The New Year is traditionally a time to get fitter and to try to lose some weight gained over the festive period. We tend to see a rise in injuries in the practice at this early time of year generally from people with good intentions doing too much exercise too soon and ending up in pain. With that in mind I wanted to give some advice on how best to get fit focusing on how to rest and recover effectively, an area that is often overlooked.
It is very important to start slowly and gradually build the amount of exercise you are doing. There is a temptation to begin a fitness regime hard with the desire to get fit as quickly as possible. This can, unfortunately, be the fastest way to get injured, especially if you are starting from a relative lack of fitness. There is a 10% rule to abide by, for example – do not increase your running mileage by more than 10% a week. You will no doubt feel great when you start your exercise program but you need to think in the longer term as injuries can take time to develop.
It is worth understanding a bit about human physiology so you know how your body responds to exercise. Our soft tissues – muscles, tendons and ligaments take a lot longer to respond to the stresses of exercise than you might think, you need to take time to let them adjust to those stresses to prevent injury occurring. Initially taking a less is more approach means you will gradually get fit and most importantly stay healthy whilst doing it, so you can enjoy the gain without the pain.
Importance of rest and recovery between exercise. This is an often overlooked part of getting fit and is fundamental to general good health and well being.
You only reap the benefits of exercise from the subsequent rest you have after the activity (but you do need to do the activity in the first place!). This gives your body a chance to recover, adapt and strengthen beyond your initial level of fitness – a process called super-compensation.
The quantity of your exercise should be equaled by the quality of your rest. A lot of people at this time of year tend to push themselves too hard too soon. My advice is that you should not really impose too short a time limit on when you want to be “fit” by leaving yourself enough time to recover between sessions. The process can take months depending on your relative fitness to begin with.
Good quality rest and recovery are even more relevant the more stressful your day to day life is. Regular activity is vital to good health, but exercise can become just another strain on the body if, for example, you have already had a very long and stressful day at work. Postpone the exercise to another day until you have the time to do and enjoy it.
Good luck if you are just embarking on a new exercise regime trying to improve your fitness this year. I would never discourage anyone attempting to improve their health via exercise, but there are better ways to do it so as to give you the best chance to benefit long term from the changes you are making and prevent injury from occurring.
