Training & recovery go hand in hand!
There is a saying, ‘It’s not what you can do. It’s what you can recover from.’
You need to maximise recovery to perform better and to achieve better results. Unfortunately society is focusing more on training and leaving recovery behind.
Training 4-6 times a week is great, but if your recovery is poor the what's the point?
With my training programs, the more advanced my client, the more intensity/volume they tend to do. With my General Population clients, they tend to train with less intensity/volume. Why? Because my advanced clients tend to have adopted healthier lifestyles and as a result, are able to put time and effort into maximising their recovery.
‘Max recoverable volume’
Recovery in training is so crucial that there’s a term used ‘max recoverable volume’. Max recoverable volume dictates how many sets really or how much work you can do per week, that you can actually recover from. This allows trainers to determine the right amount of training volume a client can handle and thus program accordingly. I was taught this in my early days as a personal trainer and it's served me well for a very long time with programming for my clients.
Nutrition & recovery
The biggest mistake I see with many people when they plan their nutrition (or their clients nutrition), is that they are overcomplicating it.
Keep it simple people!
When you're in a calorie deficit, your ability to tolerate high volume and/or intensity is no where near as high as someone who is in a calorie surplus, for example. The more calories they eat, the more energy they have to support recovery and growth. So in a calorie deficit especially when calories get very low you need to really manage your training volume for your clients.
Assessing recovery
This is further reinforces why managing stress is crucial. This where addressing biofeedback is important! Biofeedback involves monitoring your client’s response to their training and nutrition.
Factors for measuring biofeedback:
Digestion, bloating & gas
Libido & sex drive
Sleep; falling asleep, staying asleep, waking up
Energy levels
Mood & enthusiasm
Maximising recovery
SLEEP!!!!
Sports massages
Relaxation massages
Stretching
Yoga
LISS cardio & walking
Epsom salt baths
Active recovery on weekends
Rest days
These are all basic things clients can do as for weekly recovery so that they can continue to progress with their health and fitness goals. The goal is to get the best training results, just like with nutrition when we’re trying to lose weight.
I encourage EVERYONE to try and lose weight on as many calories as possible and by slowly increasing training volume over weeks. Be realistic and don't go for overkill because you'll end up burning yourself out.
Yours in Health,
Coach Anthony Kassis
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