The way I understand it is that we stress muscles and break them so they adapt to a higher level of strength/endurance. So then after a hard training you would expect to need some time for the muscles to rebuild which is probably why we cross-train and throw in a swim or rest day between hard workouts.
So why is it that most plans(if not all of them) include recovery days where we ride or run easy? What is the benefit to this vs just resting some more before the next big training session?
There is a very physiological answer (mito, muscle fiber repair, increased blood flow = increase nutrient delivery) to this question, but I am just going to take a plain stab at it.
If we do nothing on a ‘recovery day’ than our metabolic rate (sum of all chemical reactions in the body, thus our muscle recovering ability) remains low, thus the recovery process remains rather low (or slow). On the other hand, if you did a very hard day, the day after a workout you would be stimulating the metabolic rate to be very high, due to the stress placed on the body again (2 days in a row) your body is unable to ‘recover’ fully from workout 1 before workout 2 begins.
If that second day was an easy workout (s), being more than no work and much less than a hard workout, than the metabolic rate of the body would be elevated, but the stress of the muscles would not be pushed any further. This is assuming that your recovery workout is in your comfort range, not being too hard. Therefore there is an optimal way to recover, but it is important to know what that intensity is.
If you think I am full of shit, than think about the way your metabolism uses calories. If we eat double our regular intake, our body will ‘use’ more than usual, but perhaps not all (still higher metabolism). If we eat half of what we normally eat, our body will ‘use’ much less than usual (thus lower metabolism).
Cheers
Ok but by that logic I don’t ever have to take a day off?
Lots of conventional wisdom saying one day off a week is a necessary thing, ya know?
Recovery occurs at all times when you are not participating in the activity. Participating in the activity, even at easy levels, induces training stress. Therefore, “recovery” workouts are actually just “easy” workouts. They contribute small but collectively important training stress that promote fitness gains, rather than physiologically reducing fatigue. So by doing these workouts, you accumulate more fitness than you would have otherwise by not working out at all.
Because of the importance of high training volume in causing sufficient overload for fitness gains, many coaches actually do not prescribe off-days, especially for age-group triathletes that don’t put in enough volume for optimal fitness (Jonnyo had a post on this awhile ago). If they do, I think it’s only because it allows you the mental break of not having to workout, which is important in preventing psychological burnout or divorce…
I take a full “recovery” day off just so my wife and kids are able to spend time with me.
Ok but by that logic I don’t ever have to take a day off?
Lots of conventional wisdom saying one day off a week is a necessary thing, ya know?
From my understanding, this is a blog about what is better for a recovery day. NOT what is better on EVERY easy or off day you may take in training. Off days are athlete specific, some may take 2 per week, some may take 1 per 3 weeks. Start another thread if you are going to go off on a tangent and criticize about it.
Jackass
I take a full “recovery” day off just so my wife and kids are able to spend time with me.
+1 yet those never feel like recovery days…
Sometimes complete days off are better. Active recovery workouts are still a widely used part of any plan as they should be but it doesn’t mean you never need a complete day off. Some will argue that you don’t because they may not take complete days off, but who is to say they wouldn’t be better if they did? You can’t go hard every single day, and the days that you don’t go hard doesn’t mean you should them off. There are still physiological adaptions going on after easy days. You still get endurance benefits from easy days, you maintain neuromuscular efficiency as well. Frequency of each sport is very important to get good at them. Your gaining skill on easy days just like hard days. Obviously your biggest fitness gains are made on the hard or long days but you still benefit from easy days without constantly over reaching into fuel reserves and interfering with muscular recovery etc…
In the end most of us have other things we need to balance into our “free time” other than athletic pursuits. That is where a well planned complete day off comes in handy to get stuff done or simply give yourself a mental break.
Does mowing the lawn with a self propelled walk behind gas mower count as an easy workout? It takes about 50 minutes to do my whole lawn. 70 minutes if I use the leaf blower and string string trimmer, and have a fast T1 & T2. They are Stihl’s so I have pretty fast transitions getting them started.
How about vacuuming the house?
This should probably be in pink.
Seriously, I like doing recovery workouts to keep the weekly mileage up. I mix up run vs. bike. I"ve had some quad issues running and my bike strength is lagging, so I usually bike on easy days. Plus I can get in a 60-90 minute bike and get more cardio benefit without the same amount of muscle fatigue I’d get running the same amount of time at the same heart rate.