The factors involved in recovery

Anyone who begins training will do so with some degree of enthusiasm, although they should first learn about recovery.

Enthusiasts constantly seek the ideal combination of exercises, repetitions, sets, training load, and intensity. This is probably because each of these things is quantifiable and easy to understand, but when people start talking about recovery, paradigms emerge.

It may take some time for a beginner to discover the importance of recovery in their training. For example, teenagers seem to have endless energy, much to everyone’s envy, but this can also work against them even when they respect the basic principles of this process.

The point is that sooner or later, as they improve, they come face-to-face with the problem of achieving adequate recovery as a result of their hard training.

With this in mind, you should know the factors that will require more or less recovery time. In this way, training programming or periodization will be much more efficient.

The muscular factor

The first factor is this: larger muscles require more recovery time.

• Simply compare how you feel after several sets of heavy squats with how you feel after a biceps curl workout.
• Enthusiasts do not train the squat with the same intensity as professionals, so they can squat in almost every workout.
• Professionals train at much higher intensities, to the point that many can only squat once a week, and some even once every ten days.

Likewise, a larger amount of muscle requires more recovery time, and this is closely related to the number of muscles worked in a workout.

Larger muscle groups take longer to recover than smaller ones.

This is because a large muscle group must lift more weight to achieve the appropriate intensity than a small group.

The fiber factor

The second factor is that fast-twitch fibers recover more slowly than slow-twitch fibers.

• Slow-twitch muscles are aerobic and are designed for continuous activity at low intensity. Naturally, they will not need much recovery time.
• By contrast, fast-twitch muscles are designed only for periodic efforts; they require longer recovery times.

Special care must be taken with repetitions when considering intensity. Low repetitions at 95% of 1RM may be less demanding than sets of 5 repetitions, even though they are heavier.

Especially with those sets of 5 repetitions, remember that although you are training with only 85% of 1RM, the muscles feel only 85% on the first repetition. As you progress through the set, you are essentially lifting at an increasingly higher intensity, even approaching 100% of your capacity at that moment. Therefore, a set at 85% of 1RM is not really 85%, because it exceeds that threshold, and this is directly related to recovery.

You should also think about how many sets of each exercise you are going to do at a given intensity; obviously, the more sets you do, the more tired you will be.

The exercise-type factor

You should never ignore the type of exercise you are doing when considering the need for recovery.

Is there an eccentric component to the exercise? If so, these exercises are much harder on the muscle fibers. This type of exercise does much more work than concentric exercises, and consequently requires more recovery.

For example, if we compare the bench press or squats with Olympic lifting exercises that do not have an eccentric component, recovery there is much faster, giving powerlifters an advantage because they can train any of their exercises more frequently.

The age factor

Older athletes take longer to recover than younger ones; nothing works better when you are older, and that includes exercise recovery.

Gone are the 5- and 6-day-a-week training regimens you followed as a teenager. At 40 or older, you may only be able to train 2 days a week, so you should develop effective sessions.

Some master athletes do things differently, but when they are competitive, other variables are at play that allow them to work a little more.

More training, more recovery

Do not forget to take into account how much you have been training in recent weeks.

• If you are in the heaviest part of a cycle in which you are intentionally overtraining, then you will need more recovery time.
• Of course, if you are overtrained, even if it is not intentional, you will still need more recovery time.

This is especially true for beginners and intermediates who do everything possible to catch up with the biggest athletes, setting aside logic and reason and allowing vain emotion to drive their training.

Stress and recovery

If this is your case, do not forget your psychological condition or underestimate its effect on your physical or mental condition.

When you are stressed or anxious or have many problems on your mind, this will affect the amount of energy you devote to training. If you are affected in this way, you will need more recovery time.