Hello to the healthiest Tribe I know of!! I called this a Valentine's Day post because it's going to be all about taking care and loving yourself DURING a workout (see how it all comes back to working out with me???)
One possible reason for the feeling of "I have just been hit by a truck" after a workout is that you may have pushed beyond your limits and the workout was actually too intense for your body.
What may be happening is that you are repeating a workout program with similar exercises over and over again, sometimes for weeks or months at a time. That's actually NOT the issue though - the issue is brining those repeated exercises to the limit, or close to your limit. Each time. Over and over.
There is a beautiful text-book concept in strength training called - Reps In Reserve - or RIR. Let me just explain the concept real quick:
Let's use a classic strength-training workout design of 3 sets and 10 reps of, let's say... pushups!! We want to perform it in a way what we perform 10 reps but we could actually do 12. This means that you chose a variation that allows for perfect form and avoids exhausting muscle or joint.
So - NO!!!!! A solid and good workout is NOT one that makes you feel like "I have just been hit by a truck". Of course there are failure workouts but we should only be doing them once in a while in a moderated and carefully designed fashion. What's the point of a workout if it leaves you needing to rest in bed for a couple of days?
A super hyped up athlete (we a lot of us are) might say: "hey! I've got 2-3 more in me" and smash 2, or 3, more reps BUT... with crappy form. (I talk about this further in Rip It Up For Good) Or - the athlete could perform nicely but with less range of motion, or slower, which would be she is hitting failure... which is good ONLY once in a while when you want to get your body strength to the next level and then you take the time to recover and it's NOT good when you do it over and over and over again within short period of time.
The solution is to lift a tiny bit less weight, dropping the reps in advance, changing up the workout on a regular basis (Bodyholic style, for example).
YOU ARE AIMING FOR IDENTICAL FORM IN ALL REPS!
UNLESS YOU ARE IN A PLANNED FAILURE WORKOUT!
So, there you have it - a Valentine's Day post :) From my heart to your body xoxo
But... we still have the breakdown - which I recommend making a note, or printing it out, and pasting it on the fridge so you know what we are doing and the workout sequences (a big reason for why I like the idea of you seeing the sequence in advance and going according to it, is precisely because I want you, your muscles, your joints to recover nicely, stay healthy and get super duper strong!!)
15th - Pilates #44 - PIIT
16th - Daily #124 - Leg and Core 888
17th - Pilates #45 - Priendly
18th - Daily #125 - Chest and Triceps HIIT
19th - Daily #126 - Shoulders and Biceps HIIT
20th - Mindfulness Strength Flow #46 - Flexibility Focus
21st - Pilates #46 - Based on the Classical 1-10
We definitely need more recommendation videos or posts pleeeeease, tags on Instagram - anything that might help us blossom organically (without a sponsor).
Love you guys and thanks so much for training as a community!!
You've got this! Together is better ;)
xo, Di