Recovery

One of the most important but underrated aspects of physical fitness is recovery.  Recovery is when the physical adaptation to exercise and the neural "reprogramming" occur.  For the purposes of this post, I'm talking about recovering after a competitive event, peaking after a training cycle, or an exceptionally difficult workout. Before I get started, remember, the better condition you’re in, the shorter your recovery will be.

So you've completed your training-cycle/event/workout what’s next?

• ASAP: If you feel like you may have injured yourself or there is a spot that typically bothers you (example: Bum knee or chronic tendonitis), get ice on it.
• ASAP: Hydrate, especially if you are in warm conditions or completed a long endurance activity.
• <1 hour: Eat something to help replenish glycogen stores and prevent muscle catabolism.  Preferably something with carbs and complete (animal) proteins.  I've heard the magic ratio is 4:1 carbs to proteins.  Chocolate milk fits those criteria well, so do some sports drinks like Accelerade that mix sugars and protein.  Most importantly, just eat.  Eating anything is still better than nothing.
• 0-24 hours:  Stretch and massage.  This is dependent on personal preference, but I find doing light stretching and self massage with a foam roller to be useful.
• That day:  Sleep.
• In the days after: Active recovery and cross-training.  This can be as simple a walk and stretching.  The purpose is to get blood flowing to your muscles and connective tissue.

There are some more things to consider when it comes to injury.  First off, I'm not going to prescribe anything for a specific injury, leave that to a professional.  I will suggest some common ways to combat injuries.  It goes without saying if you think you're seriously injured, see a doctor.

Heat/Cold:

• Immediately after an injury ice is usually prescribed.  Some injuries especially injuries to the back work better by applying heat.  This can vary on a case by case basis.
• Ice massage is one of the best treatments for acute injury to connective tissue.  Take a plastic cup fill it with water and freeze it.  Apply the ice directly to the skin moving the cup in a circular pattern around the injured area.  Be careful not to linger in one spot to long as that can cause frostbite.
• Ice packs and frozen vegetables can be used for sustained icing to an area.  Leave on for 10-20 minutes again be sure not to cause damage to the surrounding tissue by freezing it.
• Ice baths are good if you have multiple trouble spots.  I used these after my long runs during the summer.  The best way to do this is sit in the dry tub, start filling with cold water, and after the water is above the area of treatment start dumping ice in.  Make sure you wear shorts, a shirt, and maybe a hat.  Stay in for about 20 minutes.
• A technique that I haven't applied much, but supposedly is effective for recovery, is contrast baths/showers.  This involves alternating between hot and cold water to maximize the blood flow throughout tissue.  I would look to another source for details on this.
• I like to use hot tubs and baths for relaxing tight muscles.  I believe there are other applications for joint injuries, but I don't have much personal experience using heat so I would seek another source.

Supplements for Recovery:

I'm a firm believer that eating whole nutritious foods will always be better than taking a pill.  That being said supplements may help.  Just remember these are supplements and should be taken as such, with a variety of healthy foods.

• Glucosamine.  The effectiveness of glucosamine is in dispute.  For sufferers of joint pain it's worth a shot.  It's suggested that you need to take it for several weeks for it to really be effective.  Once the pain is gone I would cease use.  Although most studies suggest glucosamine is safe, making your body process something over the long term could have other side effects.
• Vitamin C:  Vitamin C is important in the development of collagen so if your injured taking in a higher daily dose could be beneficial.
• Creatine:  Creatine if effective in increasing muscle size and strength.  Often times rehab protocols call for increasing the strength near an injured area.  Additionally, if you've been out of action for a while creatine can help get your strength back faster.  Take creatine with sugar to increase absorption into muscles, ignore the loading protocol, take the maintenance dosage (usually about 5 grams), and make sure to drink plenty of water.  Keep in mind it will take a few weeks before results become noticeable.  Creatine has been found to be safe in the short term, but I would cycle off of it after a few months.

Overtraining/Under-recovering/Over-reaching:

Overtraining is a condition in which the stresses of exercise surpass the ability to recover from it.  True overtraining syndrome is actually fairly rare and can take several months to recover from.  It is very possible however, for amateur athletes with other life stressors or athletes with heavy training and restricted diets (i.e. bodybuilders) to experience mild episodes of overtraining.  The symptoms of overtraining include:

• Elevated resting heart rate.
• Depression.
• Increased susceptibility to illness.
• Unusually long periods of muscle soreness.
• Unexplained weight loss.
• Feeling of weakness.
• Increased incidence of injuries.

What is far more likely for most of us is simply under-recovering.  The majority of us don't have the resources available to us that professional athletes do (dietician, massage, trainers, ect.) and we have the stresses of work added on to the stresses of exercise.  Since many of these symptoms are somewhat subjective in nature, the best way to tell if you need to rest is to monitor your resting heart rate every morning when you first get up.  If your heart rate is more than ten BPM (beats per minute) above normal take the day off, if it is more than five BPM you might want to consider an easy day.  If these symptoms persist for more than a week, see a doctor.  The symptoms could be chronic overtraining or potentially another problem altogether.

The Mind:

If you use your body enough sooner or later something will break.  I try to look at injuries as an opportunity to get better at something else.  When I injured my shoulder and couldn't do pressing motions, I worked on pulling motions and improved my ability to do pull ups.  When I injured my knee and couldn't run, I swam more and got better at swimming.  Being injured sucks, but you're almost never completely restricted. Channel your injury into something positive.

Recovery is an active process it should be treated with equal importance to working out.  Learn to listen to your body. 

I realize that all this is easier said than done.  After I finish a marathon I really don't want to do anything other than a drink immediately after.  Vince Lombardi said "Fatigue makes cowards of us all."  While there is truth to that, it also makes idiots of us all.

After my marathon and in between episodes of cramping.

Good luck and get some rest.