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Outside Magazine, December 2008

Bodywork
The Corrections
Mistake #8

By Matt Fitzgerald

Training on Empty | Working Out Just to Work Out | Living at the Gym | Stretching Cold | Going Long and Slow to Burn Calories | Ignoring Weights | Taking it Too Easy | Skipping Recovery | Moving in One Plane | Ab Obsession | Pretending You're Too Busy | Not Keeping Score

Skipping Recovery
When pro athletes aren't training, they're sleeping, eating, or lying on the couch—recovering. When you're not training, you're working or shoveling snow. "Even with a perfect training plan, someone who is in overdrive at work will eventually fall into classic overtraining and underperforming," says Corey Hart, an exercise physiologist for the Idaho-based Physio Performance Lab.

The Fix: Pay attention to sleep (eight hours per night), energy level, and motivation. Whenever you underperform in two consecutive workouts, reduce your training by 50 percent until you feel reenergized. Every four weeks, take a planned recovery, in which you cut back on your workout time or intensity by 20 to 30 percent for a week.



Next Page: Mistake #9

Training on Empty | Working Out Just to Work Out | Living at the Gym | Stretching Cold | Going Long and Slow to Burn Calories | Ignoring Weights | Taking it Too Easy | Skipping Recovery | Moving in One Plane | Ab Obsession | Pretending You're Too Busy | Not Keeping Score



Matt Fitzgerald is a freelance writer in San Diego who is still perfecting his wilderness-navigation skills.

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