"Recovery can never be a “one size fits all” topic, it is as unique to you as your training and what works for one person might not the next.

Rest days are essential for rebuilding and repairing muscle tissue; strengthening joints and ligaments; replenishing fluids and energy stores; refreshing mental energy; reducing the risk of injury; avoiding overtraining and helping to improve  performance.

There are three different types of recovery days: complete rest days, a day off your legs (so upper body-only days), and the famous oxymoron... active recovery days. They  each serve different purposes at different times in your training.

How do you know when to plan them?

Active recovery is usually  easy intensity at a moderate rate, or stretching/mobility work. It can be anything from 20 to 60 minutes, and should help to increase blood flow and reduce muscle soreness and inflammation. I

A day off your legs is highly recommended for high load training periods or for athletes who need significant soreness removed from their legs.

Complete rest days are exactly as they sound: no training at all. On these days, I recommend some gentle stretching, massage, and good self care.  I simply go on a vacation/staycation.  Eat, read, unplug, sleep.

When building a training plan, there should always be systematic recovery and regeneration built in. Here are some fundamentals:

  • At least one day per week should be assigned to active recovery.
  • Allow for one to three regeneration days within a training block.
  • Monitor the easy/light training sessions/days as carefully as you would the hard/intense ones;
  • Always try to ‘individualize’ your training schedule and load—do not blindly follow a pro athlete’s regime!
  • Establish a sound history of basic training involving a critical mass of low intensity training prior to attempting to increase the percentage of high intensity interval training within a given program.
  • Keep a WRITTEN training diary, not one on your phone and track volume and intensity.
  • Limiting the number of really intense training sessions to three/four per seven to 10-day cycle.
  • Allow for full recovery every so often
  • Always strive to maintain a basic level of health.
  • Eat wisely, eat enough, and ensure adequate hydration.

You should also view training stress load as part of your overall life “stress load”—your training does not exist in a vacuum, so if you are experiencing stress in another part of your life, never be afraid to dial back training volume and/or intensity to compensate for this.

There should be three pillars to recovery: sleep, training, and nutrition. All three need to be repeatable and sustainable in order to achieve consistency.

Monitoring your recovery is as important as monitoring your training and can be tracked in the following ways:

  • Morning resting heart rate
  • Overall difficulty of your training
  • Overall life stress
  • Your ability to complete your training week as planned

You should also think about the following as they are great indicators of recovery:

  • Sleep quality
  • Nutrition
  • Hydration
  • Injury/illness
  • Life management (e.g. school/work/family stress)
  • Stretching/massage/body work
  • Fatigue level
  • Muscle soreness
  • Willingness to train and execute sessions

These guidelines will help you develop an understanding of how often and what type of recovery you need in your program. Remember, too, that it might change throughout different phases in your athletic career and within each year of your life

Today's Training:

AirDyne Bike: 22 minutes.

 Sit ups: 75 (this is the third week.  I started with a daily 50 in addition to any and all other training)

Push Ups: 10  (yep...just 10,  This is going to get good)"