In this video, we investigate the best sports recovery methods you can use in your training program for improved recovery, and allow you to train harder, longer. Make sure you watch to the end to see a unique way of making Ice Baths more tolerable!
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We will look at why advanced recovery will help you attain better sports performance, whether it be endurance sports, or team sports like football.
Topics include the use of Stretching, Foam rolling, The Stick, Pilates, and Contrast Showers/Ice Baths. Using these simple methods will ensure you recover well, in time for your next session.
You should understand that your training has provided the stimulus to
make you a better athlete but all those gains are going to be realized during your recovery. If you are recovering properly from your training session then that’s going to allow you to go out and train to provide that stimulus again. The key to improving as an athlete is being
able to provide a consistent training stimulus so that your body can adapt and improve as you progress through your training calendar and whilst the training stimulus is important, your body’s ability to recover between sessions will, in the long term, dictate how far you progress as an athlete.
Stretching is as simple as applying a tension over the muscles to help encourage the muscles to relax completely. Find the stretch that feels like it’s targeting the muscle that you’re after and then apply that stretch in small bouts, done
frequently.
if you really want to target specific areas of the muscle, foam
rollers are probably the most effective way to go.
Remember, the key to foam rolling is
slow and steady. It should be painful but
you’re only going to be there for a
short period of time. It should take you
less than two minutes to roll out any
particular muscle. Again, avoid bony
prominences when you’re rolling, that’s
just going to make it unnecessarily
painful and you’re not going to get any
benefit from rolling over those.
If you’re really struggling with the foam roller
you could try something like the stick.
Now the stick is a really effective way
to self massage those muscles and again
you can find those tight spots and work
backwards and forwards over them. I like
the stick particularly for traveling
because it’s much easier to pack than a
big bulky foam roller. Again, the same
principles apply; find the tight spots,
apply the pressure, and roll backwards
and forwards until you feel the muscle
relax.
For those of you who really want to get
on top of your recovery consider
introducing something like a Pilates
class into your weekly routine. Now it’s
no surprise why Pilates is so popular
with dancers, who rely on having long,
strong muscles for their performance. Now
Pilates is a great way to open up all
your joints, and stretch out all your muscles,
but you’ll also get the benefit of
learning some core stability in
functional positions. That’s got to be a
bonus for any athlete. Now, you may only
do one Pilates session a week but you’re
going to learn some exercises which you
can then take home and integrate into
your daily routine.
You can also look at fast tracking your recovery by using
contrast showers or ice baths. Now, a
contrast shower involves going from a
hot shower to a cold shower and this is
going to force your blood vessels to
vasodilate, or open up, and then rapidly
vasoconstrict or close down. This
produces a pump within the muscle to
help flush out all the metabolic waste
and encourage new blood flow in there. To
get the most out of a contrast shower
sit under the hot for 90 seconds. This is
because it takes longer for your body to vasodilate. Then, switch rapidly to a cold
shower and stay there for 30 seconds. You
can alternate between 90 seconds of hot,
30 seconds of cold and you might run
through four or five cycles of this.
You’ll feel the benefits as soon as you
step out of the shower and a quick tip:
always finish on a hot cycle. Now you all
would have heard, seen or even
experienced an ice bath for yourself. The
idea behind an ice bath is to minimize
the inflammation of the soft tissue
following a training session. For the
best effect, you’re looking to have the
water as cold as you can tolerate and
spending a total of three minutes
immersion time. Now it doesn’t really
matter if it’s three minutes straight or
whether you want to break the three
minutes up into three one-minute blocks.
So there we have four simple ways of
boosting your recovery to a whole new
level using stretching, foam rolling,
Pilates, and contrast showers and ice
baths. As we said at the start of the
video, your ability to recover is every bit
as important as your ability to train at
a higher level if you’re looking at long term athletic development.
If you would like further information, contact us at:
https://www.grandstand.clinic

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