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Why Taking a Recovery Week After HYROX or CrossFit Competitions Isn’t Optional

  • Writer: Ginge
    Ginge
  • 3 days ago
  • 4 min read
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If there’s one lesson I’ve learned the hard way, it’s this; trying to get back into training too soon after an event, whether it’s HYROX, a CrossFit comp or anything that pushes you to exert maximum effort is a recipe for disaster.

And I don’t mean disaster in the dramatic sense. I mean the slow, frustrating, “why do I feel like I’ve been hit by a bus for two straight weeks?” kind of disaster. The type where you convince yourself you’re fine because your muscles don’t feel sore anymore… but your body still refuses to perform.


Your Muscles Recover Faster Than Your CNS


This is the part nobody talks about enough. After a race or comp, your body might feel okay after 48–72 hours. The soreness fades, you’re itching to train and your brain convinces you that you’ve recovered.

But there’s one huge problem:


Your central nervous system (CNS) hasn’t recovered yet.


In high intensity fitness environments, think sled pushes, Heavy barbells, max effort burpees, pushing at max intensity, your CNS takes an absolute beating. Even if your muscles feel fine, your nervous system is often still down regulated, drained and in recovery mode.

This is why training too soon always feels terrible. You’re asking a system that hasn’t rebooted yet to start operating at full capacity again.


The result?


  • You hold fatigue for much longer

  • Your training quality nosedives

  • Numbers that normally feel comfortable suddenly feel heavy

  • You accumulate niggles

  • Your motivation drops

  • Your recovery slows to a crawl

  • And ironically… you lose more progress than if you’d taken the week off!


Once I finally started respecting recovery weeks, not half recovery, not “easy sessions,” but genuine down time! I stopped feeling chronically tired and started bouncing back faster, stronger and more consistently.


Using HRV & Resting Heart Rate to Understand Recovery


One of the most helpful things you can do after a competition is track what’s happening internally not just how your body feels.

Two simple metrics make this incredibly easy:


1. Heart Rate Variability (HRV)


HRV is a measure of how well your nervous system is functioning. After a comp, HRV almost always drops because the CNS is stressed.

A low or unusually suppressed HRV = your nervous system is still recovering. Even if you feel fine.

When I started tracking HRV (Whoop, Oura, Garmin pick your poison), I finally understood why my body wasn’t performing. Every time I tried to train too early, my HRV was still down. When I waited for it to climb back to normal or slightly above my training sessions snapped back to life.


2. Resting Heart Rate (RHR)


Your resting heart rate often spikes for 2–5 days after a high intensity event. That’s a sign of stress, inflammation, fatigue, and sympathetic nervous system dominance.

If your RHR is higher than normal, you’re not ready to train hard. Simple as that.

RHR generally returns to baseline sooner than HRV, but tracking both together gives you a really clear picture of your recovery status.


The rule of thumb I now follow:


  • RHR back to normal + HRV trending up = ready for light training

  • HRV fully back to baseline or above = ready for proper training

  • HRV still suppressed = wait or keep intensity very low


These two markers have genuinely stopped me from making the same mistakes over and over again.


Why a Proper Recovery Week Matters


A recovery week isn’t a luxury. It’s part of the training cycle.

Here’s what actually happens when you give yourself 5–7 days of low intensity movement and reduced volume:


1. Your CNS resets

This is the big one, low intensity + rest allows the nervous system to return to baseline, and your sharpness comes back.


2. Muscles repair more completely

Even though soreness fades early, tissue healing continues for days.


3. Hormones rebalance

Competitions spike cortisol and adrenaline. A recovery week helps everything normalise.


4. Your immune system rebounds

Comps can suppress the immune system for 24–72 hours. Rest brings it back online.


5. Motivation returns

Once the CNS recovers, effort stops feeling forced and starts feeling natural again.


What a Recovery Week Should Look Like


Here’s what I personally aim for:

✔️ Days 1–2:

Rest and Mobility!

✔️ Days 3–5:

Zone 2 cardio, Light Strength training (Pauses), steady controlled conditioning with no real intensity.

✔️ Days 6–7:

Start to build intensity, but still not firing at 100%, create blood flow around the body, then a complete rest day or 2 (if needed) before going back to full training.


The Bottom Line


If there’s one takeaway from my experience it’s this:


👉 You don’t recover based on how your muscles feel! You recover based on how your nervous system feels.


It’s easy to trick yourself into thinking you’re fine. But HRV, RHR and your performance don’t lie.

Give yourself the recovery week. Respect the process. Your next block of training will be better for it.

Rest isn’t stepping backward, it’s setting yourself up to move forward with actual intent and capacity.


References



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