While being physically active is fundamental for the body to work at its best, whether it is an activity of daily living, or a more structured type of exersice like a designed and customized workout, the recovery phase that is the phase post workout is extremely important in order to build muscle mass and burn calories. It has a lot to do with good nutrition and rest; nutrient dense foods fuel the body and aids in recovery due not only to replenish the body, but also for protein synthesis. During strenght training, the body muscle tissues get damaged that's why it is important to adequately fuel the body with good source of carbohydrates and proteins. Sleep plays another imnportant role as a recovery phase. During nighttime sleep (provided that a quality and quantity sleep takes place) is when growth hormones do their job. Specifically during non rem sleep and that is when the body is not yet in the deepest part of the sleep (no dreams). So quality and quantity of sleep is important in order to rest from the previous workout as well as to prepare the body for the next workout.
Another extremely important part of recovery is periodization, which means that a high
intensity period of workouts must be alternated with period of lower intensity workouts to avoid overtraning and burnouts. If the intensity is medium to low, then the volume of
a workout can increase. Volume in this case means more frequency and duration. The
opposite is true. The higher the intensity of a workout, and the lower the volume is going
to be in order to fully recover. This means that a very intense workout might be performed maximun twice a week. In the mean time, for a very active person who wants
to continue to be physically active, an active recovery is an excellent way to rest in bewteen high intesity workouts. An active recovery, as the word suggests is to be active but that activity is much lower in its intensity. This can be achieve also during a HIIT workout in which a high intensity minute (for example) is followed by another minute of a lower intesity acitvity. This is called 1:1 ratio. and that can be changed according to the fitness level and goals. Passive recovery on the other hand means that no workout is performed like in the case of a twice a week intense workout that is followed by 3 days of rest.
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