What more should you know about Recovery?
By Principal APA Titled Sports & Exercise Physio, Britt Caling
A reminder of what is “Recovery”:
Recovery allows the restoration of physiological (body) and psychological (brain) processes so that you can:
- Compete or train again at a similar level
- Allow adaptations to training to occur
- Increase the quality and quantity of training
- Reduce the risk of developing overuse injuries and
- Reduce risk of overreaching (overtraining)g & symptoms
- And is therefore essential to performance!
The body needs to be physically stressed (through exercise) to improve fitness. However, the body actually improves when at rest (ie during recovery) as recovery counteracts the physical damage that occurs during exercise.
Improvements in fitness occur because of rest and recovery AFTER training.
Competition, training, study/work and social stressors all contribute to fatigue. You need to Recover from all stressors to gain the maximum benefit to performance
Recovery strategies include:
* Hydrotherapy (water strategies) – click here for our previous info on this strategy to assist recovery
* Rest and sleep – click here for our previous info on this strategy to assist recovery
* Nutrition – see next article in this newsletter
* Warm-down and stretch
* Physio & Massage
* Compression Garments
* Psychological methods – ie. relaxation, mental imagery
What is Active recovery?
Active recovery refers to movement and slow/gentle exercise after training/competition of low intensity and low stress to the body.
The aim of active recovery is to:
- increase blood flow and enhance removal of metabolites (eg lactate). Metabolites may slow repair and recovery of your muscles and other tissues
- reduce muscle soreness and stiffness following activity/exercise
- psychologically recover from the session completed
Particularly when it comes to DOMS (delayed onset of muscle soreness) that occurs after unaccustomed exercise, the only factor that assists a reduction in DOMS is active recovery. ps. DOMS cannot be prevented and is a good occurrence in many ways- this response from your muscles and soft tissues is what signals your tissues to adapt to the exercise stimuli you have just been exposed to so that your tissues can better tolerate the forces next time around. Excessive DOMS can, however, be quite disabling for 24-36hrs, so to minimise the effects, active recovery is the best option.
What are the options for active recovery?
Active recovery can take many forms and is often the exercise you have been undertaking, but in a slower, less intense form, or it may be completely different.
Have you ever seen the news show footage of professional Rugby, AFL or Soccer player walking up and down a swimming pool after a hard game? This is a form of active recovery. It may also be a walk at the end of a hard run, or a light bike ride home from a training session. Active Recovery may be jumping in your pool at home and gently swinging your legs and arms, or holding the edge of the pool and kicking easy. Choose an activity that continues to make your blood flow around your body and an activity that feels good.
What about the role of Stretching in Active Recovery?
Stretching can help increase range of movement and assist reducing soft tissue tension (note: stretching does not help you recover from DOMS faster)
For recovery, the purpose of stretching is primarily to relax the muscle and soft tissues. This is best achieved by short, static (held) stretches, held until you feel the tissue “give”, or relax. The aim of this stretching is to be gentle and not push into the stretch so hard that it is uncomfortable, or that you are shaking. The tissues need to relax so you need to find supported positions to stretch in so that you can relax while stretching.
Time stretching is also a good opportunity to allow your mind to relax and recover.
Don’t forget about the importance of Massage and Physio to assist your Recovery. See our Special Offer for this month for our Massage, Physio and Exercise Physiology deal to help you with Private Health Rebates starting to run low!
Happy Competing, Training and Recovering…
