Now you would think that a strength and conditioning coach who trains hardcore police, fire, military, and prepared citizens would be "Go, Go, Go"
all the time. 'The harder the better' No days off, blah, blah, blah...
Turns out just like any good coach he understands that rest and recovery is just as important as blasting out some endurance sets of squats. He even employs the thoughts of one of his warrior buds to help explain. Read on and get some rest please?
-Nate
You can only train as hard as you can recover.
Here is a guest post on one of the most misunderstood topics: recovery.
Rest and Recovery: The Forgotten Training Componentby Keith E. Cinea, MA, CSCS
Training is a key component for any athlete. As a tactical athlete,you understand how improved strength, power, or whatever parameter you are working on will benefit you in becoming operationally fit.
You also understand that training will help you improve in these areas to allow you to maintain a high level of operational readiness.
The question is when do all the sets and repetitions pay off, when do the adaptations occur?
These adaptations occur during recovery, which is why recovery is such a vital component to your training. However, recovery often is not seen as important.
In reality, the bottom line is that without proper recovery, your body will not achieve all the potential benefits from training.
So how do you determine how much recovery time you need? The amount of recovery time required between workouts depends on several variables. These variables include: training history, training intensity, volume, and program goals.
As more years of training are accumulated, less recovery time is needed because the body has adapted to the training. However, as the tactical athlete gets older (40’s – 50’s) the more time they may need to recover.
Beginners require more recovery time than experienced athletes.
Beginners should train with 48 hours of recovery between strength training sessions. A program with this type of frequency lends itself nicely to a
Monday,
Wednesday, Friday design (see
Tactical Bodyweight Workouts).
More experienced athletes require higher intensities and volumes to continue seeing gains with training. As training experience, intensity, and volume increases, so should recovery time.
As a result experienced athletes may train with 72 hours of recovery between workouts of the same muscle group.
This is the key to building more time into workout sessions.
Beginners only require 48 hours of recovery between workouts, and they are most likely performing full body workouts.
The advanced athlete requires more frequency, intensity, and volume to achieve their goals, while working with a larger recovery period. So their workouts are divided or split so that opposing muscle groups or body parts are targeted on consecutive days.
For example, a common split is to perform upper body exercises
on Monday and
Thursday and lower body exercises
on Tuesday and Friday.
This provides four training days per week. Although each area is only targeted twice per week versus the three times per week with the beginners program, more time is available to train each area (see
Tactical Bodyweight Workouts).
Now there is more time in each training session since only half of the body is targeted that day. This way more exercises, or higher volumes and intensities, can be used. Additionally, longer rest periods can be used in between sets.
This four-day spilt provides 72 hours of recovery between upper body exercises. Additionally, it will provide 72 hours of recovery between lower body exercises.
This longer recovery time is vital for adaptations to occur with advanced programs.
Program goals also affect recovery.
A program that places you in a phase of training where the goal is to improve power (such as pre-season), then the training intensity should be very high. As a result of high training intensity, recovery should be high as well.
A program that places you in a phase of training where the goal is maintenance, not improvement, intensity and volume should decrease.
Consequently, less recovery is needed when the goal is maintenance. Although it does little good to recover so rapidly from a workout that may not be repeated for a week, it does play a part when complete recovery from the workout is needed for executing operations/missions.
Guidelines for RecoveryRecovery from working out is important, but it does not mean doing nothing. One option is an active recovery.
For a beginner who is not performing strength training
on Tuesday or
Thursday, a light cardiovascular workout or recreational game may be an option.
For more experienced individuals, moderate conditioning can be done on your recovery days. If by your next weight training session you do not feel you have the same energy or intensity, then your recovery day was too intense.
The key is to keep the intensity light, and not go all out during the active recovery workout.
The body still needs to continue recovering from the previous workout, and does not need the cumulative stress of an additional intense workout.
Other things to consider during recovery are sleep, nutrition, and hydration. All these things tend to come into play during recovery.
If you are not drinking enough water, getting enough sleep, or eating the right things, your body may not completely recovery from the workout. Although you may not be in the weight room on your recovery day, you need to be mentally aware that you are recovering, and act accordingly.
Optimizing RecoveryIf your recovery time is too short, you may reach a state called “overtraining”.
During overtraining performance decrements occur, along with feelings of fatigue and staleness.
On the other end of the spectrum, if too much recovery time is used, the maximum possible potential at that time will not be realized.
Worse yet, in a program that is properly designed you may actual detrain, or lose the attributes you are trying to improve.
Recovery is a key component of any training or conditioning program, but not one that many individuals consider.
The weight room is important; however, all the changes you are driving for need time to occur. The only time that any changes may occur is during your recovery time.
It may not be the most exciting part of your training program, but it is just as important as every set and repetition that you perform. So be sure when designing your training program to include appropriate recovery periods.
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Rather than waste your time with trial-and-error exercise programming, why not
let me write your workouts for you.
Train hard and stay safe,
Coach Joe
Joseph Arangio
Tactical Workouts for Military and Law Enforcement
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