Recovery

Exercises especially those including lifting weights or conditioning exercises will put strain on your muscles tearing the fibers of the muscle and breaking them down. Following this, your muscles will go through a recovery process where they will rebuild stronger. As we age, muscle building hormones such as testosterone declines beginning in your 30s which means it is even more important to give your muscles time to recover.

Source: Schoenfeld, B. J. (2010). The mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy and their application to resistance training. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 24(10), 2857-2872.

Understanding The Timeline: How Long Does It Take For Testosterone Levels To Drop? | MedShun

Ensuring that you take the time to allow your body to rest and recover following a workout can help to prevent any unwanted injuries. As we age and our joints and connective tissues become more sensitive to wear and tear, and recovery can help to protect your body from any long-term damage.

Source: Knapik, J. J., & Baechle, T. R. (2016). Exercise Technique in Strength Training for Sports. Human Kinetics.

Taking time out to recover after a hard session in the gym will also give your mind time to rest ensuring you are mentally strong going into your next gym session improving your overall performance.

Following an intense workout, you experience higher levels of adrenaline and cortisol in your body (all very important hormones which get you through your gym session successfully). Taking time out to recovery will give your body a chance to bring those levels back into normal range which can help to induce a more restful sleep. And better sleep means more energy to give to your next workout.

Source: Chtourou, H., & Souissi, N. (2012). The effect of acute exercise on sleep: a brief review. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 11(4), 574-579.

As we age, it is important to ensure we stay active and exercise. However, just as important is taking the time to recover following a workout. Proper recovery practices will reduce the risk of chronic conditions like joint pain, and heart disease and will ensure that you are building a foundation for sustained health and fitness well into your later years.

Source: Fiuza-Luces, C., et al. (2013). Exercise benefits in cardiovascular disease. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 20(6), 752-76

Ensuring that you are taking appropriate rest periods between sessions and not overtraining will allow your body the time it needs to go through the recovery process. Here at Defined Fitness, we ensure that you are spreading your classes throughout the week to give yourself time to recover in between your sessions. We also change up the structure of the classes, so you are targeting different muscle groups. This in turn helps our members to sustain their fitness journey.

It is very important that you are fueling your body right following your gym workouts with plenty of high-quality protein and carbs to help replenish energy stores and repair muscles. Hydration is also key to assisting the recovery process as dehydration can significantly slow the recovery process of muscles. At Defined Fitness we offer personalized nutrition advise and weekly check in systems to assist each person on their nutrition and recovery journey.

Source: Phillips, S. M. (2014). A brief review of critical processes in exercise-induced muscle protein synthesis and their relationship to muscle hypertrophy. Sports Medicine, 44(1), 1-7.

Recovery can include low-intensity activities too such as walking, cycling, swimming or a yoga session. These types of activities will increase blood flow, which will aid muscle repair and reduces stiffness. At Defined Fitness, we give our members tips on active recovery and what low intensity activities would best aid in their recovery but also fit into their already hectic lifestyles.

Source: Tesch, P. A., & Ekberg, A. (2003). Active recovery: enhancing the recovery process through low-intensity exercise. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 17(3), 513-518.

Foam rolling involves using a foam roller to apply pressure to certain muscles to release tension, improve blood flow, and alleviate soreness. Foam rolling targets the fascia which is the connective tissue surrounding muscles helping to break down knots in the muscles and can also loosen tight muscles prior to a workout.

Stretching helps to elongate the muscles which can improve flexibility, increase joint range of motion, and reduce stiffness. Dynamic stretching (actively moving through the stretch) is usually completed as part of a warmup before your workout and static stretching (holding a stretch for a period of time) usually completed after a workout.

At Defined Fitness, we have dedicated areas for members to stretch and use the provided foam rollers as part of their warmup and cool down.

Source: Foam Rolling vs. Stretching: Which Is Better for Muscle Soreness and Mobility? – fitgurulife.com

There has been a lot of noise lately around hot and cold or contrast therapy and its benefits but what is it exactly. Well it involves alternating between cold therapy (Cryotherapy) and heat therapy (Thermotherapy ) treatments to stimulate blood flow and enhance the body’s natural healing processes.

In cold therapy treatments such as ice baths, blood vessels will contract under the cold temperatures, decreasing blood flow to the area reducing swelling and inflammation. The cold temperature also works as a natural anesthetic by numbing the area and reducing pain.

In heat therapy treatments such as a sauna, blood vessels will expand increasing blood flow to the area. This helps to deliver more oxygen and nutrients to the muscle helping the muscle to relax and reduce muscle stiffness.

Alternating between hot and cold treatments, so alternating between blood vessel restriction and dilation, creates a ‘pumping’ action. This can improve your lymph and blood circulation, which helps to remove waste from tissues and deliver oxygen and nutrients more efficiently.

Here at Defined Fitness, we have a state of the art recovery room which includes a cold plunge bath and a tradition hot coal sauna to assist you in your recovery routine.

Source: Vaile, J., O’Hara, J., & Aisbett, B. (2013). The effects of contrast water therapy on recovery from intense exercise. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 27(2), 370-375.

Source: Bieuzen F, Bleakley CM, Costello JT. Contrast Water Therapy and Exercise Induced Muscle Damage: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis – PMC

Compression therapy involves applying pressure to muscles to improve blood flow to the area with compression boots being the most commonly used compression device. Compression boots consist of inflatable sleeves that wrap around the legs and apply intermittent pressure starting from the feet working up to the thighs. This improves blood flow to the area, delivering oxygen and nutrients which help the muscles to recover and flushing metabolic waste out of the muscles. This results in a reduction in muscle soreness and tightness that can occur following a gym session.

At Defined Fitness, our state of the art recovery room includes high quality compression boots that can be used to aid in your recovery journey.

Source: [Kraemer, W. J., et al. (2010). “The Effect of Pneumatic Compression on Recovery After Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 24(5), 1409-1417.]