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8 Powerful Benefits of Active Recovery for Faster Muscle Repair

Active recovery, or engaging in low-intensity exercise after a strenuous workout or competition, has numerous benefits to help you recover faster, reduce soreness, and maximize performance so you can train harder and reach your fitness goals without setbacks.

published on

2025

pliability Team

You just wrapped up a brutal workout or competition. Your muscles feel achy, and you’re ready for some rest. But did you know that instead of plopping down on the couch and lounging around, your recovery could be improved by staying active? Active recovery, or engaging in low-intensity exercise after a strenuous workout or competition, has numerous benefits to help you recover faster, reduce soreness, and maximize performance so you can train harder and reach your fitness goals without setbacks. Additionally, using the best recovery tools for athletes, such as foam rollers, massage guns, and compression therapy—can further enhance muscle recovery and keep you performing at your best.
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Pliability's mobility app offers valuable resources to help you take advantage of active recovery. This allows you to return to training quickly, with less pain and better performance.

What is Active Recovery, and Why Is It Important?

Lady stretching - What Is Active Recovery

A healthy fitness routine isn’t just about training –– it’s also about strategic recovery. On some days, you can choose passive recovery, which means plenty of rest. But, you’ll often want to focus on active recovery, which involves low-intensity exercise.

‍“Active recovery allows you to replenish tired muscles following an intense workout,” says Addison Tarr, physical therapist and strength coach at the Performance Therapy Center at Providence Saint John’s Health Center, in Santa Monica, California. “This puts you in control of your body, ensuring that you can perform at your best, and also helps prevent injury,” he says.

How Does Active Recovery Work?

Tarr says active recovery is a low-intensity exercise that helps your body recover from higher-intensity training sessions. It activates key stabilizing muscles, releases muscle tension, and helps your whole body reset. This type of recovery works by increasing blood flow to the tissues that need it most following a workout.

Low-intensity movement allows certain muscle groups to activate and remove lactic acid and metabolic waste built up during exercise. Rocky Snyder, a fitness author and certified strength and conditioning specialist, says it can help reduce muscle soreness after workouts. He notes that it can also boost athletic performance because the body recovers faster from training.

The Three Types of Active Recovery

There are three forms of active recovery, making it easy to add low-intensity movement to your fitness routine. They include:

Interval training: Active recovery is incorporated into interval training workouts. You switch between short, high-intensity exercise and brief recovery intervals. For example, do a round of jumping jacks as fast as possible for 1 minute, then walk in place for 2 minutes, and repeat.
Cooldown: When you make active recovery part of an exercise cooldown sequence, you do lower-intensity activities immediately after a higher-intensity workout.
Rest days: You don’t do any strenuous activity on rest days. This allows your muscles to recover and helps you avoid overtraining. But you can still practice active recovery in the days following strenuous workouts.

The Best Exercises for Active Recovery

Low-impact exercises that get your heart pumping at around 30 to 60% of your maximum heart rate are great for active recovery. Some of the best exercises for active recovery are some of the simplest, Tarr says. For example, he suggests lower-intensity activities like:

Walking
Swimming
Biking
Stand-up paddle boarding and kayaking
Rock climbing
Hiking
Yoga
Tai chi
Stretching

“These can all be forms of active recovery because they keep you moving, while helping your fatigued muscles recover,” Tarr explains.

Pliability: Mobility App for Flexibility & Recovery

pliability - Benefits of Active Recovery

Pliability offers a fresh take on yoga tailored for performance-oriented individuals and athletes. Our app features a vast library of high-quality videos designed to:

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Aid recovery
Reduce pain
Enhance range of motion

Pliability provides daily-updated custom mobility programs for those interested in optimizing their health and fitness. It also includes a unique body-scanning feature to pinpoint mobility issues. If you're feeling limited by pain or the ability to move, Pliability aims to complement your fitness routine and help you move better.

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8 Powerful Benefits of Active Recovery for Faster Muscle Repair

woman relaxing - Benefits of Active Recovery

1. Increase Blood Flow To Deliver Nutrients

Increasing blood flow is one of the primary mechanisms that makes active recovery one of the more effective forms of post-exercise recovery techniques.

Our blood transports fresh oxygen and nutrients to our muscles, so increased blood flow will bring more fresh blood to your muscles.

2. Reduces Pain And Soreness

One interesting thing about light exercise is that it can produce an analgesic response. By releasing chemicals or regulating pain receptors, getting a light pump can decrease minor pain levels.

While pain relief seems to occur near the training, it can theoretically prevent a "buildup" of pain. For example, the discomfort will build and build if you do nothing. Repeated bouts of active recovery may still keep the peak of pain down.

3. Keeps Muscles Loose

Keeping your muscles "loose" describes your muscles and joints when they're pain-free with a full range of motion. Unfortunately, after we work out, we do a lot of damage to the muscles, as mentioned. This creates pain and discomfort.

In addition, the muscles and other tissues will become inflamed. All combined, moving your muscles through a full range of motion can be very difficult, not to mention doing it pain and discomfort-free. As active recovery keeps the blood flowing and reduces pain, moving with your normal range of motion is much easier.

4. Allows You To Pursue Hobbies

One of the best parts about having active rest days is that they allow you to engage in hobbies, assuming your hobby isn't sleeping (Sleeping is the best form of recovery but passive!).

Sometimes, people avoid active recovery workouts because they think they will be bored or can't do what they like. That's fair enough, as not everyone wants to walk for a prolonged time. You can go surfing or a long kayak paddle. Any activity that gets your blood flowing and elevates your heart rate could be considered active recovery.

5. Maintains Training Schedule

As mentioned, many people don't like the idea of recovery days as they feel like they're not doing anything. These individuals enjoy a challenging workout and the grind of training, so when told to recover, the idea of not going to the gym can be off-putting. An active rest day can solve this.

Placing active recovery workouts in your everyday routine can give you the rest you need while keeping up the training momentum. Further, while you might love an intense workout, you may be surprised that low-intensity exercise can provide similar sensations once the blood flow starts moving.

6. May Reducing Lactic Acid Buildup

Hold on to this, as there are many nuances to address. Blood lactate is a by-product of fast glycolysis and has long been associated with muscle fatigue and that burning sensation you're familiar with during intense workouts.

Lactate Fuels, Not Fatigue

Recent research has shown this not to be the case. Lactate can be used for energy. It's associated with muscle fatigue because, during fast glycolysis, an excess amount of hydrogen ions is created. These ions build up and cause the blood pH level to drop, making it acidic.

While there is an association between muscle fatigue and blood lactate, studies have shown that the clearance removal rate has minimal effect on successive performance or the presence of DOMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness).

7. May Improve Performance

Another claim is that active recovery will improve your performance. Again, we say it will, but there's some nuance to address.

Active recovery doesn't necessarily provide benefits, at least consistently, regarding athletic performance. Remember that there are so many different variables to test.

Feel Better, Train Consistently

It will help progress because you just feel better. Studies have shown that it can relieve discomfort, which can help you be more consistent in your training.

Further, other studies suggest a factor of variability between individuals. For example, these researchers report that active recovery produces better results in some athletes than others. In other words, if it works for you, then it works.

8. Focusing on Improving Form

Since active recovery is less demanding than your regular workout routine, you can focus on some aspects of technique. Depending on your training, you can either correct or perfect it.

The positive side is that you can do it under conditions where proper performance should be achievable.

How to Approach Active Recovery

Consider one to two active recovery days if you’re doing high-intensity workouts (like HIIT, heavy weightlifting, or intense running) more than four times a week. One active recovery day might be sufficient if you work out moderately three to five times a week.

If you’re just starting to work out one to two times a week, focus on building a consistent routine first. Incorporating light active recovery activities on off days can still be beneficial.

What Should You Do on Active Recovery Days?

Active recovery doesn’t need to be lengthy. Even just 20 to 30 minutes can be effective. If you feel good and want to go longer, that’s okay, too.

Keep the intensity low, active recovery is not meant to be strenuous. As mentioned, you should be able to hold a steady conversation while performing the activity.

Go at Your Own Pace

As with any workout, it’s essential to listen to your body. An active recovery workout should be a relatively easy, refreshing break rather than challenging. If an activity exacerbates pain or heightens fatigue at any point, scale back or try a different activity.

If your body signals the need for a complete rest day, honor that feeling. Listen to the signs you need to take a break from running and ease back into it when you’re ready.

Ask an Expert: When Should I Take an Active Recovery Day vs a Rest Day?

It depends! Feeling some fatigue or a mild headache? Or perhaps you haven’t slept well or experienced an abnormally stressful week at work. Taking an active recovery day could make you feel better.

But if you’re feeling ill (fever, significant congestion, coughing, etc.), it would be wise to take a rest day. The same applies to an injury with sharp pain. Exercise stresses the body, and we never want to prolong the body’s ability to recover.

Refresh, Recharge, and Reduce Soreness

Active recovery is about nurturing your body, not pushing its limits. The goal is to return to your main workouts with renewed energy, reduced soreness, and a refreshed mind. Incorporate active recovery to complement your main workouts and align with your fitness goals.

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8 Powerful Benefits of Active Recovery for Faster Muscle Repair