Ever wondered how long you should rest your muscles after a killer workout? Although there is no universal answer, we got your back (and biceps, chest, triceps...) with some helpful insights.
When you hit the gym, you're creating tiny tears in your muscle tissue. May sound scary, but it's actually a good thing! During rest, your body repairs those tears, making your muscles bigger, stronger and ready for more.
That's why it's important to give your muscles a break. Over-stressing them, could lead to injuries and slower progress. And that is something you definitely don't want!
Gravl's "Muscle Recovery" gives you a visual representation of your current fatigue levels. After a session, your recovery percentages will drop. By how much, will depend on the number of the sets you've done for the muscle group. Cardio is the exception: there are no sets to count, so the effort you rate it with is what drives the drop.
Gravl doesn't just track what happens inside the app, either. Runs, rides and other sessions imported from your connected apps count towards your lower body recovery, based on the effort you rate them with. Rate one easy and it costs you nothing, rate it hard and it costs the most. You can change how imported sessions are counted in Profile, Connected Apps, "External Workouts". That way, your Sunday trail run is honestly reflected in Monday's leg day.
Gravl Tips:
- Tap the recovery pill on your next workout card and the sheet opens with a "Muscles for this workout" section, showing the recovery of exactly the muscles you're about to train. Tap "See all muscles" for the full list.
- If our estimate feels off, tap "Edit" on the Muscle Recovery screen and drag a muscle's slider to the recovery you actually feel. "Reset" clears all your manual changes at once and hands every muscle back to our estimate.
- When recovery for your next workout drops below 60%, the pill on your workout card switches to "Rest recommended". That is your cue to take a rest day. Alternatively, you can skip that session and focus on training other, more recovered muscle groups.