4 Reasons Recovery Is the Most Important Thing About Exercise

While we’re always told to get regular exercise, we don’t always show how much about the importance of rest and recovery. Rest is just as important as exercise. And if you are undertaking a strenuous exercise routine, it is pivotal. It allows your body to repair and recover. Because if you skip these rest days, you will soon face burnout. So let’s show you some of the benefits of taking regular rest days, and how you can do them right.

It Reduces Risk of Injury

If you drop form during an exercise, you could cause yourself a significant injury. This is especially true when it comes to running. We can get into the zone when it comes to running, but this means that we aren’t paying attention to our bodies. While any ankle and foot clinic will preach a lot about it, it’s beneficial for you to reduce the risk of injuries that can impact your life many decades from now. When it comes to running, many people find that their knees and ankles give in. This is why when you start any form of exercise that you focus on form first and foremost.

It Prevents Muscle Fatigue

Exercise will deplete the glycogen levels in your muscles. If you don’t replace these, you will get soreness and muscle fatigue. Your muscles require glycogen to function, even when you’re not exercising. And this means that you need to get adequate rest. One of the best ways to replenish your glycogen stores is to eat a good quality carbohydrate as soon as you finish working out, such as sweet potatoes.

It Improves Your Performance

You will know if you haven’t got enough rest. Because the next time you go back to the gym or start running, your performance won’t be as good as it was. And when you start to get like this, you may lose some motivation. It’s important to remember that you may push yourself, but over-training will decrease your performance over time. It decreases your endurance, makes your reaction times sluggish, but makes you less agile. By resting properly to improve your performance, you need to have an adequate amount of protein to increase your strength gains. Usually, this is approximately 1 gram of protein per 1 lb of body weight.

It Improves Your Sleep

Exercise is excellent for sleep, but if you don’t get the had a good sleep, your hormones could go out of balance. Because physical activity boosts cortisol and adrenaline, if you over-exercise, this can overproduce these hormones, which will impact your ability to get to sleep, meaning that you will feel like you are running on empty. If you are someone that struggles to get to sleep to come out especially if you are exercising a lot, this could be a sign of overtraining. But it could very well be that you are training too close to bedtime. Make sure that you exercise at least 4 hours before bedtime, but make sure that you eat at least 2 hours before you hit the hay.