What is a recovery week?

[zortil]

I visit this board several times a week and several times I've seen "recovery week" mentioned.

Forgive my ignorance but what is this? Is this a week with no weight training or easing up on the weights and instead using resistance bands?

I assume "recovery week" means giving your muscles a break from heaving lifting. I take it there's a benefit to this?

Thanks in advance. I'm kinda new to Cathe and I love all of the DVDs that I have so far. I recently added the Intensity Series to my Cathy library. My fave so far is Low Max. Fun way to burn 800 calories!

Lorie

 

[cathemade]

It's time off of active workouts. Meaning, not weight lifting and cardio, etc. You can do walking a stretching. I would say it depends on your fitness level how often you would take one. I take a recovery week, about 2-4 times a year (not all at once).

 

[kathryn]

You're right, "recovery week" is a break from heavy lifting (and from intense cardio as well). A recovery week can range from extra days off and doing lower intensity workouts on the days you DO work out, to doing more stretching, yoga, core work.

The benefit is that muscles grow during the repair period. Also, recovery weeks help you avoid overtraining, injury and burn-out.

P90X is a wonderful program that incorporates recovery weeks. On the "non-recovery" weeks, you lift heavy and intense, do one yoga workout, two cardios. After three weeks of this, you do a "recovery week": core workouts (with light weights for some moves), moderate cardio, stretching and yoga. It allows your body to recover and repair, so you can come back to the more intense weeks with more energy.

During my "recovery weeks," I like to do core workouts like Core Secrets (a moderate-intensity workout) and moderate cardio, with some extra stretching, and maybe some extra days off. That helps me get back into the heavy lifting phase with more energy (and the core work helps prepare those stabilizing muscles for even tougher work later on).

The only Cathe workouts I might use in a recovery week are the stretch and ab/core workouts.