A question about rest and recovery

[jeremyelder]

Hi everyone, I have been following John's exercises from "Pushing Yourself to Power" for a few weeks now and LOVE THEM. I already feel more energetic and less stiff than my normal weight lifting routine. I am really starting to understand the phenomenon of body weight, isometrics, DSR, DVR, and am excited to see what results I can achieve after following this long term.

My question is this: should I schedule in rest and recovery days? Weight lifting routines stress taking days off for recovery all the time, but from what I can gather, people doing body weight exercises do them every day. Charles Atlas definitely spoke about exercising every morning. Am I right about this? I have noticed that the repetitions of the pushup variations I am doing increase after resting a day or two, but I am not convinced that this matters. Maybe it is more important to stress the muscles everyday, even if it means somewhat lower repetitions??

Any help on this issue is very much appreciated. Thanks!

[bennyb]

Recovery is a must no matter what genre of exercise as you know from weights. For bodyweight its the same thing if you hit the exercises hard then take it easy the next day. Im still recovering from a pull-up workout a couple days ago so my advice is plenty of stretching and deep breathing training cause deep breathing strengthens the immune system and can help the recovery process a great deal.

[cliffa74]

Maybe it is more important to stress the muscles everyday, even if it means somewhat lower repetitions??


Yep. If you going to train everyday, you need to leave a little in the tank for tomorrow. This is difficult for me some days. I like to shoot for a PR just about everyday, so I give a rest day, or switch from a Push Day to a Pull day. Perhaps when I'm older and wiser I can train more like Mr Atlas.

and lest we forget, Welcome to the Forum!


Cliff

[jeremyelder]

Thanks guys! At first your advice seemed somewhat conflicting, but maybe it isn't. Would it be safe to say that if you want to go for personal bests every workout, leave a rest day in between, and if you want to train everyday, leave some in the tank for the next day??

Anyone else want to weigh in on this?

[omad0n]

Rest days are SUPER important. I'm currently dealing with overtraining and let me tell you it's NOT fun. It's easy to get caught up in the progress, but if your'e not careful, and don't listen to your body you might overtrain. Now, more then likely you're jsut going to have a day or 2 where you're dog tired and can't work out, and that's that. Still when your'e making lots of progress, slumps like this can really be demotivating.

just my 2 cents, and also, welcome to the forum.

[The Saint]

I know what you mean by your question, I was also confused about this as you can get the impression that all these supermen are doing the same super high reps every day, and that they all must put in about 4 hours apiece a day!! But it's not so, I know John wrote an article on recovery, I was actually waiting for the second part of that. Anyway you can rest by changing the type of exercise you do, and what parts of your body you target. If you've done loads of push ups, then concentrate on legs next day, or better, do a stretching routine. Your own body will tell you when you need recovery and when to rest.

[jeremyelder]

Thanks everyone. All of your answers are very helpful!

[tom]

Rest depends on the intensity of the activity. Walking around the house is exercise. You can do that every day. It's a silly extreme example but it makes my point. I am guessing that Atlas' every morning exercise was not to intense for him - you could just call it daily activity.

In almost all cases people rest too much rather than too little. The lack of adequate rest would best be chalked up to a sudden over-obsession of working out. Life-long moderation is best in my opinion. Then someday your level of moderation will look like your previous high intensity.

Blood pressure, pulse, attitude toward next workout, and performance should all be used to gauge overtraining.

Good luck,
Tom

[hpmer]

Or, one could use light tension with the DVR/DSR's on the off days. Still allows you to get spome training in, without overworking the CNS.

[jeremyelder]

Rest depends on the intensity of the activity. I am guessing that Atlas' every morning exercise was not to intense for him - you could just call it daily activity.


Thanks Tom, a light bulb just went off. As the exercise becomes less intense because of training, I can do it more frequently.

[John Peterson]

Hello jeremyelder,

You ask some excellent questions. Personally, I train every day. But the truth is that frequency of exercise is directly related to exercise intensity and one's recovery ability. For example, I perform G.U.T.S. at the Elite Level 6 days of each week as my foundational workout. I'm 57 years old and am capable of doing some things today that I could not do at age 27, and believe me, I was in great shape at age 27. I find that G.U.T.S. does not drain me and is a perfect foundation to which I add and cycle through other exercises each day.

Truth is, some people have far greater recuperative powers than others. But our modalities of training do not over tax the joints, tendons, and ligaments in the same way that using heavy weights does. For example, If a man is performing heavy squats he is compressing and ultimately destroying the discs of his lower spine. There simply is no way around it. Same is true with heavy bench pressers. I've talked with many men that have destroyed their shoulders by tearing their rotator cuff (sometimes in both shoulders) as a result of heavy benching.
Bottom line: everything that I teach is about long term super health and fitness. It's about protecting the body from injury and not causing it. I personally recommend daily training and that one have a foundational training program for each day that covers all the bases of strength, fitness and physique. At that point everything else is just icing on the cake.

Finally, glad to see that you have joined us. I look forward to your future posts.

---John Peterson

[jeremyelder]

Thanks for taking the time to address my questions. I am 28 now, and I look forward to increasing my level of fitness as I grow older!

[Chriswaterguy]

Hello jeremyelder,
I'm 57 years old and am capable of doing some things today that I could not do at age 27, and believe me, I was in great shape at age 27.

Thanks John, that's inspiring. It fits with my own more limited experience, too. I had all kinds of back trouble in my 20's, but reduced them a lot through yoga in my 30's (with a very good yoga teacher who's also a physiotherapist).

Now that I'm starting on M7 and adding some of your other exercises, I can see I'm heading for a new level of fitness and strength.

[John Peterson]

Hey Taskmaster,

Anyone, me included, can over tax their Central Nervous System and be unaware of it until they hit the wall and feel depleted of energy. When that happens the best thing we can do is to take a complete day off and only perform light joint mobility and DVR/VRT.

---John Peterson

[jeremyelder]

Hey Taskmaster,

Anyone, me included, can over tax their Central Nervous System and be unaware of it until they hit the wall and feel depleted of energy.


My CNS seems to get taxed pretty easily. I get "the shakes" sometimes even before my muscles are tired. Is there any way to work on CNS endurance? Does this increase like muscle endurance?

[John Peterson]

hey jeremyelder,

Make sure that you are getting plenty of calcium and magnesium as well as a good 'B complex' vitamin supplement. These nutrients are vital for building Nerve Force. Another thing is to focus on Isometric Contraction and light range of motion exercise for at least 30 days. Isometrics build Nerve Force and will literally help concentrate nerve energy. After 30 days you will be awed by how much you can increase your strength and muscular endurance as relates to Dynamic Exercise.

---John Peterson

[jeremyelder]

Thanks John!

[jaymo]

For myself, I canNOT wake up, and NOT do the mobility exercises that are in Push yourself to power (required!), and then, the DVR requiem!

If I am sore, sick, or near-death, I dispose of anything else...

But, those are my MORNING MANTRAS!

Otherwise, how are you to face the day?

Think of it as rubbing the Buddah belly, as they do in Asia...

Only, in this case, you are rubbing the belly of Charles Atlas!

Wow- it's WAY less bulbous!