Training is apart of life no matter what. It takes guts to
keep going day after day, week after week, and year after year but in the end its
all how you make it be. People assume because you’re sore you overdid it and
you need a break when in reality that’s where the fun begins. You've worked out
hard and you wake up the next day and you’re aching what do you do? You can either
rest or not do any type of training or you can adjust and focus on something
else to train on till you’re fully recovered.
The late
Karl Gotch once said “you must adapt and improvise” and what does he mean by
this? From my point of view and personal experiences, you learn to adjust your
training by how you feel and how you can switch things around. In this case of
being sore, you don’t have to go hardcore but you can change things up like for
example…Say you exercised with a deck of cards and all you did was push-ups and
squats, you’re very sore the next day from going through that whole deck,
instead of moaning and bitching just do a little bit of stretching and work on
little exercises throughout the day to keep your blood flowing and keeping the
body loose while you recover.
You can
always do something. I've seen a lot of guys in the gym who go all out one day
and the next they don’t show up because they’re sore, give me a break. I've
also seen other guys who have pushed to their limits and the next day came back
looking to do something else to help them recover. Taking a break from your
regular routine is a good thing but it doesn't mean you’re out of the woods.
Focus on something that keeps you active, ride your bike if you have one, take
a nice walk around the neighborhood, do some deep breathing to open up the
lungs and work on other muscles and tendons that didn't get worked. Have a
little fun with it. Go out and move like a wild animal even if it’s a few
steps, juggle kettlebells who knows, make something work for you till you’re
ready to go full blast again.
Recovery is
very important, there’s no question about that. Sure you get it that muscles
get torn down and need some down time but its also important to stay active,
keep on your toes, keep your blood flowing, your body is like a machine and can
go more than you can expect. Your body will heal itself and the better shape
you’re in; the more you can keep active without being so sore. Keep that in
mind and rest if you need to but don’t just lay around like a chump, do
something that makes you happy, have fun and get in the habit of improvising
your exercise. Be smart, train hard and keep at it.
