Recovery Days

Referencing yesterday’s post on Harmony – “But Carey, weren’t those three days recovery days?” This is a question that came in regarding the three days I took a few weeks ago for a trip – two full days of driving, ~9 hours each day, and a full day of activities at the event. The answer is NO, absolutely not, not in any way, shape, or form. Here’s why…

Recovery Days Defined

Each of us will have a different definition of what is an effective and appropriate recovery day. Even mine are rarely ever the same from week to week. But, they are absolutely purposeful and intentional, and do not involve travel, long periods of sitting, and events with new people and experiences. (Those are all awesome things, but are not included in my realm of Recovery Days.)

Rest Day vs. Recovery Day

To me, a rest day is a day of passive rest. A full stop. While rest/sleep is THE most important part of recovery, it isn’t the only part. When paired with recovery modalities it is far more effective – physically, mentally, spiritually, the whole package. A recovery day puts rest together with other self-care tools, creating the best recipe for success.

Recovery Day Example

If something does not add to my overall goal of furthering my health and fitness goals through proper rest and recovery, it doesn’t get included in this day. Fortunately, my family fully understands and supports this and gives me the day to use however I need each week. Thank you!! Here are examples of what I include in a recovery day.

• Get up at the same time. Every day.
• Do not alter my normal daily activities. This means I write in the morning as always, make breakfast for the kids as always, do my morning floor/mobility work as always, etc.
• Posing class. Instead of a gym workout, I go to a posing class if one is available. This is movement and productive work for my goals. It is focused physical and mental stamina for the stage that only comes with working in a group. Yet, it is not taxing in the way a full workout is.
• Food. I never deviate from my meal plan, but recovery days are THE day to focus on refueling, bathing my cells in nutrients, pampering them and giving them everything they need to grow and recover. This is the imagery I have with each meal and every drink of water. Workouts are when we damage the muscle cells and recovery is when they rebuild themselves stronger and bigger, so this is the most important time to feed them well.
• Yoga. Maybe, maybe not.
• Salt bath. A late afternoon salt bath is divine. Add a cup of tea please.
• Foam roll. Head to toe. It feels like this. Delicious!

• Kick my feet up. There’s definitely time devoted to chilling with a movie or book, typically with one of my kids. Bed in ZeroG position, massage turned on, ahhh!
• Chores. Laundry, grocery run, something easy. Being productive feels good.
• Family time. Maybe we go on a short hike, a pumpkin patch visit, see a movie. This is the spiritual recharge.

To me, recovery days are like a gigantic inhale.

They are like drawing the arrow back in order to let it fly.

And they are like an Indy car pit stop for fresh tires and a full tank of fuel.

Metering

The whole point of my recovery day is to balance out the week I have carefully metered. My workout program right now is heavy, quality work, aimed at growing muscle mass. This means low reps, heavy weights, push really freaking hard without losing form. I want every move to count. I want my focus and effort to be spot on with every rep. In order to do that, I have to recover hard so I’m ready. That means metering my daily energy, but also zooming out to the weekly scale and metering each week as a unit.

Daily Metering

I’m careful to meter my energy each day. There’s a time to push and a time to recover, time to be mom, time to be a wife, time to be me, etc. But over the course of the week it builds pressure to the point of necessitating a full day devoted to recovery. Exactly how much of what varies by week, something I pay close attention to – this is about getting it right. Effective, efficient, accurate.

Weekly Metering

With the efforts I’m putting in, it isn’t possible to have enough recovery time every day to continue seven days a week. Taking a full recovery day not only allows my body, mind, and soul a chance to recover and regroup, it keeps the hunger alive. Hunger is hustle. I begin each week ready to tear my workouts to shreds. My body is ready, and my drive and motivation are supercharged. My soul is smiling from whatever fun family time we’ve had.

Work Hard, Recover Hard

I used to give halfway efforts to my recovery days when I was running. I thought, why not just go for a short run? Call it a “shake-out run.”

What a load of crock! It was really my inability to stop but I wasn’t willing to admit that. This led to less recovery, less effective workouts the week following, less overall progress. Stagnation.

My results over time looked something like this.

Now, I’m working hard and recovering hard, reaping the full benefits of the recovery, advancing with awesome progress.

Something more like this.

Those Three Days

So, to answer the original question, NO, those three days were not recovery days. They were intense in their own right and had very few elements that are integral to my version of a recovery day. I altered my metering accordingly to be sure and stay safe, avoid injury, etc., but nope, not recovery days.

Your Recovery Days?

What do your recovery days look like? Do you take them? Do you FULLY take them? Drop you have defined goals for them? As a recovered Not-Take-Proper-Rest-Days-A-Holic, I highly encourage you to evaluate and hone in on this most important day.

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