Seb Coe stresses the need to be “both consistent and resilient in one’s training”. But, advises “you need to know when to back off.”
We have, already, addressed the obsession, that, people have and the sports club trap to over-train: doing too many miles running or cycling or too many lengths swimming. We exercise and train to breaking-point and wonder why we are not improving or enjoying the process.
We can't even resist the temptation turn simple embedding or embodying sessions into full-on intensive sessions! Not to mention how people abuse the term 'recovery' sessions.
For Vorsprung, we regard recovery sessions as important as rest days and high intensity sessions. They are not 'add-ons' or 'additional sessions', that we can take or leave. We frame our whole programmes around rest days and recovery sessions.
Without rest days and recovery sessions, we are not able to build, improve, learn, embed, embrace or enjoy. Without recovery sessions, we would push the body to point of exhaustion or breaking-point and increase injury risks.
A valid question asked by a physiologist, with whom Vorsprung, works with is: "why do we want to speed-up recovery?" A modern desire, using gadgets and creams et al.
At Vorsprung we take our time. We listen carefully to our bodies and we listen again.
Often, even when we think we are not in need of a recovery session we have to be disciplined and keep it in place.
For Vorsprung, though, a recovery session is not as simple as a slow run if you're a runner, or slow cycle if you're a cyclist, or slow swim if you're a swimmer. Recovery sessions would be just that. A recovery from running, or cycling, or swimming, or else you are just pounding the same parts of the body, albeit, in a less intense manner. Even if your exercise is gym work, you need to plan recovery sessions, which might mean resting the upper-body work while you concentrate on the lower body and vice-versa.
For runners, having a cycling on your recovery session helps to rest the muscles and joints et al. Similarly, opting for a different discipline if you are a swimmer or cyclist, the aim is to rest the legs from the same repetitive motion.
To truly benefit from any exercise or training programme you must discover the value of a proper recovery.
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