Rest and recovery in the training process are of exceptional importance. Which one, we will deal with in this article, as well as find out what overtraining is and how to deal with it. Let's take a closer look at how to build the entire recovery process between workouts in order to fully resume working capacity with regular exercise. According to the established tradition, we will start with a small theoretical course.
Recovery between workouts can be roughly divided into two stages. The first is getting rid of physical fatigue, that is, the feeling of complete exhaustion that occurs after every hard workout. The feeling of fatigue in individual muscle groups is the summing effect of the general fatigue of the whole organism. At the end of the workout, the body needs to get rid of this physical fatigue. Having got rid of it, he can move on to the next stage of recovery - building muscle and strength indicators. Provided that you didn’t rest enough, or rather “didn’t recover” after the last workout, keep in mind that on the next one, one fatigue will already be superimposed on another.
Why do you need rest between workouts? As you already understood from the above, the body must overcome physical fatigue before moving on to building muscle. If the body, before the start of the next workout, did not have time to overcome it, then there can be no question of any muscle growth. Thus, by superimposing one fatigue upon another, you drive your body into a state of excessive exhaustion. The body in such a situation will work not to build muscle, but to maintain life. Experiencing chronic fatigue, your body will not be able to implement muscle growth processes. So do not come to the fitness club if you can’t have a good rest and fully recover. It is to optimize the process of building muscle and increasing strength indicators that rest is formed between workouts.
Dream
Just as important as training and nutrition are for your performance, sleep is just as important. It is during sleep that those biochemical processes and reactions take place in the body, during which healing and an increase in muscle fibers in size occur. That is, your muscles do not grow in the gym, but during sleep. Restorative rest between workouts proceeds as follows. During training, you injure your muscles, while eating, you load the body with building material, which performs its functions during sleep, and due to this, your muscles grow and increase in size. It is quite natural that if you do not get enough sleep, then your muscles will not grow. Even if you don't get enough sleep for only an hour or two, it will eventually affect your training and results. In the case when you sleep little at all, there can be no question of any result from your training. The best conditions for muscle growth will be when you can afford to sleep a little more than usual, thus increasing the rest time between workouts. It is even better if you get up not because you were awakened, but on your own. To do this, you will have to adhere to a certain regimen. Go to bed at the same time every day in order to adjust your biorhythms as needed.
A little more than usual is how much? Before answering this question, we once again recall that each person is by nature individual and everyone will have their own time for sleep. Sleep, which is directly included in the rest between workouts, can take up to four hours for someone in order to feel well-rested. Some need six, some eight, some ten. At the same time, we all know from childhood that the average is eight hours of sleep. This is true in most cases, but does not take into account the individual need for sleep, depending on the person's lifestyle, type of activity, level of physical activity, and a great many other factors. So what number are we going to start from? Everyone will select this figure for themselves individually, and the recommendation will be as follows.
The rest time between workouts that you usually spend on sleep, try to increase by one hour, or at least half an hour. But you do not need to strive for such a figure immediately. Try to gradually increase the duration of sleep by 15 minutes once a week. Let's say if you started exercising in the gym, your need for sleep will increase, therefore, you will have to take more time to sleep. If you used to spend 6 hours on sleep, try to start gradually increasing this time period. First, in the first week to 6 hours and 15 minutes, in the second to 6:30, in the third to 6:45, and finally, in the fourth week, that is, a month after the start of the experiment, you will already have to increase the time of sleep up to 7 hours. But remember that nothing should be done abruptly, as this will be stressful for the body. Increase your sleep time gradually, this is necessary in order to best adapt your biological clock to the new regimen.
What will give us such an increase in sleep? In terms of muscle, such an increase will significantly increase your biological recovery needs in general and, accordingly, more time will be spent on muscle growth. This means that you will best provide your muscles with favorable conditions for growth. Recovery between workouts will proceed more favorably, and its effectiveness will increase significantly.
How to come to such an increase in sleep time? Simple enough. In the evening after work or study, do not sit too long in front of a computer or TV. Remember. Only a long and sound sleep will allow you to best realize your potential.
Relaxation
So, wondering why you need rest between workouts, you already understand that you don’t need to come to a fitness club if you feel that you haven’t rested and recovered enough.
But what can be considered a sufficient measure? How many hours or days should be spent on rest? These things depend on a lot of factors. Your age, lifestyle, quality of sleep, where and by whom you work or study, how great the presence of various kinds of stress in your life, how things are with mental overstrain, etc.
Restorative rest between workouts is highly dependent on the individual qualities, traits and lifestyle of a person. If you lead a measured lifestyle, you are not particularly concerned about earning money and supporting your family, you eat well and sleep a lot, then by exercising three times a week, you will have time to recover without any problems. In a situation where you need to support a family, small children, work two jobs, do various housework, and after all this you still go to a fitness club and give your best there, keep in mind that recovery and, accordingly, growth you will need a lot more time. Two or even three times more.
Of course, you would like to hear specific figures for exactly how long the rest between workouts should take. But I will remind you once again that bodybuilding is a very individual sport, and therefore each person will have a different amount of time to rest. Take for example two equally developed physically guys. If they eat the same and sleep the same amount of time, but their training program is different, then the recovery time will be different. If they train according to the same program, eat the same way, but one sleeps longer, the second will take longer to recover. If they train the same way and sleep the same amount of time, but their nutrition is different, this will also affect the recovery time. And these are only three factors, provided that we did not take into account their psychological, mental workload, employment with studies or work, the presence or absence of a family or children, and so on, so on, so on.
Recovery
How to be in such a situation when you do not know how much time you need to spend on recovery and what should be the rest time between workouts? In such a situation, you will have to resort to a universal answer that will suit everyone. It sounds like this - focus on well-being. Listen to your body. Let him rest for 24 hours (training every other day). Go to a workout. Feeling tired and unable to do your best? Try 48 hours of rest (two rest days between workouts). Are you still tired during your workout? Rest 72 hours (three days of rest). And so on, until you find the optimal rest time for yourself.
Learning to listen to your body is critical. If you feel that training every other day is accompanied by a feeling of fatigue that does not leave you, increase the rest time. It makes no sense to persevere and accumulate fatigue, since the very essence of training - building muscle in this case is lost. This has already been said above.
So, we will conclude the following. Learn to listen to your body to maintain the required rest interval, and he himself will tell you how the recovery went between workouts. You should not come to the fitness club if you still feel tired.
Conclusion
Rest, like training and nutrition, is a rather individual topic; experiments also play a big role here. Try, search, study and listen to your body. He will tell you what is best for you. You will be surprised, but if you ask how much time you need to spend on sleep or recovery, I will tell you that only you can answer this question. There are only general recommendations for all. We reviewed them above. And the time of sleep, the time of rest between workouts and recovery is selected individually, and each will have its own. Remember also that only an integrated approach will give you the best result.