I’m a broken record when it comes to lecturing on the benefits of exercise.
Whether it’s of the cardiovascular sort such as walking/running/biking/swimming or resistance training with weights, getting regular physical activity is a crucial element to living a long, healthy life.
And I would even go a step further and say it promotes our ability to live a meaningful life. We were born with one physical shell and it’s our job to take care of it so we can experience all that life has to offer without it holding us back.
With that being said, I and many others often overlook a key component when it comes to this whole physical activity thing — recovery.
Getting technical, the progress we all strive for doesn’t actually happen during the exercise session itself – it’s generated in the hours after we finish exercising when our body can carry out all the complex biochemical recovery processes it does.
These processes lead to improved aerobic fitness from cardiovascular training as well as getting stronger and growing larger muscles from resistance training with weights.
In addition, this broad “recovery” term includes our ability to train more and more without risking an injury or burnout. When a person recovers better, they’re able to make more progress and exercise at an increased frequency and intensity.
And as it turns out, we can have a large influence over the progress we make by getting better at recovering.
Sounds crazy – one can improve their ability to recover from exercise?
Absolutely.
Immediately when hearing this, some people’s thoughts go directly to all the extra time that’s now going to be required for recovery as if the allocation of finite resources towards exercising itself wasn’t enough.
But what if this whole recovery thing is about doing less?
There’s a caveat here, however.
We still must train hard for any of this to matter.
Our bodies require a reason to adapt and grow – this comes during the exercise part of the equation.
Let that be clear.
The Modalities
First up are the things most people instinctively think of when they hear the word recovery.
Those being the modalities like massage tools and foam rollers, cold plunging, heat exposure, and the like.
I’ve brought these into the conversation a multitude of times on HIB and for good reason – they have their time and place.
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