Do the words driven, competitive, relentless or compulsive describe you as an athlete? Are you searching for new methods of training that promise to make you faster and stronger? Do you find yourself talking about interval training, hill drills, speed drills, immersion swimming and adding weightlifting or yoga when you describe your training regimen? Are you searching for the missing link to boost your effectiveness?

Every athlete at one time or another reaches a plateau and begins searching for ways to move up to the next level. But, have you considered that the next step may be to do “nothing?”

The recovery phase is one of the most overlooked facets of training. Appropriate rest in the form of days off, naps, and adequate nightly sleep are all crucial for every athlete. Muscles need time to heal from the stresses of training in order to become stronger and adapt. Adaptation is where all of your training starts to work its magic. Without enough rest the body never adapt and won’t go beyond a certain level; thus a plateau. Worse, inadequate rest can lead to over training and injury.

Rest and recovery need to be incorporated during training sessions and after competition in a calculated manner. Those who do weight training are familiar with the time required to allow muscles to heal and adapts so that greater loads can be lifted on successive training days. The bodybuilder will work different muscle groups on different days allowing muscles plenty of time to rest and recover. Likewise, cross training allows a similar transfer of muscle group stress from day to day as sports are alternated.

Triathletes, the ultimate cross trainers, schedule varying and multiple weekly workouts for swimming, cycling and running that satisfy the training requirements of each sport. The taper phase of triathlon training is the controlled reduction of training prior to competition, which leaves the body in a state of “peak fitness and readiness” for an event.

Single sport athletes are most in need of discovering ways to incorporate appropriate rest and recovery time to their training. Cross training offers variety to the single sport athlete who also needs recovery time but does not want to give up additional training days.

Let’s be clear: rest and recovery are exactly that. It is universally recommended that at least one day a week be taken off from workouts. After a competition and depending on the extremes of the event, several days to a week off, or even more, might be necessary.

Schedule your rest as seriously as you do all of your other training. It might be the missing link you’ve been looking for.

Written by Victoria Nordgren. Victoria Nordgren, the founder of nordgren – women’s performance activewear at http://www.nordgrenactive.com/ is an avid cross trainer living in New York City.
Her weekly fitness blog can be found at http://nordgrenactive.com/wordpress2/
Please feel free to contact Victoria at [email protected]