Structured, planned movement creates an adaption that the body most overcome to become stronger, faster and increase one’s endurance. In order to recover from this adaption a period of rest or active recovery will allow the muscle fibers to repair themselves. Active recovery can be as simple as taking one day off for each three days of training and going for a bike ride, run, walk or yoga session to engage the body in some low-impact movement. Another strategy, would to be to leverage a deload week in one’s training cycle and reduce the training load by 30-40%.

This past Tuesday, I took a day of active recovery and did a Korkoro Yoga flow from the Unbeatable Mind Team. The focus was on slow, intentional movement to open the hips and shoulders – all areas that I had trained pretty hard over the last few days. My intention was to breathe fresh oxygen into these sore muscle groups while under load\tension and accelerate the recovery process. A few side benefits of the breath work and intention can help reduce one’s stress levels and reduce overall fatigue.

Play around with your active recovery days to see what works best for you, what you enjoy and what activities your body responds too.