Active Recovery – What Is It And How To Use It Correctly?

Even beginning athletes know that the next day after heavy squats with a barbell, the legs seem to be “rusty,” and every step becomes torture. Unfortunately, the specific pulling pain in the muscles and their stiffness is an inseparable companion of strength training for hypertrophy.

However, in order to accelerate the processes of recovery (and, ultimately, accelerate the growth of muscles), professional athletes do not simply abstain from physical exertion on rest days, but use light power loads for the so-called “active recovery”.

Why do muscles ache?

It is important to share the “healthy” pain in the muscles and the pain caused by the trauma. If the muscles begin to ache a bit on the 2-3rd day after training and stiffness appear, this is a normal process of recovery. However, if you have experienced severe pain during the exercise, this is a trauma.

It is believed that muscle pain during recovery is due to attempts by the body to remove lactic acid from the tissues and other toxins formed during strength training. The feeling of stiffness, in turn, is a direct consequence of active healing of microdamage of the musculature.

Active and passive recovery

Traditionally, the term “recovery” means a passive rest – a person does not engage in sports but simply rests. Usually, this recovery takes 2-3 days, which is acceptable for beginners. However, if you train every day, then this decision will not work for you.

Trying to train with the “tightened” muscles significantly increases the risk of getting extremely unpleasant muscle tears – professionals know that if the pectoral muscle tears to heal the injury, it will take at least 6-8 months of complete avoidance of any strength training.

What is the active recovery?

Active recovery is one of the most effective ways of faster recovery of muscles and acceleration of the toxin removal process. Usually under active recovery is meant a combination of sports massage, neat stretch marks of the muscles and carrying out light cardio training.

In addition, to accelerate the recovery of the muscles of the legs and the lower half of the body, short strength training (20-30 min) usually performed with loads of 30-50% from usual ones helps – if yesterday you crouched with 100 kg in 5 repetitions, today you should crouch with 30-50 kg and 10-12 repetitions.

Pros of active recovery

Another plus of active recovery is additional muscle supply with nutrients. In simple terms, performing exercises with a high number of repetitions will awaken the “hunger” in the muscles, they will request additional nutrition and will grow faster.By increasing blood flow in tissues, light training during recovery days will help the body remove toxins gathered in muscles much faster. In addition, the use of average working weight will be a good opportunity to work on the technique of performing exercises.

Best Exercises for Recovery

In fact, when using an active recovery strategy, the choice of specific exercises is not so important. You can both use your usual training program (only reducing the working weight), and perform training on a comprehensive program that works out all the muscles in one day.

Do each exercise no more than two approaches, use a high number of repetitions (12-15 repetitions) and small weights (30-50% of the usual ones), trying to put the workout in half an hour. In this case, a warm-up in the form of a treadmill or other cardio is most often not required.

Additives for recovery

A classic formula for athletic supplements for accelerating muscle regeneration is a mixture of creatine, simple carbohydrates and protein isolate (30 g carbohydrates, 10-15 g protein and 3-5 grams of creatine), taken just before the start of active recovery training.

Such a cocktail will be a good source of nutrition to accelerate the growth of muscles, and increased blood flow as a result of exercise will facilitate the rapid assimilation of nutrients.

In order to accelerate the recovery of muscles after training will help both sports massage, special stretching exercises and moderate cardio, and the method of “active recovery”, consisting of rest days and light strength training.