Recovery Methods & Training
Before we start I must say this is a little bit of a long
one, I cut it short at the end due to the fact I didn’t want you to be sat or
stood reading this forever. I hope you find it interesting and informative and
please let me know if you would like me to further this topic of discussion on
another post. Apart from that, ENJOY!
Over the past couple of years I’ve found myself becoming
increasingly interested in the topic of Recovery & Recovery methods in
training. This interest ignited at first with a personal experience. Around 2-3
years ago I remember injuring my back during a training session, back then I
would train pretty much every day, sometimes even 3 times a day, usually
following a routine of morning HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training),
Afternoon Circuit training & Evening 1+ Hours weight training or a 10k run.
When I look back now I’m surprise I didn’t cripple myself for good but I sure
did pay for all the training and lack of recovery or injury prevention methods.
My injury was never diagnosed correctly therefore it wasn’t
until last year I gained an understanding of what it may have been. Basically
as a result of muscular tension/tightness build up in the muscles surrounding
my pelvis, it caused my pelvis to tilt into an unfavourable position during the
bottom a squat (you may know it as a “bum tuck”). After chronic build-up of
tension and lack of mobility/flexibility work to counteract it, my lower back
and the muscles connected to my lower vertebrae became overly stretched in the
lower squat position, causing them to tear and leave me flat on the floor for a
week.
Ever since then I have progressively understood the
importance of recovery in training. I now know that if I want to train like I
do as often as I want to, I need to put my body in a favourable state to do so,
otherwise I will more than likely experience another injury.
If you follow RikFit on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, you
will understand that I do tend to go on about recovery quite a lot. This week I
uploaded a couple of posts on the topic, but as usual it never gets much
interest. The reason for this in my opinion is due to the fact recovery is seen
as “boring”, it is not something a lot of us want to do as we are under the
impression that it doesn’t get us what we want most, which as a generalisation
for the general population, is a good looking body. Another reason is due to
the fact many people don’t understand how recovery helps when chasing certain
goals, we know we must rest at some point but we are all under the impression
that we have to be part of “Team NO DAYS OFF” or “More training is better to
burn more calories”, therefore putting recovery to one side to make the most
out of training. This is why I am writing this post, it is to help you
understand how important recovery is in training and how they must both work
together to maximise your results.
As usual let’s start off with a definition. What is
recovery? Well in the context of training, recovery is defined as to return to
a normal state of health, mind or strength. This immediately bring to mind
“rest”. Rest of course is a great form of recovery, however let’s decipher the
definition a little bit more. It’s a RETURN to a NORMAL state of HEALTH, MIND
or STRENGTH. What you must understand here is that you could be at a normal
state of health but you may not be strong, you could be a normal state of mind
but not a normal state of health, do you get where I am going with this? In
order to sustain a healthy lifestyle and a long term training regime, you must
try to insure that your performance both physically and psychologically is in a
normal state or a “homeostasis state” so to say, in order to recover and
function efficiently.
Moving onto the more interesting part, let’s talk about how recovery
methods and long term training both intertwine. In order to change, progress or
improve aesthetics or performance, your body needs a constant new stimulus to
adapt and evolve to e.g. a training programme should naturally follow a process
of progressive overload, to achieve this, frequency, intensity, time and
the type of training must be altered
continuously throughout the programme. This will in turn create a constant new
stimulus to adapt and evolve to. Leading on from this, in order to stimulate
maximum adaptation, you must be able to perform the whole programme and perform
it to the best of your physical ability. This will plane and simply not be
sustainable or possible without implementing the correct recovery methods into
your routine, this must be done to ensure you can conjure maximal effort and
performance into each and every one of your training sessions. Don’t get me
wrong, I’m not saying you have to be a raging bull every single time you train,
but what I am saying is you should be in a position going into your training
session, where both your physical and mental state is ready for the acute
stress about to be placed up on it.
It’s all good and well me telling you how important recovery
in training is, but it doesn’t have any true benefit if you can’t or do not
know how to utilise or implement recovery into your training programme or
routine. This is why I am now going to explain and give some examples of
recovery method I like my clients at RikFit to utilise and that you can utilise
yourself. I’m going to list what in my opinion, are the main recovery methods
everyone should utilise.
Taking A Day Off:
Let’s start off with the simplest one of all, REST! As I
mentioned before, you honestly don’t have to be a part of “Team NO DAYS OFF” if
you don’t feel up to it, or if more importantly, your body isn’t in a position
to benefit from it. A simple way to assess when you need rest is by analysing
your training performance, for example, you usually squat 80% of your 1RM (1
REP MAX) fairly easily for 2-3 reps, however today you struggled to even get 1
rep overall. This is a clear sign of fatigue and decrease in performance,
therefore a great indication you should… REST! Keep assessing your performance
every time you train, your goal is to use trial and error with rest and
training days until you find a suitable amount of on and off days (on =
training, off = rest) that allows you to continuously perform at a high level
and ultimately progress on a weekly basis.
Stretching &
Mobility work:
I’m not going to get into all the various types of
stretching and mobility work you could use. This is because the people I’m
writing for probably do not mobilise before training or stretch afterwards very
often. What I am going to do though is explain why you do at least some
mobility before training and why you should stretch after every training
session, especially if you have a number of tight areas you need to work.
Mobility work before a training session will allow your body
to prepare for the range of movement and load you are about to place up on it.
In my experience, many people walk into a gym and go straight into “set 1”
without even giving their body a change to warm up or experience the pressure
or stress about to be placed upon it, this is basically a recipe for disaster.
At RikFit I take mobility work before and during a session quite seriously,
especially with clients that need it the most. We usually start by taking each
joint through their range of movement, whether that’s max flexion, extension,
adduction, abduction, protraction, retraction etc. After this we will then
perform mobility work during the training session, this will be specific to the
exercise being performed, for example if my client has little range of motion
in their Ankles during a squat, then Ankle mobilisation techniques will be
utilised during rest periods for a number of sets.
Stretching is something most of us tend to turn away from,
we only want to do the things that get us direct results, therefore after your
training session when you tired and sweaty, the last thing you really want to
do is stretch. Although, as I’ve mention throughout this post, in order to live
a sustainable long term training based lifestyle, you need to ensure your body
is physical state to do so. Everyone who doesn’t stretch or utilises mobility
methods will more than likely have a “tight” area or muscle group within their
body, this will more often than not be reflective of their lifestyle and how
they spend most of their time. For example, if you have an office job and are
sat in a chair all day, you will most likely have tight Hamstrings, Hip-flexors
and inactive Glutes. Meaning when it comes to a squat, you are going to
struggle with the positioning of your pelvis to allow for a healthy, full range
of motion squat. At RikFit I like to identify tight muscle groups as early on
as possible to help create a safe structured programme that will minimise risk
of injury and hopefully improve the flexibility of the cause for concern areas.
After training we will usually perform a good 10-15 minute stretch off focusing
on the main muscle groups used in the training session, this is also the time
where I like to prolong stretches specifically on areas for improvement,
therefore these stretched will be what we call “Developmental” stretches, which
focus on developing or increasing the range of movement within a stretch.
How often should you mobilise and stretch? Well it true
depends on the current physical state you are in and the pressure a load your
body can handle from the type of training you perform. A good rule of thumb
would be to utilise mobility before a training session, stretch after a workout
and maybe perform 15-20m minimum on your rest days to keep a good healthy
flexibility and range of motion in major muscles and joints.
At RikFit I always like to look for a second opinion, this
is to confirm inflexible muscle/muscle groups or areas with decreased range of
motion that have identified early on in training. This brings me on to my next
point of utilising a good Physiotherapist.
Physiotherapy:
Physiotherapy is great in numerous ways, one way is the fact
a good physiotherapist can identify any restriction or movement issues you may
have, of which you can then work on both with a qualified coach and the Physio
themselves. Another is a Physio can utilise tissue release and manipulation
methods to help free up any tight muscles or muscle groups. Also you’re a good
Physio may even be able to identify whether you have muscular or skeletal
issues that they can or cannot deal with, if this is the case, they may refer
you two a good Osteopath who can focus more on the biomechanics of why you are
experiencing specific restricted movement or tightness in a given area. RikFit
clients are usually referred for a “MOT” for lack of a better word, to assess
their current state at the beginning of a very intense training programme,
after receiving feedback from a Physio, the clients programme will be altered
specifically to cater for any issues raised.
If you cannot access a Physio or Osteopath, or it is simply too
pricey, then at least utilise the recovery method of foam rolling or a masseuse.
Foam rolling is a great way to target and release tight muscles, the great thing
about it is the fact that you can perform it at home, at the gym or anywhere
you want as long as you have foam roller, which tend to be very affordable and
easy to purchase. Just visit a sports shop near you or search “foam roller”
online.
A masseuse will help to relieve a build-up of tension and
stress to relax the body, aiding it in recovery. However it is important to
make sure that they are qualified and know what they are doing. Manipulating
muscle tissue isn’t as simple as to apply pressure in the hope to relieve
tension, it is much more complex and requires experienced hands to manipulate
muscle with the right amount of pressure, direction and motion.
Consume More Food/Calories:
I’m going to be brief with this one as it is a topic I will
talk about as a whole on a later date. The majority of people who are training
to improve general health or their physique, plain and simply do not eat enough
to perform at a high enough intensity to stimulate bodily change. This then
turns into a vicious cycle as they will also not be consuming enough calories
or even correct macro nutrient amounts, to allow muscular repair as well as
adaptation. Your body is like a machine, it will not function efficiently
running on fumes, you must supply it with fuel to work and function at maximum
capacity and output. As a rough guideline, first calculate you BMR (Base
Metabolic Rate, search online to find the equation) to find out the minimum
amount of calories you need to maintain your body weight, make sure you also
account for added energy expenditure, e.g. lifestyle, such as your job or
training frequency, intensity, time and type. Second, compare this with the
amount of calories you are consuming now. Once you have taken these two steps,
you will even have an outcome of a calorie surplus or deficit, if a surplus
then great! You are consuming enough calories to maintain your performance and
help repair muscle tissue. If you are at a deficit, then set a plan of gradual
increase in calories on a weekly basis until you are at a minimum of
maintenance level BMR. This is something I implement with my clients after
following the RikFit Natural food protocol for a sufficient amount of time, I
can usually identify signs of under eating when performance if very poor and
progress isn’t regularly occurring.
Lastly I’d like to briefly cover macronutrients, well more
so one macronutrient which is protein. Protein is made up of amino-acids, when
consumed protein is broken down into these various amino acids which play a
huge part in tissue repair. It is very important, especially if you are
performing a training type that breaks down muscular tissue to a large extent,
that you consume enough protein within your calories to aid in muscular
recover. I’m not going to give an exact amount, but just ensure you are have a
good number of portions of protein based foods each day to ensure a sufficient
amount of amino acids are supplied to the body to help aid in muscular repair
and recovery.
I was now going to go onto supplementation but seeing as I
don’t want to over complicate things for the people who are just interested in
keeping things as simple as possible. If you would like to know more about
supplementation and how it can aid recovery please let me know and I will add a
post onto this one completely on the topic.
SUMMARY
To completely summarise everything I have just spoken about,
you must understand some key points:
- Recovery is to return to a normal state of
health, mind or strength.
- In order to recover your must implement adequate
recovery methods.
- Without sufficient recovery, your risk of injury
increases substantially.
- In order to train long term, you must ensure
your body is in a healthy physical state to maintain performance.
- In order to stimulate adaptation, your body must
be in a state to do so.
- Utilise recovery methods to help repair the body
to a physical state to perform at a high level.
- Utilise recovery method to help improve the body’s
physical state to perform and exercise safely.
- Stretch & Mobilise to increase muscular flexibility
and joint range of motion.
- Physiotherapy will aid in identifying areas for
concern and improvement. Also, if utilised on a regular basis, will help to
improve the areas for concern, in turn leading to a healthier physical state to
perform and train.
- Food is your friend and always will be if you
use it nourish your body.
- Consume enough calories reach you BMR plus
energy expenditure.
- Consume an adequate amount of protein to aid in
tissue repair and recovery.
Again I hope this blog helped you and you are taking
something from this for the better. As usual these are my views and the views
of RikFit so please don’t take this a set in stone procedure, it’s just a
simplistic guideline to help the average person understand why recovery and
training have to work together to achieve sustainable long term results. Have a
great day a comment with some feedback if possible, positive or negative,
everyone is entitled to an opinion and I would very much like to hear yours if
you have read it.
Contact via:
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Instagram & Twitter – @RikFitDC
Email – RikFitDynamicCoaching@Gmail.com
