Fitness Level and Recovery ability?

[Conan21]

Fitness Level and Recovery ability

Every now and then I recieve newsletter emails from this strenght and conditioning place in Europe. They are mainly about training olympic lifters, track athetles, and more of the sports stuff. Alot of the articles are pretty technical and in depth. I usually just glance over them

I got one a few days ago that was pretty interesting. It was discussing how recovery ability is determined by a person's fitness level. Meaning the better conditioned and more active your body is the better it will respond to training and heal faster. They talked about how when track athletes usually respond very well to weight training because their fitness levels are very high.

I can relate to this pretty well as when I was in high school I used to train every bodypart every other day and was in great shape then and extremely strong for my size. I never really felt overtrained at all. I was always very active during that time.

Now that I live a completely sedimentary life style besides my weights i've noticed that my recovery is way worse that it was a few years ago as I'ved need to scale back quite a bit.

Just thought that was pretty interesting. I guess thats why there is so many opinions on training volume and training frequency.

 

[xcelbeyond]

Interesting. I've been of the mind (through things I've read) that in order to "exceed normal" muscle SIZE, one must get plenty of rest. When I was ALWAYS in the gym (and VERY fit if I might add), gains were EXTREMELY slow. Once I backed off and trained "smart," gains started coming on!

 

[Conan21]

I hear you on that excell. I don't think they meant to run marathons though. too much activity would not be good and burn too many calories i would assume. but light activities to increase fitness level and act kind of like active recovery. I kinda felt when i was too active gains sucked too.

I guess that is the reason behind GPP periods. i'v read alot pefromance athletes use this in their training phases.

GPP Work - There are many coaches and trainers of athletes who are starting to realize and remember the importance of what are called "general physical preparation" exercises. These exercises are great for building a foundation of basic strength and cardiovascular functioning that can enhance your ability to recover from exercise. They also can be used in the following ways:

As a general fat-burning and metabolism boosting workout
As a preliminary period of training prior to more advance methods of exercise such as "plyometric training."
As a dynamic warm-up prior to your weight training or field conditioning workouts of any type.
As a tortous "finisher" at the end of a workout.
GPP exercises usually range from mostly bodyweight exercises such as jumping jacks, mountain climbers, hops, skips and jump-rope; but can also include rock climbing, hiking, biking, running, and the playing of team games such as volleyball, basketball, and tennis which provide good full-body stimulation for improved levels of fitness.

Also, light dumbbells, kettle bells, sand bags, wheel barrels, and medicine balls can be used as great GPP devices

I remember a powerlifter I used to know a few years back said he used to do sled drags on his day off and i would just look at him like he was weird. hahha. I guess this was the reason he did this.

 

[hardkor]

In addition to not being in good cardio shape, being bulked up and "overweight" in the offseason probably doesn't help. That's my problem but it's a Catch22 cuz I don't grow and get stronger unless i eat a lot in the offseason and get heavy. Too much cardio also inhibits my gains so i just do bare minimum. What is a hardgainer suppose to do??LOL

 

[Nemesis79]

insane recovery = happiness

hey man that's very true..because when i was training martial arts...i used to recover very fast..and since recently i upped the cardio I recover very fast..i thik it's the combo of the eq b12 and good dieting..I love the feeling..conan shoot me an email give an update on your shizznit
later

 

[joshbarnett]

a lot of powerlifters do an active recovery with sled drags on off days...i know westside barbell does this quite a bit.

 

[xcelbeyond]

a lot of powerlifters do an active recovery with sled drags on off days...i know westside barbell does this quite a bit.

I wouldn't think dragging a sled is the same as rockclimbing, jumping jacks or tennis

I really think that (esp if you're a hardgainer) if you are overactive, you're not going to go beyond your genetic limits. I'm not saying you won't be MORE fit OR recover faster by doing what's said - just a different result than what most bodybuilders are after.

 

[Conan21]

well i've always thought that olympic weightlifters, world strong men, and track athletes had the intention of taking themselves to their full potential?

I think you have the wrong impression excell in that this is NOT meant to be intense sled dragging sessions or intense moutain climbing with a snow boots and an ice picks with goggles covering your eyes. its brief activity just to make ur body function better.

I wouldn't see how maybe incorporating this into ones w8training could be counterproductive. I doubt your gains would suffer if you played a game of tennis....hahaha

I doubt i will do anything for this either. But i defineatley can tell that I gain muscle easier and stay leaner when i I do a lil bit of physical activity say in the summer,swimming, basketball,etc..