Train Hard, Recover Harder

This is the 1st in my series of blogs I’ll be writing for good friend and Western Force Hooker Nathan Charles. He’ll be posting the Blogs on his website too. Go to www.nathancharles.com.au to check it out or follow him on Twitter @nathancharles2 !

To be able to get the most out of your day to day training your body needs to be able to recover. Recovery is one of the most important aspects in elite sports in the modern age, with 2 or 3 sessions in a day its vital athletes recover right to be able to train at a high intensity all the time. With no recovery the standard of training drops and places athletes at a high risk of being injured or getting sick.

Recovery is also important for the day to day gym goer or amateur athlete. In this blog I’m going to outline a few methods people can use to help maximise recovery even without access to high tech sports academies or professional set ups.

Diet: Eating the right food is vitally important to help your body recover. I use the analogy if you put the wrong petrol in your car it won’t run, this is the same with your body. If you don’t eat the right foods your body won’t function the way it should. By eating a stable diet, it greatly improves your recovery. Eating the right foods, such as foods high in protein will help your body to recover. Diet can also come down to what type of exercise you’re doing and how much exercise you’ll be doing in the coming days, a Professional Rugby Union player like Nathan  he needs adequate protein to help him recover and he also needs foods high in slow burning carbohydrates to give him energy to train and perform.

Fluids: When you train or play you sweat, this is fluid leaving your body. As you train you drink fluids (if you don’t you should) to help keep you hydrated. It’s hard however to replace all the fluid you lose through sweat as you exercise. This is why it’s important to replace these fluids post exercise to help the recovery process. To aid recovery it’s important that you drink 1.5 times the amount of fluid you lost. So for example If Nathan loses 1Litre during training he will need 1.5Litres to make up for the fluids he lost to recovery adequately. This sweat lost is worked out through weighing pre and post training.

Hot & Cold Shower: Hot and Cold showers are similar to the hot and cold baths, that many professional teams around the world use but for non-professional athletes rarely get the chance to use.  It’s done simply by varying the temperatures in the shower to have the water hot (about as hot as you can bare) for one minute followed by cold for one minute, this is then to be repeated three times. This hot and cold technique helps to warm and the cool the muscles promoting blood flow through the muscles. This process helps to rid water products from the muscles and pump the muscles full of good blood which contains nutrients to help the muscles recover.

Self-Massage: Self massage post training sessions is a great method I’ve been taught by one of my lecturers Dr Stephen Bird. There are varying methods to self-massage and imagination is the key to discovering methods that work for you. Self-massage helps the body to recover by improving circulation, relaxing muscles, speeding up the removal of waste products from the muscle and improve range of motion.  Self-massaging techniques can involves the use of a foam roller, tennis ball, golf ball, pocket physio or your own hands. There are varying techniques used for these methods. Using the foam roller involves placing the roller under your target area and using your bodyweight to gently massage the targeted muscles.  

Supplements: Supplements is the biggest growing business in the health world today. With companies making extraordinary claims on their labelling in the aim of making money. My best advice is to speak to a registered nutritionist to advice you on the correct supplements to take. The supplements you take will largely vary depending on the personal goals you have. The main thing to remember about supplements is that they are just there to supplement your diet and shouldn’t be thought of as a miracle cure. If you have the correct diet these dietary supplements will help to supplement your already good diet to help you to recover better.

These methods are designed to be used by everyday gym goers and amateur athletes in the aid to help them to recover better to be able to train longer and harder. I hope this has provided you with some insight into some simple recover methods. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to email me at will@wsstrength.com or on Twitter @WSStrength.

Remember before recovery you need to do the hard work that necessitates recovery!