The importance of recovery is often overlooked, and wrongly so! After exercise, your body need to be able to rest, which is something that can be a mental struggle for many people. When exercising regularly, it is vital to be aware of how recovery is essential to reach your fitness goals. In the following blog, we'll discuss why recovery after exercise is important and why you should be incorporating it alongside your workout.
What is Recovery?
Recovery from exercise refers to the period of time between exercise and the return to a resting state. There is also more than one kind of recovery: active and passive, which are both important when taking part in any kind of exercise. Passive recovery involves giving yourself the entire day off from exercise while active recovery is the act of performing low intensity exercises after a workout. For example: walking, yoga, and using massage rollers.
Passive recovery is recommended if you're suffering from an injury or muscle pain. It can also be necessary if you're feeling very tired, mentally and/or physically, after working out.
Active recovery is preferred when the above circumstances do not apply and should be included as part of a balanced fitness routine.
Why is Recovery Important?
By incorporating recovery into your workout, you're giving your body exactly what it needs to successfully improve your personal fitness while avoiding injury. The act of recovery is beneficial for keeping your blood flowing and helping muscles rebuild from strenuous physical activity.
The more you incorporate recovery, the quicker your body will take to recuperate from a hard session due to these benefits:
- Reducing lactic acid build up.
- Saying goodbye to toxins
- Improving muscle flexibility
- Reducing soreness
- Increasing blood flow
- Helping you maintain your exercise routine.
As well as the reasons above, the importance of recovery is highlighted by the fact that strenuous exercise can cause tiny tears to appear in your muscles. As your muscles heal overtime, they eventually grow in size and strength.
The vital part of this whole process is that this growth occurs during the rest and recovery period, not during the fitness session itself. So, if you don't take the time to recover, all the hard work you put into exercising is less likely to reap rewards.
How to Actively Recover
Cooling Down After Exercise
After a hard workout, keeping moving rather than stopping and lying down will help you massively with your recovery. In cool down, you're required to work no more than 50% of your maximum effort and then gradually bring it down from there until you eventually stop. Cool downs typically last around 5-10 minutes.
On rest days following intense activity
1-2 days after intense exercise you can still participate in active recovery – this will ultimately help your muscles recover and is especially important if you are feeling sore. Active recovery on your rest days is as easy as walking, cycling, or swimming. Stretching, muscle rolling, and yoga are also great to try, and we have a range of products for all.
Our Recovery Products
You might be wondering where to start with your recovery journey, but don’t worry! We're here to help you find the perfect recovery product for you.
If you're new to recovery, then our 45cm and our 90cm foam roller are a perfect choice. Although they provide a soothing massage, they're a lower density and aren't too firm. As a result, they're great for using if your muscles aren't used to a massage roller.
If you're a bit more advanced, then our grid foam roller and 2 in 1 foam roller are ideal picks. Because they're made from firmer materials, they give you a deeper and more intense muscle massage.
And for a more targeted approach to relieve foot pain, try our foot roller. Designed with a perfectly contoured shape with special pressure bobbles to target the trigger points in your feet.
