How Important is Recovery?

12 Mar

STRESS RECOVERY ADAPTATION (SRA) CYCLE

We all want to become better, stronger, fitter and faster versions of ourselves. To get the most gains out of training it can be helpful to understand the Stress Recovery Adaptation Cycle.

If you overdo training, you stress the body too much, potentially leading to overtraining, injury and/or a lack of progress.

If you “underdo” training (not inducing enough stress due to lack of intensity or consistency) then we don’t give our body enough stimulus to optimise adaptation.

Let's break down each element of the SRA Cycle:

STRESS

The body needs to be placed under the appropriate amount of stress for the individual athlete. Too little stress will not elicit the adaptation response, but too much stress leads to injury, deceased performance and/or burnout.

Physical training (whether conditioning or strength based) does not promote homeostasis. It disrupts homeostasis. During training we are not getting stronger, fitter or faster. Instead we are (or should be) challenging the tissues of all your systems. For this adaptation to be positive, we need to promote adequate recovery.

RECOVERY

When we train, our bodies are in a sympathetic nervous system. It’s when our fight or flight response is initiated. We need to allow our bodies enough time between stressors to return to the parasympathetic nervous system where it can rest and repair (and make the gains).

CHRONIC STRESS

Stress is stress. Our bodies do not differentiate between the stress of being chased by a lion, our kids screaming at us relentlessly, a stressful work environment or shitty relationships.

The stress response triggers the sympathetic nervous system, which is not innately bad. Issues arise if we remain in this sympathetic state during everyday low-threshold activities and don’t shift to our parasympathetic branch to promote recovery, regulation, and regeneration.

Chronic stressors are the things that are causing us ongoing stress and taking a toll on our minds and bodies. They are things like:

Being in a negative relationship
A stressful, toxic work environment
Associating with people who gossip and whose values don’t align with yours
Financial challenges

If after training, our bodies are not returning to homeostasis (due to stressful lifestyle factors) we are constantly in a fight or flight response, not a rest and repair state.

OPTIMISING RECOVERY

Active recovery v passive recovery: whilst the body needs time between training stress there are things we can do to speed up the process.

Nutrition: fuel your body with quality foods.
Sleep: prioritise at least 7 hours of sleep per night.
Limit screen time
Keep moving. Walk. Stretch (ust because we do an hour of CrossFit per day does not mean we get to sit on our buts for the other 17 waking hours of the day).
Cold therapy
Breathwork
Sauna
Eliminate and/or reduce the amount of chronic stress in your life. This can be a really challenging one and can take some time. But remember, we only get one crack at this life. Choose who you want to spend it with and how you want to spend it.

If we train to recover like we train to adapt, we can improve our ability to restore homeostasis. Our body does not care about making us stronger, fitter, faster if we are constantly in a recovery deficit. Instead, all resources and energy are used to handle daily hassle stressors and the demands of excessive intense physical activity on the body. We want to ensure there are enough resources and energy available for tissue repair and stress recovery adaptation (Boyd, 2024)

ADAPTATION

This is when recovery of our body surpasses the original stimulus from the previous workout and the muscles begin to grow before the next workout. This is the point at which we become fitter, faster and stronger.

WHY IS ALL OF THIS IMPORTANT?

Recovery is the key to muscle growth, if recovery is neglected after a workout, the muscles stay damaged and can’t grow or get better. Recovery is the most beneficial thing for our body and finding the correct tools that help us from session to session are the keys to longevity and continued progression in our fitness journey. (Whitemyer, 2021)