You can be training as hard as you like but if you haven’t got your recovery in order, then the chances of you progressing at a decent pace are going to be significantly lowered. It can be extremely frustrating to be training hard day in day out and seeing no results. You may need to ask yourself if you are only focusing on one part of the puzzle; the training. If you have read any of my articles, I usually can’t help myself talking about the three pillars of fitness; training, nutrition and recovery. You need to be on top of all of them if you want to progress. Nutrition and recovery can overlap somewhat, and you’ll see that a little in some of the points below, but for the sake of this article I will try and keep them as separate as possible.
So, what could be impacting your recovery?
Your age - Yep! Your age has a huge impact on what you can do inside the gym and outside it. Ever noticed that you can’t recover from a night out quite as quickly as you could when you were younger? You can still drink the same amount, maybe even more, but that bounce back from a hangover just isn’t there anymore. It’s the same with training! Your drive and intensity are still there in the gym, but your body just can’t recover as quickly. This happens to everyone and isn’t anything to worry about. With a little bit of smart programming and nutrition, you will be able to continue training hard in the gym, just maybe not as often.
The intensity of your training – How hard you train is going to have an impact on how fast you can recover from session to session. It seems like common sense but it's often overlooked. I’m sure you have performed heavy sets of deadlifts or squats and felt beaten up for days. Whereas if you are only training arms, recovery can be as little as 24 hours. This is where smart programming and recovery methods can help you massively.
Stress levels – One of the most dangerous factors that can affect your gains is stress. We are all vulnerable to stress and throughout our lives we will encounter it numerous times. Stress manifests itself in everyone differently but the chemical reactions that happen in our body are the same for everyone. We have raised levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) that increase the chances of fat gain and muscle loss. On top of this, if you have decreased appetite and trouble sleeping then you can quickly find yourself losing the motivation and energy to train.
Nutrition – A key part of the recovery process, if not the most important. I could write an article alone on this subject, but to keep it nice and simple if you want to recover to the best of your ability, then I suggest you being in a calorie surplus, consisting of healthy, nutritious foods. Unhealthy processed foods will affect your ability to recover and performance in the gym. I’m not saying you can't recover in a calorie deficit or even maintenance, you can, recovery may just take a little longer.
Genetics – Yep! We all have the same tools to help us recover but the matter of fact is that some people will just recover faster than others. The type of movement and exercise you do can influence this. Some people have more explosive and powerful muscle fibres (Type 2), whereas others have more muscle fibres better suited to endurance (Type 1). Get each person doing the opposite of what their genetic make-up prefers and they are going to need increased recovery time.
How many of these were you aware of and are you paying attention to your recovery? Some of them you can't help, but all can be managed. Don’t let your lack of recovery impact your training. Start recovering and hard as you train.
