Active recovery or rest days?

I see a lot of active people in my clinic and often I need to teach them that the secret to levelling up is sometimes slowing down.

If I go to the gym and lift progressively heavier weights I will get stronger right? But if I do it every single day without rest I run the risk of burning out or injury. So I need a rest day. A rest day where I do nothing will give my body a chance to heal and recover and then I’m ready to stack on the weights and start lifting again!

Not exactly.

We often put so much effort into training our bodies to get stronger, fitter, faster, skinnier, whatever - that we forget that it also needs help to recover. When we put effort into our recovery we set ourselves up to train even better on our next workout.

I love active recovery. This includes cardiovascular things like walking, low intensity jogging, low intensity cycling, as well as musculoskeletal activities like stretching, yoga, foam rolling, rehab & prehab exercises and a little core strength too.

It’s maybe not as fun as those high intensity workouts but it’s going to help you maintain and progress your fitness to another level, while also helping to prevent injuries.

Try to fit 1 day per week in for active recovery - on this day you shouldn’t be doing any other workouts, it’s your recovery day. Keep the intensity low, you’re not trying to push yourself you’re just helping your body to loosen up, feel good and get ready for the next workout.