Why Muscle Recovery is Important
You probably know that you need recovery after training, but why? If you’ve been fine so far, why would you need to add in recovery now?
There’s a tendency in life to assume that more is better. We think the more we train the better we will become. Yes, practice makes perfect. But, when it comes to physical demands of our body, we also need to allow time for rest and recovery.
The Workout and Muscle Recovery Cycle
Exercise and muscle recovery go hand in hand – one without the other is counterproductive for progress. Both activities are necessary for sustaining a healthy, active body.
The workout and recovery cycle goes like this: Workouts break down muscle tissue, causing you to become weaker. Immediately after training, the recovery process then begins to repair the muscle damage, causing you to grow stronger. Bottom line, you’re feebler at the end of a workout than when you first started, but through active recovery, sleep, etc. your body can repair damaged tissue and come out ahead.
5 Reasons Every Athlete Needs Better Muscle Recovery
1. Athletic Performance
Sore and tired muscles can prevent you from feeling and giving your best. However, when your body is recovered, you’re able to feel better and perform at your full potential. For athletes, being able to perform consistently can set you apart from the competition and help you progress in your sport. For fitness lovers, it always feels good to perform at your best and break personal records.
2. Longevity
If you want to be active in the long run, you have to take steps now to make that a reality. A healthy body doesn’t happen on its own, it requires time and effort. Exercise and daily activities are hard on your body and when you don’t allow your body to recover from the stress you put it through, it will eventually break down. You’re then left with overuse injuries, aches, and pains.
For many of us, exercise is a way of life. We can’t imagine an existence without some form of it. It may change as we get older, but leaving that endorphin rush and all the health benefits that come with it behind is not an option.
Achy knees or a sore back doesn’t have to be the norm! Proper recovery on a regular basis will help keep your body in top shape. As long as you allow for recovery in between efforts, your body will be more capable of sustaining activity in the future and you won’t have to worry about overuse.
3. Injury Prevention
When our bodies are consistently being worked and not given the time for recovery in between, we get to the point of overuse. Overuse, or being under recovered, is a common issue for anyone who performs repetitive motions at a high volume over a long period of time. Baseball players, weightlifters, etc. – it doesn’t matter the sport, overuse can be a problem for any athlete or fitness lover.
Overuse is one of the leading causes of injuries in sports. Too often, we don’t take the right steps to proactively address recovery. When a small issue pops up, we often ignore it and hope it gets better on its own. This tends to go downhill quickly. By incorporating better recovery techniques into our daily lives, we can prevent overuse in the first place and ultimately stop injuries before they begin.
4. Maximize training gains
Keep in mind, training gains are about more than just getting ripped. It’s about progress, and that’s something we can all subscribe to. As previously noted, workouts break your muscles down. By allowing for a complete recovery you allow muscles to fully repair and get the most from each workout session. More recovery means more strength.
5. Feel Great
At the end of the day, don’t we all want to just feel good? Starting a workout or game with a body that’s feeling fresh is hard to beat. It’s more than just physical too. When we have aches and pains it can make us feel down. When we aren’t performing at our usual level, that can also take a toll on us mentally. This carryover often applies to workouts and daily life activities alike.
How to Improve your Muscle Recovery
Now that you understand how important recovery is, you may be thinking great, ‘but how do I recover better?’ Or ‘how long do I have to wait until my body is fully recovered?’ The good news is, with the proper tools and approach in place you can maintain your workout schedule. Better recovery doesn’t have to mean you lessen your training load (unless you want to).
The recovery tool that’s trusted by over 100 pro teams and 500+ collegiate teams is Marc Pro. Using exclusive technology, Marc Pro delivers non-fatiguing active recovery. Movement is the key facilitator for all stages of the body’s natural recovery process, which is why active recovery is so effective.
The problem with traditional active recovery is that you can only do so much before the movement becomes a workout. Active recovery must be low stress movement (ie. light swim or walk). With Marc Pro you can get as much active recovery as you need, since it’s non-fatiguing, to ensure a full recovery. Each Marc Pro comes with a 30-day money back guarantee and free shipping and returns so you can put it to the test for yourself risk-free.
