The 23 hours of the day you are not at the gym can have an enormous impact on what happens during the short time you are there. Everything that is not training is recovery and there are a few basic recovery tools that can have a major impact on your training. We will touch on them below, and expand on each in future articles.

But before we get into overtraining and recovery, let's remember one thing:

"While insufficient recuperative techniques may be a factor in limiting training adaptation, it most clearly, obviously, and certainly, pales compared to the limitations inherent in not training hard enough." -Coach Glassman

Great athletes are developed on the margins of overtraining. You have to push the boundaries of your limitations - but you also need to know what those limitations are.

The first thing you need to know is if you are at risk of overtraining. For most recreational athletes (not training full time for a sport), overtraining isn't imminent. You may work out 3-5 times a week, but sometimes life gets in the way and you miss a workout here or there to take your kid to a doctor's appointment, or your work schedule dictates that you can't train for a couple days. You're not likely on the verge of overtraining, but you definitely should be taking full advantage of your time off.

On the other hand, if you've been training 5-6 days a week, at high intensity, without missing a workout for weeks on end, you may need to dial it back for a week. "Dialing it back" is not an excuse to be lazy and do nothing. "Dialing it back" means coming into Open Gym to do a "half-intensity" workout, work on skills, foam roll, stretch, and ice anything you need to. This is, in fact, much harder than just completing the workout of the day; it takes focus and dedication. But these things are completely necessary to remain injury-free and are commonly overlooked.