Active Recovery and Smart Rest Practices

When you take rest days, you don’t have to be completely inactive. You can recover through low-intensity activities like cycling, yoga, walking, or swimming, forms of active recovery. Swimming has been shown to reduce inflammation, muscle cramps, and stiffness due to being surrounded by water. Yoga can help improve flexibility and sore muscles, which can be effective for any sport or workout.

Active recovery is effective because it helps maintain blood flow which can reduce muscle soreness and stiffness by reducing lactic acid buildup. Practicing active recovery also keeps your muscles flexible and moving, promoting recovery. Another method for active recovery is working out other parts of your body when you are resting. For example, if you have sore legs, you can work out your upper body. This helps maintain a balance in your body and keeps you moving.

Active recovery can also be practiced during your workouts, even when you’re not taking a rest day. An example is cooling down after your workout. When you cool down, try to work at half your maximum effort or less, then slowly lower your effort from there. For example, if you are running on a track, decrease your speed to half your effort, and then go a little slower each lap, about 10% less effort each time. Cooling down is also essential to injury prevention, as it helps bring your blood pressure and heart rate back to a resting rate slowly. This can prevent dizziness, cramps, and fatigue as it can give your body time to clear out some of the lactic acid buildup from your workout.