Rule # 1 …..Your muscles are not growing or changing when you’re working out. It’s the next few days afterwards that they repair & grow. So, how you treat them is critical. Don’t work the same muscles again if they’re sore, stiff, and feel heavy. In fact, recovery methods will help them feel better, flush out waste material, and restore range of motion. Stretching, Chiropractic, Yoga, Epsom Salt Baths, Foam Rollers, & Massage are great ways to recover. You can use any combination of the aforementioned. Remember this simple formula: Workout, Rest & Recovery, Repeat. Now, you can workout everyday if you work different body parts or do different activities. For example, if you workout your chest on Monday, then you can do legs Tuesday, Back Wednesday, Ride a bike Thursday, Do Yoga Friday, Box on Saturday, etc. YOU get the point. Now there are exceptions to the rule. Say you workout your legs with weights on Friday and Ride a bike on Saturday. That’s okay and although you’re using your legs 2 days in a row. They are different activities. In fact, they may compliment each other. If your legs are sore from the weights workout, the bike ride will create circulation and help flush out waste material from the weight workout. This is essentially is recovery but still is an activity. Another example is if your upper body is sore from a chest or back workout, swimming is a great non-impact recovery activity.
Hope this helps shed light on the workout & recovery cycle and just mix it up, do different things, use different body parts in different ways. I guess you can say, “Variety is the Spice of Fitness!”
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