There’s a saying in the fitness industry that states:
You can only train as hard as you can recover
And it’s about as true as they come.
We all love to work hard.
We love to compete, against ourselves and others.
But we also need to recover.
Physical training is a stressor. It puts stress on the body.
This is deliberate, it is this stress that causes adaptation.
Increases in muscle mass, increased range of motion, increased strength, increased bone density, increased cardio respiratory efficiency.
All positives that come about as a result of recovering from a well structured training plan.
What constitutes recovery?
The main players are:
Calories and Counting Sheep.
Yup, getting the good food in and getting a good nights sleep.
After that, it’s general stress management and having planned easy days/weeks and rest periods.
Take our Bootcamp for example. 4 weeks of progressive training, each week building on the last, than a free week.
A post shared by Dave Hedges (@dave_hedges) on Feb 27, 2017 at 12:16am PST
I’ll grant that a full week off isn’t optimal, you should still be active, albeit at a lower level. Many of my bootcamp guys train for other sports, so appreciate the lay off. Other still come in during the off week and do light practice.
Our Kettleheads GS Team, just competed in the Cup of Ireland last weekend, they are all on enforced rest this week. After 8-12 weeks solid comp prep, they now need to recharge the batteries before the next cycle begins.
This is what a kettlehead looks like
And that’s key, training in cycles.
If you’re a casual gym goer, training twice a week, cycling training isn’t too important. But if you’re in 4-5 days per week, then it’s essential.
Build up the volume, the intensity over a 4-6 week period, then back it off for a week.
All the time ensuring you get the calories in, get the shut eye and do some mobility work.
After that it’s all good.
Regards
Dave Hedges
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