Lift more, recover better: remedial massage and strength training

Whether you’re going to the gym five days a week or running half marathons, or even just getting back into some form of exercise after a long break… this post is for you. Because no matter where you’re starting from, two things are true: your body needs to be challenged and it needs to recover.

Most of us are doing one without the other.

Why runners and cardio lovers need strength training

Cardio is great. It’s good for your heart, your mood and your sleep. But if it’s the only thing you're doing, you may be missing something really critical, especially as you get older.

From around the age of 30 we begin losing muscle mass. By the time we’re in our 50s and 60s, declining levels of oestrogen and testosterone also contribute to a gradual loss of bone density, making bones more fragile and increasing the risk of fractures, particularly in the hips. Strength training directly addresses both of these things.

When you lift weights, the mechanical load placed on your bones triggers bone-forming cells called osteoblasts, essentially building bone density in response to the stress. Research published in peer-reviewed journals consistently shows that resistance training helps slow, halt, or even partially reverse age-related bone loss. And a large study tracking more than 200,000 older adults over 15 years found that any weight training (compared to none) was associated with significantly lower risk of cardiovascular mortality.

If you’re a runner who wants to run faster and further, with fewer injuries, adding strength training is foundational.

Training hard? Here's why recovery matters

On the other hand, plenty of people are already in the gym, lifting weights, doing CrossFit and gruelling back-to-back workouts. And for many of them recovery is an afterthought or something that they do "a little bit of" at the end of a punishing session.

When you train hard, you create micro-tears in your muscle fibres. It’s part of how muscles grow bigger and stronger. But if you never give those tissues adequate time and support to repair, you’re not just limiting your gains, you’re accumulating tension, reducing your range of motion and setting yourself up for overuse injuries.

How myotherapy and remedial massage can help

Remedial massage and myotherapy both work on the musculoskeletal system, just in different ways. Remedial massage targets muscle tension, promotes circulation and supports recovery through hands-on soft tissue work. Myotherapy takes a more clinical assessment-based approach, making it particularly well suited to recurring niggles, muscles that never quite release, or movement patterns that feel restricted. Depending on what your body needs, one or the other, or a combination of both, can get to the root of what's driving the problem.

The services available at BodyWide in Brunswick East are designed to complement your training.

The bottom line on training and recovery

Train. Lift. Move. Definitely push yourself. But also, you need to stretch, sleep and get treated. The people who stay strong, pain-free and active into their 50s, 60s and beyond aren’t the ones who train the hardest. They’re the ones who take recovery as seriously as the work itself.

Your body is remarkably good at adapting if you give it the right conditions to do so.