What Is Active Recovery During Rest Days?

It is common practice to treat a rest day passively: Eat good food, lay down, let muscles recover on their own, go to the sauna and relax, and sleep as much as possible…essentially, taking our minds off training for the day!

And in theory, you’re right to do so… But you might be better off moving on your off day. This is because there are numerous benefits to remaining active during your break…

Active recovery is the practice of incorporating some form of movement during your rest days to help your body recover.

Allow us to take you into the realm of active recovery and why it is important for your recovery and well-being!

Why Do We Recover Anyway?

Anyone who trains should recover, that’s a no-brainer.

On average, it takes up to 48 hours for your muscles to fully recover from an activity.

When we work out, we damage our muscle fibers and micro-tear them (that’s a good thing). Once torn, the muscle rebuilds itself with stronger fibers, therefore resulting in a stronger muscle as a whole.

Your joints also get used and tired, and healthy inflammation kicks in. Through rest and proper recovery measures, they get healthy again.

We recover to let our body heal and get ready to do the workouts again!

All that magic is possible through recovery practices such as sleep, eating protein such as chicken, stretching, going to the sauna, and massages…

But the muscles and joints aren’t the only part of your body that needs recovery…your mind also needs its own time to recover as it cannot sustain from overtraining.

And therefore, a recovery day is also useful for your mental health. It gives you enough time to reset and builds focus to run the workouts again.

However, there is a difference between taking a day off and taking a recovery day. A slight difference, but impactful results…

The Benefits of Active Recovery

Active recovery is the practice of incorporating some form of movement during your rest days to help your body recover.

And I’ll just say it as it is: Active rest makes you recover faster.

This is because when remaining active, you push your body to take recovery measures such as:

Increasing blood flow
Eliminating Toxins (Detoxing)
Reducing soreness and pains
Flushing out lactic acid

And this has been proven, as per NCBI

Whenever you move during those rest days, you trick your body into thinking it has to go through another workout (it’s not).

Although all these benefits are great, they all come from one source: Increasing blood flow. Movement gets your blood to circulate more in the sore muscles, bringing in nutrients and taking away toxins and lactic acid.

Essentially, the goal of active recovery is to promote blood flow in your body, and there are many ways one could do that.

Another not-so-popular benefit of active recovery is its effect on mental well-being.

As we know, exercising does wonders for your mind and mental health, making you more self-confident, and more productive, giving you better looks for self-esteem, as well as even fighting some mental health issues.

Although taking a day off might not seem like a big deal, it could hurt us in the subconscious.

A lack of training can make us feel unproductive, and feel like a setback day. Some people consider a day off as a lost day, and it can play with their expectations and self-confidence.

Active recovery could be a solution for that. However, the real mental benefit of active recovery is the following: to not get carried away.

Some people find it hard to restart training after a rest day. It also happens to take more energy to restart. Taking active recovery can carry the momentum forward, putting you in a mental state where you are always in the mood for training since you never stopped!

Examples of Active Recovery

As we established, we need to promote blood flow in our body. There are two avenues we could take to achieve that:

Through Movement

Walking, Cycling, Swimming, Light Jog

Through Stimulation

Sauna, Ice Bath, Massage, Foam Rolling

Obviously, not include all types of movement-based recovery are included but the idea is the following: Get some movement in at a low intensity, and not for long.

If you practice a sport, you can also play your sport on your rest day at a low intensity to recover. For example, if you play soccer, you could juggle a ball for 30 minutes to simply get the blood pumping.

Both methods are great for keeping it active during your off day. The suggestion is to mix it up. Some days, go for movement-based recovery, and others, try a day at the spa.

What About Passive Recovery?

We’ve talked about active recovery, how and why it’s important, and we covered the different types of activity you can do even on a rest day.

But let us understand passive recovery (doing nothing) and when it can be beneficial...Don’t read this wrong way, passive recovery is not a bad thing…

Laying around all day is fun, we can all admit. After a good week of training, everybody deserves a passive day…it’s even recommended.

Passive recovery can especially help performance athletes, as it allows them to recharge and perform at full energy levels at the next performance.

But passive recovery stays the same: it’s a day where nothing happens. More than one of those per week can sometimes prove to be a setback.

The disadvantages of relying on passive recovery are:

Lengthier recovery times
Less effective recovery

However, this does not mean it is a bad thing! It simply means it’s something we should limit in the week, both for productivity and recovery purposes!

Most experts agree on the following formula: Workout as much as you want, from 3 to 5 days a week. The days off should be split into active and passive recovery, where not more than 1 day is allowed for passive, and the rest for active recovery.

Final Thoughts

Now you are informed about the power of keeping it active on a rest day. Whether it's physical or mental, it's an important strategy to help you achieve your goals more smartly.

And if we could leave you with one word, it’s this: Nothing and nobody can tell you exactly what you need better than your body, so listen to it.

Sometimes, we are too tired, maybe on the verge of overtraining…this is where we would need a full day’s rest. And that’s okay! Do what feels best for you and your body.

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