The Importance of Rest Days
You will agree with the fact that no one wants to carry either fatty or a skinny body. It’s a natural desire to look attractive and great in shape. In this post, we will go over the importance of muscle recovery for muscle gains. This burning desire is the motivation behind hitting the gym and starting a fitness routine which is not an easy thing to do consistently. It’s as easy to start our workout session by selecting a target muscle group. However, it is pertinent to have clarity about the fitness regime to rule out any health threat. It is rightly said that excess of everything is bad and so is true for excessive workouts. Rest days are important to your training program to avoid muscle strains, and muscle soreness and to promote building muscle.
Stressing the body with resistance exercise, resistance training or aerobics without planned recovery intervals or workout rest days is one such example. Spending hours and hours working out without muscle recovery will culminate in inflamed achy muscles instead of healthy lean mass. Much as you alternate muscle groups, no one does a full body workout every day. Studies have established the fact that workout rest days are as important as intense exercise to gain muscle. In this post, you be able to determine how many rest days a week to build muscle and what is the rest period between workouts.
Muscle Protein Synthesis
While at the gym, during training sessions all sweaty, how many times have you been asked How much protein ingestion? Most think that when lifting weights the only nutrient our body needs is protein. The first question gym goers ask others are which protein powder they use. It is important that you take a look at the protein breakdown and not just get anything. Protein intake is key to helping promote muscle growth and building muscle. Protein is made of amino acids and the best protein for muscle protein synthesis rates will contain all nine of the essential amino acids.
All amino acids needed for optimal protein synthesis can be achieved by also introducing BCAA’s to your sports nutrition. The remaining amino acids decrease muscle breakdown promoting active recovery. The muscle fiber tends to require a nice intake of these supplements, post-workout, but our body produces all of these during muscle protein synthesis after and during each exercise session. The key is recovery rest.
Why is recovery essential for muscle growth?
The whole purpose of all this workout pain and spending time in gyms is to build muscle mass. It’s not the working out that leads to bulky lean muscles but the recovery time where muscles grow in size and strength. Exercise is a stimulus and the body responds to this signal by building more effective muscle growth. There is no point in exercising if we keep on pushing aggressively without giving it recovery time for growth and strength.
Muscle Soreness
Let’s relate your body condition after intense workouts. You have tired muscles, usually aches, feels cramped, and is exhausted. This is the muscle response indicating they have broken down and need rest to recover from the stress. And, it is quite a simple idea to understand that our body goes through a process of wear and tear during workouts at micro-levels. Muscle fibers get tears and inflammation due to stress and stimulation with weights. If these muscles are not given rest and kept on grinding with the same load of stress; they will eventually have major injuries leading to intense pain and halting of the whole fitness routine.
How to boost muscle recovery? What to do on rest days to build muscle
There are some proven ways to better muscle recovery and promising fitness results. How quickly will your muscles recover? Our body’s ability for passive recovery depend on on body composition as well as our own fitness level. Some are basic components of a routine healthy lifestyle while others are specific for this recovery purpose. Here are some tips on what to do on recovery days to build muscle. How much rest? What to eat on rest days? We can enlist some of the basic recovery techniques as:
Having a good quality sleep of 7-8 hours regularly. Complete rest is key for our muscle health and mind. During complete rest our body will see in an increase in blood flow, which brings oxygen and nutrients that help recover the muscle groups. More rest is better.
Good hydration level by drinking enough water avoid muscle soreness and aid the recovery process
Stretching post-workout and after intense training and on off days for minimizing injury and enhancing recovery period to maximize blood vessels flowing during complete rest days.
Taking a protein shake after working out to supplement with required amino acids help with protein synthesis
Foam rolling out sore muscles to ease cramps and help with blood flow post workout recovery
Use of ice packs and over-the-counter pain killers for pain relief
These primary factors play a key role in maintaining muscles’ health. Overwhelming pain or cramps will eat out all the motivation for muscle growth and you will find it hard to continue with workout plans so taking a moderate path is the best policy here for gaining muscles in an effective way. Recovery strategies can also be complemented. There is no easy answer to how many rest days per week, and how many rest days between workouts as it depends entirely on how well you are doing these things.
Role of CBD and MCT oil in muscle recovery:
With advancing research on muscle recovery, certain products have been found helpful in pacing up the recovery speed. In this regard, CBD and MCT oils are completely natural and equally effective to achieve recovery goals in less time providing better results during your recovery rest per week.
CBD (Cannabidiol):
(CBD) is extracted from cannabis or marijuana plants and is completely legal without having those psychoactive effects as present in other compounds of cannabis. It is freely available now in many forms like capsules, gums, oils, tinctures, and balms. CBD is valuable in medicine due to its wonderful effects in relieving pain, treating depression and insomnia, and fighting cancers.
However, it has also got an important role in muscle recovery due to its potent anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving qualities. You can use it as oil rubbing on the muscles or take it in oral form. CBD helps to repair the muscle fibers’ tearing and inflammation thus easing out the pain, reduce muscle soreness and helping achieve the recovery goals amazingly. Many are using CBD for muscle recovery to prepare for next workout.
MCT (Medium-chain triglycerides):
Another topical solution man professional athletes are using is MCT. MCT is a naturally existing oil that can help a lot in achieving goals of muscle growth by aiding recovery, enhancing metabolic rate, giving energy, and removing fats. Coconut oil is a rich source of MCT (60% content) and can be used as baking oil or taking directly with tablespoons. MCT is metabolized exclusively in the liver and does not store in the body as fats. It enhances the insulin levels and insulin in return helps the nutrients enter the muscle cells providing nutrition for the healing process.
Conclusion:
Muscle recovery is as important as a workout routine for muscle growth and gain stamina. ‘Pain is gain’ is a good motivation but going the smart way is the best for muscle growth where the body is provided with the required amount of healing time to avoid muscle damage. Have a good idea about your fitness routine in a scientific way to get the shape of your choice. Good luck!
References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2828614/
https://www.niulife.com.au/blog/how-to-add-lean-muscle-with-mct-oil/