Sometimes you just need a little time off from working out.
It can be a hard thing to do. When you love training to give it up for even as little as a week.
But if you’ve been training hard for a period of time you may need to back off a bit. Not necessarily drop all your training, but ease up and not push everything to the max.
You can work on your flexibility, mobility or your conditioning. Though if you are resting I wouldn’t push the conditioning too hard as that can be as taxing as strength training.
If you don’t take the time to recover then your body will make you take the time to recover be it in the form of getting sick, injuring yourself or something of the like.
Personally, I’m not one to follow periodization plans or anything like that. I just learn and listen to my body. If you get in tune you know when you need a little extra time to recover.
The thing is when you come back you’re likely to be stronger than ever.
Since I took most of the last week off I expect this to happen. Now expecting to improve each workout is something you should always possess. But now I expect to blow by the previous weeks workouts.
Make no mistake about it. Your muscles and strength only grow when they recover. The training is the stimulus to force them to do so but without proper recovery you’ll get no where.
In most cases a good night’s sleep and good food will be enough. But sometimes you need to go beyond the basics.
As I mentioned not too long ago, when I saw Dan Gable speak, he talked about working as hard at recovering as he did at a workout. This was his secret to being able to train with all he had every single day.
If you grasp this and put it into action your gains will go through the roof.
In strength,
Logan Christopher