Why you don’t need more rest days, you need smarter recovery days
Week 4 of the Move Better Christmas Challenge is here!
Learn how to recover smarter instead of having more rest days
By Roxy, Sports Remedial Massage Therapist and Personal Trainer – Move Better with Roxy, Bowen Hills
When you’re tired, sore, stiff or feeling a bit beaten up from training, it’s easy to assume you just need another rest day.
But here’s the truth I teach every day at Move Better with Roxy:
You don’t need more rest days, you need smarter recovery days.
Most athletes, runners, gym-goers, HYROX competitors and even desk workers misunderstand recovery.
Recovery isn’t “doing nothing.”
Recovery is where your body actually adapts, builds resilience, and gets stronger.
And when you get it right?
You move better, you feel better, and your training skyrockets.
Let’s break it down.
What recovery REALLY is (and why it matters)
Recovery is not a luxury. It’s not something you do only when you feel broken or exhausted. Recovery is a performance tool, just as important as your training sessions.
Smart recovery improves:
joint health
movement quality
strength and power output
mobility
tissue resilience
nervous system capacity
injury prevention
performance longevity
When recovery is poor, everything else suffers, your technique, your mindset, your training consistency, and the way your body feels day to day.
Rest Day vs Recovery Day: What’s the Difference?
A rest day = doing nothing.
A recovery day = giving your body what it needs to adapt.
And what your body needs will depend on your training load, lifestyle stress, sleep, hydration, mobility restrictions, and even your emotional state.
You can take 3 rest days and still feel terrible… or you can take 1 smart recovery day and feel incredible.
Why you still feel sore or stiff, even with rest days
This is one of the biggest questions I get in clinic as a remedial massage therapist and movement coach in Brisbane:
“Why am I still tight even though I rested?”
Because rest doesn’t fix:
poor movement patterns
weak end ranges
dehydration
tissue fatigue
stress overload
under-fuelling
poor sleep
lack of mobility
nervous system tension
Recovery is the missing link.
The four big rocks of smarter recovery
Here are the foundations I coach clients through every day, athletes, desk workers, runners, lifters, and weekend warriors:
1. Stress Management
Your nervous system controls everything: pain, tension, strength output, breathing, movement quality.
If your stress is high, your recovery is low, even if you “rest.”
Simple stress resets work wonders:
5 minutes of stillness
upper-chest or diaphragmatic breathing
light mobility work
walking outside
2. High-quality sleep
Sleep is the most underrated recovery tool.
Your tissue repair, hormonal balance, emotional regulation and pain perception all improve when sleep improves.
Aim for consistency, not perfection.
3. Solid Nutrition
If you aren’t fuelling your training, your body can’t recover from it.
Undereating, low protein, low carbs or inconsistent meals make soreness worse and adaptation slower.
4. Hydration
Most people don’t realise how much stiffness, fatigue and tightness is linked to dehydration.
Hydrated tissues = happier joints.
Why this matters for mobility, pain & performance
Whether you’re dealing with:
tight hips
lower back pain
stiff shoulders
poor recovery between sessions
sluggish training days
slow progress
…smarter recovery is often the missing piece.
As I tell clients every day:
When your recovery improves, your movement improves. And when your movement improves, everything else follows.
It’s the heart of my philosophy: Move better, live better.
This Week’s Challenge: Choose ONE Recovery Tool
To keep things simple (and actually doable), choose ONE of the following for the entire week:
5 minutes of stillness + calm breathing
drink an extra 1–2 cups of water daily
go to bed 20 minutes earlier
add a balanced meal post-training
take a short walk after your session
reduce stress in one small area (emails, phone time, etc.)
Pick one, commit to it, and give your body what it needs.
Small habits → big change.
✨ Want to go in the draw for a FREE 45-minute massage?
👉 Pick one recovery tool from above
👉 Tag @movebetterwithroxy
👉 Use #MoveBetterChristmasChallenge
Here are all the details you need to know.
Simply:
Read the email and try the drills
Post a picture of you doing them (or share the reel of me doing them) to your story.
You are in the draw
Each tag = an entry to win a 45-minute remedial massage.
