The Significance of Rest and Recovery for Muscles

Most of us harbor a misconception that muscles become stronger or more efficient while we are doing strenuous exercise such as running, cycling, swimming, or weight-lifting. Likewise, we feel that muscles break down and become weaker when we sit doing nothing.

The reality is very different, however. Exercise is what breaks muscles down and makes them weaker. Rest and recovery after exercise is what builds muscles up and makes them stronger, thanks to the body's ability to repair damaged tissue so that it is better than before.

Most concern about rest focuses on top class athletes. They have such vigorous schedules that coaches and doctors worry about overtraining, a syndrome in which muscles are repeatedly taxed beyond their abilities, adversely affecting performance for weeks, even months in some cases. But getting adequate rest is also important to the rest of us, who are in danger of 'overreaching', a kind of short-term overtraining from which muscles can usually recover in a matter of days.

Overreaching often takes place when you begin a new program by overly exerting yourself, or if you suddenly push yourself harder in an activity you are already doing. In all your efforts, you should aim for a balance between challenging muscles enough, but not too much. The penalty if you overdo it is pain, fatigue, loss of motivation, and the risk of a permanent disability.

Some may say that there is more danger in resting too much and losing what you have gained than in exercising too much.

The truth is that declines in conditioning don't occur quickly, and more is not always better. For example, swimmers who train for three or four hours a day have been shown to improve no more than peers who swim one to one-and-a-half hours. In other research, swimmers and runners who cut back their training by 60 per cent showed no loss of endurance even after three weeks. Weight trainers who stop their programs don't begin a noticeable decline in what they've gained for as long as a month.

Finding the correct mix of exercise with recovery is as much art as science. It largely depends on how much exertion you feel you are putting out.

Here are some guidelines to balance workouts with rest:

1. Hold back when beginning. Even if muscles are capable of it, strenuous activity will make them sore if they are not used to it. When beginning an exercise program or resuming one after six months or more, at first do less than you think you can. Increase the intensity by no more than 10 per cent per week, whether in terms of pace, distance, sets, resistance, or reps.

2. Take time out to rest during the workout. Allowing muscles momentary relief can help them to continue sustained effort and ultimately deliver superior results from your workout. This is especially true of resting between sets while weight lifting. Remember that you may want to vary your rest periods according to your goals.

3. Give your muscles a day off. Between intense workouts, allow exercised muscles 48 hours to recover before exercising them again, especially if you are doing the same activity. You don't have to be completely inactive, however. Weight-lifters often do what are called split routines, in which they work on the upper body one day and the lower body the next. That's a strategy that allows daily workouts while at the same time providing ample recovery time for every muscle group.

4. Do active recovery. Another way to stay moving is to do some sort of light activity on your off day, especially if it is different from the previous day's workout. For example, after a hard bike ride the day before, do some walking. Such active rest may even have the positive side effect of reducing any soreness by helping to flush waste products out of the muscles.