Image from Wikipedia
I recently read a great post on Fellrnr’s site about the concept of supercompensation and the effects training and rest have on your body as you try to get fit. Basically, he states that “Exercise does not make you fit. It is the rest that follows exercise that makes you fit.” In other words, after exercise “breaks down” your muscles, your body recovers and adjusts to a higher level of fitness in anticipation of the next training session.
If you do nothing else, your fitness level will eventually return to the initial baseline. If your next training session takes place at the peak of supercompensation, the baseline of fitness is raised to this peak level. This allows another cycle of breakdown, recovery and supercompensation to raise fitness even higher. If, however, you have not sufficiently recovered from your last workout before your next training session, your starting point is beneath your initial fitness baseline. Repeated workouts started before complete recovery will eventually result in injury from overtraining.
So, remember to allow rest days in your workout schedule so that supercompensation can work for you! If you can’t bring yourself to take a rest day, at least try to alternate the workouts you do to work different areas of your body. Maybe upper body one day followed by lower body the next?
I need to do this. But I am unsure how to “get all my miles in” though if I need so much rest? Training is hard!