Tag: recovery

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How To Structure Your Workout

How To Structure Your Workout

You might think I’m just going to give you a routine. What I will actually do is make you think. I will give you the steps to create your routine but then you will do it by yourself. And then you can come to me with it and we can fine tune it.

Your workout is simply structured like this

1. Cardio warm-up – about 10 min

2. Warm up stretches. These not stretches you hold. They are movements that slowly stretch and unwind your body and which should mimic the exercises you have planned in your main section.

3. Main section. This is where you push really hard, your main workout. Around 30 min.

4. Cardio cool down – about 10 min. Here you can walk , slow jog etc

5. Cool down stretches. Here you can really stretch, holding the stretches for 10-15 sec and even give that box split a try. But be aware there are some basic guidelines for stretching to avoid injuries. However I will not discuss them here now.

Now, if you were to work with me you’d add the technical section as well, just before the main session.

Ok, cool, so this is it. This is how it looks. Usually training sessions last 1h but my sessions and those of my clients last for 1h30min.
Why? you ask. It’s simple. Before the “push hard” section we practice technique.

This ensured the body knows how to move and what to do in the most efficient way. This is where we build strong, long lasting foundations.

Furthermore the body and brain cannot just understand and fine tune movement after one try, so we are consistent and we repeat and build on the previous sessions.

I personally like to make my clients understand that training is more than just moving the body, it requires attention, focus as and fine tuning details.

We look at breathing, posture, general movement (what move before what so we avoid injuries) etc.

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How to plan your session

1. Type of session. Decide whether you are doing a strength, cardio, endurance etc.

2. Strength session. What are you going to focus on? Upper body, lower body, core or full body? Then select 6-7, maximum 8 exercises. Depending on your focus you make the appropriate choices. If you do a full body you might want to consider alternating arms with legs, doing 1 arms exercise then 1 legs, or 2:2 etc. If your focus is on arms but want to bring some leg exercises in you can simply do 2-3 arms:1 leg.

3. Cardio session. This is usually characterized by speed training doing exercises such as sprinting, cycling or jumping and bring strength exercises in between. You can also do running intervals, or on the cross trainer (but that’s indoor and it can get boring). So here we also talk about power and explosiveness, getting your heart to beat faster.

4. Endurance. This can be done either by long duration training (running, cross trainer, cycling for long periods of time at a constant pace/speed) but also by holding positions for a longer time (planks for example, or squats). A mixture is the best.

Other stuff to consider

But wait, besides the general, basic structure outlined above there are a few elements to consider, again general knowledge.

1. Don’t fatigue your core. You will use your core muscles in almost everything you do. Even if you isolate muscle training you still use your core up, even if less. So make sure you don’t do intense core exercises at the beginning of your workout as it will fatigue and it leads to injuries. Save them for the main section and towards the end of your session.

2. …but you should “wake up” your core muscles, to get them going. Try doing some press-ups or planks. But not too many or for too long so you don’t fatigue. If you are not supervised by an experienced coach you can easily you can easily end up injuring yourself due to fatigued muscles.

3. Don’t overdo the cardio. Again you want to warm up the body not fatigue it.

4. Avoid brutal warm-up stretches. They should unwind your body, opening up the joints and releasing the muscles so they can stretch and contract easily.

5. “Calamity springs from lack of carelessness” (the 7th Guiding Principle of Karate-Do). This means that when your mind is not where your body is there is lack of awareness. And this is when injury happens. If you cannot focus and be mindful you should stop your routine and re-gain your focus, change your routine to match your state of mind or even stop and go home.

6. Resting. Athletes rest, they even rest for one whole week after a series of intense training sessions. Take one week off training ever 12 weeks of training or somewhere around there. This does not mean you stop moving, it means you do something else such as swimming if you are a runner, running if you are a cyclist, play squash, badminton, practice some Tai Chi etc.

7. Recovery between sessions. Allow for at least 1 day between sessions. This is a general rule but, depending on your level, your training purpose and your routine this can change. If you have a routine and you are unsure of how to plan your rest get in touch.

8. Be flexible. Your routine should allow for unforeseen circumstances. Injuries, emergencies, feel unwell etc can get you out of balance but you need to adapt.

Progressions

When you reach the plateau not matter how much you try you may not see any progress anymore so you need to make some changes. To change your routine get creative by addressing:

★ number of exercises
★ number of sets
★ target repetition range
★ recovery periods between sets (decrease, increase)
★ workout frequency
★ movement speed – slow to fast
★ different exercises
★ stable to unstable surface
★ simple to complex
★ split routines

Things to add you probably never thought about

These are some elements that very few consider and if they consider many don’t action them as it seems they are not useful, but actually they are the foundations. You are as strong as your weakest link!

1. Fluid movement
2. Breathing exercises
3. Flexibility and mobility ONLY sessions
4. Meditation
5. Barefoot or minimalist training (caution here, risk of injury)
6. Balance ONLY sessions
7. Training the foot muscles (strong foundations…)
8. Posture

So now let’s design your program, keep it simple, then you can work on it. Download the PDF document I created for you, a table for you just to fill in, and get started.

Are you stuck or need guidance on this planning? Jump on a FREE call with me and let’s create a program for you. I will also help you program your rest days and training for a month. Book here.

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How much rest do you need for fitness gains

women running

How much rest do you need for fitness gains

women running

What are rest and recovery

 

Rest is part of recovery. Recovery is what happens in your body after the end of a workout. So rest includes sleep, nutrition, time for stillness—both mental and physical, activities that provide active-recovery that provides mental/physical relaxation such as yoga and swimming, frisbee,  tennis, a walk in the park etc. Rest can include movement as long as it does not challenge the body.

 

Recovery it’s largely about tissue regeneration and nutrient delivery. Exercise creates a physical stimulus for the body to get better at a given challenge and this requires blood flow or circulation. Circulation brings nutrients to the tissues, nutrients provide the material to facilitate the improvement, and circulation is enhanced by movement. So lighter workouts can be a good idea for recovery as they enhance circulation.

 

Thus, a “rest” day is characterized by a need for some movement and not by sleeping and sitting on the couch all day. Movement is a daily occurrence. A rest day is a day where you you remove the challenge of hard exercise.

 

 

Rest time to gain fitness and not to lose it

 

It is important to first distinguish between the rest required to gain fitness, and the rest that will cause a loss of fitness. We don’t get stronger, fitter, and faster during exercise. Training benefits occur immediately after exercise. Furthermore the body needs up to 7 days to adapt to an exercise stimulus.  Thus the workout is the stimulus, while recovery and improvement is the physical response.

 

It works like this. Intense exercise drives fitness down. During rest fitness increases and eventually ‘supercompensates’,  thus elevating fitness above level before training. When the process is repeated as fitness reaches its peak, fitness continues to improve.

 

Supercompensation is the period after training during which there is a higher performance capacity than prior to the training period.

 

The key to getting this to work correctly is proper timing of rest between workouts. Not giving enough rest, or resuming activity too soon (i.e. before supercompensation) will  result in decreased overall fitness. Wait too long, however and there may be no gain in fitness.

 

The correct resting period depends on the individual and intensity of the activity, but should generally fall within 24-48 hours for most athletes.

 

 

When do fitness levels begin to fall?

 

 

I did my research and these are some figures I found regarding the time length needed for fitness and strength to suffer a noticeable decrease.

The studies referenced herein assume rest to be complete inactivity and that you have a decent base of regular training for several months. Infrequent training without goals or commitment is just random activity and will not lead to fitness gains so talking about rest and recovery doesn’t make much sense.

 

 

Fitness in terms of VO2 max

VO2 max is the volume of oxygen that your lungs and blood can deliver to your muscles. This is important for sports like cycling and running.

Fitness, from VO2 measurements starts to be affected beginning the 4th-7th day of rest. Until then nothing changes but your mood.

When rest time reaches 14-30 days  there is up to 6-20% of VO2 max loss.

At 90+ days VO2 max falls 27.5%     from peak fitness.

 

 

Strength

In terms of strength, changes are slower. There significant decrease in strength for up to 7 days or so. After than chemical changes in the muscles begin to take place but muscle endurance is more affected than strength.

At 14-30 days muscles begin to decrease in size and fewer repetitions are possible. Endurance is affected even more.

After 30 days of rest there is a noticeable decrease in strength by up to 10% as well as power. A 300lb max back squat now becomes 270lb.

At 90+ days A 300lb max back squat now becomes 237lb. Strength performance can decrease 16-21%.

 

 

Maintaining fitness gains, especially strength gains, can be done with maintenance training at a significantly reduced volume and intensity.

 

 

The initial fitness losses shouldn’t trouble the recreational athlete. Adding 30 seconds your running benchmark is not make much difference. In fact, it may even be helpful as strategic detraining (decrease in fitness) can help overcome plateaus.

 

Since the studies referenced herein assume rest to be complete inactivity this is good news as usually when we “rest” we still do our daily activities and not sit all day.

 

 

Conclusions

 

Proper recovery is as important as proper training. And, as with nutrition and everything else, there are many strategies claiming to be the correct way to train and recover.

 

Also as usual, there are rarely any strategies that will work for everyone universally. Manipulating training-recovery strategy to fit a specific individual can take some trial and error, but it provides a better understanding of what the body needs.

 

An appropriately challenging workout will, in general, require one to two recovery days.

An appropriate workout creates a sense of mild soreness, where you can feel that the muscles were challenged. Soreness should not be a debilitating and painful experience that lasts for several days. That is a poorly designed workout.

 

Many people wrongly believe that a workout must be so hard that you should feel significant soreness for several days (unfortunately, many trainers deliver this well).

 

It is important to train just above—but not too far above—one’s current abilities. Better fitness is not achieved by long gaps between training days which you’d need if you experience extreme soreness.

 

 

If you’d like to know more please download my free eBook “15 Healthy Habits For The Body”

 

 

Sources, research and further reading:
http://www.crestedbuttecrossfit.com/cbcf_blog/2014/10/rest-recovery-and-detraining-.html
https://www.acefitness.org/blog/3565/recovery-redefined-how-much-rest-you-actually-need
http://www.builtlean.com/2012/06/05/overtraining/
1
1. Detraining Definition: Mujika, Padilla S
Cardiorespiratory and metabolic characteristics of detraining in humans. NCBI/PubMed
2
Stephen Brooks, Jacky Burrin, Mary E. Cheetham, George M. Hall, Tom Yeo, Clyde Williams
The responses of the catecholamines and β-endorphin to brief maximal exercise in man
European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology 1988, Volume 57, Issue 2, pp 230-234
3
Stephenson, Roy
Comeback Trail: Detraining, Retraining and Maintenance of Fitness for Ultra Endurance Runners
TrailRunner Magazine, December 2011
4
COSTILL, D. L.; FINK, W. J.; HARGREAVES, M.; KING, D. S.; THOMAS, R.; FIELDING, R.
Metabolic characteristics of skeletal muscle during detraining from competitive swimming.
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise: June 1985
5
Dr. P. Darrell Neufer The Effect of Detraining and Reduced Training on the
Physiological Adaptations to Aerobic Exercise Training
Sports Medicine, November 1989, Volume 8, Issue 5, pp 302-320
6
E.F. Coyle, M K. Hemmert , A.R. Coggan Effects of Detraining on Cardiovascular
Responses to Exercise: The Role Of Blood Volume
Journal of Applied Physiology Published 1 January 1986Vol. 60no. 1, 95-99
7
K. Madsen , P. K. Pedersen , M. S. Djurhuus , N. A. Klitgaard  Effects of detraining on endurance
 capacity and metabolic changes during prolonged exhaustive exercise
Journal of Applied Physiology Published 1 October 1993 Vol. 75 no.  4,  1444-1451
8
Hortobágyi T, Houmard JA, Stevenson JR, Fraser DD, Johns RA, Israel RG
The effects of detraining on power athletes.
Europe PubMed Central [1993, 25(8):929-935]
9
Mujika I, Padilla S
Muscular characteristics of detraining in humans.
Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise [2001, 33(8):1297-1303]
10
Hakkinen K, Komi PV (1985). Changes in electrical and mechanical behaviour
of leg extensor muscles during heavy resistance strength training.
Scandinavian Journal of Sports Science 7: 55-64
11
M. E. Houston, E. A. Froese, St. P. Valeriote, H. J. Green, D. A. Ranney Muscle performance,
 morphology  and metabolic capacity during strength training and detraining: A one leg model
European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology1983, Volume 51, Issue 1, pp 25-35
12
READY, A. ELIZABETH; QUINNEY, H. ARTHUR
Alterations in anaerobic threshold as the result of endurance training and detraining.
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise: 1982
13
NICHOLS, J. F., D. ROBINSON, D. DOUGLASS and J. ANTHONY
Retraining of a competitive master athlete following traumatic injury: a case study.
Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 32, No. 6, pp. 1037–1042, 2000.
14
Calculation based on the Daniels & Gilbert VO2 max equation, which applies best to running with variables
only for velocity and time. The “Fran” workout is equated to a 1500m run, until more research on VO2 max
and CrossFit is available.
15
KRAEMER, WILLIAM J.; KOZIRIS, L. PERRY; RATAMESS, NICHOLAS A.; HÄKKINEN, KEIJO;
Detraining Produces Minimal Changes in Physical Performance and Hormonal Variables in
Recreationally Strength-Trained Men.
Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research: August 2002
16
Neufer, PD.
The effect of detraining and reduced training on the physiological adaptations to aerobic exercise training.
Sports Med. 1989 Nov; 9(5): 302-­‐320.
17
William A. Sands PhD, CSCS
Incorporating Recovery into Your Microcycle
National Strength and Conditioning Association Online Edition: http://www.nsca.com/education/articles/incorporating-recovery-into-your-microcycle/