The importance of Recovery after Exercise

What is recovery after exercise? And why is it important to allow the body top recover after exercise?

Exercise is an important part of everyone’s healthy day to day lives, but recovery… that is just as important too! Allowing your body to recover is vital to minimise the risk of injury and to perform well the next time that you exercise regardless of the intensity that you train at. There are many effortless ways that you can help within the recovery process.

What are the benefits of allowing your body to recover after exercise?

Allowing your body to recover from exercise will aid in:

Tissue repair
- Function restoration
- Muscle recovery – Fibroblast cells repair tears in muscle tissue helping the tissue to heal and grow resulting in strength.
- Replenishment of glycogen – This is used up to fuel exercise so by resting your body can replenish these energy stores before exercising again.
- Psychological recovery (contemplation, relaxation and rejuvenation)
- Healthy sleep – Constant exercise can cause over production of energy boosting hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, resting allows your hormones to return to a normal state.

Are you wondering how to know when you need a rest day to recover?
- Constant feeling of sore muscles – muscles haven’t yet recovered from previous workouts.
- Similar but different, pain – a sign of overuse injury in muscles or joints would be having a constant pain.
- Fatigue – let your body if at all you start to feel exhausted.
- Emotions – your emotions can really swing low when you are physically burnt out due to the imbalance of hormones such as serotonin and cortisol. You may become irritable, cranky or have many mood swings!
- Sleeping – As mentioned before, exercising without allowing recovery can hinder your sleeping quality, by over producing cortisol and adrenaline.
- Hindrance of performance – Exercising may feel more difficult to usual.

Key elements of rest and recovery

Making time for these methods will increase your output ability, decreases recovery time, and lower your risk of injury.

1 – Sleep: Suitable amounts of sleep help to provide not only recovery of muscles but also helps to provide mental health and a balance of hormones. The recommended amount of sleep that one should have is between 7-10 hours sleep. Some interesting facts to help you get better sleep are that the sleep quality before midnight (12) is much better and more effective than those after. Sleeping in the most natural of settings, not having lights or televisions on while sleeping and waking up with the sun provides a better quality of sleep, also sleeping in cool fresh airs too!
- 2 – Hydration: Drinking enough water is vital to health, energy, recovery and performance. You should be aware of hydration levels around and during exercise as well as during day to day life including recovery periods. Water is the best way for you to hydrate, on average an individual should drink between 3-4 litres of water per day at the least!
- 3 – Nutrition: Eating a balanced diet away from foods that contain toxins is effective to remain healthy and increase your performance. Finding the foods that your body processes well is also a good start, such as dairy and wheat, everyone processes these differently and finding foods that your body deals with well is better for yourself.
- 4 – Stretching: To enable yourself to move well and remain pain free flexibility is key! You should include dynamic stretching in your warmups before exercising and static stretching for after your workouts.
- 5 – Heat, Ice and compression: this may be a little more time consuming than other elements, however these are methods that you should take advantage of! It’s better to put time in to using heat, ice and compression rather than being forced to take time away from exercise completely due to injury or burnouts.

Performance To Summit offer online and face to face full FUNctional fitness sessions so come and get active with us! Oh, and before we forget… don’t worry about the recovery process, we can take you through that too! Our tailored Health & Wellbeing Workshops will provide you with information regarding recovery post exercise and be given more information on different methods to speed up or better the process.

Some sources used to gather additional information to broaden the knowledge for this blog:

https://healthengine.com.au/info/exercise-recovery#:~:text=Exercise%20recovery%20involves%20actions%20carried,Warming%20down%20after%20exercise

https://www.healthline.com/health/exercise-fitness/rest-day#:~:text=Allows%20time%20for%20recovery&text=Specifically%2C%20rest%20is%20essential%20for,grow%2C%20resulting%20in%20stronger%20muscles.

https://breakingmuscle.com/fitness/7-essential-elements-of-rest-and-recovery

https://www.verywellfit.com/ways-to-speed-recovery-after-exercise-3120085

Author: Performance To Summit Team – Dave Pickles & Fay Burrows

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I have been doing these sessions with Performance To Summit and Dave Pickles for the last 3 years and cannot stress how much of a positive impact that these sessions have had on myself and family. Without a doubt the sessions are tough, but they are done in such a way that they are enjoyable and we look forward to them as a family. The sessions are all year round in all weathers,(rain, snow wind – all of them together) and during the winter in the dark, the true testament to me is that not only do my teenagers want to go regularly, without being pushed, but they along other teenagers within the group have been known to drag their reluctant parents to a session in the rain and dark in January, which is down to Dave, his motivational skills and the inspiration he gives us. The benefits we get from these sessions are not only physical, I can see how we have all grown in positive mental attitude, self-confidence and general wellbeing and I can see that in others who are part of the Performance To Summit family. I am not sure what I would do if these sessions ever stopped which was a massive concern for me once lockdown started, however, Dave launched the on line version which has been a fantastic success although I do still miss the face to face sessions and the interaction with the other Performance To Summit fitness family members.

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The sessions are hard, but fun (if that’s possible)? Dave’s endless positivity turns any event into a positive one. The sessions during lockdown have been great, not only in order to keep fit but also to keep connected with others. We laugh, we smile, we grimace, but we are all fitter and stronger as a result. Why not give it a go?

Laura - Northwich

I began my journey with Performance To Summit following a recommendation from a friend who said it may help me improve my fitness and strength and help to resolve a long standing problem with sciatic pain caused by a problem with my Piriformis muscle.
When I began, I was reasonably fit having exercised regularly throughout my life, however this pain was causing me problems and I was becoming frustrated by not being able to exercise as I would like. I informed Dave of my injury and the exercises I took part in were adapted where needed to help with this injury. Through attending regularly and developing correct form on the functional exercises given by Dave my injury improved, to the point of being pain free. This was a really positive outcome and I continued to regularly attend Dave’s sessions and my fitness and strength has improved greatly. Initially I could not do more than a few sit ups or press ups and I can now confidently and correctly complete many sets of these during a session.
At every session Dave asks if there are any injuries or restrictions and then the exercises and sessions are adapted as needed. This is always done in a positive, reassuring and motivating way, so you never feel like you cannot achieve. His positivity and enthusiasm are unmeasurable. I feel fitter and stronger than ever before.

Abi - Sandbach

When I first started attending the Performance To Summit fitness sessions, I had ruptured my ACL and was waiting for surgery. In the weeks prior to my operation, through the fitness sessions, Dave encouraged me to get my knee and hamstring as strong as possible. Following surgery, even before I could walk without crutches, Dave devised exercises I could do whilst sitting and using my crutches in novel ways to keep my upper body active and me challenged! Through every stage of my rehabilitation, Dave was full of encouragement and constantly adapting exercises as part of the session to keep me motivated and fully involved. Still being able to be part of the Performance To Summit team was a huge boost mentally; being outside with an amazing group of like-minded people is great for self-esteem. The support I received from Dave through Performance To Summit was invaluable to my recovery; he made me believe in myself that I would reach my ultimate goal of getting back on the hockey pitch. Even though it was a year from operation to achieving this, Dave was always positive, always encouraging, and always listened to how I was feeling and how hard he could push me without ever making me feel like it was too much. Without Dave’s constant encouragement and positivity, I know my rehabilitation would have been much harder - his drive drove me - it’s infectious!

Neil -Sandbach

I have had lower back pain for many years and suffer from occasional acute exacerbations which can severely limit my mobility. This can be very frustrating for someone who is very keen on sport and exercise! I have attended the fitness sessions run by Dave for a number of years and he has provided great help and support in managing this chronic condition. Dave is able to tailor his sessions to help with rehabilitation, recommending appropriate exercises to increase mobility and core strength. He also pays great attention to the psychological aspects of injury, providing constant encouragement and motivation, which is key to recovery.

The Importance of Recovery After Exercise

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