Recovery - Why Training & Exercise Don’t Stop at the Finish Line

If you’re a regular here on my women’s fitness Fordingbridge blog, you’ll know how passionate I am about being active, and taking all the opportunities I can to add activity into my day. Running, strength work, cycling – I’m a real advocate for keeping active and encouraging movement. But I’m equally as passionate about recovery and how important it is for reaching our fitness targets. Whether we’re training to run a marathon or aiming to be fitter and stronger in our everyday life, without proper recovery, we’re unlikely to meet our goals.

 But why is recovery so important?

What Does Recovery Mean?

What do you think of when you hear the word recovery? If you thought rest, you’d be right. But that’s not the whole story. A 5km run, marathon or ultramarathon all have the same thing in common – the training doesn’t stop at the finish line.

Looking after your body with stretching, yoga, sports massage, sleep, hydration and diet is essential for strength and injury prevention and it’s great for your mindset and mental health, too.  This is what’s referred to as active recovery. When we exercise, we create tiny tears in our large muscles. These microscopic tears are important for building and strengthening muscle – the body repairs them by layering on muscle fibres, that ultimately build muscle and add strength.

But while this process is happening, we’ll likely be experiencing DOMS – or delayed onset muscle soreness. Those aches that prevent us walking normally or sitting down the day after exercise? That’s DOMS, and it’s caused by inflammation that’s a normal part of our biological recovery.

However, we can help the recovery process by drinking water to flush away metabolic waste products, eating a healthy diet rich in lean protein and low in ultra-processed foods, salt and sugar and getting good quality sleep. We can also help by encouraging oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to the muscles via massage and stretching. Yoga and stretching also improve flexibility and range of motion, helping to prevent injuries, fatigue and a decline in performance.

Which all sounds great, doesn’t it?!

The Role of Self-Care in Recovery

Self-care has a bit of a buzz around it at the moment. Yes It can mean bubble baths, candles and chocolate-based treats. But it also means listening to your body to give it what it really needs, rather than stopping after exercise and doing nothing (as tempting as that is!).

After a workout, your body will be telling you what it needs – be that hydration, calories, rest or a foam rolling session – you just need to listen to it. Niggling aches and pains can mean that it needs proper stretching – Purestretch, a mix of stretching, flexibility and core work is a perfect for runners’ strength and injury prevention. Yoga is a full body exercise with purposeful movements designed to elongate tight, tired muscles. Sports massage is great for improving blood flow, reducing muscle tension and increasing range of motion that all help to reduce DOMS, and it helps to increase endurance and reduce injury risk. Sports massage doesn’t have to hurt to be effective, so don’t let the fear of a painful experience put you off!

Recovery and Everyday Life

Whatever your exercise and training level, recovery is important in other areas of your life, too. Taking bags of food shopping from the car to the kitchen, bending over to give the grandchildren a cuddle, getting up from an afternoon spent on the beach – they all take effort and require our body to be willing and able.  Sore, tight or injured muscles that haven’t recovered properly will hinder these otherwise simple pleasures. What’s more, making recovery holistic and about your whole body and lifestyle, is a better way of achieving your life’s goals, whatever they are.

So, what can you do to aid your recovery for your exercise goals, mental wellbeing and day to day life? Could you book yourself in for a Purestretch class? A yoga session? A sports massage? Let Run Fit Fordingbridge help you, and make active recovery an intentional part of your everyday life.