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TransformHERS
Success Stories
"I have finally found a form of exercise that I actually enjoy with TransformHers bootcamps. I have almost dropped a whole pant size (a lot of my clothes are too big now!) and feel great after each session. It also gives me an opportunity to get outdoors more during the week which doesn't normally happen with my usual work routine."
Lee-Anne Holmes-Theron
"Never before have I enjoyed my training sessions. I have been with TransformHERS for two months and will be signing up again for the next camp. Training with Ru is such a pleasure, I'm already seeing a difference -still a long way to go but I will get there. "
Thandi Mpanza
"Thank you for getting me back into exercise. I had not done formal exercise for about 10 years, so what a shock to the system to get straight into it. I really enjoy the sessions even though they were tough and hard. I have felt a significant difference in the tone of my body and was pleased to see my progress at the end of the programme. I am even craving exercise and do long walks and specific body training (learnt in the sessions) everyday. "
Kirsten Davids
"I really enjoyed my experience at TransformHERS. It was awesome, tough at times, but so much fun. Our trainer Sibi was great and nice to meet new people! Would recommend it to anyone wanting a great work out and have a laugh!"
Chantel Van Deventer

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The Importance of Rest

posted by TransformHERS on 06 Oct 14, 08:49

Categories: Fitness, TransformHERS Bootcamp, iTransform Challenge

Rest days are critical to sports performance for a variety of reasons. Some are physiological and some are psychological. Rest is physically necessary so that the muscles can repair, rebuild and strengthen. For recreational athletes, building in rest days can help maintain a better balance between home, work and fitness goals.

In the worst-case scenario, too few rest and recovery days can lead to over-training syndrome - a difficult condition to recover from.

What Happens During Recovery?

Building recovery time into any training program is important because this is the time that the body adapts to the stress of exercise and the real training effect takes place. Recovery also allows the body to replenish energy stores and repair damaged tissues. Exercise or any other physical work causes changes in the body such as muscle tissue breakdown and the depletion of energy stores (muscle glycogen) as well as fluid loss.
Recovery time allows these stores to be replenished and allows tissue repair to occur. Without sufficient time to repair and replenish, the body will continue to breakdown from intensive exercise. Symptoms of over-training often occur from a lack of recovery time. Signs of over-training include a feeling of general malaise, staleness, depression, decreased sports performance and increased risk of injury, among others.

Short and Long-Term Recovery

Keep in mind that there are two categories of recovery. There is immediate (short-term) recovery from a particularly intense training session or event, and there is the long-term recovery that needs to be build into a year-round training schedule. Both are important for optimal sports performance.
Short-term recovery, sometimes called active recovery occurs in the hours immediately after intense exercise. Active recovery refers to engaging in low-intensity exercise after workouts during both the cool-down phase immediately after a hard effort or workout as well as during the days following the workout. Both types of active recovery are linked to performance benefits.

Another major focus of recovery immediately following exercise has to do with replenishing energy stores and fluids lost during exercise and optimizing protein synthesis (the process of increasing the protein content of muscle cells, preventing muscle breakdown and increasing muscle size) by eating the right foods in the post-exercise meal.

This is also the time for soft tissue (muscles, tendons, ligaments) repair and the removal of chemicals that build up as a result of cell activity during exercise.

Getting quality sleep is also an important part of short-term recovery. Make should to get plenty of sleep, especially if you are doing hard training. Long-term recovery techniques refer to those that are built in to a seasonal training program. Most well-designed training schedules will include recovery days and or weeks that are built into an annual training schedule. This is also the reason athletes and coaches change their training program throughout the year, add cross-training, modify workouts types, and make changes in intensity, time, distance and all the other training variables.

So TransformHERS....Happy Rest Week!
Information taken from http://www.sportsmedicine.about.com



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