There’s nothing like basking in the glow of a great workout. You likely worked up a good sweat, relieved some stress, and got your endorphins flowing. After a shower and a nutritious post-workout meal, you should also consider taking time out to recover. I asked Fitness Director for TAC West/Club for Women, Personal Trainer, and Group Fitness instructor Stacey Ledgerwood for some tips on getting the most out of your rest days.
“Recovery tools are useful after intense and explosive movement training and after long durations of exercise,” says Stacey. Whether you’re at the club doing Group Power, Tread & Shred, Team Training, or Pilates as part of your regular routine, or going on long runs outside, building in a couple of rest and recovery days matters. “You need to be improving circulation in order to remove waste from muscle and to deliver new oxygen and nutrients for building new tissue,” says Stacey, adding that taking care of your physical fitness will improve your medical health too. Studies on recovery support this statement, highlighting the importance of taking time out.
According to a study from the National Library of Medicine, ‘maximizing performance capacity of an athlete is not only a matter of training. It also depends on an optimal balance between training and recovery to prevent maladaptation to accumulated psychological and physiological stresses induced by the training load.’*
In other words, if you want to continue to see progress in your workouts, you’ll benefit from incorporating recovery into your regular routine. The study concluded that active recovery, massage, compression, and cryotherapy led to a decrease in the magnitude of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), finding that massage and cold exposure were some of the most powerful ways to reduce inflammation.
The Alaska Club recently acquired cryotherapy chairs and is in the process of setting them up at various clubs in the network. The Cryolounge+ uses a combination of hot and cold therapy to increase circulation, ease sore muscles, and reduce inflammation. You control the settings of where you want hot or cold and can even add leg compression for a massage-like benefit. A Cryolounge+ session is just 15-minutes, but it can work wonders in a short amount of time. As Stacey notes,“Cryotherapy uses cold to increase circulation, while compression can help remove metabolic byproducts from muscle, promote the flow of oxygenated blood to assist in repairing and rebuilding tissue, and reducing soreness.”
Other beneficial recovery tools you’ll find at the clubs include saunas, which Stacey points out can increase circulation, percussion guns (like the Hypervolt) which apply rapid compressive force against muscle tissues to increase circulation, break up collagen fibers, reduce muscle tightness and promote localized recovery, and foam rolling which assists in hydration, mobility, and elasticity of connective tissues.
TAC Anchorage South Club’s new Vitality Booth which uses Salt & Red Light Therapy, or our Hydromassage chairs which are available across the network, are also great ways to build relaxation, recovery, and repair into your weekly routine. You can learn more about TAC’s services on our Wellness & Recovery page at www.thealaskaclub.com/spa-amenities.
Your body needs rest days in between your hard workouts. Take advantage of the tools available at TAC to help you reach not only your fitness goals, but also your wellness and recovery goals. You deserve it!