The Importance of Recovery — Understanding The SRA Curve

If you’ve ever attended an exercise class, done personal training or just been involved in the fitness community in gyms or social media, it is likely that you have heard one or more people talk about the importance of recovery. We hear about recovery constantly, but how many trainers are actually offering sound science and reasoning along with their recovery strategies?. You can hit every one of your training sessions with extreme intensity and focus, but failure to recover between sessions will not yield results.

The best way to understand the necessity of recovery is to find a simple explanation of the SRA curve, so that is what I am here to do! The SRA curve explains stimulus, recovery, and adaptation in association with muscle size, workout frequency, and time. (Disclaimer: this is not my graph, the photo was taken from “The Glute Guy” blog, referenced below the article).

The SRA Curve

Phase 1 — Stimulus

When we begin a workout, we create a stimulus for our muscles. The contracting of muscles by performing eccentric, concentric, and isometric movements causes the fibers that line the inside of our muscles to break down. The central nervous system of the body is also stimulated as the body has to consciously move weight and adjust breathing to adapt to varying intensities during a workout.

Phase 2 — Recovery

The most important part of the SRA curve is recovery. Without recovery, the body cannot rebuild the muscles after the breakdown during the workout. Rebuilding the muscles prevents excessive wear and tear on the joints and the major moving muscles in the body. The best examples of recovery are:

• Sleep
• Calories from clean eating
• Tissue work (foam rolling, massage, body work)
• Mobility (stretching, yoga)
• Meditation

Along with physical recovery through soft tissue work, eating, and mobility, other recovery methods that focus on nervous system health (sleep and meditation) are just as important.

Phase 3 — Adaptation

Phase 3, adaptation, is when the recovery of the body surpasses the original stimulus from the previous workout and the muscles begin to grow before the next workout. This extra boost in recovery comes from the variables that many of us have a hard time controlling. This means getting the right amount of sleep, eating as clean as possible, stretching, massage, foam rolling, and maintaining positive mental health. Phases two and three of the SRA curve are known as hypertrophy, when muscles grow to a larger state than when the original stimulus was presented. The curve continues on with time as an athlete does another workout, continues to recover, and muscles continue to grow.

Why is all of this important? Recovery is the key to muscle growth, if phase two or three are neglected after a workout, the muscles stay damaged and can’t grow or get better. Recovery is the most beneficial thing for our body and finding the correct tools that help us recovery from session to session are the keys to longevity and continued progression in our fitness journeys.

Please see below for the attached article written by Bret Contreras for the figures used to show the SRA curve. These figures are not my own, my source is the attached article below.

https://bretcontreras.com/your-optimal-training-frequency-for-the-glutes-part-i-exercise-type/