Active Recovery Is Important To Incorporate In Exercise Routine

Whether you’re training for a marathon or just exercising to lead a healthier lifestyle, you’ve probably read that it’s important to take rest days. For training athletes, taking rest days is just as important as your regular training days. After all, training too much can lead to overtraining, which can lead to sore and heavy legs, increased susceptibility to colds and infections, weight loss, and worse results.

With that said, you don’t have to literally do nothing on rest days. In fact, fitness trainers actually recommend doing a light workout on these days to keep the blood flowing. This is called active recovery and can help your body recoup after intense workouts. Read on to learn more about how you can incorporate rest days to benefit your overall exercise routine.

Benefits of A Rest Day Workout

Rest day workouts, also known as active recovery or active rest, is when you do some sort of light exercise on your non-workout days. This can be anything from yoga to a walk around the neighborhood. These rest days help give your muscles the chances to repair and rebuild, which actually aids in increasing your strength and speed.

In fact, your entire body benefits from taking these active rest days. After all, blood flow to muscles and tissues aid in the recovery process since they carry nutrients and oxygen to the body. It also helps flush out waste products that build up during exercise such as hydrogen ions and lactic acid making your body that much more refreshed when you get back to your intense workouts. Taking these days off also helps reduce your chance of injury.

Besides the physical benefits, active rest days also give you a mental advantage. Easier training sessions can make you feel more focused, which can lead to a stronger motivation to stay consistent. Since you’re still doing some form of exercise, you won’t fall into the trap of being sedentary, which is all too easy to fall into. As well, active recovery is also a great way to get out of a rut or plateau. It can give your brain an easy win, making that particular activity feel like fun instead of a stressful workout.

In order to take full advantage of rest days, make sure to plan when you will take it and what you will do. Remember, rest days should be fun and something you look forward to. Maybe that’s because you enjoy the activity or maybe they provide a different social environment and you get to hang out with other people. Either way, choose an activity that is engaging and doesn’t feel like ‘work’ to actually reap the benefits.

Signs You Need a Rest Day Workout

It’s all too easy to push yourself too hard, especially when you just start working out. You want to see results fast and working out every day should get you those results faster, right? While this might sound logical on paper, your body is not a machine. It needs recovery days in order to heal and get stronger. After all, every time you exercise you create micro-tears in your muscles. These eventually come back stronger when they repair, but you have to give them time to repair! If you keep pushing, your muscles don’t have time to heal.

If you haven’t planned out your rest days, it’s important to pay attention to your body and look for signs that you need to rest. Some common signs that you’re overworking yourself or at least need to take a rest day include:

Elevated resting heart rate - in order to know what your normal resting heart rate is, you should measure it a few minutes after you wake up. A normal resting heart rate for adults ranges between 60 to 100 beats per minute, though many athletes might get as low as 40. If you notice your heart rate is about 10 beats a minute higher than normal, more than one morning in a row, you’re probably overtraining.
You’re tired - are you experiencing insomnia or poor sleep quality? This could be a sign that you need a rest day as your nervous system might be too overstimulated from trying to heal your muscles.
You’re moody - working out should usually improve your mood. However, if you’re experiencing mood swings or depressed, you probably need to take some time off.
You’re getting sick more often - normally exercise helps boost your immune system. However, if you’re getting sick more often than normal, your body is telling you to take a breather.
You feel you need a rest day - in general you should take around 1-2 days off a week to recover. When deciding if you should take time off ask yourself - Did you sleep for at least 7 hours without waking up? Do you want to train today? Are you in a good mood? If you answered yes to 2 out of the 3 questions you can train. Otherwise, take the time to do some active resting and do some light workouts.

What To Do On Your Recovery Day

After a hard workout, it’s tempting to simply sit down and watch your favorite show. However, research suggests doing nothing isn’t the best recovery technique. You keep the blood flowing, which helps muscles recover and rebuild. With that said, you should avoid active recovery if you’re injured or in a lot of pain.

Before even getting into the exercises you should do during your recovery day, you shouldn’t forget to eat well and stay hydrated. Your rest days aren’t a reason to cheat and eat whatever you want! In fact, doing so might mean you aren’t getting the nutrition you need to really benefit from all the hard work you’ve put in throughout the week. While you can’t definitely treat yourself here and there, make sure you still eat plenty of vegetables and fruit. It’s the same with hydration. Make sure you still drink plenty of water even if you’re not exercising hard. You’ll be happier and healthier in the long run.

It should also be obvious that there are things you should avoid during your recovery days, mostly working out too hard. You want to avoid getting your heart rate too high. If you’re exercising and you're feeling out of breath and sweating, you should probably back off. Avoid resistance training, heavy weight lifting, or speed work during your recovery day.

So what exercises can you do during your recovery day? This is a perfect opportunity to try something that involves different movement patterns than you normally would. It will give the other muscles you normally don’t use a good workout/stretch.

Walking

Walking is one of the best exercises you can do on your day off. Not only is it a great way to increase circulation, it’s also cheap. You don’t need any fancy equipment to walk. All you need are some good shoes and that’s pretty much it. If you don’t live in a place that is pedestrian friendly, drive to a nearby park and take some time to get in your steps.

Even if you don’t have a good place to walk or if it’s cold outside, you can still practice some indoor walking. Just take a look at your surroundings and see how you can be active. Maybe that means walking around your house or, if you have stairs, going up and down the stairs a few times. Even if you live in a small house, you can go to other places like the mall or other larger indoor spaces.

Stretching

One of the best things you can do on your recovery day is to stretch as it’s one of the best ways to loosen tight muscles. Rather than stretch out individual muscles, try to do some full body stretches. Some good options include:

Ice skaters - stand with your legs three feet apart with your feet pointed forward. Lower yourself into a squat. Bring your right foot diagonally behind the left leg with your toe touching the ground. Hold for a second and then switch sides.
Lunges - whether you do walking or backwards lunges, they’re a great way to stretch your legs. When doing lunges, make sure the thigh you’re stepping out with is parallel to the ground to get the most from this stretch.
Neck release - this is a great stretch even if you don’t work out as it helps relieve stress from your neck. You can either sit on the ground or in a chair. From there, place your left hand on top of your head and tilt your head to the left. Gently apply pressure to increase the stretch then switch sides.

Yoga

If you want a great full body workout, yoga is an excellent option. Plenty of athletes find yoga to be a great option for active recovery. Of course, it all depends on what kind of yoga you do. You want to avoid doing yoga that’s too strenuous. Instead practice more restorative yoga.

So what benefits does yoga provide during your active rest days?

Improves blood flow - all forms of active recovery helps improve oxygen circulation to your muscles
Reduces stress - yoga has been known to be reliable stress-buster as it helps restore your nervous system
Increases mobility - repetitive activity can cause your muscles to shorten, which can compromise your joints. Yoga can help loosen your stiff joints, giving you more flexibility.

Swimming

If you have access to a pool, swimming is a great exercise. Just make sure you don’t go too hard. Rather than going for a personal best for your 100m, take it easy. Much like if you’re jogging, you shouldn’t be out of breath or raise your heart rate too much. Instead, focus on your breathing pattern, head position etc. Recovery swimming should be mindful swimming.

If you find that swimming might be too taxing, especially if you’re not an experienced swimmer, try water aerobics. While these are typically associated with older people, it’s still a great exercise and a low-impact way to get your blood circulating. See if there are any classes in your gym and don’t be shy!

Biking

Biking is another great low-impact recovery exercise. Like other exercises, you don’t want to go too hard. This isn’t spin class. Instead, go at a nice leisurely pace. It should feel like a relaxing ride around the neighborhood not a race.

Biking is great for recovery as it helps sore muscles as it gets your lower body moving. Enjoy the ride, maybe read a book or watch a movie when doing your gentle ride. You can also check in your area to see if any gyms offer water cycling for extra resistance.

Dancing

You don’t have to be a great dancer to get the benefits of dancing. It’s one of the best ways to get in some exercise without feeling like a workout. It’s fun even if you have two left feet. If you don’t want to dance in front of anyone, you can dance in private. Just put on your favorite track and go for it. Since no one is around, you can look as silly as you want.

If you want something that’s a bit more structured, there are dance cardio classes you can take at your gym or find online. As the name suggests, these combine dance moves with aerobic/cardio and dancing. If you’re watching these classes online and you find yourself out of breath, slow the speed down a bit. This way, you can still get the exercise without breaking a sweat.

Hiking

Rest days are a great opportunity to change up your environment. Instead of going to the gym, head to the nearest trail and take in some nature. If you’re not used to hiking, choose a relatively easy trail so you don’t struggle too much. For seasoned hikers, hit up a trail you’ve never been to before.

Hiking isn’t just good for your body, it’s also good for your mind. Being in nature and surrounded by trees helps boost your mood and overall well-being. In fact, it’s so powerful for your health that doctors have actually started prescribing it in addition to other treatments. Being outdoors helps you recover from ‘attention overload’ that comes from living and working in a world full of cell phones and computers. This leads to people being less anxious overall. So even if you don’t hike for your physical health, hike for your emotional and mental health.

Improve Your Performance With Active Recovery Routines

Rest days or active recovery routines are an important part of your training. Without it you won’t see the gains that you might otherwise. More importantly, not taking rest days can take a serious toll on your health. You’ll get sick more often and won’t sleep well. It might sound counterproductive, but even the top athletes in the world take days off from training.

You don’t have to stay inactive on your rest days. Instead, try one of the exercises suggested above. Not only does active recovery improve your performance, it also prevents potential injuries. Just make sure you don’t push yourself too hard during your recovery days. For example, if you’re not a runner, jogging might not be the best recovery day activity. On the other hand, if you’re training for a marathon, a light jog might be just the thing you need. It all depends on your physical level and training.