Whether you’ve finished a summer road race or have been working hard at FitClub all summer, make sure you can stay healthy and active by prioritizing recovery.

What is recovery?
During recovery, your body’s muscles and tissues restore and begin to reap the advantages of your workouts and adapt to the demands exercise places on the body. During that adaptation and recovery period, the muscles begin to repair tears. While proper rest is essential to any workout regimen, recovery is more than lying on the couch.

Recovery isn’t a luxury or even a “day off” from your healthy lifestyle. Recovery is essential to allowing muscles to grow and repair, getting you back to your workout more quickly. Adding recovery to your workout regimen allows time for recovery without sacrificing your progress.

The best part of incorporating recovery into your healthy lifestyle is that it feels great!

Yoga
Because yoga focuses on the full body, adding yoga into your workout regimen can alleviate muscle imbalances caused by focusing too much attention on one body part. Turning your mind inward during yoga practice is also essential for noticing any muscle imbalances and sore or tight areas that have been overused in the course of your training. Balancing the body against these muscle imbalances prevents injury and allows you to get back to your training more quickly.

Massage
FitClub’s massage therapy at our West location promotes recovery by stimulating blood flow and reducing muscle tension and soreness. During a massage, the body benefits from increased blood flow, allowing blood to more easily transmit nutrients and oxygen to the muscles. Through increased blood flow to the muscles, the body is able to repair the tears in the muscles and tissues, allowing the muscles to recover and grow stronger.

Whether you use massage as a reward for achieving your training goals or as an active part of your recovery, your body will thank you and allow you to get back to your training schedule more quickly.

Foam Roll
Have you wondered how the foam rollers at FitClub can work for you?

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Think of the foam roller as self-massage for your tight and sore muscles. Foam rolling increases circulation and breaks up the knots in sore muscles that limit range of movement.

Use your body weight to roll your tight legs, hips, and back over the foam roller to release tightness and return those overused muscles to peak health. Your muscles may feel a little uncomfortable when you start, so start slowly and gently and remember that the goal is to make your muscles feel better, not worse. The beauty of the foam roller is that you control the pressure by determining how much or how little of your body weight to use while rolling. Our trainers can give you tips on using a foam roller for maximum benefit.

FitClub makes it easy to incorporate recovery into your everyday workout. Check out FitClub’s yoga schedule, grab a foam roller, and schedule a massage. Share your recovery tools with FitClub by leaving a comment below!