Getting the balance right means a requirement to understand the principles behind the work you are putting in to improve your health and performance.
There are seven basic principles you will want to keep in mind:
specificity, individuality, progression, overload, adaptation, recovery and reversibility.
If you understand these principles, and practice them frequently your performance will improve.
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For an individual to adapt to the specific demands of a training program and progress, recovery (insert “easy days” here also) is really KEY!
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The body cannot repair itself without rest and time to recover.
Both short periods like hours between multiple sessions in a day and longer periods like days or weeks to recover from a long season are necessary to ensure your body does not suffer from over training or overuse injuries.
This is often neglected.
At a simplified level – that will vary with the individual – the more you train the more sleep your body needs, despite the adaptations you have made.
Get the balance right.