A Recovery Workout is the ideal way to train the day after an intense speed or power workout.
Whether or not you work with a personal trainer, you can implement some tactics and techniques used by strength coaches and certified personal trainers to get the most out of your training sessions. Performing a Recovery Workout the day after you’ve pushed yourself in a strength training or cardiovascular workout can help you recover better from the workout, and as a result improve your overall fitness level.
Certified personal trainers and strength coaches employ this method that will raise your heart rate and clear your system of metabolic wastes – carbon dioxide and lactic acid – and can ultimately help reduce soreness that sometimes results a day or two following an intense workout. By engaging in this kind of training session you are assisting your body’s ability to remove these toxins, which is certainly preferable to doing nothing.
How many of you have experienced increased soreness the second day after a tough workout? This happens, in many occasions, because you haven’t properly cooled down immediately after a workout or as a result of doing nothing the day after such a session. Competitive athletes, strength coaches and personal trainers have understood the benefits of having a well-designed Recovery Workout.
Refer to my article on the 20 Repetition Squat Workout, and you will find a recommendation that anyone performing this workout should get on a treadmill – or do some other low-intensity exercise – for about 5 minutes to help the recovery process. A Recovery Workout the day after this kind of high-demand training session further assists the recovery process.
Regardless of what kind of rigorous workout you’ve done – cardiovascular, speed or strength and power – a Recovery Workout should be employed the day after to aid in your recovery. The following components can be included in a Recovery Workout; dynamic/active warm-up, agility work done at approximately 75-80% effort, calisthenics circuit training and dynamic/active flexibility.
Personally, I perform a workout that follows this progression and that lasts for 20-30 minutes, at least once every 2 weeks depending on my training regimen. I could write thousands of words about each one of these elements, and over the coming months I will.
My main goal is to introduce you to the concepts involved with designing and performing an effective Recovery Workout. Feel free to experiment with the mix of these activities keeping the 20-30 minute time limit in mind.
