Personal Training – Recovery and rest’s role for getting in shape
War time British prime minister Winston Churchill was once asked; “Sir, to what do you attribute your success in life?”. His reply was; “Economy of effort. Never stand up when you can sit down, and never sit down when you can lie down.”
I personally feel this quote is quite apt in application to training to get in shape. When you allocate time to train, do not waste a single rep. Mindfully contract your muscles when performing exercises. Then, on the assumption you have performed many quality repetitions during a training session, your primary focusses need to be on refuelling with good nourishment and rest.
It is not while you’re at the gym that your body reshapes itself. It is when you are at complete rest, mainly while you sleep that the re-modelling takes place. A solid nights sleep of between 6-9 hours for most will be optimal. The quality of your sleep will have an impact also. Not that you will know during sleep, but if we do not enter our deepest stages of sleep then we will miss a vital opportunity for one of our most anabolic hormones; growth hormone to do it’s job of rebuilding damaged tissues – i.e the muscle tissue you should have damaged during your workout!
While you are awake, you are going to want to keep your cortisol (a hormone that generally breaks down tissue) in check. It naturally ebbs and flows throughout a day like other hormones, however with less than ideal lifestyle habits for body composition goals, it can be secreted too much and hinder your progress. Things like; too much caffeine, alcohol, refined sugar, anger problems, too much training, too few calories and generally being distressed could all potentially have an impact on your cortisol levels.
My advice; remain calm unless it is really really really necessary to not be, don’t starve yourself, predominantly eat foods that contain actual nourishment, do not train the same muscle group within 2-3 days if you have really taxed it – this could be longer if you’re a newbie to training, get to bed on time and a dose of caffeine too close bedtime won’t help much. Personal training sessions are an ideal place to learn lots of useful tips and tricks to help you get the most of your fitness efforts. Contact me today to book your free consultation!