10 WAYS TO MAXIMISING RECOVERY FOR DAILY TRAINING

A HOME GYM MEANS THE OPPORTUNITY TO TRAIN EVERY DAY. JUST MAKE SURE YOU RECOVER WELL.

One of the best things about having a home gym is that you can train whenever you want. Even every day, if you want.

And daily training can be a good thing, if you periodise properly, make smart exercise selection choices… and recover well, of course.

If you plan on training every day, it’s crucial that you take recovery seriously. Here are 10 must-do recovery tips to help you get more from your daily training sessions.

#1 Productive recovery
Not all recovery is the same. If you smash yourself to bits in a training session, your body will need to recover on various levels before it even thinks about building new tissue. But if you modify your training sessions, your body can use that recovery time more productively. So make sure you only ask as much of your body as it can cope with.

#2 Pre-workout nutrition
If you plan on training every day, you’ll need to take nutrition seriously – and that means what you eat before training, too. What you eat before training can even help you recover more quickly. Don’t forget that digestion is a pretty long process, so any protein and carbs you eat pre-training will still be in your system during and after your session. Lean, low fat protein and some complex carbs – plus plenty of water – is a good plan.

#3 Mobilisation and stretching
If you’re into your calisthenics type training, you already know the benefits of a good warm up and mobility work. If you don’t already mobilise and stretch, start doing it. With daily training, yo’ll need to. Use that time you saved on not having to drive to a commercial gym!

#4 Regular protein
Help your body recover well by eating a reasonable serving of protein every 3-4 hours. 0.4g protein for every 1kg body weight is about right. For a 75kg person, that’s 30g protein. And every 3-4 hours will boost muscle protein synthesis. Make sure your protein source is high in leucine (the most important amino acid). If it’s not, consider topping up with a cheap and simple leucine tablet.

#5 Nutrients from nutrition
When you train every day, your food choices become more important. Think of every meal and snack as an opportunity to get much-needed nutrition into your body. We’re not just talking protein, carbs, and fats. Think micronutrients, fibre, vitamins, and minerals. Achieve this by eating mostly whole foods, picking seasonal produce, and aiming for a wide variety of colour on your plate. You might find yourself in need of extra potassium, so try adding potatoes (or bananas of course!) to your diet.

#6 Better quality sleep
Notice we didn’t say more sleep? Duration of sleep is important to recovery, but hours are of little use if your sleep is broken or restless. So aim for duration, consistency, and quality. Try going to bed a little earlier. Keep your bed very dark and quiet. And stop taking your phone into the bedroom with you!

#7 Stress less
Training every day will be a stress on your body. Sure, it’s a positive stress. But as far as you’re body is concerned, t’s just one more stress to deal with. So if you’re already bombarding it with work stress, relationship stress, financial stress, or general anxiety then it might not be keen to train every day. Do what you can to remove or minis stress from your life. And what you can’t remove, try to deal with better. Easier said than done, we know. But any improvement will help.

#8 Ease inflammation
You might feel stiff and sore from training every day. Consider adding some anti-inflammatory measures into your diet. Fish oils, tart cherry juice, and curcumin (in turmeric) are all good anti-inflammatory ingredients which you can add to recipes or take as a daily supplement. They won’t cure all your ills, but they can be a nice bit of extra support.

#9 Less booze, more water
Right now, you need to squeeze every bit of recovery opportunity out of your time away from the gym. So consider leaving alcohol and some caffeinated or fizzy drinks out of your day, to make room for more water. Your body will thank you.

#10 Soft tissue work
If you’re training every day, you won’t have time for a sports massage. But why not get a foam roller and some soft tissue trigger point balls for your home gym and spend 30 minutes working over tight spots in the evening. Every little helps.

Do you train every day? How do you stay on top of recovery?