Athletes often do recovery exercises to assist their body relax after a tough session of training. Recovery exercises are as beneficial and essential as the sports themselves, as they help in the circulation from the blood and muscle recovery to avoid being strained.
There are two types of recovery: passive and active. In passive recovery, your body is in complete rest. This includes any form of inactivity, such as sitting or laying, and can be beneficial if you're injured in some manner or when you experience significant pain after exercising.
On the other hand, active recovery has many benefits for your body. This type of recovery often involves low-intensity exercises such as walking, swimming, or yoga. For instance, it can speed up your muscles' rebuilding process and can reduce its soreness after exercising. It will help muscle recovery by increasing blood circulation without putting too much pressure in your joints and muscles.
Even though a lot of people prefer active recovery exercises, you can do myofascial release with foam rollers to assist your muscles recover.
In case you're wondering why you need to incorporate recovery exercises in your routine, here are the benefits of doing the work:
1. Faster Recovery
Sore muscles are expected after a workout. Therefore, doing recovery exercises can significantly help reduce the delayed onset of muscle soreness and will allow your body to prepare for your forthcoming exercise.
2. Reduces Lactic Acid Build-Up
During your workouts, your body uses energy acquired from metabolic reactions with the aid of the activities that our cells perform. However, as a result, it produces by-products like lactic acid that can cause fatigue and soreness. Recovery exercises helps remove lactate within our blood, therefore, reducing fatigue and muscle soreness.
3. Decreases Toxins
As a result of cell activity, a lot of toxins accumulate within the muscles. Recovery exercises help remove these toxins through an enzyme that helps purge waste in the body.
4. Normalizes Heart Rate
Our cardiovascular system recovers and adjusts after exercising since, during an exercise, our heart rate and blood pressure increases. You would want your heartbeat to return to normal slowly. Doing recovery exercises can help normalize it to avoid the feeling of light-headedness.
If you only feel sore, doing active recovery exercises is much more helpful for your body than passive recovery exercises. Fundamental essentials active recovery exercises that you can easily do to reap its health benefits:
- Light Cardio: Light cardio, like walking and jogging, enhances blood flow and significantly helps with recovery. A few minutes of walking can be enough to promote blood flow and reduce the soreness and stiffness of muscles.
- Bodyweight Exercises: Bodyweight training is simple to learn, can be done anywhere, and can be very effective. Some people get innovative when doing these exercises but the usual exercises that many people do for active recovery are push-ups, squats, lunges, and crunches. These are typically incorporated between exercise routines.
- Cycling: You can do this outdoors or indoors through stationary bikes. A lot of people are into indoor cycling as there are cycling instructors who can guide you regarding the proper way of doing it, which is usually offered in a group fitness setting. Therefore, you can hop on a stationary bike in a gym in between your exercises. Same goes for when you do your workout outdoors as possible easily bring a bike with you.
- Skipping: Skipping lightly using a skipping rope for Fifteen minutes can be a great active recovery exercise. All you need is a pair of trainers, space, and a skipping rope. Skip lightly for 3 minutes then rest for One minute in between by walking around to optimize your routine.
- Water Exercises: Doing water aerobics and swimming will also be one of the great ways to do active recovery exercises. There are many health benefits you can experience when you go swimming, for example helping you relax sores muscles, thus preventing injuries.
- Yoga: Many principles of yoga are helpful for people who regularly exercise, and for athletes as during active recovery sessions. Yoga is a light exercise that promotes blood flow to the muscles and helps you take control of your breathing, which will be beneficial, especially when you do strenuous workouts. Yoga may also greatly increase joint mobility.
Bottom Line
Recovery exercises can accelerate the process of muscle rebuilding and it can alleviate the soreness that you feel during or after doing a workout. It's best to incorporate active recovery exercises in your routine so you can take advantage of the benefits that were mentioned above. Don't shy away from pushing yourself when experiencing these activities, as it can help you optimize your exercise routines.