Today’s Workout

35 minutes on the bike

It was just enough to work up a sweat and get blood and stagnation moving, but not so intense that I am going to burn out.

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Today is Day 9 and suddenly I am doing much more physical activity than my body is used to. I want to make sure I am being wise and thinking about sustainability and finishing this challenge with success.

The first thing I did to ensure that I could complete this challenge was to start with a rather easy goal, which was to just get 30 minutes of exercise in a day. If you have been reading my daily blogs you can see that I am by far exceeding that goal.

Here is the funny thing, when you make the goal a mini goal it gives confidence that it can be completed. Then, once you get moving it feels like…”Hey, I can go a little bit longer”, and so you do. That is an exhilarating feeling.

Here is a potential downside to be aware of: BURN OUT!!! If you are constantly GO GO GO…  you can potentially injure yourself, exhaust yourself, or just give up on the goal altogether because you are pushing too hard too soon. The best way to remedy that possibility is to give yourself an active recovery day.

Active meaning that you are still moving your body, but the intensity and/or duration is reduced. The average guideline for a recovery day is approximately once a week. However, for some it may be more frequent and for others less often.  Each person is unique and their level of fitness recovery varies GREATLY. This is a very personal and intuitive choice. Only you know what the right recovery is for you.

Here are some suggestions to stay active while still allowing you muscles to recover via easy exercise:

• easy swimming
• walking
• leisure biking
• gardening
• light housework
• turning up the music and casual free style dancing

The point is: You can still move and take it easy on a recovery day! In addition to mild physical activity there are other modalities that can really support and accelerate the recovery process.

Here are My Top 10 personal favorite ways to enhance my workout recovery

• An easy walk
• A hot soak in the jacuzzi
• Sauna
• Massage
• Easy stretching
• Lots of water
• Green Juice
• Eating 80/10/10 style (especially laying off fat and salt)
• Getting an extra hour of rest
• lounging by the pool soaking up some sun (this just feels sooooo healing)

Today just felt like it was best to do an active recovery day and I just took it easy. Sometimes, when you give yourself permission to take it easy you find yourself fired up for the following day and eager to get moving again. Plus I know that tomorrow is an intense workout day and I want to be fresh and ready!

What ways do you like to support your workout recovery?