Throwback Thursday: This article first appeared in August 2012.
In part 1 of this series on teaching recovery, I suggested that perhaps you don’t need to put a recovery class on your indoor cycling schedule. But that doesn’t mean you, or your students, may not need recovery. Simply make sure it’s applied in the most optimal way and at the most effective time. This way you aren’t forcing an easy workout on students who do not need it and who may decide never to return to your class if you do.
First of all, what is recovery? I will answer that question with another question: what is fitness?
Fitness is the result of stress placed on the system PLUS recovery. This includes any physical system in your body: the aerobic system, the muscular system, the anaerobic system, the nervous system, etc. When you train, you stress a system. Over time, that training leads to adaptation, or improvements in the system. But without recovery, adaptation is less likely to take place.
Think of it as the following equation: