Back when I was competing at an elite level of marathon and triathlon, we paid lip service to rest and recovery, but recovery looked mostly like lying on the couch for hours on end with a gallon of ice cream resting on my chest. I poured all my energy into training sessions such that I had nothing left in the tank on off days. Even basic household chores were a big ask.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If I knew then what I know now, I would have made more of an effort to move on my off days, incorporating more active recovery instead of the passive, frankly slothful recovery I favored at the time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I suspect even the average fitness buff now understands that the<\/strong> real fitness gains don\u2019t happen in the gym or on the track; they happen during the recovery period.<\/strong> You get stronger, fitter, faster thanks to the processes the body undertakes to repair damage caused by exercise and to prepare for your next bout. However, I still see athletes at all levels from general fitness enthusiasts to weekend warrior endurance athletes to high-level competitors resisting recovery. They feel guilty on days they don\u2019t train. When they\u2019re too busy to hit the gym, or accumulated soreness or fatigue forces them to take a day off, they worry that they\u2019re losing all their hard-won gains.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So they\u2019re usually happy to learn that taking days totally off isn\u2019t necessary, or even ideal, for optimizing recovery and long-term performance. It\u2019s usually better to keep moving on recovery days.<\/strong> You can and should hit the gym or hop on your bike between workouts, provided you move at a far lower intensity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When people extol the virtues of active recovery, they are actually referring to three different things:<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019ll focus on the latter today, but the goal of all three is fundamentally the same. Exercise creates tissue damage and burns through fuel, including intramuscular glycogen. That physical damage and the process of cellular metabolism create byproducts like lactate in the muscles and bloodstream and lead to inflammation, DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), and fatigue. Active recovery increases circulation to working tissues (delivering nutrients and speeding up the clearance of waste products), reduces soreness, and improves perceptions of fatigue so athletes are ready to hit their next training session with more vigor.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Active recovery workouts also provide a welcome break from narrowly focused training regimens. Most athletes complain that they don\u2019t have time to do all the \u201cother stuff\u201d they know they should be doing\u2014cross-training, foam rolling, mobility work. Active recovery days are made for these kinds of activities. They also let you take a mental break from focusing on rep schemes, progressive overload, threshold pacing, and all the other intricacies of training.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As you\u2019ll see, even calling them \u201cworkouts\u201d is something of a misnomer, depending on the types of activities you choose. By and large, active recovery just means you avoid being sedentary on your off days. Almost any low-intensity, low-stress movement goes.<\/strong> As long as you make a point of moving your body beyond the tasks of daily living,\u00a0 you\u2019re probably checking the active recovery box.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Serious athletes probably have coaches programming weekly or monthly training blocks for them, hopefully with active rest days built in, along with dedicated deload weeks and periods of reduced training intensity throughout the year. For everyone else, consider all your \u201cnon-training\u201d days dedicated to active recovery.<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>Primal Blueprint Fitness<\/span> recommendations are two, maybe three, dedicated resistance workouts (lifting heavy things) a week, plus one <\/span>sprint<\/span> session every seven to ten days.\u00a0<\/span>You might do a long hike on the weekend or throw a couple <\/span>rucks<\/span> into the mix. All the other days would be active recovery days.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t overthink it. I\u2019ve never been a fan of rigid weekly schedules for Primal folks anyway, not even Primal <\/span>endurance athletes<\/span>. It\u2019s far better to go by intuition. Open up the throttle when you\u2019re feeling highly motivated, but otherwise simply commit to avoiding sedentary lifestyle patterns. This only works, though, if you let go of ego attachment and reject the prevailing \u201cgo hard or go home\u201d fitness mentality. You have to be willing to say, \u201cYeah, I know my race was five days ago, but I\u2019m still feeling achy and tired, so I\u2019m going to take another active recovery day,\u201d instead of, \u201cI should be better by now, time to hit the gym.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The general recommendation for active recovery workouts is to keep your recovery workouts at a low to moderate intensity, going no harder than 60 to 70 percent of your max heart rate. I don\u2019t find max heart rate targets particularly useful because few people know their true max heart rate, but you can use RPE (rate of perceived exertion) as a proxy. Keep your effort at or below a 7, and you\u2019ll be good. Lower is fine, too. Some of these activities will barely get you above a 1 or 2 RPE.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It won\u2019t surprise you to learn that <\/span>walking<\/span> is my number one active recovery priority. Just get as many steps in as you can. Try a <\/span>walking workout<\/span> on days when you have a little more to give. Pause periodically during your walk to do some step-ups on a park bench, hang from a tree branch, or do a set of ass-to-grass squats.<\/span><\/p>\n Light cardio such as easy jogging, swimming, biking, or using a machine at the gym can be great for active recovery. Just monitor your intensity. <\/span><\/p>\n You have two options here. One, you can target the muscles you most recently worked. For example, you could jog the day after doing hard mile repeats or hitting the squat rack. Or, you can use this time for cross-training (runners might swim, for example). Both have their merits. It just depends on your goal for a given session.<\/span><\/p>\n Gentle movement practices are ideal for moving your body through a wide range of motion, connecting to your breath, and working on balance, both literally and figuratively. They improve <\/span>vagal tone<\/span>, meaning you get greater activation of the parasympathetic \u201crest-digest-repair\u201d nervous system. Most of us run around in a state of high stress and high alert such that the sympathetic (\u201cfight-flight-freeze\u201d) nervous system predominates. Chronic exercise patterns contribute to sympathetic (over)activation. Gentle movement can help restore homeostasis and bring us back to a state of calm readiness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This is one you can do every day whether or not you have a heavy workout planned. Be like my pal Brad Kearns and start your day with a <\/span>dynamic morning stretching routine<\/span>. He does this every single morning to loosen up stiff tissues and get the blood flowing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Use a <\/span>foam roller<\/span> or other <\/span>massage tool<\/span> to target areas of stiffness or soreness. I particularly like to combine self-myofascial release with dynamic stretching.<\/span><\/p>\n An active recovery day is a good time to target areas of weakness or poor mobility. Runners often have disproportionately weak glutes relative to their quads and hamstrings, for example. Folks who work at a computer have tight pectoral muscles and exhibit so-called <\/span>tech neck<\/span>, so they benefit from releasing and strengthening the upper back.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I like <\/span>resistance bands<\/span> and minibands for this. Light dumbbells, kettlebells, and bodyweight exercises like the <\/span>Primal Essential Movements<\/span> are also good choices. You can do a short workout session, again watching the RPE, or drop in <\/span>microworkouts<\/span> throughout the day. You may be tempted to avoid areas that you worked the day before, but targeting those muscles increases circulation and enhances recovery.\u00a0 Pick a lighter weight and focus on range of motion, going as slowly as you need to nail the quality of your movements.<\/span><\/p>\n This is a technique that I learned from Joel Jamieson of 8 Weeks Out. Tempo intervals involve 10 seconds of moderate-intensity (RPE 7, no more<\/em>) work followed by one minute of easy recovery. You can do this on a stationary bike, elliptical machine, jogging, jumping rope, jumping jacks\u2014any kind of exercise where you can control your effort. I\u2019ll do eight to ten reps, followed by some stretching and maybe a dip in my <\/span>cold plunge<\/span> or a <\/span>sauna<\/span> session.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s great to give yourself time to rest (passive recovery) and enjoy total leisure sometimes. However, if you\u2019re working out so hard on your exercise days that you can barely drag yourself off the couch on rest days, I\u2019m going to suggest that you\u2019re overdoing it. That\u2019s how I operated back in my competitive days, and it darn near broke me. This \u201cpush yourself to the brink, then crash\u201d cycle is still glorified in the conventional sport and fitness worlds, but unless you\u2019re getting paid to compete, you don\u2019t need to be putting your body through all that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s rare that I have a day where I don\u2019t move much at all, not even going for a morning walk on the beach or hopping on my <\/span>fat tire bike<\/span> for 30 minutes in the afternoon to give myself time to ideate on a post. And I don\u2019t think most people need to intentionally build in passive recovery days, either. The exception is people who are flirting with\u2014or deep in the throes of\u2014overtraining or burnout. If you\u2019ve already crossed the line into true burnout, you may need weeks or even months of complete rest before slowly getting back to exercising.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As long as your exercise stays on the right side of healthy, though, you generally don\u2019t need<\/em> total rest days. That said, even \u201creasonable\u201d levels of exercise can drain you if you\u2019re close to running on empty due to significant life stress, other health issues, or poor sleep. The best course of action is always to listen to your body.<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t let the concept of active recovery become a way of sneaking in more exercise and avoiding rest!<\/strong> \u201cToday is an active recovery day, so I\u2019ll just do a 60-minute power yoga class at 5 AM and then ruck a few miles after work. But no running!\u201d Fitness culture has created a real phobia of taking days off, but you can\u2019t go go go all the time. Don\u2019t cheat yourself here. If your recovery workouts leave you feeling tired or depleted, you\u2019re not managing effort effectively.<\/strong> Dial it back even more. You should feel more energized after active recovery workouts, not less.<\/span><\/p>\n Lastly, it should go without saying that all of these active recovery techniques will work better if you support your efforts with good nutrition, hydration, and sleep.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n All right, lay it on me. Tell me your favorite recovery protocols, tools, and activities.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\nWhat is Active Recovery<\/h2>\n
\n
How Often Should You Participate in Active Recovery?<\/h2>\n
Active Recovery Workouts<\/h2>\n
Walking<\/h3>\n
Easy cardio<\/h3>\n
Tai chi, qigong, yoga<\/h3>\n
Dynamic stretching<\/h3>\n
Self-myofascial release<\/h3>\n
Light<\/em> resistance training<\/h3>\n
Tempo intervals<\/h3>\n
Does This Mean You Should Never Take Total Rest Days?<\/h2>\n
A Final Word Caution<\/h2>\n
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