Recovery and Stretching with Purpose

So today I want to talk about recovery. In the fitness world, there is a lot of different views on recovery. For the person who is trying to lose weight and wants to see quick results, a recovery days seems like a waste of time. For someone who is constantly training at a high level, recovery day is looked at as heavenly day. But why do we need recovery?

Think of it this way. If we turned a light on and left it on, eventually it would burn out.  It is the same with our bodies. If we train every single day at a high level and never take a recovery day, our bodies will start to breakdown. Because our body is the most adaptable machine we own, it will start to develop compensations to achieve what we want it to. These compensations can lead to injury. Therefore, we need recovery. Plus, in order to see gains and achievements in our training, our body needs rest!

Now that we know why we need it, let’s define recovery. Recovery can mean a variety of different things. Sometimes we need a day off from lifting weights or from running. Sometimes we need a day to stretch and get our legs back underneath us. Sometimes we need to focus on lifting light to get the soreness out of our body. There are many ways to recover. Find what works best for you! My recovery wouldn’t necessarily be the same as a professional athlete who is constantly pushing their body to the limit.  Find the recover that works best for you.

On my recovery days, I like to go to the gym and get my blood flowing by riding the bike for 10 minutes at a slow-to-moderate pace. Then I stretch. Not just “going through the motion” stretching but stretching with purpose. I want to stretch so that I can do more on the days that I work out. I stretch everything but I focus on my deficits. If my squats were a little shallow that week, I focus on opening up my hips more. If my chest still feels tight after a hard chest workout, I focus on stretching my pectoral muscles. If I'm having pain in a certain area, I'm going to focus on stretching that area. I stretch with a purpose.

Recovery is all about finding what works best for you. If you need any suggestions, feel free to contact me. You can email me at mvpannex@gmail.com or find me on Facebook, “Ross Little” or “MVP Annex at Peak Performance in Motion”. Hope that helps! Good luck on recovering! You deserve it…