It is very important for an athlete to know how much his body has recovered after the last lesson. Learn How To Determine The Compensation Phase In Bodybuilding? There are ways to determine the degree of recovery of the body from previous physical activity. When you have this information, you can avoid overtraining. You can, if necessary, make adjustments to your training program, increasing or decreasing the intensity of the training. This knowledge will help beginners to increase the effectiveness of the training. Let's see how you can find out the degree of recovery of the body in bodybuilding.
Methods for determining the degree of recovery of the body in bodybuilding
Every experienced athlete knows how to listen to his body. Thanks to this, it becomes possible to correctly dose the loads during classes and get from them not only excellent results, but also pleasure. But there are not many such athletes and more often than not they are professionals. Amateurs often do not pay enough attention to the issue of recovery.
First of all, you should be able to feel how many reps you need to do. It is equally important to understand that when in the middle of the lesson you have practically no strength left, it is better to stop. But these are all subjective methods of assessment, and now we will talk about four ways that will allow you to find out the degree of recovery of the body in bodybuilding.
The ratio of cortisol to testosterone levels
This indicator can be safely called a benchmark. Of course, a very small number of athletes can constantly measure the ratio of these hormones. However, if you have such an opportunity, then be sure to use it. The higher the ratio of male hormone to cortisol, the better and the upcoming training can be more intense.
Measurement of the rhythm of the heart
This method is also good enough to be used by more athletes. Today, there are many different applications for smartphones on the network that allow monitoring the work of the heart. It makes no sense to dwell on this in detail, since the developer's website will definitely contain instructions.
Thanks to heart rate variability measurements, you can understand which part of the autonomic nervous system is currently most active - parasympathetic (rest or sympathetic (activity). If the preponderance is on the side of the first, then you can train as intensely as possible. When the sympathetic system predominates, then the body is not yet fully restored.
Grip fortress
A very good way to test bodybuilding recovery. You should know that the strength of the grip is determined by the concentration of testosterone, and this indicator can be measured using a handheld dynamometer. Of course, this method is not as accurate as analyzing the ratio of levels of male hormone and cortisol, but it can give you an idea of the state of your body. Measure your grip strength daily for a couple of months and preferably at the same time. This will give you a starting point of reference. To reduce the likelihood of measurement error, do this for each hand three times.
Measurement of the rhythm of the heart in the morning
This is the easiest method to measure bodybuilding recovery. The autonomic nervous system has a great influence on the heart rate in the morning. To measure, you only need a stopwatch. Take measurements before getting out of bed, count the pulse for one minute. In a few weeks of daily measurements, you will get a starting point and if your today's reading is below the baseline, then the body is ready for new achievements.
How to use in practice the results obtained on the degree of recovery?
When you know the degree of recovery of the body, you can begin to make adjustments to the training program. You should make backup lesson plans for active and bad days. It is clear that on an active day you can increase the intensity of the training and vice versa. If your body has not yet recovered, then it is best to use lighter training in class.
For example, your typical training pattern is 5x5. If you find that the body is ready to work, then feel free to carry out your program completely, and at the final stage of the lesson, you can add several sets of 10 or 15 repetitions in each. Conversely, on a tough day, it's best to replace your setup with something like 3x3, working with your usual weights. Another option for the development of events may be to reduce the working weights by 10 percent, but at the same time leaving your 5x5 scheme.
In conclusion, heart rate variability apps can be an excellent tool for analyzing the information received. When measuring the heart rate in the morning or the strength of the grip, any deviation of the results by five percent is already considered very significant.
Let's say the strength of your grip is 75 kilograms and if the dynamometer showed 79 kilograms, then you can conduct intensive training. Perhaps the methods described today will seem quite complicated to you, but very quickly you will learn to interpret their results. This will prove to be a very useful tool for you to improve the effectiveness of your classes.
For more information on how to recover from a hard workout, see here:
