Physical Fitness and Survival: Why Your Body Needs Recovery Time
Your Body’s Recovery is Important
Such a recovery means more than just simple rest. It entails nutrition and understanding how the human body’s physiology works. As I have stressed in the past, your protein intake is critical to tissue repair. I also emphasized how you must take in protein and carbohydrates within a ½ hour at the conclusion of demanding physical exercise that lasts one hour or more. You may also have to increase that protein/carbohydrate intake more frequently.
If you have worked a physically-demanding occupation, you may have a good basis for understanding already of these concepts and it may just be a matter of touching upon some of the finer points. Construction workers put in 8, 10, or 12 hour days with only a couple of short breaks and a lunch break in the middle. A tremendous amount of hydration is required during their day. Your muscles are 80% water. Stands to reason that dehydration means a loss of muscle tissue.
Remember glycogen that I mentioned in earlier articles? When you work hard physically or exercise, glycogen is converted into glucose to fuel your body. This is taken directly from stores in your body. After that glycogen is depleted and you’ve “hit the wall,” then your body will break down its own proteins in the form of muscle tissue and converts those proteins to glycogen.
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