Even the Sims are foam rolling. Where have you been?
You think gym, you think sweat. You think gasping for air. Pushing weight. Jumping rope. But you don’t think about resting.
So let’s talk a little about rest. If you haven’t done anything more strenuous than walk up the stairs over the past year, probably a little too much rest in your program. On the other hand, once people catch the workout bug, it’s not uncommon to see them sweating away hour after hour, day after day in the gym, often to no avail. They’ve gone full swing: too much work.
The more efficient you are in the gym, the less time it takes to look good. If you could choose (and you can) between working out for two hours and working out for one hour to get the exact same results, which would you choose?
Failing to rest when you should, diminishes the effectiveness of your one hour of workout time. You need to be able to exercise at an intensity that will stimulate your fitness to improve, and when you’re exercising on days of built-up fatigue you’re just digging a deeper hole to crawl out of on the weekend.
That’s one common reason people quit, by the way. It sucks to be tired all the time. So rest, then come back at it fresh.
And if you have the bug and just NEED to be here at the gym, great. Let’s spend some time doing active recuperation with a foam roller, or a LaCrosse ball, or Yoga class on Thursday nights, or let our massage therapist tackle those tight calves and shoulders (Hi Daniel, 909-800-8103). Need more pointers? Check out http://www.mobilitywod.com/ Active recovery techniques give you the best of both worlds, allowing you to continue to make improvements to your overall fitness (surely flexibility and balance is part of overall fitness) while allowing your muscle tissue and organs (like your kidneys) time to get fresh again.
– Coach
Some of the programs we do here put you in situations where you will be tempted to compare yourself against the people you’re exercising with. You know, you look over your shoulder and see if you’re keeping pace, then you try and get like ½ a rep ahead. Or they’re lifting something and when they leave the room you go and put the weights back on the barbell and try the lift yourself.
