I’ve found that many athletes don’t know what to do on their active recovery days ,so they err in one of two ways…
One, they don’t have a specific workout or game plan in mind when they go to the gym so 20 minutes later they end up going full send in a workout that was supposed to be easy.
Or two, since they don’t know what to do, they opt to do nothing and their active recovery day turns into a complete rest day (or more like a “lounge on the couch day”).
Obviously, neither is ideal.
Trying to figure out what to do can be complicated for an athlete, and too often coaches or online training programs don’t provide a specific, detailed plan for recovery days.
Typically -at best- some general guidelines are given…
“stay below 70% effort”
“do 15-20 minutes of mobility work”
“spend some time doing easy aerobic work”
These guidelines might have good intentions, but the bottom line is if the athlete isn’t very experienced and the coach hasn’t spent time educating them on the specific of what this means, the athlete is still confused and won’t take full advantage of what a recovery day has to offer.
Translation: You’re leaving performance on the table.
Benefits of An Appropriate Recovery Day
When strategic and calculated, a recovery day can provide a host of benefits.
Benefits of Recovery Days
(1) Improved Circulation, Mood & Alertness
(2) Reduced Inflammation & Joint Irritation
(3) Increased Parasympathetic Tone
(4) Improved Range of Motion & Movement Quality
(5) Improved Aerobic Function & Muscular Endurance
The goal of a recovery day should be to take advantage of as many of these aspects as possible.
Rather than providing a bunch of guidelines as to what program design on a recovery day could look like, I’m going to provided two different samples from the ZOAR Fitness Recovery Day Program and explain some of the intention behind them.
Sample Recovery Day 1: Aerobic Accessory
Upon Wake-Up
-5:00 Supine Breathing @4080 Cadence
AM (or) PM
A. Aerobic Accessory
[30:00 Clock]
-20 Calorie Row @ Zone 1
-20s Wall-Facing Handstand Hold
-20s Goblet Squat Hold 35/26lbs
-20 Calorie Row @ Zone 1
-20s T-Spine Opener
-20s Bent Over Double Kettlebell Hold at Chest 10kg / hand
*focus on squeezing your shoulders at end range
Before Bed
A. Seal Stretch (1:00)
B. Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch (1:00 / side)
C. Couch Stretch (1:30 / side)
+
A. Elevated Cat Pose (1:00)
B. Seated Biceps Stretch (1:00)
C. Chest Stretch (1:00)
D. Bully Stretch (0:30 / side)
*go gentle on this one
Learn more about Aerobic Accessory in this video.
Sample Recovery Day 2: Movement Maintenance
AM
Move Through…
3:00 Supine Breathing @4-0-10-0 cadence
(Recovery Breath 60s)
Breath Hold to RPE 7
(Recovery Breath 60s)
Breath Hold to RPE 8.5
(Recovery Breath 90s)
Max Breath Hold
+
A. High Plank Hold: Accumulate 3:00
B. Rear Plank: Accumulate 2:00
C. Seated Biceps Stretch: Accumulate 2:00
PM
4 Rounds
-2:00 Cyclical of Choice @ Zone 1
-6 Reps of Seiza Sit → Half Kneel → Stand (3 per leg)
-8 Squatting Sky Reaches; with exaggerated thoracic twist (4 per arm)
-10 Forward Shoulder CARs (split evenly) 5-7s / rotation
*perform as (5L + 5R) taking about 10s per rotations
-12 PVC Dislocates @ Slow Tempo
+
A1. Kettlebell Arm Bar (2 x 5 / side) light to moderate
A2. Elbows-in-Rings Chest Stretch (2 x 1:00)
A3. Deficit Hand Release Push-Ups (2 x 8-10)
*place your hands on a 1-3″ bumper plate, chest goes to the floor
B1. T-Spine Opener (3 x 1:00)
B2. Hanging Arch Pulses (3 x 10)
C1. Hanging Hollow Pulses (3 x 10)
C2. Banded Lat Row (3 x 15-20)
D. Passive Squat Hold; Accumulate 5:00
Before Bed
-2 x 2:00 Stretch of Choice: Your Top Priority Area
+
4:00 Supine Breathing @3060 cadence
Want More Recovery Day Programming?
If you’ve been falling into the trap of either going too hard or doing nothing at all on your recovery days, you’re leaving heaps of performance potential on the table.
One of the easiest things you can do to improve all aspects of your fitness is improve the speed and quality with which you recover, so you can attack your stressful workouts even harder.
This is a strategy I implement for all my Individual Design Athletes, as well as in our online training program: The Protocol.
Recently, I sat down and built out an entire recovery day program. It’s 12 weeks long and features the both types of recovery sessions we broke down today: Aerobic Accessory and Movement Maintenance.
If you only plan on doing one Recovery session each week, it would be perfectly fine to stretch this program over a 24 week period, which is about six months.
Tired of not knowing what to do on your Recovery Days?
Let us help.
If you’ve been falling into the trap of either going too hard or doing nothing at all on your recovery days, you’re leaving heaps of performance potential on the table.