The Importance of Recovery: Signs You Need to Rest More
When pursuing your fitness goals and personal milestones, it's easy to overlook one critical element: recovery.
Recovery forms the backbone of any training or wellness routine, allowing the body to repair, recharge, and improve. A lack of recovery impacts our ability to perform at our best and can quickly lead to burnout, injury, and a decline in overall health.
We believe proper recovery is one of the core pillars of achieving sustainable progress. This belief has helped shape our services and approach to holistic wellness. Here, we'll explore why recovery is important and some of the signs that you might be overtrained, which often leads to poor recovery.
Why Is Recovery Important for Your Health and Fitness?
Recovery plays a fundamental role. When we exercise, work out, or otherwise train our bodies, our muscles endure tiny tears that need time to heal. Resting allows these muscles to rebuild stronger, ultimately improving our strength, endurance, and flexibility.
Fitness growth happens outside of the gym, with your work in the gym acting as a catalyst for this growth. Beyond physical health, recovery also aids mental health by helping to reduce stress, boost mood, and enhance focus.
Proper recovery also helps prevent injuries by allowing our muscles and connective tissue time to repair and strengthen. This process reduces the likelihood of strains or sprains. That said, the adverse is true: Poor recovery can quickly lead to overuse injuries, typically requiring longer recovery times.
Focusing on recovery can also mean you're helping to stabilise your energy levels. This helps prevent burnout and supports hormone regulation, improving mood, energy and mental health.
Common Signs You Might Be Overtrained
Determining whether your recovery is adequate can be challenging if you haven't yet experienced any noticeable signs. That said, in our experience of helping life athletes and London professionals, the signs are there, but they may not be strong enough to warrant your full focus.
Understanding your body and what is "normal" for you is vital to spotting the starting signs of overtraining. Below are some of the key signs that we see often.
Persistent Muscle Soreness and Fatigue
Muscle soreness after exercise is normal, especially if you've just completed a challenging workout. However, if this soreness lingers for several days or remains constant, it could be a sign that you're overtraining.
If muscles are not given adequate time to recover, they will stay fatigued and fail to repair effectively. Continuing without focusing on recovery can lead to chronic muscle soreness and a sharp decline in physical performance and quality of life.
While "no pain no gain" can be a mantra to follow during workouts, it certainly shouldn't follow you home and into recovery.
Decreased Performance & Stamina
Another telltale sign of insufficient recovery is a noticeable decrease in performance. While plateauing can be common during a fitness goal or journey, regressing can be a sign that your body has yet to fully recover.
If you're struggling to lift weights you could normally handle or start falling significantly behind your typical rep count, then it might be time to let go of the throttle.
Overtraining can diminish stamina, making a once-manageable workout feel more difficult. As far as workouts go, this is your body's clear signal that it needs more rest to regain that strength and stability.
This could be a good point in your journey to take a de-load week, during which you would emphasise recovery more while simply lifting to maintain.
Frequent Illness or Weak Immune System
Overtraining is taxing on the body, which can cause our immune system to struggle. Exertion without proper recovery can lead to chronic mental and physical stress, which weakens the immune system and hinders its ability to do its job effectively.
When this happens, you'll find that you feel run down, catch illnesses more easily, and take longer to recover from minor illnesses. Prioritising a strong immune system, where possible, is beneficial for both training and quality of life. Ensuring adequate rest helps to support this and allows your body to be better equipped to defend itself against illnesses.
Those with intense training schedules or high-stress jobs/lifestyles should prioritise recovery, as these ways of life already have a big impact on the immune system.
Trouble Sleeping or Feeling Constantly Tired
Unfortunately, overtraining can lead to trouble sleeping and constant fatigue, a catch-22. When overworked, our body struggles to enter a restful state, which can disrupt sleep patterns. Those struggling with recovery may find it hard to sleep, or once they do, they wake up frequently during the night.
On the other hand, while you may fall asleep, the fatigue associated with poor rest prevents you from entering a deeper, more restorative sleep, leading to ongoing fatigue.
In some cases, the increase in stress - as discussed above - can also cause your body to enter a slight flight or fight state, preventing you from relaxing fully.
Mental Signs You Need More Recovery
While seeing signs on the body can be easier, it's also important to account for the mind. When we're under-recovered, psychological effects can arise, affecting our mood, focus, and motivation.
These can sometimes be difficult to catch yourself, as it requires a level of self-awareness to spot nuance changes in mood. However, if a partner or friend has identified these, it could be a good idea to double-check if they're right.
Irritability & Mood Swings
The physical stress on the body from overtraining can affect hormone levels, leading to fluctuations in mood and emotional stability. This can cause mood swings, outbursts or sudden and persistent irritability where there was none before.
Irritability is a good identifier as it can extend beyond the gym. Sudden irritability around mundane or everyday life tasks can be easier to catch than, say, being irritable because someone cut in front of you in traffic.
Lack of Focus & Concentration
Mental clarity can also be the first to suffer after inadequate recovery. Common signs of this include difficulty focusing on tasks, feeling mentally drained, or if you're regularly experiencing "brain fog".
These cues can also result from other effects, such as high stress. Comparing how you feel now with how you typically feel during the week will help gauge whether or not something is different and to what severity.
It's not uncommon for us to have a poor night's rest and suffer from brain fog the next day, yet if that is occurring throughout the week consistently, it could be a sign of poor overall recovery.
How Much Recovery Do You Really Need?
The amount of recovery you need varies depending on factors like age, lifestyle, fitness level, and workout intensity. Similarly, everyone reacts differently to a stimulus; thus, even with everything equal, you may need more or less recovery than someone else.
Based on exercise intensity, here's a rough guideline:
Light Exercise: May require minimal recovery time and can be done daily
Moderate Exercise: Typically, between 24-28 hours of recovery is sufficient for moderate workouts
Intense Exercise: Typically, between 48-72 hours of recovery, especially if multiple muscle groups are targeted
It's also important to note that younger individuals may bounce back and recover quicker, while those older or suffering from health concerns may require more rest days. As always, listening to your body is the best way to determine whether you've had adequate recovery.
How to Improve Your Recovery Routine
Improving your overall recovery routine doesn't have to be complicated; in fact, it's rather simple. By consciously focusing on a few key things, you can ensure you're covering the important bases while recovering:
Stay Hydrated
Water is essential for muscle recovery. It not only helps flush out waste products created during exercise but also helps prevent dehydration, which can have many negative consequences on the body. Aim to drink water consistently throughout the day.
Focus on Nutrition
Fueling your body with nutrient-dense foods is a great way to support recovery. These include protein for muscle repair and carbohydrates for replenishing glycogen. Similarly, healthy fats and vitamins can aid in cellular repair and reduce inflammation.
Incorporate Stretching
Stretching is often overlooked for recovery, but gentle stretching is excellent for keeping muscles flexible and reducing post-workout stiffness. It also improves range of motion and helps reduce injury.
Depending on the type of stretching you do and whether or not you find these activities relaxing, it can also have positive mental effects, such as reducing stress.
Prioritise sleep
Sleep is the closest thing we have to a panacea for the body. When asleep, your body does most of its repair work. Missing out on a few hours of sleep directly cuts your recovery time by the same amount.
For optimal recovery, aim for 7-9 hours of sleep per night. This may also help prevent fatigue, poor concentration, and slower muscle repair.
Plan Active Rest Days
Active rest days include low-intensity activities such as walking or gentle yoga. These promote blood flow around the body without causing muscle strain, helping keep muscles engaged and aiding recovery without overtaxing the body.
They can also help retain the feeling of body productivity. Frequent gym enthusiasts will know the sudden overwhelming "losing muscle" feeling of not visiting the gym for a few days. Active rest days are a good way of combatting that feeling.
When to Look at Alternative Recovery Options
If you're experiencing ongoing signs of overtraining and, no matter what you've tried, you can't seem to get the recovery you need, it could be time to look at alternate options for whole-body recovery.
Professional services, like the ones we offer at The Body Lab in Kensington, are designed to help your body recuperate more effectively and relieve muscle tension. Many of our services have lasting, positive effects on the body and mind, regardless of whether you're engaging with them to combat overtraining or simply add to your arsenal of recovery options.
Some of these include:
Massage Therapy
Regular massage helps alleviate muscle soreness and improve circulation. It also promotes faster recovery between workouts. Massage therapy can also profoundly reduce stress and release tension, often aiding in the "relaxing" feeling one receives during a massage.
Whole-body Cryotherapy
Exposing the body to extreme temperatures can reduce inflammation and muscle soreness, especially with high-intensity workout plans. Whole-body cryotherapy accelerates muscle recovery by reducing swelling, and the cold rush boosts endorphin levels, leaving you feeling re-energised.
Osteopathy
Professional osteopathy supports joint and muscle health by addressing structural imbalances, which can develop from repetitive movements or overuse. By focusing on restoring proper alignment and mobility and reducing strain on muscles and joints, osteopathy enhances blood flow to affected areas and speeds up the healing process naturally.
Recovery Tips for Busy Londoners
The fast-paced culture of London can make it incredibly difficult to find time to recover. If you do find time, there can be an underlying thought of "I should be doing more".
We see this all the time, and more often than not, those who look to push past their limits encounter the "overtrained" wall, preventing them from continuing and requiring significant time to recover.
Aside from focusing on recovery as a whole, there are a few things that busy Londoners can do to improve their general recovery:
Schedule Breaks
Set a reminder during the day to take quick breaks. Breaks can help reduce stress and, in some cases, increase productivity. However, the importance of this is to reduce muscle tension and mental fatigue.
To do this, ensure breaks are, well, breaks.
Whether this is a break to take a walk, stretch, or unwind, quick breaks should be leveraged to give yourself a quick reset, not to fit another activity in to optimise your day.
Use Recovery Aids
Use any recovery options you have available. For home use, these could be foam rollers, massage guns, or resistance bands to help alleviate tension and aid in recovery.
While you're out, you could stop by our Kensington facility for a quick whole-body cryotherapy session or to leverage our other recovery options.
Prioritise Sleep
Restful sleep is one of the most effective ways to recover physically and mentally. Prioritising sleep, while great for recovery, will also have compound effects on daily activities.
Prioritising Recovery for Long-Term Health and Performance
Recovery is a vital component supporting your physical and mental growth. Those who consider recovery optional will quickly find that overtraining can be debilitating. By recognising the signs and cues of overtraining, you can put processes in place to focus on recovery before it becomes a long-term issue.
At The Body Lab in Kensington, we offer various recovery services tailored to individual needs. Whether you're interested in massage therapy, cryotherapy, or simply seeking advice on optimising recovery, our team is here to help. Contact us today to learn more about how we can support your wellness journey.
