I believe
I’m paraphrasing Mark Rippetoe when I say that you do not get bigger and
stronger by lifting weights. You get
bigger and stronger by recovering from lifting weights. The average trainee seeking size and strength
will spend anywhere from 3-8 hours per week doing the work in the gym to achieve
their goals. But it’s the 160-165 hours
outside of the gym that can make or break even the best written training
program. Without recovery there is no
progress. If you’ve put in smart work in
the gym you come back just a bit stronger and bigger than you were last
time. These effects aren’t noticeable
from one training session to the next, but the cumulative effects can be seen
when looked at through the lens of time.
Here are some recovery methods that can help speed up your recovery so
you can train harder for longer and reach your goals or bust through plateaus
quicker.
Myofascial Release.
Or rolling
out, or foam rolling, or whatever you want to call it. If you’re not doing it you should be. The products necessary for myfascial release
are extremely inexpensive. All you
really need are three tennis or lacrosse balls and an 18” section of 4” pvc
pipe with or without some foam padding taped to the outside. The techniques are all over the internet but
some of the big ones to focus on are the iliotibial bands, ankles/calves,
quads/hip flexors, upper back, and pectorals.
Myofascial
release does just what its name implies.
It releases the fascia surrounding your muscles. Fascia is a thin filament that surrounds all
your muscles and essentially connects everything to everything else. Think of it like a balloon surrounding
air. When you compress one section the
other sections are put under pressure to accommodate the decrease in area. Myofascial release relieves these pressure
points and decreases the overall pressure back to normal.
It is also a
great way to start and end a workout due to the increase in blood flow to the
muscles.
Contrast Showers/ Cold Baths
The science
investigating the efficacy of contrast showers and cold tubs is inconsistent. Some say there is no physiological benefits
to temperature change in regards to decreasing recovery time in muscles. But the anecdotal evidence can’t be ignored. Many athletes will report that cold tubs and
contrast baths help them recover to a greater degree than nothing. This may be a case of the placebo effect in
action, but the placebo effect can be a powerful thing.
Food
If you don’t
eat, you don’t recover. All nutrients
are required for this. Fats,
carbohydrates, and proteins all play a significant role in the repair of bodily
tissues after a training session.
Protein is important in that it is made up of amino acids which are the
building blocks to new muscle. Proteins
are also the building blocks to many of the hormones that drive cell repair
within the body.
Fats are
needed for cell repair since most cell membranes are made up of lipids. Fats also play a significant role in hormonal
function and vitamin absorption.
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| The fish looks depressed. |
Many believe
that post-workout carbs are needed for the insulin response which drives amino
acids into the muscle. While insulin
does do this it also does other things that promote protein synthesis. What insulin does is to keep the protein
synthesis (muscle building/repair) window open for longer.
Proteins are
needed for the amino acids they provide which are the building blocks of new
muscle. Proteins also make up your skin,
hair, nails, many hormones, and are vital to your immune system.
Water
When you go
through a tough training session you break tissues down. When they are broken down they are then built
back up. All of this creates waste
products that need to be flushed from the body.
Having enough and sometimes more than enough is a great way to help
flush these waste products out of your tissues.
As was stated in the walking section excess fluid and inflammation can
cause pain. Forcing your body to get
those fluids and waste products moving out of your body by drinking a lot of
water is a great way to reduce that inflammation.
A hydrated
muscle cell is also a requirement to building new muscle. No water, no new muscle.
Walking
Walking and
any kind of light cardio is great for recovery due to the blood flow that it
stimulates. With blood flow comes
nutrients needed for repair and a conduit for the removal of waste and
inflammation. There is evidence to
suggest that some of the pain associated with soreness is due to swelling and
inflammation that pushes on nerve ending causing them to send a pain signal to
the brain. Walking/light cardio is a
great way to help flush the muscles and get excess fluid moving out of them.
Sleep
Besides food
for obvious reasons getting more sleep is the most important on this list. If you do only one thing on this list make it
be getting more and better quality sleep.
7-9 hours per night with as much of that coming before midnight as
possible will help you repair and recover and help keep your body’s natural
rhythm of hormone release right where it should be.
Make sure
the room you sleep in is as dark as possible and is a cool temperature.
Massage
Getting a
massage is like rolling out on warp drive.
Massages help release trigger points, break up adhesions where the
muscle is actually sticking to the bone, release toxins from your system. Many
people will feel sick after a particularly vigorous massage. That’s the toxins. Drink lots of water to help flush them out.
Stress Management
Stress and
its signature hormone, cortisol, are big hindrances to recovery and ultimately
improvement. In some cases you want
cortisol and other stress hormones to be released but for those who have
constant stress there is a constant supply of cortisol release. Having elevated cortisol raises blood
pressure, kills testosterone production, affects sleep, and long story short
makes you very good at putting on fat and losing mouscle.
There are
many stress management techniques out there and it may take some trial and
error to find what works best for you but it will definitely go a long way to
helping improve recovery and ultimately performance.
Deloading
Deloading in
some strength circles is a four letter word.
In others it is the majority of the program with no one really pushing
themselves. The key is balance. I feel it is beneficial to take a break from
pushing yourself every now and again.
The “now and again” is important because it requires you to listen to
your body. I feel planned deloads every
4 weeks are overkill. If I’m feeling
good I don’t want to pull back. But
sometimes after a few months of heavy training I’m beat up and need a break. So I take one. I don’t plan a deload, my body basically
tells me when to take one.
Deloading
can take many different forms. Some
people avoid the gym altogether while others maintain the routine of showing up
and just do some light work and leave.
My feeling is that during a deload you should stick to your training
plan but just drop your intensity and volume.
It is also a great time to really hammer away on mobility issues and
soft tissue work since that is probably the crux of why you need a deload.
But like I
said, listen to your body. Don’t take a
deload just because you’re having a bad day.
Everybody has those. A string of
bad workouts in a row would be a better justification to take a rest. I’m also not a fan of the fixed time
deload. Some people need two weeks,
others need two days away from the gym and they are back to where they need to
be to hoist some iron. This is going to
sound like a broken record, but seriously, listen to your body.
Summary
One caveat to all of these recovery methods...If you're not putting in the work and busting ass in the gym then stop worrying about recovery. You have to put in the work to get anything out of these.
Finding the
right method of recovery is more of an art than a science. Start with the big picture methods like
getting more and better sleep, cleaning up your diet, drinking more water and
removing stress. After you get those down start adding in the other ones. Some of the methods on the list work for some
but not others. Give each one a fair
shake and if it doesn’t work move on.
I would not try to do all of them at once. If you do that you never really know what is
working and what isn’t. Then you are
stuck in a recovery routine that takes up more of your day than training. And we all know lifting heavy things is way
more fun than recovery work, unless your recovery work is frequent massage by a
buxom Swedish masseuse. If that’s the
case, recover away.
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