GUEST BLOG: Regular Recovery and Optimising Your Health in 2017

Courtney Buckley (Physiotherapist)

I am so happy to share with the Sunny Coast Health and Fitness followers my thoughts on recovery and placing importance on this in your exercise routines in 2017. Recovery sessions are often connotated with missing out on another gym, track or bike session. The myth that if we don’t go hard every single session gains will be lost. In fact what we are doing by ignoring the concept of recovery is putting our bodies on the back foot, missing out on potential physical improvements. 

Why you should give a recovery a go?
My athletic background is in boxing, a sport like many, where doing multiple hard sessions day after day is a mark of toughness and a sign of ambition or drive to succeed. What also comes with this I found were injuries, illness and fatigue even at a young age. This is the definition of over training syndrome and you do not have to be an aspiring athlete to catch the work-out addict bug!
Now we can get very sciency when talking about the physiological changes during recovery but here’s the guts of it! Returning the body to its normal resting state including lowering the heart rate, blood pressure, rate of breathing, decreased adrenaline and other hormones associated with exercise is crucial for getting physical gains. The body now adapts by refuelling, repairing and clearing away the waste products associated with exercise. Skip this step and you are starting your workout feeling sore, tired and unable to push through workouts that were easy on Monday but are a totally different story midweek. Do this step well and you become efficient in the energy system or function you trained in earlier that week.
 
How to add regular recovery into your life without taking time off
Consider how you can incorporate stretching, warm down routine, low intensity sessions that focus on control or coordination, massage, compression or time in the water such as floating into your training schedule. All these things have been scientifically shown on different levels to improve the clearance of lactic acid, state of mind, regulate sleep, prevent injury and decrease delayed onset muscle soreness (otherwise known as when did all these chairs get so low, my quads and butt are screaming syndrome!). Avoid repetitive strain injuries by ensuring you do not repeat the same tasks every session. For example if you like running try a trail run, interval runs, water running, resistance training focusing on leg power and a long slow run to round the week off.

I own and operate Courtney Buckley Massage a new room within the Noosa Box Office Gym. I am a physiotherapist bringing together a full body hands on treatment using different massage, manual therapy stretching and exercise techniques to benefit your recovery and performance.
Website: www.courtneybuckleymassage.com.au
Facebook: Courtney Buckley Massage
Instagram: @courtneybuckley.massage