Recovery Techniques - Part One

Recovery Techniques – Part One
This article will be a three part series and broken up into;

1.      What is recovery and passive recovery

2.      Active recovery

3.      Assisted recovery

What is recovery?


Recovery allows the restoration of physiological and psychological processes, so that the athlete can compete or train again at a similar level. (ausport)

Why we need to recover

Jo Vaile in her presentation ‘Recovery: Current Concepts and Research’ states

·         The body needs to be physically stressed (exercise) to improve fitness

·         However, the body actually improves when the body is at rest (recovery)

·         Rest and recovery counteracts the physical damage done during exercise

·         Improvements in fitness occur because of rest and recovery AFTER training



I broadly break up recovery and associated techniques into three categories;

·                Passive:      is defined as doing nothing

·                Active:       is defined, loosely, as exercise at low intensity level

·                Assisted:    is defined, loosely, as an outside or external tool to assist in a recovery technique

Whether you agree with these definitions, it allows for an easier break-up of the most common and used recovery methods available to most sports people.

All forms of recovery are important, and have a part to play in sports.  That, being, said if your passive recovery is inadequate, active recovery will not be as effective as they could be, and for assisted recovery to be effective both passive and active recovery techniques needs to be in place.

The pyramid below illustrates this approach

Types of Recovery

Passive Recovery


·         Sleep

·         Nutrition

·         Breathing

·         Altitude Sleeping

Active Recovery    


The most immediately known forms of active recovery are;

·         Cool Down

·         Easy day of training

·         Stretching/Mobility

Assisted Recovery


·         Massage/Body Work Therapy provided by therapists

·         Self-Massage, self-myofasical Therapy

·         Cold Therapy (also called cryotherapy)

·         Heat Therapy

·         Compression Garments

·         Electric Muscle Stimulation

·         Medication

Passive Recovery


Passive recovery is the base of the recovery pyramid, and the better the base the more benefit you receive from active and assisted recovery methods.

The definition, provided previously, of passive recovery is partially right.  Passive recovery can also include could also include easy walking. 

What is an easy walk?  An easy walk is just a stroll enjoying the smells and scenery.

The two major forms of passive recovery, other than doing nothing, are sleep and nutrition.  If these are not done properly, you are cheating your performance.

Forms of Passive Recovery


Sleep


Sleep is the most important element in recovering.  You work (you are awake) and you rest (you are asleep)

How much sleep do athletes need?

It is widely stated that people need 8 hours sleep a night, as a minimum most people should look at 6 hours a night.

Athletes generally need more sleep than the general population.  Athletes should look at a minimum of 9 hours a sleep, this is especially true for teenage athletes.

The good thing about sleep is it free.

An interesting article on sleeping for teenagers, Teenagers_and_sleep, provides guidelines for improving and increasing the sleep of teenagers.

High Performance Coach Eric Cressey has said, “An hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours after midnight.”

In layman’s terms, this means your sleep is of better quality the more you get before midnight.  So it is better to get to bed earlier rather than later.

Michael Johnson, whilst studying at Baylor University used to get up at 6am to study, and went to go to bed at 8pm (Johnson: 43)

To improve how to sleep requires developing good sleeping habits.  I recommend reading Mike Robertson’s blog, and in particular this, post sleep-101.  His key points to the components of sleeping are as follows;


Key Points


1.      Develop a Routine

a.       Take a shower or bath before bed, static stretch, or read

b.      Minimise Alcohol and Caffeine

c.       Put away Electronic equipment

d.      Write down ideas in your brain and leave it until tomorrow

e.       Go to bed at the same time and wake up at same time

2.      Optimise the Sleeping Environment

a.       Find a comfortable temperature to sleep in

b.      Sleeping environment as dark as possible

c.       Use “White Noise”

d.      Clean Linen

3.      Improve Sleep whilst Traveling

a.       Get it Dark

b.      White Noise

c.       Stick with the routine whenever possible! 

4.      Advanced Techniques

a.       Relaxation

b.      Deep Breathing Techniques

Nutrition and Hydration


The other passive recovery tool is nutrition, this is includes fluid intake.  The easiest way of looking at this is eat as well as you can and drink water.  Some basic tips,

1.      Eat 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of vegetables a day, what is a serve?

a.       A serve of fruit is 150 grams or 1 medium sized fruit (eg Apple), 2 smaller pieces of fruit (eg apricot)

b.      A serve of vegetable is 75 grams or 1 medium potato, 1 cup of salad vegetables of ½ cup of cooked vegetables

c.       Check out this website for more information http://www.gofor2and5.com.au/

2.      Eat a balanced diet, this includes trying to eat red meat once a week, especially important for female athletes (unless you are a vegetarian – then you need to ensure you get applicable iron from other sources)

3.      Eat 3 meals and 2 – 3 snacks a day.

4.      Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, if you can’t stomach food – make fruit smoothies

5.      Ensure you eat good quality food post training, and soon as practicable.

6.      Drink 2 litres of water a day.

Athletes need to ensure they eat well, as training provides a big stress on the body and therefore has to be re-fuelled with high quality food and the consumption of food is, also, likely to be higher than the average.

Everybody should drink water, it is considered that people should drink at around 2 litres of water a day.  Is this appropriate?  Some experts believe this is insufficient for everyone, where as some believe this is overconsumption for some people.  As suggested in the basic tips, drinking 2 litres of water a day is a good starting point.  Athletes or if you live in hotter and humid areas, you should drink more. 

It is also important to drink throughout the day and not consume your entire days fluid in one go.  Try having a glass of water when you get up and then with every meal, or before every meal.

Take Home Points


Athletes need more sleep than the general public, and should look at a minimum of 9 hours a night.  You also tend to get a better quality sleep with more sleep you get before midnight.

Eating a balanced diet, with natural foods tends to help the body feel better.

By following the basic tips outlined, if your sleeping and eating habits are not up to that standard, you will improve your recovery immensely.

Sleeping and nutrition are probably the two most boring recovery tools that everybody has in their toolkit, but they are the two most important.  Without having in place sleeping and nutrition habits, it reduces the effectiveness of other recovery protocols.

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