Toni Hasler, trainer and life partner of Natascha Badmann, started planning the training of the seven-time Hawaii winner around her recovery periods twenty years ago. He gave her rest periods precedence over everything else - and rightly so. Because sports training is not about stringing together as many physical activities as possible, but is composed of exertion and recovery. Indications that the body is adapting, which in turn lead to improved performance capability, only first start to appear during the recovery period. This effect forms the basis of sports training, because if we manage to challenge our body at the right moment with the right stimulus, we can optimally improve our performance capability and gradually climb to the next higher fitness level. Just like a pyramid, the upper levels are built on the lower.

However, the big question in terms of regeneration is: how much recovery is needed after which level of exertion? The recovery period after a relaxed training unit is correspondingly short and only a few hours, whereas after intensive running training or a short competition, this can be several days. And a marathon, where you push yourself to the limit, requires a period of several weeks or even months until the body has fully recovered. 

Whether the exertion is relaxed or hard also varies from person to person. If a professional runner jogs 12 km/h for one hour, he only needs a few hours until his body is 100 percent ready again, however, for a hobby runner, a one-hour jog at this speed is challenging training that drains the body. 

The necessary recovery time therefore depends on numerous factors that cannot be generalised in one single number. Thus, the recovery times that modern sport watches cough up need to be treated with great caution. They calculate the times using personal data as well as algorithms, which are backed by broad mass and average values and therefore only do the individual justice to a limited extent. Nevertheless, it can be said: the more personal information and empirical values the watches use to measure the exertion levels (for example, when the pulse values or the heart rate variability are measured in combination with speeds), the more accurately they can determine the individual values.

What further complicates determining the appropriate recovery period is the fact that, depending on the measures you take, you can also optimise or hamper the recovery time, especially after intensive exertions. It is important, for example, to quickly replenish your fluid reserves immediately after training and to eat foods rich in carbohydrates and protein in the days that follow. Winding down, stretching, gymnastics, walking, relaxed jog-trotting or forms of exercise such as hiking and swimming or passive measures such as a sauna, massage, heat bath and sleeping promote regeneration. Relaxation techniques such as yoga, autogenic training or meditation have also proven to be effective. Generally, the following also applies: the specific effect of one measure is not only scarcely measurable, but differs from person to person and also depends on the habits of an athlete.

What’s crucial to remember is: in sports training, training and recovery belong together like Siamese twins. Those who forego their regeneration due to a lack of time and then go and overdo it when training for an upcoming sporting challenge will end up paying for it sooner rather than later. The art in competitive sports is no longer to increase the scope of training, but to improve the quality of the training and shorten the regeneration time in order to introduce a sensible training stimulus again as soon as possible. 

Amateur athletes should approach the whole thing by attentively monitoring the reactions of their own bodies to the individual exertions. The more experience you have, the better the body feeling and the more intuitive you will be in finding the right moment to introduce a new, appropriate stimulus. 

The individual recovery phases that take place after extreme exertions

This is what happens in the body

After 4-6 minutes: The muscular store of creatine phosphate is fully replenished
After 30 minutes: The heart and respiratory rate, blood pressure, and lactic acid levels in the blood return to normal. 
After 90 minutes: The body starts to rebuild destroyed muscle protein. The metabolic processes switch from catabolism (breaking down) to anabolism (building up).
After 6-24 hours: During the first six hours, the first reserves are replenished (carbohydrates) to restore the fluid and electrolyte balance (e.g. magnesium and iron). The ratio of solid and liquid blood components (haematocrit) returns to normal
After 24 hours: The carbohydrate reserves in the liver are replenished.
After 2-7 days: The carbohydrate reserves in the stressed and, under certain circumstances, (partially) destroyed muscles are replenished.
After 3-5 days: The fat reserves in your muscles are replenished
After 3-10 days: The damaged muscle fibres are restored
After 7-14 days: The energy supply systems in the cells are restored. You gradually regain your full muscular aerobic power
After 7-21 days: Mental recovery
After 4-8 weeks: The regeneration period after a marathon or an Ironman is complete

(Sources: Kuno Hottenrott, Regeneration aus sportmethodischer Sicht, (Regeneration from a sports methodological perspective), Georg Neumann, Regeneration aus sportmedizinischer Sicht. (Regeneration from sports medicine perspective.)

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