Rest and Recovery — Fitness

In the fitness world, rest and recovery are just as important as the physical activity itself. It’s during rest that your body recovers and becomes stronger.

Take muscle building, muscles have to tear before they grow. This is why lifting weights build muscle. But if you want to grow your chest. Bench pressing for 8 hours a day 5 days a week, is the wrong approach. Rather doing 4 intense sets once or twice a week is all you need. It’s when you are resting that the muscle recovers and grows back bigger and stronger.

Working intensely and relaxing can take many forms too. We work in the day, and sleep at night. We lift heavy during our sets, but take 1-2min rest in between. We study for that technical course for maybe a 50 minute period and rest for 10 minutes afterwards.

Irrespective of what I’m doing, whether it be a physical or a mental exercise, there will be some rest component. And this model reminds me that rest is not a limitation, but is a part of the process.