

Some light activity between workout days such as going for a walk or doing yoga during will help increase blood flow without the intensity of a workout. It’s something to do on a rest day, between interval sets, and during cooldowns. There is more than one way to look at active recovery. Both types of recovery are useful to get your body the rest it needs. Additionally, active recovery is beneficial when you’re tapering for an event. Passive recovery may be more helpful after short, repetitive high-intensity exercise, such as circuit training, but active recovery may be a better option after other types of workouts, like running, swimming or an athletic event. Taking it easy helps you bounce back on low recovery days and it helps injuries to heal. Passive recovery, on the other hand, are the days for binge watching. Doing it on a rest day will elevate your heart rate but doesn’t add joint stress that comes with cardio or HIIT. “If the goal of your rest day is to boost recovery, then you actually have to take actions towards that, it’s not merely the inaction of not going to the gym,” said WHOOP VP of Data Science and Research Emily Capodilupo on an episode of our podcast discussing recovery.Īctive recovery after a workout allows the heart rate to slowly decrease. Planning active recovery on a rest day is a good way to give yourself a break without sacking out on the couch. It may also help to prevent future injuries.Maintaining your exercise routine without burning out on intense training.Eliminating metabolic waste such as lactic acid and hydrogen ions.Increased blood flow through the affected muscles.A 2018 study analyzing post-workout recovery techniques found that active recovery has numerous benefits, including:

The goal is to mix medium-to-high-intensity training with some low-intensity active recovery days throughout the week. It strikes most often when you increase your workout intensity or try new kinds of exercise your body isn’t used to.Īctive recovery workouts offer numerous benefits to your body.

DOMS happens to almost everyone, from beginners to elite athletes. Your body responds to these tears by increasing inflammation, leading to the next day’s achiness. It’s caused by microscopic tears in the muscle fibers. Other symptoms of DOMS are swelling, fatigue and short-term loss of muscle strength. Your muscles feel tender to the touch or have reduced range of motion. DOMS is the pain and stiffness that begins a day or two after a workout. The stiffness you wake up with the day (or two days) after a workout is called delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Additionally, inorganic phosphate increasing during fatigue as creatine phosphate in the tissue is broken down is a major cause of muscle fatigue. Muscle fatigue is caused by accumulating lactic acid in the tissue. What causes post-workout muscle soreness? Active recovery can help alleviate the soreness, and it may also improve your performance. High-intensity activity such as weightlifting, HIIT workouts, running or team sports can result in stiff and sore muscles or muscle fatigue the next day. Although it sounds contradictory, being active may help your achy muscles recover from an intense workout better than resting. While recovering might mean relaxing on the couch to you, it’s not necessarily the best option to bounce back from your workout. Active recovery is low-intensity activity that promotes blood flow to the muscles helping you to recover.
