You might push hard during exercise, but it’s the time between workouts when the real work happens.
“Your body doesn’t become stronger on the days you work out; in fact, it becomes weaker,” says exercise physiologist Todd Buckingham, PhD, a visiting professor of exercise science at Michigan’s Grand Valley State University. “It’s only when we rest and recover that the body builds itself up to be stronger than it was before.”
One of the best tools for recovery — along with adequate nutrition, restful sleep, and stress management — is active recovery.
Active recovery encompasses any low-stress movement that doesn’t cause additional muscle damage, explains Samantha McKinney, RD, personal trainer and national program manager at Life Time.
Lower-intensity cardio, gentle yoga and mobility training, and lower-intensity resistance training are all great options to help increase circulation, lubricate your joints, prevent tightness, and encourage your body to drop into the parasympathetic state, or recovery zone.
Resting heart rate (RHR) and heart-rate variability (HRV) are two objective markers that can help you assess the state of your nervous system and determine whether you need a day to recover.
(Learn more about the role of RHR and HRV in recovery — and how to track both — at “Why Workout Recovery Days Are Essential for Optimal Fitness.“)
There are also several subjective markers worth considering, including these;
1) You did a hard workout the day before. While “hard” is a subjective term, it generally involves working at a perceived effort of at least 8 out of 10. It’s usually a good idea to follow an intense workout with an active recovery day and limit the number of hard workouts you do each week.
“The average person really shouldn’t work out ‘hard’ more than one or two days a week, let alone multiple days in a row,” Buckingham notes. Too many intense workouts can make it difficult for your body to recover, leading to performance plateaus or injury.
2) You feel sore and fatigued. Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is a common side effect of exercise, often felt during the first couple of weeks of a new training program. It’s a sore, aching, painful feeling in the muscles that develops 12 to 24 hours after a workout as a result of microscopic muscle damage.
DOMS can range from mild to severe, explains McKinney. If you experience moderate to severe DOMS, consider taking an active recovery day (or several) to avoid further stressing your muscles before they’ve had a chance to recover from your previous workout.
3) You’re moody and irritable. Exercise is linked with improvements in mood. But if you overdo it without appropriate recovery, you can experience the opposite effect, says McKinney.
The stress of exercise can elevate your stress hormones — mainly cortisol. When levels of this hormone remain high for a prolonged time, it can cause mood swings and uncharacteristic levels of irritability. So, if you notice you have a short fuse, one or more active recovery days could be in order. (Cortisol is essential for energy and health, but when it’s out of balance, you are too. Learn how to manage low cortisol levels to keep inflammation, cravings, and belly fat at bay.
4) Your performance has stalled. “If you’re not taking recovery days, the body will be unable to fully recover and absorb the training that you’re putting it through,” Buckingham says. Over time, you may see your exercise performance plateau or decline.
A general rule, a week’s worth of subpar workouts is a good indicator that you need extra recovery.
We all sometimes complete a workout feeling that we didn’t perform as well as we’d hoped, so it can be tough to know the difference between an off day and stalled results. However, as a general rule, a week’s worth of subpar workouts is a good indicator that you need extra recovery, Buckingham says.
5) You’re not sleeping well. Sleep is a requirement for adequate recovery, notes McKinney. It’s needed to metabolically support muscle protein synthesis and optimize levels of testosterone, human growth hormone, and other rebuilding hormones.
At the same time, sleep can suffer if too-frequent, high-intensity, or long-duration exercise without reciprocal recovery strategies is putting too much stress on your body. Sleep deprivation can compromise endurance and strength and make workouts feel harder than usual.
If you’re struggling to get adequate sleep, it could be a sign that you need to reassess your recovery.
Buckingham and McKinney recommend that you track these subjective markers daily. Using a journal or digital log, rate your soreness, mood, workout performance, and sleep quality. If you notice an abrupt change for the worse lasting a week or more, consider it time to revisit your recovery routine.
This article originally appeared as “Give Your Body a Break” in the September/October 2024 issue of Experience Life.
