Active Recovery Is Crucial For Your Fitness Routine

There's no question that how you spend your time working out matters. Different activities yield different results, and some get you into shape faster than others. What many of us don't realize, though, is that how you spend your time recovering from your workouts is also quite important.

If you've been wondering what to do on your off days, and how to care for your aching body when you're sore, we've got just the information for you. We tapped master trainer Valerie Ugrinow and NASM-certified personal trainer Michelle Parolini to help us best understand what active and passive recovery are, why recovery is such a big part of fitness, and the best forms of active recovery. Read on to learn everything you need to know about active recovery.

What Is Active Recovery?

Active recovery is just as it sounds: time spent recovering from exercise that isn't sedentary. "Active recovery is a low-intensity/low-impact activity used to maintain momentum in your training while giving your muscles and joints a much-needed rest and reset," says Ugrinow.

It's a smart thing to do (as opposed to remaining fully sedentary) and has many benefits. Parolini says that "active recovery is a great way to keep moving and working, but not so hard on the joints and muscles. It’s a chance to let your heart rate come down a bit from those big peaks in your workout or lubricate the joints after impact."

Benefits of Active Recovery

Active recovery has numerous benefits. Here are the top ones, according to our trainers.

• Reduces muscle soreness: "Active recovery has been shown to reduce post-workout muscle soreness by increasing blood flow to the muscles and reducing lactic acid build-up in the muscles," says Parolini.
• Speeds up recovery: By getting the lactic acid out of your muscles more quickly than if you just rested, the downtime needed between workouts can be minimized.
• Improves strength: Ugrinow tells us that the act of increasing blood flow helps to "eliminate waste which allows your muscles to repair and ultimately build more strength over time."
• Reduces your chance of injuries: By keeping your muscles and joints mobile when not working out, you can improve how they function when you do work out, which lowers your chance of injury. Ugrinow notes that active recovery is "like hitting the reset button for your body and mind without hindering progress in your training."

Active Recovery vs. Passive Recovery

Unlike active recovery, passive recovery implies that you're resting and allowing your body to heal from your workout. Both trainers note that passive recovery is best for anyone who is injured and is best served by taking time off for their body to repair. "Active recovery is taking a break from strenuous exercise by choosing activities that are lower impact and intensity while passive recovery is true rest and involves minimal movement at all," says Ugrinow. She notes that active recovery is an integral part of any training program.

Ultimately, both types of recovery are important and have their rightful place in your fitness regime. "Passive recovery is an important piece of the puzzle too, as it doesn’t require you to exert much energy and allows for a full reset," says Parolini. "Active recovery is ideal when you want to keep moving forward with your training, but give your body a chance to refresh."

Types of Active Recovery

There are several different types of active recovery. These aren't specific exercises, like the forms of active recovery are, but rather categories of various types.

• Slowing down your movement: Parolini says that when sprinting, shifting from sprinting to walking counts as active recovery. That's because you're continuing to use your muscles, instead of just coming to a full stop, which could be jarring for your body.
• Cooldowns: Any good workout has a cooldown built into it, and cooldowns are a form of active recovery. "Including a cooldown after a strenuous exercise helps to flush out lactic acid and reduce inflammation," says Ugrinow.
• Gentle activity: Spending time doing a gentler activity than you would call "a workout" is the final form of active recovery. Ugrinow says that "it is also beneficial to schedule in active rest days that include 15-60 minutes of gentle activity to get your heart rate up. Your active recovery should leave you feeling energized and ready for your next workout." Parolini adds that gentle activities on recovery days "provide for planned days of movement at less than 50 percent of max effort."

The Best Forms of Active Recovery