Active Recovery: How To...

It seems that a lot of people are interested in adding Active Recovery techniques to their program, but aren’t sure what to do. Hannibal and I have put together some example movements to demonstrate some of the moves. Try to be creative and make things up. When I do AR at home, I use things like couch/chair legs, banisters, railings, door tops, etc…to suspend the band. It’s always fun to come up with new moves, and rig up something I’ve never done before. The idea is to mimic the movements that made you sore in the first place, in an effort to get blood and oxygen flowing through the muscle. As a bodybuilder, AR will not re-rip the muscle fibers and interfere with recovery, but it will speed up the recovery process. It’s important to realize that this is NOT an extra workout. The closer you grab the band to its point of suspension, the more tension will be in the band, so if it starts to become cumbersome allow more slack in the band to lighten up. I generally do lower back and ab work daily (sometimes multiple times each day), and also whatever is sore (which generally corresponds to what I worked the day before).

Military Press:



Side Delt:



Face Pull:



Seated Face Pull:



Rear Delt Upright Reverse Fly:



Rotator Cuff 1:



Rotator Cuff 2:



Lat Pulldown:



Standing Row:



Bent Over Row:



One Arm Rows:



Shrugs:



Upright Row:



Good Mornings:



Band Deadlift:




Elbows Out Tricep Ext:



Tricep Pushdowns:



Lying Tricep Ext:



Overhead Tricep Ext:



French Press:



Bicep Curl:



Concentration Curl:



Bench Press:



Flyes:



Upright Fly:



Standing Ab Crunch 1:



Standing Ab Cruch 2:



Oblique Work:



Swiss Ball Crunch:



Band Leg Curl:



Standing Leg Curl:



Leg Extension:



Calf Toe Press:



Calf Raises:

This is the first post that I have seen in a LONG time that deserves to be sticky...on this board at least!!!!!

Thanks for the idea for training calves...heck of an idea for standing calf raises!!!!!

B True

B-true, if you have a glute/ham raise, or some other machine to lean against, you can get a nice full extension in the calves and tie the band by your feet and wrap it up around your neck. Your body is its own resistance as you raise up on your toes.

Excellent post

spatterson said:

B-true, if you have a glute/ham raise, or some other machine to lean against, you can get a nice full extension in the calves and tie the band by your feet and wrap it up around your neck. Your body is its own resistance as you raise up on your toes.

Click to expand...

There are steps leading up to my house from my garage that I have been doing standing calf raises on with my bodyweight only. I hold onto the door knob with one hand and slightly bend over on some of the sets. Adding the bands will really help on these.

Thanks again...

B True

Wonderful post you two!!! Now, when I get me some bands, I will be able to do this stuff at home, too! Seriously....really nice post and good pictures, too. Helps explain a lot to me and others, I'm sure!

In terms of reps and sets, I will generally perform 2-4 sets of 25. It depends on WHY I'm doing it (AR, injury, stretching, warm-up, etc...). If you have the band pulled so tight that you can't do 25, you are likely using too much tension for AR.

spatterson said:

In terms of reps and sets, I will generally perform 2-4 sets of 25. It depends on WHY I'm doing it (AR, injury, stretching, warm-up, etc...). If you have the band pulled os tight that you can't do 25, you are likely using too much tension for AR.

Click to expand...

That's a really good point. I know that when I was in KY, using B fold's bands for pull throughs...I noticed that the tighter you have it, the less reps you can do. It's pretty much common sense, ya know? I could see how having a tight band and doing less reps is more in the 'working out' area instead of the active recovery area. I would use his mini bands to do AR on my abs...like Hannibal is doing in the picture...I could rep out 25-30 of those babies and it really helped out a lot.

Good point.

Great post you two! Thanks!

PULL THROUGHS! Another good one...can't believe we forgot those. Just loop the band to something and pull through like a cable. Awesome AR for hammie soreness. GOOD POINT!