#110 - The Right Way to Recover After Strength Training (Rest, Fuel & Tips for Faster Recovery)

How long does it really take to recover between strength training sessions? The answer isn't always straightforward. Your recovery time depends on factors like how hard you’re training, your stress levels, sleep, protein intake, and more. 

In this episode, I’m breaking down:

• The biggest mistakes women make when it comes to recovery
• Why protein is essential (even on rest days!)
• How stress and sleep impact muscle growth
• How to speed up recovery so you can train harder, sooner

Plus, I’m sharing my own recent experience with not giving myself enough recovery time—and what happened when I went into the gym too soon.

🎧 Listen now to learn how to optimize your recovery and get stronger, faster!

Resources Mentioned:

• Episode on Stress Management: Episode #41

Transcript

#110 - The Right Way to Recover After Strength Training (Rest, Fuel & Tips for Faster Recovery)

[00:00:00] Welcome to 40+ fitness for women. I'm Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto your host, and I'm a certified menopause fitness specialist. Now today we're talking about a topic that actually came up for me personally in my life yesterday as I was in the weight room and that is. recovery. So what happened to me yesterday is that I went into the weight room.

It was a Tuesday and I had been in the weight room last on Sunday. And on Sunday I had done a full body day because last week I only had time to train three times. So I'd done an upper body, a lower body and a full body day. And now this week for some reason I had scheduled in a weight training session on Tuesday.

Normally, I don't schedule every other day of doing the same muscles, because what I've noticed for [00:01:00] myself is that I actually need two days off for a particular muscle group before I go in again, and I'm able to kind of do a good workout. In other words, hit my reps or even get in another rep or, you know, increase my weights, somehow progress in my training on at least one exercise.

So yesterday I went in and went through my upper body session. I decided to do upper body because I have a little bit of a calf muscle tear that came from a dance class, not from weight training, but from a dance class. Uh, about a week ago anyway, so I was doing my upper body session and I did not manage to meet my reps in any of my lifts.

And that is a little bit depressing. Uh, but I knew what that was due to. And that is that [00:02:00] I hadn't gotten enough recovery. And so I wanted to talk a little bit today about. What are the things that kind of go into recovery and why is it that you might sometimes need more time to recover and sometimes less time to recover and why some people might need more time and some people less time.

So let's look at some of the factors and I'd love to hear your experiences on recovery as well. So feel free to jump over into Instagram, into my DMs and let me know what your experience with this is. 

All right. So first thing to realize, I guess some ground things are that our bodies are, they have kind of two modes that we can be in.

We can have the parasympathetic nervous system in control or the sympathetic nervous system in control. And the parasympathetic is where we are [00:03:00] doing rest and digest. So that's where we recover. where we repair, we relax, and then on the other hand, you have the sympathetic nervous system, which is that fight or flight.

So that's when your adrenaline is up higher. Cortisol is probably up higher and all those things. And so obviously, or what might make sense from what I just said is that what you want to be in is parasympathetic. Um, state to get the rest of the repair, the recovery from your weight training sessions.

So we can think about like, what are the things that you need to be doing between weight training sessions to make sure that you're recovering?

Because remember the weight training session is what is offering your body this stimulus. to put on muscle to build strength. That's when we're in there telling [00:04:00] our bodies that, hey, you need to make Lynn or fill in your own name stronger to survive in life, right? But the actual work that your body does happens after the weight training session, not during the weight training session.

So. If in that time after the weight training session or between sessions, we are not allowing our bodies to recover sufficiently, then, you know, that recovery time will take longer or you'll go in for your next session and you won't feel fully recovered. So. What can you pay attention to, to help your recovery to maximize muscle growth and strength growth and your ability to like go back in again?

Well, first of all, I will always talk about protein. You need protein. Protein is how humans get amino acids into our bodies. And amino acids are the building [00:05:00] blocks of muscle. So if you are going to try to build muscle without protein, that's like trying to build a brick house without bricks. It ain't going to happen.

And even if you're not aiming so much to build muscle, maybe you're in maintenance mode or whatever. Maybe you're even taking a break from weight training, then please, specifically, especially in those cases, do pay attention to your protein intake. Because as women, as we age, our bodies are worse at actually making use of the protein that we eat.

And all the time, our muscles are breaking down, building back up, you know, that's just part of it. You know, the way our bodies work, and so we need to make sure that we have new amino acids coming in all the time. So make sure you're eating your protein, having your protein even on the days you're not training because that's actually when your body is building those muscles. [00:06:00] Okay. 

Second is you want to lower your stress levels. Because when you are in that fight or flight mode, then you are not doing the rest, the recovery, the repair, the building that we need to do. And I know that is so much easier said than done. I know from the women that are in my programs and they share kind of what they've been doing last week and what they're doing this week work is a stressor, but there are so many stressors around us right now.

I am enormously stressed by the fact that my parents are looking to buy a new home and they're, you know, plus minus 80 years old and the one that they have now fallen in love with, which is like the one that they must get, or they're going to be so disappointed, requires so much [00:07:00] renovation and work and it's like fitting a You know, square peg into a round hole.

I'm very stressed out for them that that they are trying to buy that. And so it's affecting my sleep. It's affecting everything. I'm just constantly in a little bit of a state of stress. And that is not good for muscle. I've actually done an episode on how to reduce stress and there are, you know, meditation, uh, light yoga.

Breathing exercises, cuddling, petting your dog, all these kinds of things can help. I'll put the link in the show notes, to that episode or the episode number in the show notes. So try, try to manage your stress levels to help you recover and also to help you have a better life, right? I mean, it's not fun to live stressed all the time.

And so associated with that, Which I just mentioned [00:08:00] actually is sleep because when you're stressed, you maybe don't sleep so well and maybe you're not sleeping so well in general in perimenopause menopause. Oh, another personal anecdote is that last night, I just could not fall asleep. I'm lying there comfortable, I was sleepy, I was tired, and I just couldn't turn off.

And we had gone to bed at about 11 p. m. At one o'clock I glanced over at the clock and I'm still awake because for some reason my stress levels were up. I could feel that my heart rate was beating so even I who know intellectually how to handle these things. I don't always succeed at these. but Sleep is really important.

That is when your body has the opportunity really to do a lot of this repairing. And by the way, if you're trying to lose weight or [00:09:00] manage your weight, sleep is super duper important there. I mean, I've talked about sleep on multiple occasions and you probably know my opinion that that is the first thing to try to get into shape and, and really to guard your sleep.

Make sure you're feeding yourself. Okay? Obviously, if you're in a calorie deficit, so you're doing a diet right now, and you're lifting, great! I mean, you should absolutely be lifting if you are in a calorie deficit, to help your body get the message that, hey, don't get rid of this muscle to feed me in that calorie deficit, but use that fat instead.

So, obviously, that is going to affect your recovery, and what you will probably notice, if you've been strength training. is that you won't progress very much during the time that you're in a calorie deficit because your body is just being underfed, under energized. So, and in that case, keep strength [00:10:00] training and keep going.

And it is going to feel different and you are going to most likely feel like you haven't recovered and you won't be able to progress the same way as when you are feeding your body. So that's. Fairly normal. If you're in a calorie deficit, I wouldn't necessarily give myself More recovery time, I would just stick to what I have learned to be the correct recovery time for myself when I'm not in a calorie deficit and just go with that.

And then the last thing in the recovery is. What are you doing otherwise on those days? So, if you're training on, you know, Monday, and then Tuesday and Wednesday, you're going all out in some cardio classes, and then you go Thursday, it may be that your body hasn't recovered sufficiently. And this is one of the things that I think particularly in midlife, uh, we start to [00:11:00] notice is that our bodies aren't responding to that kind of exercise in the same way.

I know for me, when I reduced the amount of this mid level cardio, so we're not talking about sprint interval training, but this, you know, high heart rate. But you can do it for an hour. Maybe you can even do two classes in a row, because you're in such good cardiovascular shape, but your body is not necessarily recovering it from it very well.

And that can for sure affect your weight training sessions. I do think it is a very good rule of thumb to have two days off a week recovery days, you can go for a walk. I'm not saying that you need to just sit on the couch on a recovery day, go for a walk. You can do some gentle yoga, maybe a Pilates class, you know, something like that, that feels good.

I was just talking to a woman at the gym who she was [00:12:00] apologetic to me. And I mean, just as a fellow gym goer, she was like, yeah, I just came in today and I'm just going to this Pilates class and it's not very, you know, exhausting or anything, but, but I think it's okay to sometimes do things that aren't that hard.

And I was like, absolutely, that is. It's incredibly important and you just do it because you enjoy it, and you don't have to be, you know, well, in Finnish, they have this expression, like working out with the taste of blood in your mouth and I don't, I can't think of a, a very good expression in English, that's the same, but you don't need to be going all out in order for it to be a worthwhile endeavor.

So you can do some gentle mobility, some gentle yoga, maybe some stretching, maybe a meditation, maybe a walk. Maybe you just cuddle [00:13:00] or you play with your dog, whatever on recovery days.

Okay, and then there are some things about our actual training sessions which will affect how long it takes us to recover once our session is over. So how many days we need to recover before we can train at the same kind of intensity as we did last time. So one of those is exercise selection. So when you are training muscles in a lengthened position, so that they're more stressed out in the lengthened position rather than a shortened position, then that is a type of exercise that you are going to take a little bit longer to recover from.

So, an example, uh, for glutes is that RDLs are going to take longer to recover from then 45 degree hip extensions, right? Because in the hip extensions, you are going [00:14:00] to have the most amount of weight on your glutes when they are in a shorter. position, more contracted position, whereas in RDLs, it's harder when your glutes are in a stretched position.

So that's part of programming. So if you're gonna do a lot of redundant exercises, which I. Don't recommend, but if you are like, Oh my God, I want to build my glutes and I want to train them a lot, then choose exercises that are working them in the short position. Okay. And then another factor that's going to matter is how long your sets are.

So when you work in a longer and a bigger rep range, so let's say 12 to 15 reps, it is going to require more recovery. , assuming you're going as close to failure as you would in a shorter set, it's going to take you longer to recover from that longer set than the shorter set. [00:15:00] And that doesn't mean that everybody should be doing shorter sets.

And for sure, when you are first starting out weight training, I start everybody on longer sets. So eight to 12 reps, because technique is so important. And the repetition of those exercises is important. So you can really get the movement patterns down pat. But I want to mention that in here, just so you're aware that as you become a more experienced lifter, let's say a year or two years into your journey, And you are ready to start lifting heavier in shorter sets, then you may notice that your recovery is faster, actually, because when you're training in the longer sets, it is just more tiring for your body. So you need a little bit more recovery from that.

And the third factor that I'll mention here is that how close to [00:16:00] failure you're going is also going to affect how long it takes you to recover from the exercise. So when you go all the way to failure. It will take longer to recover than if you are one rep away from failure or two reps away from failure.

Now, that doesn't mean that you should never train to failure. I strongly believe in intermediate level lifters, practicing training to failure, because how can you ever know that you're one rep away from failure if you've never gone to failure? There's just no way to know you need to learn that through experience, but just to be aware that when you are in that phase where you are training all the way to failure, you may notice that your recovery periods are longer.[00:17:00] 

And in practice, for example, what I should have done if I had thought ahead, uh, about this Sunday and Tuesday weight training sessions that I had, lately on Sunday, I trained to failure on some of my lifts, because I was like, I'm only doing a few lifts. So I really want to train hard. 

And so I did, and I didn't take into account that. Oh, yeah, my next time is going to be two days from now. If I had been smart, I thought ahead, planned ahead. I would have actually stayed a little bit further from failure. So with one or two reps in reserve so that I could recover faster so that I would be more ready for my Tuesday session. So I think that's the kind of thinking that you can have, not that, Oh no, I shouldn't do that because it causes, you know, longer recovery, but it's that, Hey, if you know that your training session is coming up [00:18:00] soon.

or you know that you're stressed out more or you, I don't know, you know, you're going to do a lot of heavy cardio in the upcoming days, then maybe you don't train to failure. Maybe you train one rep away from failure or two reps away from failure instead. Okay. So this comes with learning your body and, and how these things affect you.

All right. So those are the factors kind of inside and outside of your weight training sessions. Um, and I want to talk about two other things still related to recovery. One is the recovery between sets. So if you're one of my customers, you'll notice that I always recommend a certain amount of time that you take between sets.

And what that is, is that is time for your body to recover in order to be able to. Go hard again in the next set. So one of the big [00:19:00] mistakes that I see some women doing is that they think, Oh, well, I can't just stand here for like two or three minutes. I should do some burpees or jump rope or, or jump in place or do something, keep my heart rate up, burn calories or whatever.

Nope. You just hang out, recover. You can sit if that's easier for you. I like to stand because for me, it's like when I get into the position, when I get on the machine, that's, that's me telling my body, all right, it's time to work now. And when I'm standing and kind of hanging out next to the machine, that's when my body knows, okay, now you're catching your breath.

You're resetting for the next set. So remember the recovery between sets when you're at the gym. And then the other thing that I want to mention is after your training session, you want to get your body into the rest and recovery mode as [00:20:00] soon as you can, because as long as it's in that fight or flight mode, which it will be in when you're doing a weight training session or a cardio session,

it is breaking down muscle, it's in a catabolic state. So you want to get it into the rest, recovery, repair, digest phase. So you cut that out and you get yourself into the building phase. And how can you do that? Well, one is by feeding yourself some protein, especially whey protein is very good because it's got a high amount of leucine.

which is one of the amino acids, which helps to trigger this muscle protein synthesis that goes on in our bodies. So feed yourself something, don't just stay in starvation mode. And for women, and I know that you'll hear online that, Oh, it doesn't matter how soon you eat. For women in menopause, the 30 minute window is a thing okay.

[00:21:00] And then the other way that you can help to bring your body into that rest recover state is by doing some kind of exercises or cool down, which gets you back into that state. So if you think if you've been to any yoga classes, you know, at the very end, you lie on the mat and you relax and you do the savasana

so if you can do that at your gym, maybe you don't want to do it right in the weight room, but maybe you go to the stretching area or something like that and just lie there, you know, just like you would in a yoga class. All right, or you can do some gentle mobility and breathing exercises. So box breathing is maybe the easiest one to explain where you, you know, do a count of two of breathing in, hold your breath for a count of two, breathe out for a count of two, hold for a count of two, and then you repeat.

Okay. And [00:22:00] that get your body back into that rest and recover mode so that you can More quickly be ready for your next session and more quickly Allow your body to start building that muscle that you've just triggered it to build.

So to summarize, recovery is an important part of building muscle and strength because actually it's not in the gym that we're building that muscle and strength. It's in the time between when we go to the gym that that's happening. And what you may notice is that the next time you go to the gym, And you may be more or less able to perform at the same level as you were before.

So today we talked about some of the factors that may affect how long you need for your recovery. And those can be things like, what are your stress levels? Have you been [00:23:00] sleeping enough? Are you eating enough? Are you eating enough protein? And what other exercises you are doing. And then also what you're doing in the gym can have an effect.

So things like what kinds of exercises you're doing. So are you working more in a lengthened position or in a shortened position? Are you working closer or farther from failure and how long your sets are? And I am definitely not saying that you should Always work out in a way that causes the minimum amount of recovery to be required.

No, that's not what I'm saying, but it's just good to be aware when you're working in a training in a certain way, then it will affect recovery, or you may notice that it affects your recovery.

And then finally do spend that five minutes after your session to get your body out of the fight [00:24:00] or flight mode. Take that shot of protein, do some breathing exercises or some gentle mobility just to get your body calmed down again.

Alright, so I hope that was helpful to you. Let me know how many days it takes you to recover between your weight training sessions.

Just hit me up in my DMs and I look forward to hearing from you there. And in the meanwhile, happy training.