 |
Exercise
Rx - F • I • T • T - Recovery |
Recovery time is needed by your muscles to rebuild after you exercise. Under certain conditions, it's possible to exercise too frequently, especially if you workout strenuously or you are unaccustomed to physical exercise. Sometimes, less is more, and overdoing it can cause real problems.
When you exercise a group of muscles, they go through many changes and it takes time for these muscles to recover. (See How Physical Activity Builds Muscle.) To be successful, you must build recovery time into your Exercise Rx. This recovery time is as important to your program as are the workout times because it's during this time that muscle is built. Without this recovery time, performance usually suffers and there is an increased risk of injury. When you're just starting out, recovery means that you don't exercise the same muscle groups without some healing time between workouts, but as you become more fit, you may find that you can alternate "hard" workouts with "easier" workouts and your muscles will recover on the easy days.
The amount of time it takes your muscles to recover from a workout is influenced by how hard the workout was, your physical condition, heredity, and your age. Obviously, the harder the workout, the longer it will take to recover from it. Unfortunately, as we age, our recovery times increase. But the good news is that as you become more fit you will be able to recover more quickly. So if you're worried about the effects of aging, remember that being fit can help offset the influence aging has on recovery time.
If you are just starting out with an exercise program, start slowly; use the minimum frequency with the goal of progressing to higher frequencies. As you increase your frequency watch for signs of over-exercise, such as:
Most of these symptoms can also be caused by illness or other health problems. If you experience any of these, ask yourself if over-exercise is the likely cause. If so, adjust your Exercise Rx by reducing the Frequency or Time elements. You should avoid large increases in your Exercise Rx. Follow the 10% rule - from week-to-week, never increase your Exercise Rx's total time by more than 10%.
You should review your Exercise Rx every 4 to 6 weeks and watch for these signs that adjustments are needed:
| Frequency Too Low | Workout performance stays the same Lack of progress in meeting your goals |
| Frequency Too High | Workout performance decreases Quick decrease in Lean Body Mass Signs of over-exercise (see above) |
Tracking your workout performance is very important. Document your workouts with information about the amount of time you spent, your heart rate, and the distance you covered. An increase in performance would mean that you were able to cover a greater distance in the same amount of time at the same heart rate. A decrease in performance is indicated by being unable to cover the same distance in the amount of time at the same heart rate that you usually do. (This assumes similar environmental conditions - heat and humidity do effect performance.) Of course, you will have some workouts that are better than others so look for trends. If you're not in maintenance mode, but you can't seem to improve performance, look at your frequency. If your frequency is low, try increasing it and see what happens. Conversely, if your frequency is high but you are seeing a decline in your performance, you may want to lower your frequency, at least for awhile.
Important Information About: Intensity (Next Page)
| Return To: | Exercise Rx - F-I-T-T Introduction |
| Frequency |
