Rest or recovery is just as important as your training. If not more.
This week on the runners toolbox, I will discuss why rest is important.
Scheduling rest days into your training is just as important as the training days.
Rest or recovery days allow your body to repair, rebuild and strengthen.
If you become too tired and are not allowing your body adequate recovery time, you could be setting yourself up for an injury.
My Top 3 Rest Tips
Sleep
We all know why sleep is important. They say you should “ideally” get 8 hours a sleep a day. Realistically, I know that personally doesn’t happen for me.
However, I know I function perfectly well on 7-7.5 hours of sleep.
Setting up a pre-bedtime routine has been vital in ensuring that I get the sleep I need.
When I sleep better, I perform better.
I’m also a happier person when I get the sleep I need.
Yoga
While yoga can be a hard workout, I actively seek out recovery forms of yoga that allow to restore my body.
Yoga with Adriene, has to be on of my go to resources for yoga.
Walk
Walking is another active recovery tool. It should be easy. To me active recovery walking is about spending time with my family outdoors.
Walking and Yoga both help to stretch sore tired muscles and can also help in increasing flexibility.
You may also find that they also help to reduce stress and inflammation.
What do you do for recovery?