One oft-repeated mantra on this site is that hypertrophy is a three-legged chair of diet, workout and recovery. The third leg of rest and recovery is what particularly interests me. Immediately some interesting questions pose themselves: very little seems written about recovery, so if it’s that critical, then why isn’t there a lot written on it?
I’m asking because I feel that this is the key to my success: can I gain victory over recovery? I feel that both my diet and workouts are more than adequate, but I feel my muscle gain is lagging what it should be.
So any advice on recovery would be much appreciated! And keep in mind I’m 45…
I"m 44 and have been training for a long time, and used to train 7 days a week, now it’s down to 5. with days of low intensity training and hi intensity. I use l-glutamine post workout for my recovery, get as much sleep as i can, naps included. and take a week off every few months. I powerlift but i am gaining LBM because of my workout. If i feel tired or fatigued or sore, i won’t train. You are right rest and recovery is probably the most overlooked part of training and more should be written on it. I ended up getting certified years back to findout i was doing everything wrong. Now i rest for gains
There actually have been a number of articles written on the site about recovery - CT has an article devoted to it, as do a few others, as well as techniques included with some of the programs that are here.
There are a ton of them to list (I’d take a look at Supertraining or one of Hatfield’s books, he summarizes most of them pretty well), but I use massage (self or otherwise), light work to get the blood flowing on off days, and occasionally chiropractic care and ART.
It’d be cool if one of the authors put together a big comprehensive compendium on recovery techniques.
Im no expert but the two main factors of recovery are eating and sleeping. After a workout I stuff my face with quality carbs and protein. And make sure you get at least 8 hours of sleep. I find it hard to overtrain when I eat and sleep hella. I think it was CT who wrote a great article about methods of quick recovery.
[quote]buffalokilla wrote:
There actually have been a number of articles written on the site about recovery - CT has an article devoted to it, as do a few others, as well as techniques included with some of the programs that are here.
There are a ton of them to list (I’d take a look at Supertraining or one of Hatfield’s books, he summarizes most of them pretty well), but I use massage (self or otherwise), light work to get the blood flowing on off days, and occasionally chiropractic care and ART.
It’d be cool if one of the authors put together a big comprehensive compendium on recovery techniques.
Just like any other quality in the body recovery can be trained for and enhanced. If you increase the number of weekly sessions you will most likely have to work through some soreness to adjust to the new frequency.
To enhance recovery you could eat the same number of meals every day or get an exact number of hours of sleep every day. Example: You always have three square meals and a protein shake almost every day and you always go to bed at 11pm and set the alarm to wake you at 8 in the morning. The body enjoys consistency above many things.
Another great way is to employ active recovery such as one outlined in Waterbury’s 100 reps article.
And last but not least is ice massage which you can also look up in this sites new and improved search engine.
You’re right, training and nutrition are given way more attention than recovery. But there’s lots of great info non the less.