What is the best way to recover from exercise?

Please remember the advice we give is general and not meant to be used as a substitute for professional medical or health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you want specific advice then please seek help from your doctor or local physio

What is recovery?

Recovery is a buzz word, thrown around in the exercise and fitness space... often to market the latest gizmo or technique. But what does recovery actually mean?

The SAID Principle

This principle explains the benefits of exercise from strength, to cardiovascular fitness, to balance. SAID stands for Specific Adaptation to an Imposed Demand. Whenever we apply an imposed demand (exercise), the body responds by adapting in a specific way. For example, during resistance training we challenge the muscles with weight's and they get stronger, but you don't necessarily improve your cardiovascular fitness.

But, you can only adapt to the demand or stress from exercise if you can recover from it. Apply too big a stress, and it's too difficult to bounce back to baseline and get the adaptations. So in order to maximise adaptations to exercise, we need... RECOVERY!

Getting adequate recovery

The good news is that you body will handle the majority of this without you even thinking. The human body is remarkably resilient, and given enough resources, can recover from almost anything. To support good recovery, there are three things that are worth considering:

1. Nutrition - make sure you are consuming a nutritious diet. Especially make sure you are consuming enough protein, which is the primary building block for many of the body's cells, especially muscle. Aim for 1.5g per kg of bodyweight per day.
   1. Note that this amount should be in reference to your ideal healthy body weight. If you know that for your age and height the healthy body weight is around 70kg, but you currently are carrying some excess fat and weigh 80kg - your daily protein target should be 70 x 1.5 = 105g.
2. Hydration - In general, our body's have a great automatic system to ensure we have enough water - we get thirsty! But, when it comes to exercise it's a good idea to make sure you are consuming some extra water to compensate.
3. Sleep - Get 7-9 hours of good quality sleep each night to give your body a chance to recuperate, and also maximise your future performance!

That's it!

Notice that the above list doesn't include any of the popular tricks you may have seen such as massage, cryotherapy (ice), heat therapy, foam rolling, stretching, trigger balls, compression garments or needling. Whilst some of these things can make you feel better temporarily, it is more sustainable in the long term to keep recovery simple.