Original episode & show notes | Raw transcript
A detailed analysis based on the Empirical Cycling Podcast, “How to Rest Day”
In the pursuit of athletic improvement, training is often seen as the primary driver of progress. We focus on the intervals, the volume, and the intensity, believing that the “work” is what makes us faster. However, this perspective misses a fundamental physiological truth: training provides the stimulus, but adaptation—the actual process of getting stronger, faster, and more resilient—happens during recovery.
This guide deconstructs the critical, often misunderstood, principles of recovery as discussed by the coaches of Empirical Cycling. It is designed for the educated athlete who seeks to understand not just the “what” but the “why” behind effective rest, transforming it from a passive break into an active, strategic component of their training plan.
The terms “rest day” and “recovery day” are often used interchangeably, but the podcast draws a crucial distinction that frames our entire approach.
Rest Day: This is a day of complete, or near-complete, physical inactivity. As coach Rory Porteous puts it, this is “sitting on the couch eating ice cream.” It is a deliberate cessation of training stimulus to allow for deep systemic recovery.
Recovery Day (Active Recovery): This involves very light physical activity, typically a short, extremely easy bike ride (30-60 minutes). The goal is not to train but to facilitate the recovery process through gentle movement.
The choice between a rest day and a recovery day depends on the context of the training block and the individual athlete’s needs.
Rest days are often most effective at the end of a demanding training block (e.g., after a multi-week VO2max block). When an athlete is systemically exhausted, both physically and mentally, complete rest allows all systems—muscular, nervous, and endocrine—to focus entirely on repair and recuperation without any competing demands.
Recovery days are more commonly used during a training block, between intense sessions. The light activity can help alleviate muscle soreness, prevent stiffness, and keep the body primed for the next hard workout.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer. As the podcast highlights, athletes fall on a spectrum:
“More Days Off” Athletes: Some individuals recover better and feel sharper with complete rest. For them, even a light spin can be a net negative, adding a small amount of stress that impedes full recovery.
“Active Recovery” Athletes: Others find that complete inactivity leads to muscle stiffness and “stale” legs. A light spin helps them feel loose, warmed up, and ready for their next session.
The “Middle-of-the-Road”: Most athletes benefit from a combination of both, depending on the circumstances.
Key Takeaway: The first step to mastering recovery is to learn where you fall on this spectrum through experimentation and honest self-assessment.
Despite the best intentions, athletes frequently undermine their recovery. These mistakes are often subtle and their negative effects are cumulative—the “dose makes the poison.”
This is the most common and damaging mistake. An active recovery ride should be radically easier than any other session.
The “Glass Cranks” Analogy: Pedal as if your cranks were made of glass. The pressure should be minimal.
Quantitative Guidelines: For most athletes, power should be well under 100 watts. If the average power of your one-hour recovery ride is similar to your four-hour endurance ride, you are riding far too hard.
The Goal: The purpose is to gently increase muscle blood flow and loosen the muscles, not to build fitness. A perfect recovery ride leaves you feeling energized and wanting more, not fatigued. An excellent rule of thumb from the podcast: “You shouldn’t do anything that you wouldn’t do between intervals.”
A recovery day is about reducing total systemic stress, not just cycling-specific stress. Adding other demanding activities is counterproductive.
Heavy Lifting: Lifting heavy weights places a massive load on the Central Nervous System (CNS) and signals the body to initiate costly repair and muscle-building processes. This directly competes with recovery from endurance training.
Sprints or Intense Efforts: Adding sprints to a recovery ride is, as the hosts state, “the dumbest way to take a recovery ride.” It introduces a high-intensity metabolic and neuromuscular stimulus when the body is meant to be recuperating.
The Golden Rule: You should not need to recover from your recovery day.
Many athletes feel hungrier on rest days than on hard training days. This is not a mistake; it’s a signal.
The “Caloric Hole”: During hard training, the body’s stress response can suppress appetite. When you finally rest, the body recognizes the significant energy deficit it has accumulated and sends strong hunger signals to catch up.
Fueling for Repair: Recovery is an energy-intensive process. Your body needs calories and nutrients to:
Replenish glycogen stores.
Provide the raw materials (proteins, fats) to repair muscle and build new structures like mitochondria and capillaries.
The Takeaway: Listen to your body. Fueling adequately on rest days is critical. A slight increase in weight is normal and expected, reflecting replenished glycogen and water retention associated with muscle repair.
Stress is stress, regardless of the source. Your body’s physiological stress response is the same whether it comes from a hard interval session, a demanding job, or personal turmoil.
The Stress Budget: Think of your recovery capacity as a budget. A hard workout makes a big withdrawal. High life stress makes an equally big withdrawal but provides zero fitness return.
Impact on Recovery: When your off-bike stress is high, your ability to recover from training is significantly impaired. Ignoring this leads to a state of chronic fatigue where progress stalls.
Waiting until you are completely exhausted—”beyond fucked,” in the podcast’s terms—to take a rest day is a failing strategy. It’s like trying to bail out a sinking ship with a bucket.
Preemptive Rest: The most effective training plans build in rest before the athlete is completely broken. This is the principle behind the classic “three weeks on, one week off” structure.
Auto-Regulation: Learn the early warning signs of accumulating fatigue. If a workout that should be manageable feels impossible, or if your motivation plummets, it’s a sign to start your recovery block early.
Mastering recovery involves a conscious, proactive approach. Here are the key strategies discussed.
This is the single most effective recovery tool.
Get More: Go to bed earlier and sleep in later if possible. Use the time you would have spent training to take a nap.
Why it Works: Sleep is when the body does its most important repair work, driven by the release of growth hormone. It is also essential for CNS recovery. Sacrificing sleep for an extra hour of training is almost always a net loss.
Place your rest days on days when your overall life stress is lowest.
Actively seek out activities that calm your nervous system.
Compassionate Touch: Spend quality time with partners, children, and pets. Petting an animal has been shown to have a measurable stress-reducing effect.
Mindful Activities: Go for a gentle walk in nature, listen to a relaxing podcast, or engage in a hobby that brings you joy. The goal is to shift from a sympathetic (“fight or flight”) to a parasympathetic (“rest and digest”) state.
If you opt for active recovery, it doesn’t have to be on the bike.
Familiar Modes Only: Engage in activities your body is already accustomed to, such as a light jog (if you’re a runner), a swim, or a walk.
Keep the Intensity Low: The “between intervals” intensity rule still applies. The goal is gentle movement, not a cross-training workout.
A crucial and counterintuitive phenomenon: Sometimes, the first day of rest makes you feel worse.
What’s Happening: When you are chronically fatigued, the constant low-level stress of training can mask the true depth of your exhaustion. When you finally stop, you pull back this “fatigue blanket,” and your body reveals just how tired it really is.
The Correct Response: This is a definitive sign that you need more rest, not less. Pushing through and returning to training will only dig the hole deeper. This feeling is your body’s clearest signal that a single recovery day is insufficient and a longer period of rest is required.
The harder you train, the harder you must rest.
Low-Volume Athletes (e.g., <10 hours/week): A recovery week might involve reducing volume by 50-75% and almost completely eliminating intensity.
High-Volume Athletes (e.g., 25+ hours/week): Recovery must be more profound. A rest week might involve cutting volume by over 80-90%, with strict limits on individual ride duration. The accumulated fatigue from high volume is immense and requires a proportional commitment to rest.
The central message of the podcast is a paradigm shift. Stop viewing recovery as a failure to train and start seeing it as the most productive part of your training cycle. It is the period when your hard work is translated into tangible physiological gains.
By understanding the principles of rest, identifying and correcting common mistakes, and learning to listen to your body’s signals, you can master the skill of recovery. This skill, more than any single interval session, is the key to unlocking long-term consistency, resilience, and your ultimate athletic potential.