One of the most important and yet overlooked aspects of any exercise or training programme is the rest and recovery phase.

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Unfortunately many exercisers neglect rest days as it often leaves them thinking they should be training as they feel guilty for not doing something, when in actual fact while you are resting from training, physiologically your body is grasping this opportunity to repair itself to become stronger in preparation for the next bout of training stress placed upon it.

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Let me explain the process…..

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You see while you exercise, your muscles work to meet the demands you are placing upon them.

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During that work, muscles deplete their stores of energy (known as muscle glycogen) and start to become fatigued. The muscle glycogen is what fuels the muscle contractions that cause muscle movement, and it is from these contractions that muscles experience small micro tears, which is why after training you may suffer from muscle soreness AKA DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness)

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The recovery process begins when you have finished your training session. The muscle glycogen stores get replenished, and the body starts the process of rebuilding and repairing those tiny muscle tears.

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So time is required for this repair process as the body rebuilds the muscle to become stronger than it previously was. This is how strength training, or any type of exercise training, works.

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Muscle gets broken down to rebuild, recruit more muscle fibres and become stronger, and in turn more resistant to that level of exercise stress, so that it can withstand more the next time.