Whether you are training 5 days a week or every other day, working at a high or low intensity
or aiming to lose weight or pack on muscle - one of the key factors to success isn’t necessarily the hard work you put into each Gym session but the recovery time you allow for your body afterwards.
I’m not saying that training once or twice a week with a big gap between sessions is ideal – (although in some cases this is true). Knowing how much time you can commit to training can also help in planning correct rest and recovery.
Professional Athletes and Sportsmen for example will have a specific period (known as a Meso Cycle) within their Yearly Training Schedule (known as a Macro Cycle) where they are either ‘Tapering’ down for an event like an Marathon or going through a period of ‘Active Rest’ like a Footballer in post season.
Our muscles are made up of millions of muscle fibres with contractile units known as myofibrils and these lengthen and shorten with every muscle contraction.
This process known as muscle fibre recruitment happens when the Two Protein Filaments within the muscle (Myosin and Actin) act as Cross Bridges and slide across each other repetitively generating a force from energy supplied to the muscles from stored Glycogen that has been converted into ATP via the body’s energy pathway.
These fibres are literally ripped and torn apart and so rest and recovery is important. This process allows for our muscles to grow back bigger and stronger – firstly by consuming (within 2 hours of training) plenty of protein sources and complex carbohydrates which help to deliver the protein as soon as possible to the ailing muscles. Resting the muscles for 24 to 36 hours will aid this process.
If you like to train every day you should look to either alternate between upper and lower body and switch between Cardio one day and Weights the other or go for anything from a 2 to 5 day training split. The options are endless but by selecting the right training strategy to suit your needs along with the right amount of rest and recovery you will find that you hit those goals a lot sooner.
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