Recovery

Courtesy of Mike French, an experienced P90Xer:

P90X should be the PRIMARY workout each day. People think that they need to do extra workouts EVERY day to get faster results for this program. This is simply not true. Realize that your body has a FINITE amount of energy to repair/build muscle and recover from your workouts. If you are applying the PROPER intensity to your X workouts, you don't need to do ANYTHING else. Every time you do additional workouts during the day you are taking away from your body's ability to recovery. SIMPLE RULE: NO RECOVERY = NO PROGRESS Make no mistake about this. How can you add muscle if your body can't recover from 2 workouts a day?

RECOVERY is the key to EVERYTHING folks. Think of your body like a Bank account: Your RECOVERY is deposits in the Bank. Your workouts are withdrawals from the Bank. What happens when your withdrawals outnumber your deposits? We need to be stronger EVERY day. You can't get stronger if you can't recover from your workouts. Realize that building metabolism enhancing muscle will get you leaner FASTER than tons of EXTRA cardio. Mike gives an excellent example: During his first round of the X he was doing the EIFB almost daily during the last 30 days in an effort to get as lean as possible. He did get very lean, and he also got down to 168 lbs. Too light for his frame. He burned precious muscle in an effort to lean out. Now he is getting STRONGER every workout and giving each X workout 100%. The result? He is MUCH thicker, stronger, heavier and leaner right now. Emphasizing getting stronger, building muscle, and RECOVERING has made all the difference in the world for him. Here are some thoughts on RECOVERY: Workouts provide the stimulus for change; the change itself (an improvement in fitness level) takes place during the periods between workouts. How quickly and completely this recovery takes place is result of many commonly overlooked factors, including specific dietary habits, supplementation, age and personal stress levels, just to name a few.

Factors That Effect Recovery Rates:
Age - Older individuals will need longer recovery periods than their younger counterparts. It is suggested that around 25 years old is when most trainees will need to start to allow for longer recovery periods.

Experience - More experienced trainees will need less recovery time than new trainees will.

Psychological Factors - Never underestimate the power of the mind. Work, finances, personal relationships and basic everyday life can all cause stress. If left unchecked stress can have very powerful physical manifestations - headaches, insomnia and an increase in catabolic hormones such as cortisol, just to name a few.

Replenishment of Nutrients - The availability of key micro- and macronutrients in a person's nutrition will have a large impact on recovery.While not usually considered therapeutic, nutrition plays a huge role in the speed and completeness of recovery. Your body needs raw materials to repair and restore bodily systems stressed by training and without adequate nutrition those materials will not be available. Vitamins, minerals, water, protein, carbs and fats must all be present in proper amounts in order for the body to fully recover from training. A deficiency in even one key nutrient could slow this process down greatly, if not grind it to a complete halt. Proper nutrition can not be stressed enough when talking about the overall success of a fitness program and most trainees' frustration about their lack of progress can be traced back to this recovery factor. Personally, I drink a Recovery Drink after every workout, I've tried a few, and I prefer the BeachBody Orange Creamsicle. The Endurox is not bad either, a few more calories, not quite as tasty, and about 20% more expensive even after shipping. I'd stay away from the Accelerade - half the calories, half the cost, and taste like stomach bile, or at least the lemon did to me. I also down a glass of whey protein before workouts, I add in another one usually during the day. Whey is quickly digested. In the evening, instead of the pint of Ben & Jerry's I used to have, I have a protein shake made out of Casein Protein, just like whey it is made from milk, but it is slow to digest. I think of it as "time release" protein, and my body works hard to digest it through the evening, burning a few more calories....I hope. But also helping my muscles to recover and build!