The Recovery Day Workout

If you’ve been a long time reader of my blog and the blogs of other “in the know” trainers in the fitness industry (see my “FORCE Approved Links” on the right side bar), you’ve undoubtedly noticed more content focusing on injury prevention, movement quality, mobility and activation work, corrective exercise, and recovery modalities (stretching, foam rolling, lacrosse ball work, etc.). There’s a reason for this: focusing on these areas allow you to train harder, train safer and continue making sustained progress in the gym.

While you have probably started to embrace these ideas and incorporate them into your workouts, chances are, you probably are not doing nearly enough of this stuff. While spending 5 minutes doing a dynamic warm-up and foam rolling before your regular workouts is a good start, I think spending an entire workout specifically dedicated to recovery and injury prevention is a great idea. 

With the above in mind, I have started performing 45 minute “Recovery Day” workouts on either Saturday’s or Sunday’s, and I can already see the results in terms of improved performance during my regular workouts throughout the week: better movement quality, fewer aches & pains, increased strength and improved work capacity. In addition to enhancing recovery and helping to prevent injury, I also look as these workouts as an opportunity to get in some low level conditioning/energy system development and burn up some extra calories.

Give the following workout a try one day per week, ideally on Saturday or Sunday, AFTER you’ve gotten in all of your main strength and conditioning workouts for the week. Focus on keeping a brisk pace between sets and exercises, but be sure not to neglect the quality of each repetition:

Foam Roller Series (5 Minutes)

*spend about 60 seconds on each roll

1. Thoracic Roll

2. IT Band Roll (perform on both sides)

3. Glute Roll (perform on both sides)

3. Lat Roll (perform on both sides)

4. Incline Bench Medicine Ball Pec Roll (perform on both sides)

See the foam roller video playlist below:

Dynamic Flexibility, Activation, and Mobilization Tri-Sets (30-40 minutes)

*Perform the “A”, “B” and “C” exercises as tri-sets: perform a set of the “A” exercise, then a set of the “B” exercise, and finally a set of the “C” exercise before beginning again with the 2^nd set of the “A” exercise. Take MINIMAL rest between each set, exercise and tri-set.

Tri-Set #1

1A. Inch Worm 2 sets of 6-8 reps

1B. Leg Cradles 2 sets of 6-8 reps each leg

1C. Lunge to Instep + Thoracic Rotation 2 sets of 6-8 reps each side

Tri-Set #2

2A. Tri-Planar Ankle Mobilization 2 sets of 6 reps each to the little toe, the big toe and straight down the middle

2B. Side Lying Clam Shell 2 sets of 10-12 reps each side

2C. Quadruped Thoracic Spine Extension/Rotation 2 sets of 10-12 reps each side

Tri-Set #3

3A. Prone Incline Bench LYT’s 2 sets of 8 reps each letter

3B. Lying Shoulder Extension/Rotation 2 sets of 10-12 reps each arm

3C. Dynamic Sleeper Stretch 2 sets of 8 reps each arm

Tri-Set #4

4A. Tri-Planar Half Kneeling Hip Flexor Mobilization 2 sets of 8 reps each plane

4B. Adductor Mobilization 2 sets of 10-12 reps each side

4C. Prone Spiderman’s 2 sets of 10-12 reps each side

See the tri-set video playlist below: