest can aid in recovery, as the heart rate increases slightly, supplying more blood to the muscles and subsequently more nutrients. The rise in activity level also causes an increase in temperature of the muscle, making it more supple, allowing it to relax more and work out any knots in a very comfortable and relaxing way.

Original From www.efficient-training.co.uk