READY, SET … REST

After decades of going for the burn, the fitness industry is taking a gentler approach. Here’s how to crush your goals by doing less instead of more. By Jody Scott.

After decades of going for the burn, the fitness industry is taking a gentler approach. Here’s how to crush your goals by doing less instead of more.

This is a story for all the gym junkies, endorphin chasers, endurance racers, CrossFitters, interval trainers, weekend warriors and busy people addicted to #doingthings. It’s a must-read for A-types who post and boast their #fitnessgoals. And it’s one for those hell-bent on achieving #totaltransformation or a #bikinibody.

But coach potatoes – and those who look svelte but do little – should like it, too.

That’s because after decades of being urged to go harder, better, faster and stronger, there is finally some good news on the fitness front. While HIIT (high-intensity interval training) was last year’s most popular fitness trend, according to the American College of Sports Medicine, it now appears many of us have been doing far too much of it. And that’s why the next big fitness movement involves doing less for better results. Harder, smarter, slower, stronger … Dial down the intensity and achieve our personal best. It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?

We underestimate the benefits of serious rest, argues Silicon Valley consultant Alex Soojung-Kim Pang in his book Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less (Penguin). “Work and rest are not polar opposites,” Soojung-Kim Pang writes. “They complement and complete each other. You cannot work well without resting well.”

Now sports medicine scientists are exploring the longoverlooked relationship between exercising and resting. Their research is revealing that what we do between workouts is as important as the nature and intensity of our training.

“It is during the recovery that the positive changes take place,” says Dr Daniel Hackett, a sports science lecturer and researcher at the University of Sydney. “You want to do just enough so it will lead towards good health but avoid doing too much.”

To summarise, exercise causes micro-tears to our muscles that heal and grow stronger while we recover. Proper recovery enables us to increase the volume and intensity at our next training session. If we don’t recover properly and train on top of sore muscles, we run the risk of injury, muscle breakdown, stress fractures or even illness (because overtraining lowers our immunity). Throw in a stressful week at work, jet lag or a few late nights, and any hard work we put in at training will be wasted.

Hence, the latest thinking suggests that after going for the burn, we should go for an ice bath, an infrared sauna or a massage to reduce post-workout muscle soreness and inflammation, plus speed up our recovery.

Cue the arrival of recovery centres offering high-tech versions of good old-fashioned TLC (that’s tender loving care) to help us bounce back between workouts. In Sydney’s affluent east, the luxurious Shelter is a hybrid ride-andrecovery studio offering spin and boxing classes alongside infrared saunas and freshwater ice baths to soothe sore muscles and promote recovery.

Other places are offering to treat your post-workout DOMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness) with cold laser therapy, cryotherapy, oxygen therapy in a hyperbaric chamber, LED light therapy delivered on purpose-built beds that look like indoor tanning booths, and one-on-one stretch labs. Then there’s PPDC (peristaltic pulse dynamic compression), which uses inflatable compression garments to massage limbs and stimulate blood flow.

The aim of all of these assisted recovery methods is essentially the same – that is, to help flush lactic acid, stimulate lymphatic drainage, increase blood flow, reduce inflammation and speed up muscle repair. Hackett says that although massage appears to be the most effective option, a small amount of evidence suggests the aforementioned techniques may reduce DOMS and reduce body fat, at least in professional athletes.

However, he says, it’s unlikely the average gym-goer or weekend warrior will notice a small uplift in performance from the occasional therapy. “They are not going to really know [if it made a difference],” he says, adding that resting would probably serve them equally well.

For the low-fi among us, there’s always foam rolling, Epsom salt baths or plonking a packet of frozen peas on sore spots. Or HIIT followed by a gentle walk when the DOMS sets in.

“If you are experiencing DOMS, the worst thing to do is not doing anything,” says Hackett. “The best thing is to move around.”

Even Kayla Itsines, multimillionaire Sweat trainer and creator of the BBG workout programs, recommends three to five LISS (low-intensity steady-state) sessions (such as walking or swimming at a moderate pace) per week.

“If you’ve had a few tough training sessions during the week, adding in another HIIT or resistance session may not be the best idea for your body,” Itsines says. “Low-intensity cardio can be a great way to still fit exercise in, because it is low-impact. This means that you are unlikely to impede your recovery by training over the top of sore muscles. LISS can actually help to increase blood flow to damaged muscles and help reduce post-workout stiffness.”

Itsines says training at a lower intensity means that more oxygen is available to your body. “As fat needs oxygen in order to be broken down, the more oxygen you can give your body, the more fat you may be able to burn,” says Itsines. “If your goal is to lose body fat, combining both HIIT and LISS into your routine is an efficient way to achieve this.”

LISS helps your body metabolise fat, something that doesn’t happen during HIIT. But don’t be tempted to skip your high-intensity workouts altogether. “If you choose to only do LISS, your body may also begin to break down stored muscle as it burns energy, which means you may potentially lose muscle and strength,” Itsines warns.

So the trick is to vary your weekly training loads. Put a few big workouts in the diary, then do gentler activities in between. Go hard, then go to a yin yoga or a stretch class or get a massage. As the old adage goes, the dose makes the poison, and when it comes to exercise, many of us have had too much of a good thing. Almost 40 years since aerobics queen Jane Fonda urged us all to “go for the burn”, it appears many people are flaming out.

Much has been written about millennial burnout caused by job uncertainty, the gig economy, high expectations and perfectionism, among other things. Constant online social competition and comparison have also been shown to play a role.

The Butterfly Foundation, Australia’s national eating disorder support centre, has seen a rise in body dissatisfaction as people feel pressured to engage in disordered eating and exercise behaviours to achieve an ‘ideal’ body. The foundation’s 2018 Insights in Body Esteem report found that 73 per cent of people wanted to change the way they look, and more than 40 per cent of people compare themselves with others on social media.

“Within today’s digitised world, we have access to people’s intimate lives, including their eating habits, exercise regimens and appearance,” says the foundation’s head of communications Melissa Wilton. “This can place pressure on us to look a certain way and definitely increases comparisons and competitiveness in individuals. We need to be mindful of the content we are sharing and absorbing. Regardless of whether we are referring to fit, muscular, thin, strong and attaching certain images to this, we are still saying there is a right or wrong way to have a body. It is so important to practice self-care and to consider our social media use – follow pages that inspire you and make you feel good about yourself, as opposed to those that place pressure [on you] to look a certain way.”

In response to the survey, the Butterfly Foundation teamed up with Instagram to launch the Own Your Feed campaign, to encourage social media users to better manage how they use the platform and who they follow.

Ben Lucas, the co-founder of Sydney’s Flow Athletic gym, also believes social media is encouraging some people to overtrain. “I have been in the fitness industry for over 20 years, and I have seen more [overtraining] in the last two years than ever,” Lucas says. “I do believe Instagram is a big reason for this.”

Lucas advises clients to switch between strength, fitness and yoga classes. “I am a fan of quality training over quantity,” he says. “And you are able to execute on quality by making sure you are well-rested and in optimal health.”

For post-session recovery, he’s opened Flow Revive, a centre offering infrared and float-tank therapies. “We had noticed that members of our community were overworked, overstressed and overtired, and we wanted to help out with a worldclass recovery facility,” he says. “The take-up has been overwhelming, and we are starting to see the tide turn. People are regarding recovery as an important part of training. The post-workout magic comes from rest and what you put in your mouth as you rest. And it is easier to control what you put in your mouth when you are rested.”

Lucas, who has run 40 marathons, is not averse to big training goals but says they must fit into your life holistically. “It has to work with your relationship, your health, your family, your work and not put any of these in jeopardy,” he says. And remember, if your body says nap, just do it.

If you need help with an eating disorder or negative body image, call the Butterfly Foundation’s national helpline on 1800 334 673.

“We are starting to see the tide turn. People are regarding recovery as an important part of training. The post-workout magic comes from rest”