Recovery: The Rest Of The Story

Synopsis for Recovery: The Rest of the Story Rest and recovery has a plethora of positive effects on the body, especially after a strenuous workout that results in muscle soreness. There is an issue: too many people aren’t getting the sleep, rest, and nutrition that they need to recovery correctly. Overtraining can lead to injury and can lead to allostasis, which is a disrupted balance of the body. The human body always wants homeostasis, a balance within the body, and when it is not the body will take actions to place it back into homeostasis. Many people do not understand the benefits of a training plan, setting realistic goals, and sticking to the plan they create. This lack of understanding results in people not creating a training
plan, therefore, not accounting rest or recovery methods in this plan and being passive about their recovery. Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is a key term that we have all experienced, as the name suggests this soreness is prolonged and can leave you out of training that particular muscle for a few days. This is also different from acute soreness which is pain or discomfort that is immediate during physical activity. However, this problem of soreness can be prevented and lessened in a couple of ways. Active recovery comes in the form of low-intensity training, a few days after the soreness kicks in. Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) is another form of active recovery that includes sending pulses to contract the muscle concentrically. Non-active recovery is another way of recovering quickly and this includes thermotherapy and manual therapy. Then we have passive recovery which involves sleeping at night. These recovery methods help reduce and prevent the symptoms of DOMS. These recovery methods are very important to keep in mind. Awareness should be considered and rest/recovery should be factored in training plans and daily life.