Active Recovery or Full Rest?

angiered

I just started a new fitness program and my quads are screaming. Is it better to take the full rest day, or to get up and get moving? I live at the bottom of a serious hill, so I'm not sure walking will be much of a recovery type activity. :ohwell:

Any ideas? Last rest day we walked up to the store (the other way, away from the hill) and then up the hill, and they still hurt the next day when I got to the gym. :sad:

chgudnitz

It depends on the pain. Is it pain like OMG I hurt something or is it pain like wow I havent used these muscles in a while?

If its pain pain, rest completely. If its the other, then light activity is good. Good luck.

angiered

No, it's sore muscles, but not injured. "Holy Hell that potty seat is far away" type pain. :laugh: :laugh:

Jumped in a HOT bath and that seems to have helped quite a bit. I think I didn't drink enough water yesterday, before, during, OR after. :noway: Live and learn, huh?

SHBoss1673

this isn't, strictly speaking, active recovery. Active recovery is when you perform one routine to failure, and then, instead of resting and doing another set, you do a different type of exercise that doesn't involve those muscles. But this is with regards to within one workout.

I.E. instead of doing 10 bench presses, waiting 2 minutes and doing 10 more, you do 10 bench presses, then do 10 squats, then 10 more presses...etc. Because your legs do very little during bench presses, and your shoulders chest and arms do very little during squats (if you do them right!).

BUT

I know what you are talking about, and the idea is to give your muscles the time they need to recover, usually that's 24 to 48 hours depending on how sore they are. Working weakened muscles will have the effect of not being as efficient, therefore not using as many calories or (in the case of weight training) not being able to fully utilize the muscles in question and therefor not doing what the exercise is supposed to do (I.E. allow muscle density and/or size to grow).

So overall, don't work out the next day after you push yourself really hard, the only thing that is good for is your oxygen efficiency, it doesn't really help your EPOC very much (google EPOC if you don't know what that is, it's a good concept to understand).