Today’s post is a little different. Instead of discussing specific exercises that improve fitness, endurance, or build muscle, today I will be focusing on rest and recovery as that’s what we have out in our schedule. 5 days of exercise, then 2 days of rest.
If you want to see some of the other days so far and some more details on what I’m actually doing here, make sure you check out Badminton Training Regime #2 – GGAB Fitness Training post.
Let’s get started.
The Exercises
This section is where I usually post what I did during the day, such as some warm-up activities, footwork drills, and other exercises designed for those specific days. Since today is the rest day, there will be a lack of those exercises, and instead, I will talk about the importance of recovery and some other tips on maximum recovery.
Building muscle and strength comes from a process that I like to call “wear and repair.”
This process is where you tear your muscles via exercise and then build new muscle cells in those torn areas increasing muscle density and strength when you rest and let your body do its thing.
Thus, this is where the phrase wear and repair comes from; the wear is the exercise, and the repair is the recovery.
Now imagine if you had either wear or repair and not the other.
If you only exercised and did not have a recovery, you will burn out and cause injuries to yourself. This is, in fact, what happens in many cases. A typical occurrence is runners who increase the intensity of their workouts over the top and end up getting injuries such as shin splints. Sometimes, these injuries can be so devastating that you may end up lying in bed for months unable to move
Now, what if you only had repair and no wear? Well, a similar story would happen except more related to fat. If you sit in a chair or lie in a bed 24/7 every day of the week, your muscles will degrade because your body decides that they’re not needed and you’ll probably start building up fat because a minimum amount of calories are being burnt. Then you’ll begin to getting diseases related to clogged arteries, heart diseases, and many other issues.
That’s why both exercise and rest is crucial to not just playing badminton well, but your overall lifestyle.
Now that we understand the why rest and exercise are both crucial to your health let’s focus down onto recovery and talk about some recovery tips and tactics now.
Two main parts are contributing to functional recovery. Eating well and good sleep are really the two only things that you need to recover. First, your body needs nutrients to repair your body, then it needs the time to do it.
That’s why in every GGAB Fitness Training Regime blog post, I decided to include a whole section on what I’m eating and how I am sleeping. These things affect your exercise and fitness development significantly.
I won’t get into the diet and sleep details too much, but the general recommendation is to eat a well-balanced amount of protein, and healthy fats combined with vegetables and fruits and get about 8 hours 
of sleep. This is what I have been trying to achieve over the last few days.
There are a few more things that can also assist with recovery and also how your body feels in general. After intense exercise, we are often sore and stiff. Although I was sore today, I didn’t get into any activities to help recovery so I won’t list them here.
I do have a whole blog post on activities for recovery in badminton that you can check out and try to implement into your rest days.
Check out 5 Activites For Badminton Recovery After Intense Training Or Playing!
Diet and Sleep
Like mentioned above, diet and sleep are two crucial elements for recovery after exercise. I won’t go into specific recommendations other than what I have just listed above in the exercise section.
Instead, just like all the other posts so far, I will talk about what I ate and how much I slept. Let’s start with my meals today.
I had a good three meals today. Here they are:
- Breakfast: Water, Coffee, and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
- Lunch: Rice, Stir-fried pork and Chilis, Spicy Long Beans, and Porkchops
- Dinner: Noodles with Scallops, Shrimp, and Seaweed
This made sure I was not hungry throughout the entire day and able to function while helping my parents out and doing some other work.
As for sleep, it’s going to be the same story from the last few days. Again I slept at 12 AM last night and then woke up around 9 AM. It’s the right amount of sleep, but I really am sleeping too late.
Thoughts and Feelings
Time for some ideas and feelings for today.
While today was supposed to be a rest day, I ended up actually working a little bit. First, I needed to help my dad install some beams in a house that he was renovating and also drop some people off at the airport.
Then I have all these courses that I am taking and of course, getting this blog post out to everyone!
There was no formal training planned for today, though, and it does serve me well. Luckily the beam work did not involve myself using my sore legs, and thus, I have some time for it to recover.
I do want to add and try some things for rest days in the future.
Things like bathing with Epsom salts, drinking certain drinks, and stretching activities are on my notes list for next time things that I should include.
Surprisingly though, I’m actually feeling less motivated and energetic than when I did my training beforehand. There may be other factors in hand here, but knowing my experience from today, I will probably reduce my overall workloads for rest days.
That’s about it for today. Tomorrow is another rest day. However, I’m planning to do more of a weekly recap post that day involving everything from day 1 to 7. I have made it through the first week. Three more to go!
Progress
Progress has been good. Pictures have minimal differences from each day, but I can feel myself slimming down and looking more toned. My brother looks like he has been gaining muscle mass and developing more strength, which is an excellent result from these 5 days.
Here are the day 6 pictures and stats:
Person 1:
Weight: 147 lbs
Person 2:
Weight: 121 lbs
I’m actually surprised by my new weight. That’s about a 6 lbs increase from yesterday. I am faithful that it does not mean I’m gaining fat but rather that there are miscalculations from things like the clothes I’m wearing or how much I ate during the day. My brother has remained relatively constant, although gaining a little bit of weight as well.
For those of you that have read Day 5 of the GGAB Fitness Training Regime, you may have noticed I list down stats for running and sprinting speeds. I will only be including those in the increasing speed days and the weekly recaps so make sure you check those out if you want to see it.
Conclusion
While my rest days could undoubtedly become more formalized with specific activities, today was still a relatively decent rest day allowing me to recover torn muscle tissue. With every passing day, new ideas and thoughts come into my head, new motivations, new things I learn about myself all go out, and I want to share that with everyone.
I will continue to post these posts, and I hope everyone enjoys them!
As always, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the comment section down below! Good luck in your games and have a great day!