Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 76, November 2015 | Seite 35

Body Science

RECOVERY

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homeostasis levels. This approach will simply lead to a breakdown of
the body and it won’t be long before you are injured, sick, have a stress
fracture or find yourself with overtraining syndrome. This is where rest
and recovery then come into the picture. When the body is stressed, as
in a hard training session, and a period of recovery follows this stress, the
body then adjusts to a new prescribed or optimal homeostasis range.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF REST

Rest comes in a number of shapes and sizes, and of course, one size
does not fit all. So before we go any further, take a moment to repeat the
golden rule of training a few times over to yourself: “Always listen to your
body! Always listen to your body!” How your body responds and what
your body dictates trumps any other rules, theories or suggestions.
Rest can be seen as either complete rest from any form of exercise, or
it can be seen as active rest or recovery, where you continue to exercise
but at a greatly reduced level. Active recovery can either be some form
of light cross-training or very easy running at a pace 30 to 45 seconds
per kilometre slower than your normal easy pace. Now if you’ve only
just started running then easy days alone are extremely taxing to your
body, and you should look to have a complete rest day every second to
third day. Once your muscles start to strengthen and your body begins to
develop the various enzymes and resources required for running, you can
gradually begin to push these rest days out a little. You might start with
three rest days a week for six weeks, then reduce it to two rest days for
four weeks and then ultimately to one rest day per week going forward.
For a more experienced runner, there really are no rules when it comes
to complete rest days. I am by no means suggesting that you should
do more running and less resting, but sometimes in order to reach new
levels, the body needs to be stretched just a little bit more. So again,
listening to your body becomes crucial. Unfortunately, we all have egos,
which join us for our training, and this usually means that we ignore the
body. As a rule of thumb, I’m therefore going to suggest that you stick to
at least one complete or full rest day a week.

TAKE A RUNNING BREAK

One of the challenges, specifically with running, is that you continuously
use the same muscles in a very similar way over and over again, which
sometimes results in overuse injuries. If you are prone to these kinds
of injuries, then you will find great benefit from including a few active
recovery sessions in your week. For example, one might follow a day of
hard track work by a day with just an easy 40-minute swim in the pool.
This will not only rest your tired running muscles, but also get some of
your other muscles working that you wouldn’t normally train during a run.
Ensuring that you get adequate recovery from your training sessions is
crucial. Rest and recovery days are also training days, as it’s during this
phase that the body is allowed time to step it up a notch, so be sure to
plan your recovery days into your training programme first, before adding
any other training elements.

Ray Orchison is a
Johannesburg-based
USATF and NAASFP
certified coach.
Find him at www.runetics.com
or [e-mail].

Most athletes would love to have a ripped, washboard sixpack stomach, because it looks great, but strengthening
your core provides many benefits when it comes to
running. – BY SEAN FALCONER

A

s a runner, having a stronger core – chest, back, abs and obliques
– is much more than just about looking good. For starters, it
improves your running posture, balance and spee