#coachnas

When it comes to working out and training, most people will try to give 100% during their session. This is great, because when you train hard and get out of your comfort zone, your body will try to work as hard as you do in order to adapt to those physical demands.

  Once you keep pushing and pushing…eventually you will notice that you’re no longer performing as well as how you’re accustomed to -- especially when your training frequency is high. You may be wondering why you’re getting weaker and feeling more tired than usual after your sessions, when you’ve grown to feel the opposite instead.

  The answer is pretty simple. You have over trained and you simply overlooked your rest and recovery. It’s not just your muscles that need this rest. It’s your joints, tendons and your central nervous system too that need rest as well, and I’ve heard those things are pretty important.

  Here at Ritual, we are mostly a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) gym.  Besides the efficiency benefit of HIIT, you also burn fat but save and develop lean muscle mass, as well as increase your muscular endurance.  Best of all it has an after-burn effect, which will raise your metabolic rate for upwards of 24 hours after the workout.  These are all good things.

  However, there are days that we slow down that pace a bit at Ritual. It’s important to use those sessions as your active recovery day and work on your form and technique instead so that you can perform and activate your muscles more efficiently on days that you are ‘smashing’ it.

  I recommend that you also use these days to learn something new, just approach one of the coaches and ask them about mobility drills, foam rolling, nutrition, or where to buy some high quality grass fed beef. 

  I suggest that you plan your training sessions according to your schedule and lifestyle.  Split and schedule your sessions to consist of smashing as hard as you can when you feel up to it, and then an active recovery session, where you would give about 65%-75% of your maximum effort (or do something completely different instead: swimming, a walk in the park, kick a bee hive and run away, etc).  Last but not least, and the most important of all – REST.  Build rest days into your training schedule so that you can fully recover.  Experiment with your own training schedule, find out what works – everyone is different, but no matter who you are, rest is critical – training is a destructive process, it tears the body down.  Muscles grow and new skills become habit on rest days.  Science!

  Protect your sleep!

Make it a life mission to get an undisturbed 8 hours of sleep every night (sorry, parents).  A solid sleep helps improve your memory, regulates your hormones and helps fight off coronary artery diseases.

  Apart from sleep, what you eat plays an important role as well. Gorging on junk food and excessive eating causes not only an uneasy stomach, but also inflammation in your cells which are already working overtime trying to recover from all the training.  So before you put garbage into your body, think about how it will impact your training and recovery.  If you have questions about this, ask any of the coaches for a copy of the nutrition plan, which is also available for download in the members area of our website.

  Your rest is just as important as your training sessions, so take it seriously to avoid feeling burnt out. You will feel much better, you will get better results, and your body will thank you for it.

  Much Love