Transcript
What's up you guys? Famous Ashley Grant here
and welcome to More Movement Please. Today is
day 115 of my fitness journey of going maximum
effort on fitness and I'm actually on a walk
right now and so I wanted to just kind of hop
on here and... and talk with you guys about the
importance of active recovery days. Because anybody
who's following my fitness journey, you know
that I am working out basically seven days a
week at this point. But two of those days I chose
as active recovery days. Now there are some times
that I will do... some kind of additional exercise.
Like I've started doing Zumba on Sundays. And
so technically speaking, I only have one active
recovery day. But more often than not, I do Wednesdays
and Sundays as my active recovery days. And so
why is this important, right? Why is it important
to have an active recovery day? And these are
the lighter days where... you're not really going
as hard as you normally would. So why are they
important? Well, blood flow and waste removal
is the big one. When you do light movement like
walking or gentle yoga, you increase circulation
without stressing your muscles. And it also delivers
fresh nutrients and oxygen. to recovering tissues.
And it's way more effective than just sitting
on the couch, because if you're going to be recovering,
it doesn't mean you can't move. You still can
move. So when you still are moving, you're preventing
stiffness, but you're not adding strain. So after
intense workouts, muscles, they can get tight
and your joints can feel stiff. But gentle movement
and stretching, that's what keeps everything
mobile, and it reduces that locked up feeling.
But unlike another hard workout, it doesn't require
a lot. additional damage that needs repair. So
the other reason that active recovery days are
so important to me is the mental recovery, right?
That's huge. When you're training as many days
a week as I am, it can be mentally draining.
And this is especially true if it's intense.
Like some of the exercises I do, some of the
classes I attend, they are pretty intense. And
these active recovery days that I'm doing, they're
letting me stay in my routine and keep building
momentum, but they're not adding pressure. They're
not adding intensity. But it's a psychological
break while still doing something positive for
my body. And the other thing is it keeps my nervous
system from getting fried. So high intensity
training, it taxes your central nervous system,
right? Active recovery days, they give it a break
while you're maintaining movement patterns and
staying active. So when you're working out as
much as I am. You got to make sure you add in
recovery days. But again, they don't have to
mean that you're not moving. So whether you're
doing stretching or walking or light yoga or
something, you're still doing low impact and
you're still promoting mobility, but you're also
aiding recovery without adding that significant
stress. So if you are working out a bunch of
days, I encourage you to consider adding in active
recovery as well. Just see how it feels. And
that's the tip I've got for you today. I hope
you enjoyed this quick little episode about,
well, active recovery. And I hope it encourages
you to start adding active recovery days to your
workout routine. So with that in mind, onwards
and upwards, my friends, have you worked out
today?