Any high level athlete or professional coach will tell you that without good recovery the effort put into training is wasted. And the harder you train, the better your recovery methods must be to optimise training results.
Without good recovery reaching your goals will be that much harder.
People often say with regard to training that you only get out what you put in. This is commonly interpreted as a simple equation that goes something like this: train harder = better results. This isn't always true. The correct equation looks more like this: train smarter = better results.
Optimal recovery is part of training smart and isn't just a concern for athletes. Anyone who does physical exercise should consider recovery an integral part of their training program.
Good recovery is essential, regardless of what level you train at.
Put simply, when you exercise you put your body under stress. For example, when you lift weights you cause micro tears in the muscles you use and the process of your body repairing these micro tears is what makes the muscle stronger (just like a broken bone heals stonger than it was originally). Exercise will also deplete nutrients (for example the glycogen stores in your muscles) and puts your nervous system under stress (repeated or heavy firing of the nerves that activate the muscles you use).
Your body needs to recover from the stress you have put it under in order to adapt (and adaptation is the process by which your body improves from exercise). Muscles need to be repair, nutrients replaced and the nervous system needs to recoup.
A lot of complex processes occur when you put your muscles under stress and your body needs the right conditions to recover from the resulting stress.
Some Factors Affecting Recovery
Good recovery from training will get you better results. Poor recovery means that your body doesn't get a chance to get out of a stressed state, so essentially training is incomplete without good recovery.
There are some really simple, everyday things that can impact on recovery for example:
- Sleep: this is a big one and often underrated. If you sleep poorly after training your body hasn't had an opportunity to rest properly, and it is during rest when a lot of repairs and recouperation are done. For example, growth hormone is secreted at night when we sleep and is very important in the process of muscle repair. Poor sleep may interrupt the secretion of growth hormone and therefore hinder recovery.
- Nutrition: eating well after training is very important in order to replace lost nutrients and allow your body to prepare for the next session. The nutrition your body requires after training will be dependent on the type of activity you do, but as a general rule a healthy, balanced diet devoid of too many processed foods will go a long way to helping recovery.
- Hydration: replacing lost fluids during and after exercise is a no-brainer but plenty of people forget!
- Self massage: massage can have many benefits after training, including getting blood flow to muscles (helping to replace nutrients and flush out lactic acid), keeps muscles supple and stops them from getting knotted up and helps orient newly forming muscle fibres correctly. Self massage is something that anyone can do and will make a huge difference to recovery. We'll discuss a few tools that can help with this.
Recovery Tool: Foam Roller
The Foam Roller is a very effective self massage tool that allows you to use your bodyweight to self massage. The Foam Roller is particularly good for areas such as the legs, glutes and back.
The basic idea behind the Foam Roller is that you roll whichever body part you want to treat over the roller, using your bodyweight to provide pressure. This way, the roller moves along the muscle compressing it sequentially, just as a massage therapist would with their hands (or elbows etc).
The Foam Roller is also very useful for increasing the mobility of the thoracic spine, an area where most people are tight and lack good, functional mobility:
Here is a brief video showing you some of the things you can do with a foam roller:
For more comprehensive information on the Foam Roller and what can be done with it, take a look at the DVD Body Ease, which will certainly be an asset to anyone's recovery:
Recovery Tool: The Stick
The Stick is another excellent self massage tool that anyone can use to help promote recovery. The Stick works on a similar principle to the Foam Roller: it is rolled over the muscle segmentally compressing it. However, The Stick is hand-held, rather than using bodyweight to generate the pressure required.
Being hand-held, The Stick gives very good control over how much pressure you apply. This is very helpful in self massage as too little pressure and it's ineffective and too much pressure can cause you to tense up in a self-protective reaction which defeats the purpose of the massage.
The Stick can also be used for the entire body, including smaller muscles such as those in the forearm and neck and other places it's hard to get at with a foam roller.
The Stick is also highly portable, so you can take it when travelling or take it with you to work.
Here is some more information on how The Stick works:
And here are some tips on using it:
More Information?
For more information on these recovery tools, go to the Iron Edge website.