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RECOVERY
SPRING 2008 TOPIC: RECOVERY Athletes are competitive by nature and consistently push themselves to do more in an effort to do better. Some athletes, coaches and parents are under the impression that the more training sessions that you can squeeze in per week and the harder you push yourself, the more performance benefits you’ll receive, but that is not always the case.
One of the most overlooked aspects of strength training, conditioning, or athletics in general is the process of recovery. If you look up the word “recover” in the dictionary, one of the definitions is: “to regain the strength, composure, balance, or the like, of (oneself).” When training the body to achieve maximal athletic performance, it has to be taken out of its normal state. Muscles are broken down and toxic byproducts of cellular activity are released into body. The body needs rest and proper nutrients to restore to its normal state in order to be able to reap the benefits of the process – to get stronger, bigger,and better.
Tips to Ensure You recover Between Training Sessions
- Ensure there ARE between session day(s)! Athletes and (non-athletes alike) should take 1-2 days per week to recover from moderate to high intensity activity. Try using those days for recovery activities (50% of effort or less), foam rolling and/or stretching
- Eat breakfast: It’s the most important meal of the day. Your body has been in starvation mode all night. If you skip breakfast you can really damage your metabolism which can lead to storing unnecessary body fat and overall decreased energy and performance.
- Eat 5 fruits and vegetables a day, eat a rainbow of colors to ensure you are getting a mix of vitamins and minerals and antioxidants to help your body’s immune system.
- Spread your meals out throughout the day so you get a constant supply of nutrients - 4-6 small meals per day.
- Drink one ounce of water per lb of body weight per day. If you don’t want to do the math try to consume at least 1 gallon of water per day.
- Get 8-9 hours of sleep! You need approximately 8 hrs to obtain all your sleep cycles. While sleeping hormones are released for recovery and growth.
Below are some common questions and answers about our programs that directly relate to recovery principles.
Why is there ever any standing around between exercise sets?
Training for sports properly means training the nervous system which takes longer to recover than muscles do. Exercises like the hang clean or explosive box jumps require the most muscles to fire to get the desired effect. After too many repetitions of these movements, without rest, the athlete's technique can start to suffer. When technique starts to suffer, this is when athletes are more susceptible to injury. Therefore there are built in recovery times between sets of specific exercises where technique safety and maximum power are required.
Some of our athletes feel that they should go “heavier” during strength sets because they know they can.
In the JV and the Varsity weightlifting workouts, we vary the intensity of the programs week to week because training at maximal capacity all the time will lead to decrease in performance. Therefore the programs are designed specifically for each athlete incorporating light and heavy phases of each lifting cycle.
Here are a few keys to proper recovery immediately after your AXIS session:
Consume a post workout meal or shake with 3 grams carbohydrate to every gram of protein within 30 minutes of working out. Surprisingly chocolate milk is one of the best post workout snacks to obtain your “3 to 1” ratio quickly.
Take advantage of foam rollers at Axis, use them before and after working out, and take stretching seriously at end of workouts.
Remember Training plus recovery = results!
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