Recovery

When making an exercise plan, one always needs to think about the time that the body needs to recover.  How much does it need?  What will happen if we don't give it enough time.  Well, let's look into all that.

Muscle Fibers in general need 48-72 hours of recovery time to fully heal and repair themselves.  When we workout our back (for example) the muscles in our back are literally being torn down; we are ripping them up!  That way when they heal they will become stronger and thicker, giving us the ability to utilize them beter than before.  We will be able to pull more weight than we do normally.  If you try and maximally exercise your back day after day, you will in the beginning notice that you continue to get weaker in your back - that's because you're not giving it enought ime to recover.  Will it ever recover?  Let's think....

First things first: Did you walk yesterday?  Ok, well no walking today.  You can only walk every other day.  Your legs need a chance to repair, aka 48-72 hours.  That makes sense right?  No, none.  But, what does this teach us about our bodies....they adapt!  Our bodies are incredible and will absolutely figure out a way to continue functioning even though we walked yesterday.

To close, it is a good idea to rest at least 48-72 in between exercising the same muscle group.  It allows you to make sure your muscles stay healthy and heal properly.  Also protein 30min-1hour after a workout helps your muscle recover better.