TOP WAYS TO RECOVER SO YOU CAN TRAIN HARDER FOR LONGER

 

 

 

 

Training breaks the body down, recovery builds it back up. It’s often confused that you get fitter during your physical training and this leads many people to over train, causing themselves mass fatigue which then results in injury. The smart athlete knows training should cause just enough stress on the body that it starts to break down but gives themselves enough recovery to avoid a level of fatigue that causes injury or illness. This can be a hard balance to find and one that can be manipulated in many ways. In this weeks sweattalk, i’m going to cover my top ways to recover so you can train harder for longer!

 

‘Rest day’, I program this for my athletes because if I leave the calendar blank they will usually fill it with an extra self selected session! Planning a rest day is really important. This day should be as stress free as possible, whether it is stress from training, work or rushing around after family… it is still stress on the body. Rest should be rest. Use these days to chill, catch up on things you can do from the comfort of your sofa and even catch up on sleep!

 

  

These days are when you are actually getting fitter from the hard training you have been doing, keep that in mind and rest hard! To know if your rest day is working or not, measuring your mornings resting HR and or heart rate variability is a good idea.

   

‘Active recovery’, is a term often used by seasoned athletes. The biggest error here is forgetting the recovery part. Active recovery should be the minimum amount of exercise stress to cause the pulse to rise above normal resting levels but stay below aerobic endurance levels for 20mins - 2hrs. Zone 1 is active recovery, below 68% of threshold HR and 55% of FTP for the number nerds. In simple terms, you should be able to hold a long conversation and not have to stop to take a breath. This causes blood to move around the body a little quicker than at rest and allows muscles to squeeze toxins out and allow fresh blood in.

 

’Pro sleeper’, The biggest difference between a professional athletes week and a weekend warriors week is the professional will sleep a lot more! They aren’t doing any magic sessions, they are simply recovering better than most because they are able to sleep more. Sleep is king for recovery, 7 - 9hrs per night is optimal. Sorry, I know you think you feel great on 5hrs but that's because you’ve made that your default. The horse and cart was revolutionary, until the car was invented. You simply cannot perform to your best unless you are consistently sleeping well. A good nights sleep is your key to acute recovery and getting fitter. Make sure your sleep environment is pitch black, cooler than 20'C degrees and doesn’t have your mobile phone next your head!

  

Another huge key to recovering is the fuel you put into your body. To recover well from workouts you need to roughly know what the workout did to your physiology. A hard or high intensity workout will cause a large break down of muscle tissue and glycogen stores, therefore refuelling with carbohydrates to replenish glycogen stores and protein to help with tissue repair is key. A low intensity workout won’t have such an impact on you but depending on duration will still cause a large Kcal deficit. Replacing the Kcals with a balanced meal of protein, carbs and fats is still important to ensure healthy function of the body and to allow optimal recovery to take place. Post exercise meals are not one size fits all, some people cannot eat right after which is fine, you can have your post exercise meal anytime from 10min after up to 2hrs.

 

Also to note particularly for athletes training in hot climates is hydration. You should aim to replace 1.5 times the amount of water lost from exercise. So if you typically lose 1L of sweat per hour, you should aim to drink 1.5L of water post session. Adding in electrolytes will also help your body to retain important minerals which help almost every function of the human body!  

 

I don't mean swim bike or run miles here, I mean going the extra mile on your recovery. I really like compression gear to help with getting the legs to feel recovered. When recovery tights do what they are designed to do, they aid the body with venous return (the rate of blood flow back to the heart). I use the Compressport leg sleeves after most of my hard runs or rides and always have them on when travelling!

 

  

 

Another way to aid the body only this time to aid removing toxins from the muscles built up from exercise is cold recovery such as ice baths or cryotherapy. This works in a similar way to compression in that the bodies response to cold is to shunt blood back towards the heart and vital organs to protect them. This means blood from the limbs such as your legs and arms is forced away from the aching muscles, you then warm back up and fresh blood returns to the muscles!

  

The Recoup Fitness Cryosphere delivers the benefits of both foam rolling & icing in one compact, travel friendly size. 

  

The last recovery mile comes in the form of myofascial release e.g, a sports massage or foam rolling. This works by breaking down tight areas of muscles that aren’t getting good blood supply, once broken down the blood supply can flow optimally again and help to recover the area. A comprehensive sports massage should be done fortnightly at least for hard charging athletes, a good therapist will work into areas that are awkward or too painful for you to do yourself with a roller and help to highlight any trouble areas that might cause problems further down the line.

Following a hard days training or race I will typically do:

  

I hope this can help you to recover better and perform to your best! 

   

Tom Walker