Ever wondered if you’re doing enough on your off-days to support your workouts? In today’s fast-paced world, where we’re constantly juggling mental and physical demands, staying healthy and fit has become more important than ever. But here’s the thing: while many of us are all in when it comes to pushing ourselves in the gym, we often forget that proper nutrition, rest, and recovery are just as crucial.

Rest is not just about taking a break from exercise—it’s about helping your body recover properly so you can keep making progress. If you’ve found yourself asking questions like, “What should I be doing on my rest days?” or “Am I overdoing it?”, active recovery might be the missing piece. In this blog, I’ll walk you through what active recovery really means, why it’s important, and 11 best things to do on active recovery days.

What is Active Recovery?

Active Recovery forms the backbone of an ideal fitness program. It’s all about engaging in low-intensity physical activity exercises after those tough, high-intensity workouts. These exercises boost blood flow, help deliver oxygen-rich blood to your muscles, and flush out waste products, speeding up muscle repair and recovery.

The goal isn’t to push your body further, but to keep it moving in a way that doesn’t add extra strain or fatigue. Think of it as giving your muscles a break while still staying active. This approach has become more popular recently because it’s proven to reduce soreness and help maintain strength gains, making it a must-have in most workout routines.

What’s the difference between Active Recovery vs. Passive Recovery

Let’s talk about the difference between active and passive recovery. While passive recovery means totally resting and doing nothing—often useful when you’re injured or really worn out—active recovery is a great way to stay engaged with your muscles, but at a lower intensity. It’s about keeping your body moving with light, low-impact exercises that help speed up your recovery without adding more stress.

Research shows that active recovery actually outshines passive recovery when it comes to boosting exercise performance and athletic performance. It helps reduce lactic acid buildup after tough workouts, so you’re not left feeling drained. Instead, you’ll feel more refreshed and ready to go. The best part? You can mix active recovery into your interval training or use it on your off-days to keep your body in motion while still allowing it to recover.

11 of the Best Things to Do on Active Recovery Days

Switching from intense training to active recovery can be a welcome change for both your body and mind. There are many enjoyable low-intensity activities, each representing a different type of physical activity, to explore, each offering unique benefits. Let’s dive into these options in more detail.

Yoga

Yoga is perfect for a form of active recovery as it enhances flexibility while providing moderate muscle activity. It is an enriching blend of physical postures, mindful breathing, and meditation that significantly helps reduce muscle tension post-workout. Yoga focuses on the correct alignment of the body, promotes balance, and enhances body awareness. It is a potent tool for stress management and cultivating mindfulness, which adds a mental boost to your fitness journey.

Vinyasa Flow: Entailing a sequence of dynamic moves, Vinyasa Yoga caters to the whole body workout. This style of yoga focus on synchronization of breath and movement.

Hatha Yoga: Hatha refers to any yoga form that includes asanas (physical postures). It’s ideal for beginners due to its slower pace and easier movements.

1. Restorative Yoga: It is specifically designed to offer relaxation through extended holds of postures using props. It’s been found useful in muscle recovery and injury rehabilitation.
2. Yin Yoga: In Yin Yoga, asanas are held for longer durations, targeting deep connective tissues like tendons, ligaments, and cartilages, which improves flexibility over time.

Cycling

Cycling, whether outdoors or on a stationary bike, is an excellent option for active recovery. It promotes healthy blood circulation and gently stretches your muscles without stressing your joints. At a low intensity, cycling doubles as a soothing rehabilitation exercise that also supports cardiovascular health.

It’s easy to fit into your daily life—whether it’s a commute to work or a relaxing weekend ride in the park. Plus, cycling offers a host of benefits: it reduces stress, improves joint mobility, strengthens leg muscles, enhances coordination, and even boosts your mood with feel-good endorphins.

Swimming or Hydrotherapy

Swimming and Hydrotherapy are low-resistance activities that exert minimal stress on the joints, making them ideal for active recovery. The buoyancy of the water provides a kind of weightlessness that helps relax your body, soothes the muscles, and improves flexibility, which is particularly beneficial for recovery the next day. Different strokes in swimming provide a total-body workout, helping maintain overall fitness.

1. Breaststroke: This stroke helps stretch the hip flexors and improves shoulder mobility. Keeping the pace slow allows you to focus on form and provide a therapeutic experience.
2. Backstroke: This stroke perfectly aligns the spine, stretches the chest muscles, engages core stability, and strengthens the back muscles.
3. Water Aerobics: Tailored specifically for hydrotherapy, these are low-impact exercises performed in waist-deep water, aiming to improve joint mobility, muscle strength, and balance.
4. Rehab Exercises: These include basic leg and arm movements and resistance exercises using a foam noodle or kickboard, emphasizing range of movement and flexibility.

Tai Chi

Tai Chi is a gentle and mindful exercise, perfect for active recovery. It blends smooth, flowing movements with deep breathing to harmonize the mind and body while promoting relaxation. This practice nurtures physical health and fosters a sense of peace and tranquility. A small study found that its slow, circular motions ensure your body stays within its comfort zone while still getting a light workout.

As a self-paced, non-competitive form of exercise, Tai Chi offers numerous benefits, including improved balance, flexibility, muscular strength, cardiovascular health, and mental focus.

Walking

Walking is one of the simplest and most accessible ways to include active recovery as a part of active recovery in your routine. It offers a gentle break from intense workouts, allowing your muscles to relax and recover while staying in motion. Walking helps maintain mobility, boost circulation, and lift your mood. Whether it’s a casual stroll in the park or a brisk walk around your neighborhood, the steady rhythm of walking makes it an excellent choice for rest days. Best of all, it’s easy to adapt, can be done anywhere, and requires nothing more than a comfortable pair of shoes.

Hiking

Hiking offers the perfect combination of low-impact, yet aerobic exercise while being immersed in nature which adds to the mental benefits. This activity helps you unwind, reduces stress, and increases fitness levels. Navigating through different terrains engages different muscle groups, making it a balanced outing for both body and mind.

Hiking enhances cardiovascular fitness, lowers blood pressure, improves balance, builds strength in your core and lower-body muscles, and even boosts bone density, as hiking is a weight-bearing exercise. The combination of natural beauty, fresh air, and physical exercise makes hiking a perfect choice for active recovery.

Stretching

Stretching on active rest days can help increase your range of motion, improve posture, alleviate muscle soreness, reduce the risk of injury, and increase blood flow to your muscles. Just 30 minutes spent stretching on your rest day can significantly improve overall athletic performance.

It’s ideal to work on all muscle groups, including calves, hamstrings, hip flexors, quadriceps, lower back, chest, and shoulders. With each stretch, aim to hold the position for about 30 seconds to a minute and remember to breathe normally. Regular stretching forms an integral part of an effective fitness regimen.

Foam Rolling

Also referred to as self-myofascial release, foam rolling involves applying pressure to specific points on your body to aid in muscle recovery after high intensity interval training. Implementing this on active recovery days could contribute drastically to relieving muscle tension, improving mobility, and increasing blood flow. Here are some of the key areas that can benefit from foam rolling:

1. Calves: Place the foam roller under your calves and roll from below the knee to just above the ankle.
2. Quads: Lay face-down with the foam roller positioned under your thighs and roll slowly from the bottom of the hip to the top of the knee.
3. Glutes: Sit on the foam roller with one ankle crossed over the opposite knee, lean onto the hip of the crossed ankle, and roll from hip to tailbone.
4. Upper Back: Lay on your back with the foam roller placed under your upper back, cross your arms over your chest, and roll from the middle of the back to the top of the shoulder blades.

Foam rolling can be implemented before or after a workout, or anytime you feel the onset of muscle soreness or tightness.

Resistance Band Exercises

Resistance bands offer a unique advantage when it comes to enhancing strength, stability, and flexibility. Here are some exercises that can effectively engage your muscles:

1. Banded pull-aparts: Targets the upper back and shoulders.
2. Overhead band stretch: Stretches the lats and improves shoulder mobility.
3. Banded leg press: Works on the glutes and hamstring.
4. Banded good mornings: Great for improving strength and flexibility of lower back muscles.

These light-strength workouts cater to the entire body, ensuring all major muscle groups receive care and consideration on your recovery day.

Pilates

Pilates is a post-rehabilitation exercise methodology that helps enhance core stability, muscular balance, posture, and flexibility. It focuses on concentration, control, centering, precision, and efficient movement patterns, making it a great choice for active recovery.

Exercises can be performed on a mat or specific pilates apparatus with resistance springs, such as a reformer or cadillac. This fitness protocol is suited to improve postural awareness, alignment, and neck and spine flexibility. It also helps strengthen and stretch almost every muscle in the body.

Light Strength Training

Light strength training involves performing high repetitions (12-20 reps per set) with lighter weights (around 30% of your one-rep max). The point of this method of training isn’t muscular hypertrophy (growth), but rather enhancing blood flow to the muscles, thereby aiding recovery.

Activities include lifting light dumbbells, using resistance bands, bodyweight exercises, or balancing and stability workouts. It’s beneficial for joint mobility, enhances neuromuscular coordination, and keeps all muscle groups engaged, prolonging the exercise benefits even on rest days.

Active recovery workout with resistance bands

A simple full-body active recovery workout with resistance bands has immense benefits. It stretches overactive muscle groups while activating the underactive ones, improving the overall strength, flexibility, and muscular balance.

Banded bridge:

Performing a banded bridge exercise is an effective way to engage multiple muscle groups while focusing on improving hip stability and strength. By including resistance bands into the bridge movement, you can enhance muscle activation and challenge your body in new ways.

This exercise helps in improving range of motion, activating the glutes, and promoting blood flow to aid in muscle recovery. The banded bridge is a beneficial addition to your active recovery routine, offering both physical and mental benefits.

Lateral band walk:

Lateral band walks target your glutes, hips, and thigh muscles and help in improving posture and stability.

This exercise should be done for 2 sets of 15 reps each.

External rotation:

External rotation exercise strengthens your rotator cuff muscles, enhancing shoulder stability and function.

This exercise should be done for 2 sets of 15 reps each.

Who Can Benefit from Active Recovery?

Active recovery offers a wide range of benefits for anyone leading an active lifestyle, from professional athletes to weekend fitness enthusiasts.

Athletes

Professional athletes who undergo rigorous training schedules can tremendously benefit from active recovery sessions. It speeds up muscle recovery by increasing blood flow, improving muscle flexibility, and reducing inflammation, thereby enhancing performance on the field. Active exercises add diversity to their intense exercise regime while keeping the momentum going.

Runners

From elite marathoners to casual recreational runners, runners often subject their bodies to high-impact stress. Active recovery helps maintain cardiovascular health, improve endurance, and lower the risk of chronic injuries. It can also keep muscles engaged, reduce lactic acid buildup, improve range of motion, and expedite muscular repair and growth.

Weekend Warriors

Weekend warriors who fit in their weekly exercise all at once can benefit from scheduling active rest sessions during their weekly training sessions. These can serve to alleviate muscle soreness and enhance performance for subsequent workouts. Balanced with absolute rest days, active recovery can maximize the workout benefits for weekend warriors while minimizing the risks of overuse injuries.

On the Go Fitness Pro Can Help You Create an Active Recovery Schedule

Struggling to balance intense workouts with proper recovery? You’re not alone. By alternating medium- to high-intensity workout days with low-intensity active recovery days, you allow your body to rebuild and recharge, helping you avoid burnout and injuries.

However, creating the perfect active recovery plan tailored to your fitness level and goals can be challenging. That’s where On the Go Fitness Pro comes in!

Our fitness experts specialize in designing customized in-home workout plans that fit seamlessly into your schedule. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned athlete, we’ll help you find the right balance of training and recovery to achieve your goals.

Book an appointment with our experts today and experience the difference proper recovery can make!

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should I practice active recovery?

Active recovery can be incorporated into your daily workout routine either during or immediately after a workout as a cool-down. Besides, dedicating a few days a week specifically for active recovery is ideal for improving physical fitness. It allows the body time to repair and refresh itself adequately, ensuring better performance during subsequent high-intensity workouts.

Is it better to take a full rest day or active recovery?

Taking a full rest day or opting for active recovery depends on your body’s needs and how you’re feeling. A full rest day allows your body to recover and recharge, giving your muscles time to repair and rebuild. On the other hand, active recovery involves engaging in low-intensity activities like light stretching, a gentle yoga class, or a leisurely walk.

How often should you take active rest days from workouts?

As a general guideline, it is recommended to take active rest days 1-2 times per week. Listen to your body – if you’re feeling fatigued, sore, or notice a decrease in performance, it may be a sign that you need to take more rest into your routine.