SPORT
TRAIN HARD, TRAIN SMART, TRAIN SAFE
Relax &
Recover O
ver the past few months, I’ve mainly been focusing on how to become stronger; how to structure your training schedules better and attempting to get you folks motivated for sustaining a much healthier lifestyle. Now, you may consider yourself to be the most dedicated fitness enthusiast, never missing a training session, beating yourself up if you do and making sure you give it that little bit extra the next time you hit the gym or the field. You may be the person who has a program and never gets sidetracked from what’s been laid out in front of you. Those qualities are very, very commendable and you can give yourselves a great deal of credit if this sounds like you.
You now need to ask yourself this question; “am I recovering optimally?” Are you recovering optimally? While taking care of your training plan by being careful never to miss a session, never to have days where you simply cannot be bothered and so on, you need to understand the concept of “recovery”, because if you’re neglecting your recovery program then, regardless of how well you apply yourself in training, you are never going to achieve the desired training effect. Sooner or later you will feel your strength diminishing as you become weaker, the appetite for training will begin to slide, your hormones will be all over the place just like your sleep patterns, There are plenty more negatives I can list but you get the general idea. To keep it simple: TRAINING + RECOVERY = TRAINING EFFECT! Regardless of your training endeavours or your chosen sports, everyone should have a goal and you will hear me preach that time and time again - get a long term goal in place; weight loss, increased strength, personal bests, reaching a higher performance level or gaining quality lean muscle. No matter what your long term goal may be just be mindful of setting yourself daily targets as well and those begin and end with training and recovery. If either of these components is missing, you’re heading for that place I call “Nowhere fast”. Ok so when you consider short term recovery, on a daily basis after your training session, the number one factor you must consider is “time”. For example, if you’re training a major muscle group such as your “legs” and you’re pretty damn pleased with yourself after the amazing efforts you just made, then you head for an hour in the sauna and jacuzzi before heading back home and putting these well trained legs up whilst knocking back your favourite choc-chip protein shake and getting involved in your favourite tv programme until someone serves you dinner whatever time that may be……does this sound like you? When you train properly and break down muscle fibers, why on earth would you not support the recovery process? Think about this for one second – you break down the muscle fibers ok, you’re in the gym to create strength qualities or build a muscular physique, you have done that part ok so you can tick that off the list. What’s your next move? Replenish? No! You head off for that well
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earned sauna & jacuzzi. Is this helping the recovery process? No. You take a stroll home, grab that shake with your favourite milk and put the feet up. Is this helping the recovery process? No. You eat a meal hours later someone else has prepared. Is this helping you to recover? No. So when someone asks me what they would change about that whole scenario and if I could only change one thing about it, my answer will always be the same: “Don’t train.” Don’t train if you cannot support it. Trust me you will create so many free radicals within your system by training your legs properly - breaking down so many muscle fibers, stressing your central nervous system that without replenishing your body straight away with quality nutrients vitamins and minerals, you really are doing more harm than good without the correct approach to recovery on an occasion such as this. You can be pretty sure of two things – you will be stewing in your own waste products and you will age very, very quickly. So be aware of the number one factor when it comes to recovery and that is “time”. There are many different factors to consider in your short and long term training such as nutrition, sleep, supplements; stress, but the single most important factor you need to consider is “time”……….the time between workout and recovery; the time between different training sessions, the time to train specific body parts, the time you should be resting after X amount of weeks, the time to deload during specific programs to allow your central nervous system time to recover. As a general recovery model I would suggest for every 12-14 weeks of structured resistance training, you really should be taking a complete week off from lifting anything – at any level. No strength training at all within this week – take a holiday! No de-load. No high repetition work. Nothing – nada! You can do some light cardio activity if you really want to but stay off the gym completely. If you’re not experienced, your recovery isn’t as optimal. You breakdown quicker, your schedule is more hectic, you age if greater therefore your ability to recover has lessened. You can look to take a complete break of 4-5 days off every 5-6 weeks. Again, stay away from the gym and lift nothing. Trust me, your body will thank you for it! Either option will suit different people but only you can make that decision by listening to your body and reacting accordingly. Only you can decide what level of recovery ability you have keeping in mind, regardless of your training style, you need to program in a de-load phase every 3-4 weeks for roughly 4-5 days. You cannot keep on lifting or shifting heavy loads all year round – it just won’t happen. You need to become way smarter than that and structure your training properly before your body has to remind you that it has had enough. You never want to get to that point because if you do then let me tell you, you’ve already gone way too far! When I speak of a de-loading phase during your program, keep it simple by dropping effort required, the overall training volume and the intensity so basically just reduce everything (including load). So despite the need for many other recovery factors there are none more important than the need for time! We’ve all heard the expression “time is a great healer”. The next factor which is absolutely critical for accelerating recovery is “nutrition”. Everybody knows how important nutrition is and in actual fact there is a ship load of great information available these GUERNSEY’S STYLE MAGAZINE