Recovery as training

I have spoken a few times about different elements or modalities of recovery in previous blogs and newsletters but when we think about training how do we factor it in to our programs. Whether you are training for a particular event or training to lose weight, to be successful you should be working with a plan or structure to have the best opportunity of reaching your goals. Your exercise is part of this equation but what about the rest of the time? What do you do in between workouts? Does it matter?

Why Recovery?

To understand why this topic is important for achieving our goals we need to understand what happens during the "hard work" in our training sessions. How do we create change in our bodies to lose fat, increase muscle size or improve aerobic endurance?

Now the finer detail of each one of these goals mentioned is different and a larger discussion in its own right on how to train towards it. The broad picture though is that for any change we have to test our bodies and push our limits to some degree. The human body has an amazing capacity to respond to challenge or stress and come up with a way to adapt and make it easier next time. This is the process we go through with physical work but also mental work as well as we learn. Stress is one useful term when looking at exercise but damage is another key component; the more stress the body comes under the more damage is done on a cellular and physiological level. This is exercise for the large part. It is said that for the majority of runners who complete a marathon, for example, when they finish they are in a state of "injury" and i'm not talking about a sprained ankle or a sore knee. I can attest to this through the marathons or Ultra-marathons that I have completed where my body as a whole is in a state of dis-repair and it can take weeks to get back to normal.

The body operates as one machine with different systems working together to keep things ticking over smoothly. Exercise creates a stress on each of these systems from muscle specific, capacity to exercise aerobically (heart and lugs), neurological stress (nerves) and hormonal stress. An increase in work for any of these results in a knock on effect for the whole body. A good amount of this stress when planned for appropriately with a personal trainer or coach is needed to reach your goals and become stronger. Recovery is then the time it takes for the body to fix the damage and get the body systems as strong as before the exercise or stronger; but how often do we plan our recovery and what can we do?

How to boost recovery

In my readings this week the phrase being used is "the art of recovery" implying that there is a creative element to recovery but also that there isn't a black and white answer. Training programs as a whole have a combination of the science knowing exactly what demands are needed to create the desired change yet every person is different so at some point it needs to be specific to the individual. The biggest challenge for recovery is exactly this individualised planning of exercise to get the right recovery.

Training Load

From a coaching perspective the prescription of "training load" also has this art to be able to assess and adapt training dependent on the clients training tolerance. Training load is a combination of the duration and intensities of each workout and the cumulative volume of work done. The balance of a training program on a weekly basis is just as important as the longer term build up. The better the relationship between trainer and client the more efficient this process becomes. For those of you that don't work with a trainer or coach this is still an important aspect to recognise that you will need to adjust your training load based on what works for you and how you feel. This is the challenge to know when to train hard, when to take a day off to maintain training and not crash in illness or injury. You still can't get past the benefit of self evaluation but this can take some learning as you need to be honest that you actually don't feel ready to train rather than you just can't be bothered. Here is a link for a Profile Of Mood States Questionnaire that when done weekly will give you a really good idea of how you are tracking.
Objective scientific tests have been found to be insufficient in comparison to self assessment up until now but we watch this space as Heart Rate Variability testing is showing promise. Using a good heart rate monitor (phones and wrist watch monitors are not good enough) taking a heart rate test first thing in the morning and timing the difference in between beats with an app. Its still early days but this is technology to try out and match to your own mood state to validate its use.

Nutrition

Outside of the exercise prescription there are two recovery methods that research shows are important for everyone; thankfully both of these you will already be doing in some way, nutrition and sleep. If you were to rate methods of recovery these would be the best things to get right. Nutrition is a massive part of performance and body shape goals but because of the regularity or emotional relationship to food and drink it is often overlooked.
The number one thing you can do is drink more water! Make a glass of water your first drink of the day, drink water during exercise (especially if its longer than 45 mins) and drink a glass of water with your meals. Every cell in your body contains water and in between them too, you would die of dehydration before you die of starvation. This is the easiest change to make, no excuses.
You can then think about the balance of your diet; for active people carbohydrates are your energy for the most part and you won't perform as well as you could without them (listen to the podcast below for more information). Fat can also be used as energy and we need it in our diet too, then Protein is essential for repair, growth, recovery and should be about 30% of your daily intake. I'm not a nutritionist or dietitian so I can't prescribe a diet plan for you but you can make big improvements by trying to eat whole foods and have multiple colours of foods on your meal plate. This is the first step to be wise about food choices.

Sleep

I wrote the other week about the importance of "sleep hygiene" and getting your routine around sleep settled to improve sleep quality. Along with nutrition this is the only other incontrovertible recovery method everyone should look to improve. You will have heard that 7-8 hrs of sleep is needed but if you are in a phase of high volume of exercise then actually 9 or even 10 hrs can be beneficial. Busy work schedules and family life can mean this isn't always feasible during certain times but a 30 mins nap before 4pm has also shown to help when overnight sleep is insufficient. Again I know this isn't always possible but check out my post about sleep below. 

Ice baths, compression, massage/massage guns

All these "other" treatment methods often come attached to products and sales that dominate how much you know about them or if they are popular. Each of these methods and more have research both 'for' and 'against' their use highly dependent on what the study is measuring and trying to improve.
Cold water (8-10 degrees) can be beneficial for short term recovery, as in same day or 24 hrs, but recent research actually shows that it can blunt the adaptive response reducing improvements. Great for competitions or tournaments and for injury but not for general use.
Massage has great therapeutic benefits and helps us to feel better which is a reason in itself but if you don't like massage then again it is a non-essential. The area massage excels is with particular muscular impairment, if you know that certain muscle are 'tight' then you can use it as treatment tool more than a recovery tool.
Compression is the last method I'll will mention,although there are many more, and again it is subjective if you feel it helps then by all means carry on as it won't do you any harm but like massage it won't necessarily work wonders for everyone.

So, focus on improving your nutrition and setting a good bedtime routine then try other methods and see what works for you but be realistic that a habit you can change and maintain is the one that will serve you best.