The Basics: Recovery
Defined: a return to normal state of health, mind, or strength.
The art of recovery (and yes, it is an art) is often discussed but rarely implemented effectively.
Recovery is important in the exercising realm in order to maximise adaptation to a training stimulus. Most often, it’s believe that doing more training will lead you to achieve your goals. Running greater distances, lifting heavier weights, swimming extra laps; will not necessary be the answer to your performance goals. The necessity of recovery can be best understood by firstly understanding how we adapt to training.
Adaptation to training occurs through super-compensation. A stimulus (training) is applied to the body causing fatigue. Recovery is the compensatory response which, when completed effectively, overshoots the original state of the body creating a super-compensatory effect. This repeated over time is what creates positive change in training stimulus (not just the training itself).
Recovery methods include:
- Sleep.
- Active Recovery & Stretching.
- Massage therapy.
- Heat therapies.
- Cold therapies.
- Compression garments and machines.
The best type of recovery will depend on:
- The type of training you have completed.
- How your body responds to different types of recovery methods.
While each recovery method has its benefits depending on the situation, its effectiveness will be largely dependent on how you as the individual respond to it. There may be certain therapies which you have adverse thoughts towards, which will reduce the likelihood of them being effective. Other therapies will only be assistive if completed regularly. Therefore, your consistency with the activity will impact on how effective it is for your recovery.
So where is the best place to start when creating a recovery routine?
Plan as far in advance as you are able to. Make sure that you have appropriate rest days between your training sessions, to ensure you aren’t feeling sore every time you’re back for a session. Be mindful of how much sleep you’re managing throughout the week, and that attending sessions isn’t at the expense of achieving enough sleep. The basics in recovery will go a long way to assisting you, so make sure that you get them right before adding in too many extras.
