Scheduling your workout routine and developing your diet are essential for you and your body. More than that, you need to direct attention inward and make sure you’re doing things on your R&R days to improve yourself.
Your health, outlook, physical wealth, psychological health, and overall well-being depend on your ability to rest and recover. Those rest and recovery days, though few and far between, prepare you to propel forward and do what you need to do during the rest of your week.
Exercise and Move Around
Yes, you do indeed deserve some time to relax into your couch and binge a few episodes of your favorite show. However, it’s also important that you don’t don’t just sit still the entire time. Metabolic waste, muscle stiffness, hydration, and delayed onset muscle soreness become an issue. Active recovery demands that you increase circulation and hydrate during your day off because your body needs it. Alleviate tightness by doing light exercise or low-impact activities for thirty minutes or so. Try something relaxing, such as yoga or cycling, which can build strength and improve flexibility.
Massages
What’s more relaxing than having someone rub the soreness from your joints? Seek out a certified massage therapist, especially a sports massage therapists, who can tend to tight areas. Treat target areas, such as piriformis and the thoracic spine to mobilize muscles. There are neurological benefits to a massage, it readying the body to rid itself of metabolic waste and encouraging the body to heal from recent activities.
Snack Smart
Rather than reaching for bags of popcorn or other carb-loaded snacks, find your way to the grocery store and pick out nutritiously-smart superfoods, such as blueberries and almonds. Improve your metabolic process with dark-colored fruits, cruciferous vegetables, and leafy greens. These things and hydration will help with everything from digestion to metabolism.
Soak
Relieve your stress by taking a long soak in the bath with some Epsom salt, which will lower cortisol levels and reduce bloating. Additionally, a hot soak can burn up to 140 calories an hour, and it can reduce blood sugar by 10 percent –incredible!
If you have any thoughts or tips for how on how to maximize your R&R days, please share!
