Good Recovery is the Key to Improving Athletic Performance for Cyclists, Runners and Swimmers
Whether you are a cyclist, a swimmer, a runner, or love to lift weights in the gym, You are a fierce competitor. You throw yourself into your workouts. You want to see yourself improving and you’re not afraid to work hard for it. During workouts you break yourself down. The idea is not just to build back as good as before, but to build back BETTER (stronger, faster, more powerful) than before. But did you know that your workouts are only half of what makes you stronger? The other half is Recovery. You should take Recovery as seriously as you do your workouts.
Think of your body’s energy like a bank account. If you’re depositing $100 every day, and withdrawing $101 every day, you won’t notice much difference until one day you need to pay the bills, and you don’t have enough reserve.
Here is a list of some easy ways you can enhance your recovery from home at little or no cost to you:
Self Massage- Use a Massage Stick to flush out the acids which create soreness in your muscles. If you have a workout that makes you sore, you can massage the soreness away if you do the massage within 24 hours afterward. If you wait more than 24 hours, the muscles don’t respond as well (if at all). If you have knots, use The Stick, a foam roll, or just a tennis ball to work them out. You can put the ball against the wall, and lean into it with your hip or back. You can put a ball on the floor under your leg like a foam roll for a more specific pressure. Recognize that a “flush” is lighter pressure and more brisk pace to move the blood. Working out knots requires a bit more pressure, but no more than a “hurts good” feeling. Don’t spend more than two minutes at a time on one knot, or you might irritate it further.
Epsom Salt Bath- When dissolved in warm water, Epsom salt is absorbed through the skin and replenishes the level of magnesium in the body. Research shows that magnesium increases energy and stamina by encouraging the production of ATP, the energy packets made in the cells. Experts believe that bathing with Epsom salt at least three times a week helps muscles and nerves to function properly, as well as eases pain and relieves inflammation of sore muscles.
Power Nap- Evidence suggests that a power nap lasting between 15-30 minutes is most effective. The short duration of a power nap is designed to prevent nappers from sleeping so long that they enter a normal sleep cycle without being able to complete it. Any more time, and the body enters into its usual sleep cycle, which results in feeling groggy, disoriented, and even more sleepy than before the nap. Power Naps can improve memory, alertness, and response time, as well as reducing “burnout irritation”. Studies showed that napping could even boost mental performance to an individual's top levels, and you need that mental edge to execute effective race-day strategies.
Recovery Smoothie- Make sure you replenish your calories burned with high quality nutrition that will provide you the building blocks to repair the breakdown your workouts cause. Recovery smoothies should have protein, and complex carbs (not lots of sugar), usually 25% to 75% respectively, but ask your nutritionist for advice, especially if you’re trying to gain or drop weight. Make your smoothie before you go for your workout so that it is handy afterward. If you keep your food intake constant it helps prevent your metabolism from burning muscle for fuel.
Don’t forget your warm-up and cool-down! You’ve heard that you’re always supposed to warm up gradually over about 15-20 minutes into a workout, but here’s why: If you skip the warm-up you risk injury because your joints and muscles are not thoroughly lubricated with fresh, oxygenated blood. You also will not get your ideal heart rate responses when pushing your higher limits (your heart is a muscle too!). Warming Down is also crucial. When you warm down at 60% of max HR for 15-20 minutes you give yourself a full-body blood filtration which removes most of the metabolic waste from your blood. It’s these waste products that make you sore afterward. Warm-downs are like taking out the trash. At Resting Heart Rate, it takes one minute for your blood to cycle from the heart, get filtered through your organs, and return to the beginning. This happens much faster when the heart rate is at an easy, recovery pace. Make it easy for your body to remove those waste products through activity, rather than letting everything settle back into the muscles and get trapped there.
None of these ideas are revolutionary. You may be doing all or most of them already. If so, hopefully this gives you validation and encouragement to continue your consistency. If you’re not, then maybe you’ve forgotten that looking after the easiest, most basic things can sometimes make bigger differences than the newest, most high-tech things money can buy.