Rest and Recovery Part One
Have you ever wondered how improvements in performance take place? Is it by doing longer length training sessions or working at a higher intensity?
When does the improvement take place? During the sessions?
The answer to the above is no! Your improvements come during your rest and recovery periods!
Taking rest and building rest days into your training program is not the same as skipping a workout and there should be no guilt attached to taking planned rest days.
It is during the rest time that your body rebuilds and grows. It is here the improvements or adaptations take place. Muscle growth occurs in the recovery periods, as do other training adaptations. A general rule of thumb is that periods of high intensity/duration training should be followed by periods of planned rest. Now given adequate rest and recovery time the body will actually compensate (where the improvements take place) from the stimulus by repairing tissues. Given adequate recovery time the body will actually surpass former levels of strength, speed etc.This process is known as supercompensation. There are obviously other factors to take into consideration here too such as age, sleep, lifestyle and other stressors.
Without rest and recovery the risk of over training becomes an issue. Any form of training stimulus is recognised by the body as a stressor and the bodys response to any stress is to burn stored energy resulting in fatigue at some level.
Fatigue may take many forms:-
Lets look at muscular fatigue. Muscular fatigue occurs every time a micro trauma occurs within a muscle and can occur when there is an excessive volume of training or training of intensity where the client reaches failure. Signs of muscular fatigue might be soreness and stiffness up to one to two days after a work out.
This phenomenon is known as DOMS or delayed onset of muscle soreness. Taking a day or two off from working muscles that are sore might be adequate recovery but fitness professionals need to be aware that clients may be suffering form fatigue of the central nervous system. Recovery of the nerve cells takes up to seven times as long as muscle cells to completely recover from a training stimulus.
Nervous system fatigue can occur on two levels - in the central nervous system and within the peripheral nervous system: the first causing a change (a decrease) in the rate and speed of nerve impulses sent from the brain. The second, peripheral, occurs when the chemical bi products of high intensity training cause a decrease in the function of nerves in the muscles which then affects the twitch causes of this fatigue can be excessive volumes and intensities of training (adversely affecting the volume/intensity relationship) and inadequate recovery periods.
Signs to look for would include decreased motivation, decreased quality of movement and co ordination when exercising, difficulty sleeping and decreased focus or concentration.
There can be another form of fatigue in addition to the above-mentioned two; fatigue at a hormonal level, or endocrine fatigue. The central nervous system (CNS) breaks into two afferent and efferent; the first carrying messages from the receptors in the skin and muscles to the CNS, the second is the nerves carrying stimuli from the CNS to the muscles. The efferent further breaks into two the somatic and the autonomic nervous systems. The somatic system innervates skeletal muscle; the autonomic innervates smooth and cardiac muscle glands. The autonomic system further divides into sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. In general it has been found that chronic endocrine fatigue associated with overtraining is caused by over excitation of the sympathetic system for prolonged periods. Put simply this form of fatigue is a result of the bodys inability to cope with prolonged hormonal disruptions as a result of physical (and other) stressors.
Symptoms here might include lethargy, depression, fatigue not helped by sleep, decreased focus and memory, increase in blood pressure and resting heart rate,increased incidence of injury and increased irritability.
Fatigue can also be caused by underactivation of the parasympathetic system; however this is found to be much harder to detect or diagnose.
Making sure that the balance of work and recovery is important to ensure that improvements will take place and that fatigue does not set in. Working out the optimum time of rest and recovery to ensure supercompensation can be difficult especially if a personal trainer or coach is not planning training. The keeping of a training diary can provide good information to help tailor the programme to suit the trainees needs. It should be recognised that each individual will recover at different rates and therefore training programmes should always be designed to suit the individual.
There are various techniques used to enhance rest and recovery not covered here that will be touched upon in subsequent articles.
Some of the signs and symptoms listed above can also indicate other conditions and as such professional medical advice should always be sought if an individual is experiencing unusual symptoms or is unsure of their health status.
Paula Derwar - Part two next month!
