With so much research being passed out nowadays regarding the importance of recovery, you have to wonder why so many are still ignoring it? Whether it’s to give your central nervous system a break from the stressors that rigorous exercise causes and/or used as a method for injury prevention, “prehab,” you SHOULD be sectioning off portions of your week for rest and active recovery. Here are 3 tips that I suggest for you to include in your training protocols, 1. Perform Purposeful Active Recovery: this is any slow but steady activity to increase blood circulation that will help with nutrient and waste product transport throughout the body. Walking, swimming, playing a light sport, etc for 30-60 mins are all examples of great activities to flush your system out. 2. Muscle Stimulation: have aches and tight spots over your body? Don’t just rest on the couch while watching Netflix and just wait for your body to try to clean your system out. Go and fix it yourself! Tens machines, getting a massage, cryotherapy, saunas, cupping, foam rolling, and acupuncture are all examples of activities you should be doing every once in a while, more if you are performing very strenuous activities such as CrossFit or playing Football. 3. Eat Recovery Based Foods: veggies, veggies, veggies! Sorry, there is no way around it. Having a wide variety of veggies in your diet not only helps on a micronutrient level but it helps with gut health and flushing your system out from toxins. Also, having a well balanced portion of protein and complex carbohydrates helps with repairing damaged muscle tissue and depleted energy stores. There are plenty of other factors that help with recovery as well but these are ones that I’ve found that people neglect to a large amount. What did a miss? Let me know by leaving a comment below!
God Bless,
Taz