Active Recovery: the Key to Unlocking Your Potential?

Although the world of science-backed fitness recommendations can be a bit tumultuous, there is one thing that nearly everybody agrees on: giving your body proper time to rest and refuel after a workout is incredibly important to making progress! Rest allows for muscle growth and hormone rebalancing, and without it, we miss out on the gains we worked so hard for. 

Sometimes, getting a rest day in can be hard. You might feel like you aren’t working as hard as you can to meet your goals. Or, maybe, you’re a little bit addicted to those happy chemicals released during exercise (don’t worry, we are too). Or, maybe you’ve noticed that rest days make you more sore than you feel when you skip them. 

But, cutting out rest days isn’t the answer. During aerobic or resistance training, you’re placing your body under physiological and chemical stress. When we exercise, our body experiences an increase in physical demand: not just the weight we are lifting, but the activation of the sympathetic nervous system, which causes an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing. Just like between sets, we need to give our body adequate time to rest and refuel after each workout, or we put ourselves at risk for overtraining syndrome, which causes hormonal imbalances, suppressed immune function, and a higher risk of injury. And when we don’t give our bodies time to heal our muscle damage, we actually lose out on the muscle gains that occur in this stress and rest cycle!

So, instead of cutting out rest days, or spending them stressed about how they might impact you, try incorporating active recovery into your fitness routine. 

What the Heck is That?

Active recovery means performing low-intensity exercise after your more strenuous workouts, and it can help to promote faster recovery. Active recovery activates your key stabilizing muscles, releases muscle tension, and lets your whole body rest. And there are some serious benefits to active recovery:

• Increasing blood flow to muscles: Low-intensity exercise promotes oxygen-rich blood flow to your muscles and tissues.
• Reducing muscle soreness: Active recovery reduces muscle soreness by increasing blood flow to muscles, which helps flush out metabolic waste like lactic acid and deliver oxygen and nutrients for repair.
• Improving athletic performance: Active recovery may help your athletic performance by improving your endurance and power.

And active recovery is even more important for women, from a biological standpoint. Women tend to have lower post-exercise arterial pressure than men, which means that under resting conditions, women have less blood flow to the skeletal muscles. 

Should We Throw Passive Recovery Out the Door?

No! Some days, what our body needs is to sit on the couch and binge the new season of White Lotus. On those days, we should absolutely be listening to our body. Sometimes, passive rest allows the body to fully relax and recuperate, and is crucial for injury prevention and mental rejuvenation. Passive rest is especially important for new gym-goers and people performing very intense training. However, most of the time, what your body needs is some light, low-intensity movement. 

What Counts as Active Recovery?

I’m glad you asked! There are countless ways to perform active recovery, and as you read through some of our recommendations, make sure you keep in mind what you enjoy doing! Active recovery days should be about focusing on fun movement that helps to bring you mental clarity and enjoyment. Maybe you already have an idea of what you enjoy doing: walking, swimming, Just Dance parties with your friends. If you do, run with it!

But if you’re not quite sure what kind of active recovery is right for you, here are a few ideas to get you started:

Yoga

Yoga is an awesome form of active recovery. It promotes muscle recovery, increased blood flow, and reduced soreness through low-impact movement and stretching. Also, yoga can help you reduce stress and improve mood by practicing mindfulness, breath control, and specific poses which can calm the nervous system and lower stress levels.

Yoga is also a great form of active recovery because it asks the yogi to focus on their body’s sensations and remain mindful of the present moment. Practicing mind-to-muscle connections and awareness of the body can help athletic performance and prevent injury by teaching you to be more mindful and aware of your form, a skill that transfers to all forms of exercise!

Pilates

Like yoga, pilates involves both stretching and low-intensity exercise. It increases blood flow to aid muscle recovery, improves flexibility and mobility to release tension, and reduces stress through controlled, mindful movements and deep breathing. 

Hot Girl Walks

Getting out into the fresh air can be a great form of active recovery! It increases blood flow to muscles, which helps deliver nutrients and remove waste products like lactic acid, reducing soreness and stiffness. 

More importantly, walking can be amazing for mental health. By reducing stress and anxiety, boosting mood, improving sleep, and enhancing cognitive functions like memory and creativity, walking has wonderful benefits for mental recovery. Walking, especially in nature, can also promote mindfulness, increase energy levels, and build confidence and resilience.

Which Should I Pick?

Active recovery comes in as many shapes and sizes as the people who do it. While the options listed above are a great jumping-off point, active recovery can also include things like swimming, rowing, cycling, light hiking, jogging (I’m side-eyeing this one, but it can be a good for those who are frequent runners), or even having a kitchen dance party during breakfast! 

Find a couple of options you enjoy, and that will boost your mental clarity and connection to your body on your off days, and vary them based on your energy levels and needs that day. Your mind and your muscles will thank you.

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