Rest & Recovery

Today was tough.  I've finally pushed myself to get to the gym and I was afraid that taking a day off would make it harder for me to want to go back.  However, my body was yelling at me to take a break.  I was so sore that I dreaded getting out of bed and the soreness was getting at times a little unbearable.  While I liked the soreness, because it made me feel like I was actually doing something in the gym, I knew that too much of it was probably not a good thing.

So, I took a day and rested.  Well, as much rest as a day filled with football games for the kids, trips to grocery stores, and all the other stuff we did today can give me.  Heck, it's 12:28am and I'm finally writing this blog.  :)

For those of you following this blog, I found some interesting facts about rest and recovery. 

1) The rate with which the body can properly repair and rebuild muscle tissue will vary by the individual. There are numerous factors that influence this rate - everything from genetics to nutrition to other life-stresses.  In addition, the intensity with which you train (the effort you put forth) also impacts how much rest you will need. The prescription for muscle mass gain is training with maximum intensity. Done correctly, a mass gain training session will place great stress on the body.

2) Athletes new to intense weight training have a tendency to judge their ability to recover based on previous training sessions for their respective sports. Understand that the goal of a mass gain training session is to inflict maximum amounts of the small tears critical to the muscle building process. While the prescribed sessions may be short, they will require more recovery time than other forms of training.

3) Each training session should be completed in under an hour. Studies have shown that you have a slightly less than 50 minute window from the time you begin really intensely taxing your muscles (after stretching and warming up) to the point where your weight training starts becoming progressively less effective in a rapid manner. Cortisol production increases and muscle protein is depleted.

This just shows how great CrossFit is.  The whole goal is to kick you muscles butt in a short amount of time. 

Can't wait for next week!

Information used in the blog came from:
http://www.gain-weight-muscle-fast.com/adequate-rest.html