Rest for Results
We explore the benefits of recovery after exercise and the importance of rest between sets in your workout.
Rest and recovery are essential to a safe and effective training regime. While “grinding” at the gym or smashing out a run day-after-day may seem like the fast track to fitness gains, you can actually do more harm than good if you don’t factor adequate recovery into your regime. Recovery means rest during workouts and rest and rehabilitation between workouts. Recovery can be active or passive depending on your body’s needs. The purpose of rest or recovery days is to allow your muscles time to heal and rebuild. Recovery can be enhanced by outsourcing therapies such as massage and contrast therapy or by embracing at-home tools like foam rollers and percussion guns.
Adaptation is the Key to Fitness Gains
The key to improved strength and endurance is adaptation. Stress or load is applied at a rate slightly higher than the body is accustomed, the body adapts to the increased demand and can now work easily at this required rate. In order to continue to progress, the stress or load must be increased gradually as the body adapts. Increasing the cardio or weight load too quickly may result in injury. Likewise, increasing load too slowly will result in a fitness plataeu or even decline. To adapt and progress, the body must be allowed sufficient time to recover and heal.
In-Session Recovery
Rest between sets is an essential component of any workout. The length of recovery time required is dependent on your fitness goals and the type of exercise you have chosen to reach those goals.
“The Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning” developed by the National Strength and Conditioning Association in the United States, recommends the following rest periods:
To increase strength and power, the best rest period is 2-5 minutes between sets.
To increase hypertrophy (muscle growth), the best rest period is 30-90 seconds between sets.
To increase muscular endurance, the best rest period is 30 seconds or less between sets.
The amount of rest required is dependent on the energy system being utilised. The energy currency of the human body is ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate), and just like money, we have limited supply. We can generate ATP from a range of sources, but each source produces different quantities, using different metabolic processes, over different periods of time.
A Personal Trainer or Exercise Physiologist can help you identify which energy system you need to target to achieve your goals and program your workout accordingly.
No Rest for the Wicked!
A “rest day” doesn't mean laying around on the couch all day. Most athletes benefit from active recovery – light exercise the day after an intense workout. Active recovery improves circulation to tired muscles. Enhanced blood flow delivers vital nutrients for healing and building as well as eliminates toxins and lactic acid build up. The net result being reduced soreness and increased flexibility. Active recovery can be key to preventing DOMS (Delayed on-set muscle soreness), which can be physically debilitating and has the potential to derail your training program.
Active recovery also helps you keep up your momentum. Great habits come with consistency, having active recovery days allows you to workout every day just at varying intensities.
Some great options for active recovery include:
Walking
Swimming
Yoga
Cycling
Stretching
Myofascial Release
Outsourcing Recovery
There has been a massive shift in the fitness industry of recent years and many gyms and health centres now offer a range of recovery therapies as add-ons or inclusions with memberships.
Massage
Sports rehabilitation massage can be a useful tool to reduce muscle soreness and potentially enable an earlier return to active recovery or exercise. It can be targeted to specific painful areas or applied globally to increase blood flow and therefore oxygen and nutrient delivery to effected muscles. It may also enhance removal of waste products such as lactic acid. Massage relaxes the entire nervous system which enables better rest and therefore recovery.
Contrast Therapy
Contrast therapy or cold therapy has been shown to increase circulation and reduce inflammation. Movement between hot and cold pools multiple times in a period of 10 minutes to an hour, causes blood vessels to contract and dilate repeatedly, taking warm oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to stressed muscles each time, thus increasing the standard rate of recovery.
Ice baths
Cold water immersion has been used in exercise recovery for decades. Often significantly relieving pain by slowing nerve conductivity. Recent studies suggest however that prolonged periods of cold water immersion may in fact inhibit protein synthesis and thus limit muscle gains. Ice baths may be a useful adjunct to other therapies or as part of an overall training or lifestyle regime. You can read more about cold therapy here.
Compression Equipment
Compression Therapy is a type of physical therapy that uses pressure to relieve pain and soreness. Noosa’s Integrated Rehab Centre specialise in injury recovery and wellness maintenance. They suggest that compression therapy can provide:
Natural, pill-free pain relief
Decrease post-workout soreness
Prevents and breaks up adhesions
Improves muscle coordination and mobility to prevent injury
Relieves muscle spasms and replenishes energy through more hydrated muscles
Better sleep
Promotes better posture and body awareness
Relieves body soreness from travel and jetlag
Assists stretching in your daily routine
They recommend combining therapies like massage, compression and temperature therapy to get the best results.
Don’t forget to check if your health fund covers rehab or recovery therapies.
At-Home Recovery
The at-home recovery tool market has exploded over recent years. The humble massager has evolved into a suite of devices at every price point. Market leaders Therabody lead the charge with the Theragun. Now available in range of incarnations and from many manufacturers, percussion massage guns have found their way into many of our homes. Honestly, you can’t beat a great massage from a qualified professional, but percussion guns are super handy to work out a particularly nasty knot or sore spot.
Compression devices like Normatec Boots from recovery giant Hyperice, have also migrated from therapy rooms into our homes and can be a valued investment especially if you have multiple athletes in the house.
You don’t need to splash a heap of cash to get quality at-home recovery. Foam rollers, massage balls and light resistance bands can be found at most big retailers. In combination with simple low-impact movements they can provide significant relief from pain and stimulate beneficial fascial hydration and recovery. As we come to understand more about the role fascia plays in the body and its functionality, SMR (Self-Myofascial Release) exercises are becoming more popular. You can find out more about SMR at Feel SOMA or Anatomy Trains.
With little effort and a moderate cash outlay you can equip your home gym with vibration, compression, percussion and temperature therapies to your liking.
Sleep and Eat Your Way to Results
Probably more important than any of the therapies and tools mentioned above are sleep and fuel. Sleep not only allows your body load-free recovery time, but it is also when the body heals and rebuilds. Growth hormone is produced during non-REM sleep. Growth hormone is an anabolic hormone responsible for healing and muscle cell synthesis, the longer the sleep, the more time there is for regeneration so be sure to get at least seven hours each night.
Sleep is also the time when the brain is purged of waste products which facilitates clarity of thought and the optimal cognitive function required for successful and purposeful training.
Walking hand-in-hand with sleep is fuel. No matter how much sleep you get you will continue to wake unrested and tired if you have not provided your body with enough fuel to perform physical and metabolic functions. You may find when you start a new or more intense exercise program that you need to significantly increase your caloric intake. Remember though, that not all calories are created equal and you need to ensure a healthy, balanced dietary intake. Regardless of your athletic ability it can be helpful to consult a nutritionist or dietician to ensure you are fuelling your body adequately.
Explore more great therapies and tools at FitHer Expo, Australia’s largest women’s health, wellness and fitness expo in Sydney on 7-8 October, 2023.