What Is The Best Recovery Strategy? Ask a PT

Last week we took a look at training frequency, specifically, how often a new gym goer should train each week. This week, we are taking a look at recovery, something that I touched on last week, but couldn't cover properly.

What Is The Best Recovery Strategy?

Question: In your blog post you talked about needing your recovery to be optimal, could you expand on this? Answer: It's hard to give specific advice about how much recovery a person needs because there are so many factors that come into this:

• Training volume (how many sets and reps)
• Training intensity (how hard you train)
• Stress levels
• Sleep quality (not just hours per night, how well you sleep)
• Nutrition (any nutritional deficiencies?)
• Age
• Experience in the gym (have you just started or are you a 10-year vet?)
• Injuries/illnesses

There are probably even more that I can't think of right now. But all of these factors affect how much time you need to recover. Improving these areas (where possible) should be a priority for anyone who wants to maximise their results. Reducing stress <1>, improving sleep quality, improving nutrition, and managing your training volume/intensity make a huge difference. Age, injuries, illness, and experience are things that you don't have much control over. You should try to reduce your risk of injuries by training with good technique. A good way to think about your recovery strategy is to split it into two parts. There is immediate recovery, which involves things like:

• Epsom salt baths to reduce soreness
• Post-workout protein and carbs to enable protein synthesis
• Getting an extra hour's sleep to help with muscle repair
• Active rest the following day (walking, yoga, stretching etc) to help reduce inflammation.
• Reducing your training volume/intensity in the next workout if you feel that you haven't recovered.

Then there are long-term recovery strategies such as:

• Good sleep habits
• High-protein diet
• Supplements such as multivitamins, creatine, ashwagandha etc
• Stress management such as meditation, therapy, stress avoidance etc
• Well-planned-out training programs

As you can see, long-term recovery strategies also help to improve your mental and physical health.

Check out this article on Ashwagandha and stress to learn more about how ashwagandha can help with exercise recovery

References

<1> https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3894304/