5 Sports You Can Play on Active Recovery Days
Active recovery days are days when you take a rest from going to the gym and instead relax for your muscles to heal. It’s necessary to have these days as part of your weekly routine, especially if your muscles are sore after an intense workout session.
Aside from that, recovery days are important so you can avoid overtraining, reaching a workout plateau, and fitness hangovers. The problem is that too much relaxation during active recovery days is also bad. You can gain unwanted weight due to eating extra calories without any activity to burn that excess energy.
Fitness experts suggest playing at least one sport during an active recovery day to maintain increased blood circulation for muscle repair and for fat burning. Without further ado, here are five games you can play on days when you’re not planning to exercise.
1. Casual basketball
Playing a sport with sore muscles can be uncomfortable at first. But as you go on with the game, the discomfort fades away. This is caused by increased blood circulation. The higher the rate your blood flows has per minute, the more oxygen and protein are delivered to your muscle fibers. Hence, faster muscle recovery.
Basketball is one of the best active recovery day sports to play because it works your whole body up. Now, you don’t need to play a 5v5 game. Shooting hoops on your own or going 1v1 against a friend would be enough. All you need to do is find a vacant court to play in.
2. Casual frisbee
Frisbee is another sport that works your entire body. Unlike casual basketball where arm control and shooting accuracy are paramount for scoring, frisbee focuses on running around for offense and defense.
You can even play it with 2 or 3 people where you just need to pass the disc around. The only thing that would make you run is when a player makes a bad pass and you have to catch the disc to prevent it from touching the ground.
3. Softball
If you want a less intense sport but still require you to move your entire body, then you should try softball. Think of the game as baseball for women. As a pitcher, you don’t need high-speed throws to outsmart the opponent team’s batter.
The ball is thrown underhand. Although the ball is easier to be hit, it doesn’t fly far because the ball is bigger with more interior material to soften the impact. The only caveat of softball is that it requires 10 players for each team. You’re going to invite a lot of friends and squadmates to play the game.
4. Rollerblading
For a more relaxed, solo-play, and full-body active recovery day sport, rollerblading is the best. You can enjoy it on a windy afternoon or early in the morning when there isn’t too much traffic on the streets. If it’s winter and rollerblading isn’t doable, you can go ice skating.
The best part of rollerblading? It improves your sense of balance — an essential attribute to possess for dancing and pro cheerleading.
5. Casual tennis
Are the other sports on this list too boring? If so, play tennis for the ultimate challenge. As an all-time favorite sport of women, tennis is the best when it comes to improving your explosive arm strength, cardio endurance, and mental alertness.
Plenty of sisters in the pro cheer community even consider the sport as an alternative to gym exercise when it comes to weight loss and management. Some even claim it’s more effective and enjoyable than running and lifting weights. Tennis can be played 1v1 or 2v2.
Interested in playing these sports? As early as now, schedule an active recovery day and invite others to play your chosen sport.
Need a Great Workout Routine for Your Pro Cheer Audition Prep?
Pro cheerleaders stay fit, flexible, and strong so they can give out their best performance in the arena. However, achieving that wow-worthy, toned physique doesn’t happen overnight. You need to arm yourself with the right daily workouts.
Thinking of becoming a pro cheerleader?
We are offering you our fun, FREE (for a LIMITED time) POM FIT™ INTRO CLASS that teaches you beginner-friendly cardio moves.
To take your cheerleading fitness to the next level, we also have POM FIT™: GAMEDAY1™ - a series of challenging full-body cardio classes that include a body stretch class, kick stretch class, abdominal workout class, and more.
Join a POM FIT™ class below:
POM FIT™ INTRO CLASS (Free for a LIMITED time)
POM FIT™: GAMEDAY1™ (USD 27.00)
