Recovery Days (also known as “Regen” Days) can be a vital part of your training week. In a push/pull training split, I will typically reserve these for Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays (however, they can be implemented on any day really). There are a lot of ways to approach a Regen Day, but I will typically split them into two broad categories: True Recovery and Extended Training.

True Recovery Days

A “True Recovery Day” is one that promotes healing and restoration. Most people would benefit from these on the weekend after a long training week, or more frequently at the tail end of a difficult training block.

These days will typically address soft tissue and mobility, and have a high dependence on various “modalities” of recovery – think contrasting with hot/cold tubs, compression boots, foam rollers, lacrosse balls, needles, cupping, etc. Regardless of what you use the primary focus is incredibly low intensity (almost non-existent intensity really) with big return on investment with how you feel after.

A real life example would be a big week of training – say it’s a “Peak” week in your training block. You push hard Monday through Friday. Saturday and Sunday are meant for “True Recovery Days”. On Saturday you go to the gym, ride the bike for 5-10 minutes and do some nasal breathing, hop on a foam roller for a bit, and finish with some time in the sauna. On Sunday you go and get a nice massage. By Monday you should be feeling better and ready to go (or if you’re still a bit beat up you begin a deload or unload week).

Extended Training Days

“Extended Training Days” are exactly what the name implies – they become an extension of your current training. I typically use these days to address anything that may be missed in the training week and/or give extra attention to areas of focus for the athlete. You still want to use lower-intensity exercises, as you don’t want to interfere with the rest of your training, and you should focus instead on ways to enhance the training of the week.

Using baseball players as an example: on Wednesday when we come in, we make sure to add in some mobility exercises that focus on hips, Thoracic Spine, shoulders, etc. Additionally, we try to implement exercises that promote rotation in a low-intensity manner (they are extremely rotational athletes after all). This allows us to address areas of importance, improve overall capacity for “sport-specific” movement, and allow the athlete to feel good for the remainder of the week.

I view this day as a day of training. Typically, a “True Recovery Day” creates an environment where the athlete can “turn off” because of how low the intensity is. However, on “Extended Training Days” I want the athlete to still be focused. They don’t need to take three scoops of pre-workout and blast loud music, but they need to pay attention to the exercises they are doing and treat the day like an actual training day. This is a fine line to walk, as focusing too much on training (even in a low intensity setting) can still cause overreaching (whether it be actual physical overreaching or mental overreaching from constantly “being on”). Sometimes people (especially athletes) need to learn how to “shut off” and other times they need to learn how to come in sore and move their bodies around in ways that will make them feel better (or at least good enough) to continue training.

Putting It All Together

As with most things in life and training, context is important. I will lay out an over-simplified approach below for a split training program.

Week 1 (Base):

-Monday and Thursday – Lower Push / Upper Pull (Movement Introduction)

-Tuesday and Friday – Lower Pull / Upper Push (Movement Introduction)

-Wednesday – Extended Training Day

Week 2 (Load):

-Monday and Thursday – Lower Push / Upper Pull (Load Movements)

-Tuesday and Friday – Lower Pull / Upper Push (Load Movements)

-Wednesday – Extended Training Day

Week 3 (Peak):

-Monday and Thursday – Lower Push / Upper Pull (Maximize Volume/Intensity)

-Tuesday and Friday – Lower Pull / Upper Push (Maximize Volume/Intensity)

-Wednesday – Extended Training Day

-Saturday + Sunday – True Recovery Days (promote additional recovery)

Week 4 (Deload):

-Monday and Thursday – Lower Push / Upper Pull (Drop volume and intensity)

-Tuesday and Friday – Lower Pull / Upper Push (Drop volume and intensity)

-Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday – True Recovery Days (do everything you can to be prepared to start a new block next week)

Again, this is an over-simplified look. The big picture is to figure out how to effectively fill the gaps on your “non-training” days. If you want to downregulate, you may need a “True Recovery Day”, but if you feel good and want to enhance your training, use an “Extended Training Day”. Either way, making a concentrated effort to maximize your Recovery Days can do wonders for your training in the long run.