Rest and Recovery IS Training

For a lot of people, training only “counts” if it leaves you sweaty, sore, or exhausted.

If you didn’t track it, lift something heavy, or log it on Strava, it feels like it doesn’t matter.

But here’s the reframe that changes everything:

Rest and recovery isn’t time off training.
It is training.

And if you’re skipping it, you’re not being disciplined,  you’re slowing your own progress.

Adaptation Doesn’t Happen During the Work

Whether your goal is to:

• build muscle

• get stronger

• run faster

• improve endurance

• or simply stay consistent and injury-free

The same principle applies.

The hard sessions are the stimulus.
The adaptation, muscle growth, strength gains, aerobic improvements, happens after, when your body has time and resources to recover.

No recovery = no adaptation.

You’re just repeatedly applying stress to a system that hasn’t caught up yet.

What Rest and Recovery Actually Does

Proper recovery allows your body to:

• Repair muscle tissue after resistance training

• Restore glycogen so you can train with quality again

• Regulate hormones involved in performance and energy

• Reduce nervous system fatigue (very important for resistance training)

• Strengthen connective tissue (tendons, ligaments, fascia)

• Support immune function

This is true for lifters and endurance athletes.
Different stressors, same human body.

Why “More” Isn’t Always Better

Many people assume that if progress stalls, the answer is:

• more sessions

• more intensity

• fewer rest days

In reality, the opposite is often true.

Chronic under-recovery is one of the biggest contributors to:

• repeated injuries

• persistent niggles

• plateaus

• constant fatigue

• getting sick

• burnout

Training without rest doesn’t make you mentally tougher,  it just makes you less resilient over time.

Rest Days vs Deloads (And Why You Need Both)

Rest days are part of your weekly structure.
They allow fatigue to drop enough that you can keep training well.

A rest day might include:

• complete rest

• gentle movement (walking or mobility work)

• more sleep

• eating enough to support recovery

Deload weeks are planned reductions in training stress after periods of consistent hard work (at pre prescribed times for those who are heavy exercisers).

 When someone deloads is highly individual and very much dependant on the type of training you do alongside your lifestyle, life stress and all the other demands on you.

Deloads:

• reduce volume and/or intensity

• give joints, tendons and the nervous system a break

• allow motivation to reset

• set you up to progress in the next training block

• They are strategic, not a sign you're weak.

What Recovery Is Not

This is where people often get confused.

Recovery is not:

• cramming hard sessions into every “easy” day

• turning rest days into disguised workouts

• under-eating because you’re “not training”

• feeling guilty for not doing more

The people in my experience who are most likely to do the above are those who are insecure about their performance. It leads people to over train in the lead up to big events and not be recovered enough to reach their full potential. If you have been super consistent in training and seen real progress over time, you are more secure that your next event you are going to see an improvement.

If you finish a rest day more fatigued than you started it, it wasn’t recovery.

Fuelling Rest Is Part of the Job

Your body can’t recover on good intentions.

Rest days and deload weeks still require:

• adequate calories

• sufficient protein

• carbohydrates to restore energy

• micronutrients that support repair and immunity

Eating less because you trained less is one of the fastest ways to stall recovery and performance, please don't do this.

The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything

Rest and recovery requires trust.

Trust that:

• progress isn’t linear

• doing less sometimes helps you do more later

• discipline includes knowing when to pull back

Athletes who last, improve, and stay healthy don’t train harder than everyone else.

They train smarter.

If You Want to Keep Progressing…

Ask yourself:

• Am I giving my body time to adapt?

• Am I planning recovery or waiting until I’m forced into it because I'm burnt out, injured or sick?

• Do I see rest as weakness… or as part of the process?

Because the goal isn’t just to be able to train on a singular day.

It’s to still be training and improving months and years from now x