Active recovery benefits!

Active Recovery or rest days?

Rest days are just as important as training days. However, some people can benefit better from active recovery days than a complete rest day.

Now you could be sore from a crash, or you could just be generally tired and sore from some solid riding and even training sessions.

So for days like this, I like to structure them into active recovery days instead of complete rest days.

Active recovery days are exercises done at low intensities, anywhere from 20-60 minutes in length.

Ideally, you want to aim for a full body type of exercise such as;

• Swimming

• Rowing

• Assault Bike

• Cycling/MTB

• Crosstraining

This way, you are utilising the whole body.

The most critical part you need to note is the intensity.

The intensity of your session MUST stay low for it to be genuinely beneficial and aid recovery. Otherwise, this will just turn into another workout that will just be placing further stress on the body and slowing down your recovery.

If you have a heart rate monitor (If you don’t, I suggest getting one asap), Aim to stay within Zone 2 (Aerobic), which is generally 60-70% of your max heart rate!

Basically, for those of you unsure and that may not have an HR monitor,  this should be a pace where you can hold a general conversation quite comfortably

Here is an example aerobic recovery session :

15 mins rowing @2:05 Pace

Heart rate maintained 130-135 BPM

15 mins assault bike @50-55 RPM

Heart rate maintained 130-135 BPM

Foam roll and stretch after.

Give this a go next time your feel beat and don't want to rest completely, and you may just find that you will recover and feel better.