Top Six Recovery Methods for Athletes
By
Joe Hashey
I’ll start off by putting it simply—you must train hard and recover
hard! I work with a variety of athletes at Synergy Athletics. Keep in mind—these
are mostly high school and college age athletes who are often at the mercy of
their school schedules. Here are some healthy ways to recover your body and
restore your muscles!
· Food: It’s simple. When you’re done working out, you have to
eat a protein source to build muscles. Muscles are made of proteins, and without
consuming any protein quickly (in the first 45 minutes after a workout—the
earlier the better), muscles won’t grow. It’s like trying to build a log cabin
without wood. It just doesn’t make any sense.
On top of that, eating quality meals with a protein source, carbohydrate, and
additional vegetable will help your body feel better after training. Ever eat
fast food after a hard lifting session? Your muscles will be feeling it the next
day. I’ve done it with pizza. Not pleasant. You’ve already done the hard work in
the gym, so don’t sabotage yourself in the kitchen!
Healthy meals go a long way toward recovery.
· Self-myofascial release and active release techniques (ART):
This includes foam rolling, which I have posted about extensively, using a lax
ball, Theracane, the Stick, or any other massage tool. When a muscle stretches
near the point of injury, the Golgi tendon organ (GTO) tells the muscle spindles
to relax. Foam rolling stimulates the muscle and works the GTO so the athlete
can work in a more complete range of motion without the muscles shutting down.
Also, ART techniques are helpful in fixing soft tissue adhesion and dissipating
scar tissue build up. Foam rollers cost around $10–20, and a lax ball is around
$1.
Lacrosse ball, glute ART
· Contrast showers and baths: For the first few times that you
use contrast showers, it may be uncomfortable but still invigorating! I recall
when John Frieser, a new trainer here at Synergy Athletics, was getting ready
for the NFL combines. He had his full day scheduled including his time in the
shower! There are different time sequences used, but I prefer one minute as cold
as I can stand followed by two minutes as warm as possible. Also, you can
isolate the contrasting to a body part such as the hands by using two
buckets—one with hot water and one with icy cold water. Perform contrasting and
you will feel great! Contrasting relaxes and excites the muscles, moves blood
through, and shortens the restoration time.
Contrasting cuts recovery time
· Warm up, stretch, and relax: Stretching has been a hot topic
in the training world lately. Stretching post-workout and on rest days will help
recovery. First, during a workout, muscles contract and shorten. Stretching them
after the workout insures the muscles range of motion and length. Pre-workout
you should be using (with a couple exceptions) a dynamic stretching routine. For
recovery, I recommend increasing the body’s core temperature with some light
exercises such as jogging or jumping jacks and then perform a static stretching
routine.
Stretching it out
· Hydrate: Drinking water is crucial, but I don’t use strict
guidelines such as “drink 8 oz every 13 1/6 minutes.” I just tell the athletes
to drink. They bring water with them when they train, and they keep a bottle of
water with them during the day. There are many recovery drinks out there, but to
keep my demographic in mind, water is the most practical. Drinking on your rest
days will help push toxins out and keep the muscles loose.
Always stay hydrated!
· Relax (sleep): It’s not rocket science here! Recovery
requires relaxing. I have some clients that want to stay up on their video games
or Facebooking until 1:00 am, wake up at 6:30 am to go to school, and then come
workout. That’s not how it works! You must relax and get your sleep. At their
age, they should be getting around eight hours of sleep a night. More rest may
be required after a strenuous competition or training. Nowadays, you can’t pay
me to stay up after 11:00 pm. I wish I loved sleeping when I was younger as much
as I do now!
This model of health and fitness knows the importance of sleep.
Shouldn’t you?!
I apologize for the above picture, but because I had to look at it, I figure
everyone should! Now to summarize, if you implement these recovery and
restoration methods, you will feel better and more importantly you can train
harder. Isn’t that the point? At Synergy Athletics, we like to “train hard
and recover hard.” All of these methods take a little effort and a small portion
of time. Athletes that don’t recover are cheating themselves in the gym!
Joe Hashey is a certified strength and conditioning specialist through the
NSCA and the owner of Synergy Athletics. After playing Division 1AA football at
Colgate University, he dedicated his time and experience to helping the next
generation of athletes. For more articles or to contact Joe, visit
www.Synergy-Athletics.com. Videos of his training techniques can also be found
at www.youtube.com/jhashey.
Photo credits: Sleep photo via Malias on Flickr; shower photo via Genius
Beauty; water photo via Earth News; and stretching photo via Corbis.
Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength
training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products
and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the
industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories, visit
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