Recovering from workouts is as important a part of any training regimen as the workouts themselves. Intense training temporarily lowers the abilities, or preparedness, of the athlete. Improvements come in the form of supercompensation, or recovery to a point of higher preparedness than existed before the workout. If an athlete fails to recover fully between workouts, the net training effect can actually be negative, decreasing preparedness. This is overtraining.
Taken from The Science and Practice of Strength Training by V. Zatsiorski, page 11.
The above graphic plots preparedness as a function of time, where y = 0 is the initial level of preparedness. Black rectangles represent workouts. In this case, the athlete has not recovered completely between workouts, leading to an overall decrease in preparedness, shown as the dashed line.
Taken from The Science and Practice of Strength Training by V. Zatsiorski, page 11.
In this case, the recovery between workouts is optimal, and subsequent workouts take place during supercompensation, or elevated preparedness, leading to an overall increase in preparedness.
To tell if your recovery is optimal, gauge how you feel just before each workout. If you generally feel tired and don't want to train, your recovery is sub-optimal. You should feel like you want to train, but not overly excited. If you usually feel lots of energy and excitement to go to the gym, increase the training load. Other symptoms of sub-optimal recovery include reduced appetite, reduced sex drive, and restlessness.
Many athletes make the mistake of taking recovery lying down (that's punny). While sleep and rest are, of course, very important to recovery, they're nowhere near the whole picture. Active recovery methods must be performed as well. I perform active recovery the morning after an intense training session. The goal is to move blood to and loosen up the effected muscles. This will greatly reduce, or even eliminate, soreness and speed recovery.
Here are some methods of active recovery and restoration:
- Extra workouts - Perform very light, relatively high rep workouts. It's believed that using exercises with no eccentric portion is best to prevent fatigue. Examples include sled work, and high rep "blood flow" work with bands. If you don't have those, simply performing what would normally be considered warm up sets is also effective. Walking and light biking can be used, but not running or other cardio activities.. Remember, you should NOT feel muscular fatigue from these workouts.
- Sauna / Steam Room - Here's a quote from Louie Simmons on how to use these: "1. In either case start with a cold shower for 5 minutes. Let the water
cover the entire body. When you go to get in the steam or sauna, make
sure to lay down. The reason for this is to keep your blood pressure
down. Just by being in there your blood pressure will rise. If you lay
down it will rise less. Since you are trying to relax, it would be best
to keep the BP low. It also is a good idea to roll up a towel and place
it behind your neck. This will let your neck relax. You should also wet a
towel with cold water to place over your head while you are in there.
2. You are going to do intervals with the steam and sauna. Start with the cold shower as mentioned above. Then move into the sauna for 3 to 4 minutes. After this time move back into the shower for 1/2 the duration you were in the sauna (1.5 - 2 minutes). Repeat the above two or three times, then move
up to the next step up in the sauna. It is wise to start on the low step and move up. If you are using the steam, then you can go in for 4-5 minutes. The reason you can stay in there longer is because your body is taking in water through the steam.
3. Always be drinking something. I Iike to use watered down Gatorade.
4. Keep in mind that you body is always trying to adapt so change the interval sets, or mix and match the steam, sauna, whirlpool, swimming pool, ect.
5. Always finish cold.
6. If you do this right you will feel refreshed and your next workout will feel stronger. If not you will feel whipped out and your next workout will be a nightmare. If you screw it up just adjust the program (sounds just like resistance training)." - Contrast Showers - Simply alternate between 30-120 seconds of straight cold and as hot as you can handle for three to five cycles. This will lower your core temperature, and, in my experience, it helps with general feelings of fatigue.
- Sports Massage (Myofascial Release) - If you have the money, sports massage is one of the best ways to speed recovery. It works similarly to stretching, and improves blood flow to the muscle. It also breaks up adhesions in the fascia, which can affect mobility and recruitment.
- Foam Rolling (Self Myofascial Release) - This works the same as sports massage, but is much cheaper and not as effective. More aggressive versions include PVC and lacrosse ball rolling.
- Stretching - Stretching is another way to move blood into muscles, which helps them to recover faster. It will also loosen up a tight muscle, obviously.
- Eat and Sleep - You can't recover if you don't eat and sleep enough. It's as simple as that.
Remember to vary the use of recovery methods. The body can accommodate to any stimulus, and recovery is no exception. As a general rule, don't use any training or recovery technique for more than three consecutive weeks without making some kind of change in either the duration or type of method.
References
Zatsiorsky, Vladimir M. Science and Practice of Strength Training. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 1995. Print.
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