Active File Recovery V. 9.5.4 Key
Atila Kalina
Jake Tipane is a certified personal trainer in San Francisco, California. He specializes in fertility, prenatal, pregnancy, and postpartum fitness. Jake is the founder of Groundwork Studio, where he provides a whole-person approach to fitness.
Katharine has a BSc in Biological Sciences from the University of Exeter. Having started her career as a scientific editor on The British Journal of Psychiatry, she moved to Country Life where she spent six years as deputy chief sub-editor. After a career break, living in both Germany and Australia and being a full-time mum, she retrained and spent several years teaching A Level Biology. Looking for a new challenge, she then embarked on a Masters in Science Communication at Imperial College. Her particular interest is the effect of nutrition on health and ensuring that nutritional claims have foundations in science. In her spare time, she is a keen baker and gardener.
Nancy Lovering is a writer with a background in public education, where she works as an education assistant. Her training and experience encompass neurodivergent profiles such as autism and ADHD, as well as medical realms covering conditions such as diabetes, autoimmune disease, and traumatic brain injury. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.
In this article, we discuss the benefits of active recovery and how it differs from passive recovery. We also explain what precautions to take when performing active recovery to minimize the risk of injury.
The authors of a 2017 study suggest that passive recovery might be the more useful type of recovery for people who partake in high intensity exercise that is short in duration but repetitive. Unlike active recovery, passive recovery does not reduce phosphocreatine levels, which may affect the performance of these types of workouts.
On the other hand, the same study suggests that active recovery may be more useful for people who do other types of workouts, as it quickly decreases the amount of lactic acid in the muscles, which restores the pH balance in the body.
The American Council on Exercise found that athletes recovered faster by continuing at less than 50% of their maximum efforts between intervals, as this still exercises the muscles and keeps the blood flowing.
A 2019 study involving 20 males in good health found that self-myofascial release with a foam roller could be useful in reducing delayed-onset muscle soreness after high intensity interval training (HIIT).
Workout recovery is important for getting the most out of your fitness programming and an essential component of a personal training education. I spend a decent amount of time talking with my clients about proper recovery techniques to avoid burnout and injury due to over-training.
At the same time, my clients are eager to learn what they can do on their off-days to supplement the hard work that they're putting in at the gym. They want to know: What should I do on my off-days? How much activity is too much? Should I do something active on all of my off-days?
This article will help you, a personal trainer or fitness enthusiast, understand more about what active recovery is, the science behind it, how to incorporate it into your routine, and some example between-session active recovery workouts that you can try.
You can merely perform this workout by walking out in nature or using a piece of cardio equipment like a bike, rowing machine, elliptical, or even swimming.
Five minutes: Warm-up, start slow, and find your pace.
Place the band just above the knees. Lay down on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the mat, your arms extended at your side and your palms up. Your feet should be hip-width apart with your toes pointed straight ahead and your heels about 6" from your rear end.
Keep your feet flat and press through your heels as you squeeze the glutes to raise your hips off the mat. Keep your knees in line with your hips (don't let the band pull your knees in!) and squeeze your glutes hard at the top of the bridge. Your knees, hips, and shoulders should be in a straight line at the top of your bridge. Hold at the top for 2 seconds and slowly return to the starting position (in about 4 seconds). When your glutes touch the mat, go right back up into the bridge.
Place the mini-band just above your knees (or lower for more of a challenge) and stand with your feet hip-width apart, with your toes pointed straight ahead. Keep your knees bent so that you're in an athletic stance (almost a squat) as you sidestep in one direction with slow and controlled steps.
Keep your core tight so that your upper body does not sway and pick up your feet as you step (no dragging feet!). The goal is to keep your feet at least hip-width apart the entire time to maintain resistance in the band. Take 10-15 steps one way, then 10-15 steps back the other direction.
Anchor a resistance band to a pole, banister, or in a door (if you have the attachment). Stand tall and tuck your shoulder blades into your back pocket. Pin the elbow of your working arm to your side (it helps to place a small, rolled-up towel underneath your elbow) and pull the band out to your side without flexing your wrist.
Hold that position for 2 seconds, and then slowly return to the start position (taking about 4 seconds to do so). You should feel this in the back of the shoulder. If you feel it in the front of the shoulder, check your alignment and maybe try moving closer to the anchor and try again.
Not only does active recovery help you achieve physiological homeostasis, but research also suggests that active recovery is superior to passive recovery when it comes to how well you can perform during your workout. The High Altitude Exercise Physiology Program research team from Western State Colorado University conducted a study comparing active recovery and passive recovery when it comes to performance during an exercise session.
The research team discovered that when compared with passive recovery, active recovery has been shown to increase the length of time the athlete could perform without reporting fatigue and help athletes sustain power output (St. Pierre et al., 2018).
Studies recommend spending about 6-10 minutes after your workout session performing some active recovery for best results (Ortiz et al. 2018). Light cardio exercise, like walking on a treadmill or cycling at a low intensity, can help you get your heart rate down to recover from your workout.
If you can hold a steady conversation while doing the activity, it's probably the right intensity to be considered active recovery. I don't recommend trying the talk-test while swimming. There's not necessarily a recommended length of time for these active recovery sessions, so it might be best to follow general exercise guidelines, which recommend at least 30 minutes of physical activity daily.
One side note about using jogging as an active recovery technique: If you're a very well-conditioned, competitive runner, then a jog might be active recovery because, for you, a jog is low-intensity and feels relatively easy.
For those who consider running to be an actual workout *raises hand*, a jog might be too intense to be active recovery and might over-tax the system in the long run. Can you keep a steady flow of conversation while jogging? If not, it would be wise to find another activity for active recovery.
Now that we understand what active recovery is and how it works, we can get to the fun part: application! When deciding what to do between-sessions, you'll want to consider your current training program's intensity level. My favorite way to tackle this is by looking at your training schedule over a week.
The goal is to balance out your week with a healthy mix of medium to high-intensity training with some low-intensity training for recovery. Rhea et al. (2003) recommends spacing out strength training days with 1-2 rest days in-between. Here are a few examples of what your training schedule might look like:
Each type of physical activity has some cost associated with it. When we do an intense workout, we make a large withdrawal from that energy bank account and have less to spend afterward. If you make too many consecutive withdrawals from your energy bank, you'll start to get charged overdraft fees in the form of overtraining symptoms (i.e., interrupted sleep, elevated resting heart rate, overuse injuries, and diminishing performance during workouts.
On an off-day, our goal is to add funds back into our energy bank account to make more withdrawals in the future. Adequate sleep, proper nutrition, and time are all necessary ways to replenish those funds. Without those three components, your energy and performance will undoubtedly suffer.
Fortunately, active recovery can also help you get back in the black when applied correctly. One question to ask yourself when selecting your activity on a busy recovery day is, "after completing this workout, will I feel invigorated or exhausted?". If your answer hedges on tired, worn-out, or exhausted, it's too intense to be doing on an off-day and would be considered a withdrawal to your energy system bank.
-Choose an activity that you enjoy. Yoga, swimming, cycling, walking, and stretching are all low-intensity activities, but you can think outside the box and make it fun! Check out these beginner stretches for some ideas!
Active recovery seeks to accomplish this goal using low-intensity (30-60% maximum heart rate) movement to increase blood flow to simultaneously bring oxygen-rich blood to tissues and remove the cellular waste produced during exercise (Corder et al., 2000; Monedero and Donne 2000).
Jane Chertoff is a full-time freelancer who writes about health, fitness, nutrition, home decor, and beauty. Her work has appeared on Self, Yahoo Health, SheKnows, Romper, Greatist, Realtor.com, and more. She enjoys running, yoga, dogs, and travel. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Dr. Gregory Minnis is a physical therapist with an interest in orthopedic manual therapy. His work experience includes orthopedic physical therapy, sports medicine, neurological rehab, advanced assessment and treatment of running injuries, and advanced treatment of the pelvic complex, spine, and extremities.
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