Not all recovery between workouts is the same. Specifically, it is anabolic-adaptive recovery that must occur between workouts if your goal is to grow bigger and/or stronger. Many people assume that this will automatically occur from doing regular workouts, but it is a false assumption. Your workouts and rest times between workouts must be very specific to achieve anabolic-adaptive recovery as there are other types of recovery that leave you without strength gains or an increase in muscle mass. That being the case, I will list and discuss three types of recovery in this article.
- Anabolic-Adaptive Recovery
Anabolic recovery means that you are growing bigger and/or stronger between workouts. It’s the kind of recovery that most lifters are trying to achieve between workouts. By definition, the word anabolic refers to a state in which protein synthesis is occurring to a greater degree than the breakdown of protein within the muscles. However, it is possible to have anabolic-adaptive recovery that is not accompanied by muscle growth. Muscles can become stronger through adaptations that are made by the nervous system. If the nervous system learns how to fire at a faster rate it will produce a stronger nerve impulse to the fibers that are being activated when a muscle contracts. The nervous system can also learn to improve at recruiting more muscle fibers in a given moment so that more muscle fibers contract at the same time. These nervous system adaptations will produce stronger muscles even if they stay the same size.
- Non Progressive Steady State Recovery
Steady state recovery simply means that anabolism and catabolism are occurring at the same rate between workouts. There is no net gain or loss in muscle mass. In addition, if the nervous system doesn’t improve in its ability to send signals to the muscle at a faster rate, or it fails to improve at recruiting more muscle fibers to fire together at the same time during a contraction, then no gains in strength will occur either. Under these circumstances, strength and muscle mass are in a steady unchanging state of sameness from one workout to the next.
- Catabolic Recovery
Catabolic recovery can also occur. This is the same as insufficient recovery to the point where strength is lost from one workout to the next. Catabolic recovery is a huge bummer because the result of it is the exact opposite of the intended goal of lifting to become bigger and/or stronger. Catabolic recovery can occur from overtraining, undertraining, or resting too long or too short between workouts. It can also occur from inadequate nutrition, stress, or sickness.
Recovery is Not a Feeling
Many people think of recovery as a feeling that is related to regaining a high level of energy after a workout. They may also think of it as the time it takes for muscle soreness to go away. However, you can regain your sense of energy and overcome all of your soreness without ever growing any bigger or stronger. Your thinking must go beyond how you feel when assessing whether or not you are recovering between workouts. It’s not wrong to consider how your body feels, but the greatest consideration for recovery must be in regard to whether or not you are growing bigger or stronger between workouts.
More False Assumptions
Another false assumption is that given sufficient time to recover after a workout, you will always gain strength or muscle mass. The belief is that if you are not gaining strength or muscle mass, just rest longer between workouts in order to recover more. For example, if 48 hours isn’t enough recovery time between workouts, try resting a muscle group 72 to 96 hours, or even a week or more between workouts. However, extended recovery times between workouts will only work for lifters who have an unusually high ability to retain muscle mass and strength without working out very often. Normal people detrain and get weaker when they wait too long between workouts.
A final misconception that I will address is the belief that there is no such thing as over-training, only under-nutrition. This may be true for some lifters, but don’t assume that is true for yourself. Most people are not going to make progress if they workout too hard and too often, even if they eat perfectly and take tons of supplements. Every lifter must learn their own capacity for how much they can work out and still make progress, and this may change from time to time, depending on their physical condition.
The key to anabolic-adaptive recovery is to find the right balance between workout intensity and the amount of rest needed between workouts that proves effective for a given individual. In the next several articles, more will be discussed in regard to individual differences and how various workouts methods can be used effectively in conjunction with anabolic-adaptive recovery. Best of Training to you.