We've all done it, finished a big session, swam, ran or cycled our blood to water and what do we do when we've finished? Just jump in the car, go home, have a shower and chill out, often neglecting to refuel and / or rehydrate properly.
There are many different ways that we can and should recover after a training session, whether it's just doing some stretches, foam rolling or eating and drinking the correct food. Some even go so far as to have an ice bath (bbrrrrrr).
Before we can start thinking about how and what we should be doing to help our bodies recover, it's a good idea to know what happens to your body during and immediately after training or racing
During exercise
The first thing you'll notice as you start a training session or race is your breathing increases and your heart rate rises. This is to supply your muscles with more oxygen and to provide your brain with more blood, which can help you to feel more focused and there will also be a number of "feel good" neurotransmitters are also triggered, such as the endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, glutamate, and GABA. Some of these are well-known for their role in mood control, which is why we can feel elated or content after a hard training session or race.
If it's a hard intervals session, as you continue through the session your body will be using carbohydrate as its primary fuel source because the body wont be able to metabolize fat for fuel efficiently at this intensity and your muscles will be using the glycogen stored within them for fuel. At a cellular level the skeletal muscle will be synthesizing something called Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) in order to produce the muscle contractions that we need to move. In order to produce more and more ATP we need to increase our oxygen intake, so your breathing rate and heart rate will continue to increase. We can actually develop how well our body synthesizes and produces ATP by doing a lot of zone 2 or lower aerobic training, which will mean that we're far more efficient as athletes, more info on zone 2 training and how it works can be found on the links below:
https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/zone-2-training-for-endurance-athletes/
https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/the-power-and-importance-of-mitochondria/
When you reach the point where you can't breathe any faster, you will have reached what's called your VO2 max - your maximum capacity of oxygen use, the higher your VO2 max, the fitter you are. As you progress through the session and your muscles start to fatigue and you can't take in enough oxygen to fuel the muscles, your muscles will start to fill with lactic acid, which is when you'll start to "feel the burn" or are heavy legged etc. At the same time, while you're exercising hard, your muscles are being pushed literally to breaking point. This doesn't mean that they're going to snap or fail, but all the time you're exercising your muscles will be suffering from trauma and will start to develop micro tears in them as they struggle to cope with the intensity and workload. It's this trauma and these micro tears that gives you the feeling of DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) for a few days after a really tough session or race. As we progress as athletes, it's this constant trauma, recovery and adaptation that makes us faster and stronger.
Post Exercise
Immediately after you've finished the session, your body will be trying to normalise lactate levels and you're likely to still be breathing pretty hard and with a high body temperature but as we continue to recover our heart rate and breathing will start to slow down and will return to normal and as a general rule, a good indicator of fitness is how quickly you recover after an interval or a session.
30 minutes or so after you've finished your session you'll probably start to develop a raging hunger. Often a hunger so great that you'll feel like you could eat a horse. This is your body's way of telling you that you need to replace the glycogen stores that were used during the session. Carbohydrates are stored within muscles in the form of glycogen, so if you treat yourself to a slice of cake or something else that's high in carbohydrates after training is perfectly fine, within reason.
The ideal time to start refueling after a hard session is to consume a meal within an hour or so of the session / race completion. This can be either whole food or liquid form, and should contain both fast-digesting carbs and protein. This will prevent your body from using its own muscle tissue for energy and help encourage muscle synthesis. Regarding the muscle synthesis, it's important to help the body to start the process of repairing and strengthening the muscles that have suffered from the trauma and impact of a hard session and one of the best ways to do this is to provide them with protein and carbs. Whey protein is an ideal protein supplement for this. When refueling after a training session, bear in mind the type of session that you've done. If it's been a really tough intervals session, or a session where the muscles are likely to have suffered trauma, then you're going to want to help their recovery and repair by taking on board proteins, as well as carbs. However, if you've just done a long swim and the muscles, although tired, won't have suffered the same level of trauma, then a more carbohydrate based refueling may be beneficial.
As well as refueling the muscles with protein and carbs, it's also important to rehydrate the body and to try and regain the electrolyte balance within. There are many different supplements available on the market, often in a tablet form and a popular one is the electrolyte tablets that you can dissolve in a normal drink. It's important to replace the electrolytes as well as lost fluids because if you just drink a lot of water after a hard session, there's a risk that you can suffer from an electrolyte imbalance, which is when the amount of a certain electrolyte that you've lost via urine or sweat isn't properly replaced, or it can become more diluted by drinking too much water, which doesn't contain electrolytes. In extreme cases you could have a blood-sodium level that falls too low, or even develop something called hyponatremia. This can occur if you drink too much water during an event, such as a triathlon, because you lose sodium in your sweat. This dilutes the sodium content of your blood, so when your sodium levels are too low, your body’s water levels can rise too high which causes the cells to swell and in extreme cases can be fatal.
I've sometimes heard people say that no matter how much they eat after a hard swim, that they're still hungry. Hunger can actually be another sign of dehydration, so it's important not to confuse the two, especially if you're on a controlled diet. It's no good taking on board 2000 calories to refuel, if all you need is to rebalance your hydration levels.
Recovery methods
In the following section I'll talk briefly about some recovery methods that can be very beneficial. However, these don't relate to DOMS, that feeling that you get a day or two after a killer session when you really start to contemplate getting a Stannah Stairlift installed. When you're suffering from DOMS, as mentioned previously, this is actually trauma and damage to the muscle, which is totally different from just being a bit stiff, tired and aching. If you're suffering from DOMS there's little that you can do apart from just waiting for the pain to subside, although you may want to do a very gentle spin on the turbo or an easy swim or some pool jogging, but until the muscles heal, you should refrain from doing any strenuous training or racing, which will delay the healing process and will probably just exacerbate it.
Stretching
Often the most familiar and widely used form of recovery after a training session is to do some stretching. Each stretch that you do doesn't really have to last long and their main purpose is that it helps to keep the muscles flexible, strong and healthy, We need that element of flexibility in order to maintain a good range of motion in the joints. Without it, the muscles shorten and become tight, Which can lead to poor form, which will ultimately and inevitably lead to injury. Stretches are best performed straight after a training session because the muscles are warm and supple, so will be responsive to the stretch. Never stretch a cold muscle though. If you think of muscles as if they're like plasticine, if it's cold and you pull it, it just snaps, but if you roll it in your hands for a while you can really stretch it, muscles can be thought of in a similar way.
When doing the stretches, work on the muscles that have been used during the session and perform them in a controlled manner. Don't overstretch, push just to the point that you can "feel" it in the muscle and hold it there for 15 seconds or so. I find working through the stretches in a logical manner helps. ie, lower calf / achilles, then upper calf, then hamstrings, quads, glutes and into the upper body and so on.
Foam Roller
The process of foam rolling is called self-myofacial release and can be done using a traditional foam roller, as seen above, or a hard rubber ball or even a rolling pin or golf or cricket ball. Foam rolling works by identifying trigger points or "knots" in the muscles and as we roll over them we can feel them as painful areas. Nearly every single athlete or triathlete etc will have muscle soreness and knots, so it's important to identify these and treat them regularly. By foam rolling regularly you will help to "iron out" the knots and help to keep all the muscle fibres running nice and parallel to each other. If you think of your muscles as fibrous tissue, sometimes these fibres become more rigid and can "stick" together. It's this that we can feel as knots. Deep muscle compression helps to break up or relax tight muscles and adhesions formed between muscle layers and their surroundings. Imagine you are tenderizing your own muscles. They should be soft and supple like a baby’s muscles.
The most effective way to foam roll is to apply pressure to a specific muscle or muscle group, often your body weight is sufficient for this. Then roll slowly at a rate of about 5cm every couple of seconds. As you pass over an area that feels tight or painful, stop and pause for several seconds and try to relax the muscle. This can sometimes take up to 30 seconds or more. As you relax you should start to feel the pain ease.
If you come across an area that's too painful to apply direct pressure, you can adjust the roller so that instead of applying direct pressure, you can work on the surrounding area and loosen the whole area.
You should roll as many muscle groups as possible and do it as regularly as every 48 hours or so. The more you roll, the more supple and loose your muscles will be, which I can guarantee will have a direct positive effect on your running. There are countless videos on YouTube that will demonstrate good foam rolling exercises.
Ice Baths
Possibly even more dreaded than the foam roller is the ice bath. This is really one of the most counter intuitive things to do for recovery and I'm not going to lie, is absolutely horrible for the first 5 minutes or so, until you go numb.
The theory behind ice baths is that they help the micro trauma that the muscles suffer during a tough session or race, in much the same way as applying ice to an injury works. Another way that they're thought to work is the cold causes your blood vessels to tighten, which in turn helps drain the lactic acid out of your tired muscles. If it's something that you're going to try, you don't actually need to use ice, I often just filled the bath with cold water only and sat in it for around 15 mins. That was perfectly cold enough, trust me.
There's much conflicting information as to whether ice baths actually work or their effectiveness, so if it's something that you feel is benefiting you, keep doing it. If you simply hate them and can't imagine anything worse, it's fine to steer clear.
Compression clothing
There's a plethora of compression clothing that's available to us. Big brands like 2XU, Compressport, Skins etc. etc all claiming to offer the best recovery products out there.
Many people talk about the effectiveness of compression clothing, but personally, I've found that if my calves are a bit sore or tight, when I put my calf guards on it almost feels like instant relief, so it must do something.
The theory behind compression is that when the muscles are "held" or compressed by a specific garment they are stabilized, which in turn helps to reduce the amount of muscle vibration and oscillation, which is thought to help reduce fatigue.
As a post exercise garment it's said that through this stabilization that an increase in blood flow is promoted to the muscles and this will help to heal the micro trauma in the muscle and to aid recovery
Sleep
Lastly and possibly the most important fundamental of recovery is sleep. Most people take it for granted, but if you're not getting a decent night's sleep, especially after training, it'll eventually have an impact on your body, which in turn will impact your health, recovery and subsequent fitness. Ideally, you should be aiming for 8 hours sleep per night. When training for long distance races and feeling the pressure to fit as much training sessions in as possible, one of the first things that people will sacrifice is often sleep. You might think to yourself that you'll get up at 0500 and get out to do your long run or ride before you start your daily commitments, but you need to be aware that if you're going to do that, you need to go to bed earlier and make sure you still get a good nights sleep. I know children, work, stress etc can all impact your sleep, but if you employ certain things into your routine, it should help you to get a better nights sleep.
- Stick to a consistent sleep schedule and routine. Go to bed at the same time each night and wake up at the same time each morning. A set sleep routine will "train" you to fall asleep and wake up more easily.
- Cut down on caffeine. For some people, a single cup of coffee in the morning means a sleepless night. Caffeine can also increase the need to urinate during the night.
- Be physically active. Regular aerobic exercise like walking, running, or swimming provides three important sleep benefits: you'll fall asleep faster, attain a higher percentage of restorative deep sleep, and awaken less often during the night.
- Limit daytime naps. Prolonged napping can disrupt your natural sleep cycle and prevent you from feeling tired enough to fall asleep.
- If you use tobacco in any form, quit. Nicotine makes it harder to fall asleep.
- Use alcohol cautiously. Alcohol depresses the nervous system, so a nightcap may help some people fall asleep. But this effect disappears after a few hours and may even lead to waking up throughout the night. Alcohol can also worsen snoring and other sleep breathing problems.
- Improve your sleep surroundings. Remove the television, telephone, and any other devices from the bedroom. This reinforces the idea that this room is meant for sleeping. An ideal environment is quiet, dark, and relatively cool, with a comfortable bed and minimal clutter.
In summary
Never neglect your recovery, it's equally as important as your training and if you want to keep progressing and keep the chances of injury to a minimum it's probably even more important than the training. It doesn't have to take hours and hours, but if you build it into your routine and make it something that you just do 3 or 4 times a week, it will pay dividends. I've lost count of the amount of people who regularly tell me they've got tightness in muscles or a niggle that wont go away, yet prevention is often much better than cure.
If you'd like to speak more about your goals and ambitions and how I can help you on your triathlon journey, click on the link below which will take you to my coaching Facebook page, where I can be contacted through
Certa Cito Tri Coaching
If you'd like to speak more about your goals and ambitions and how I can help you on your triathlon journey, click on the link below which will take you to my coaching Facebook page, where I can be contacted through
Certa Cito Tri Coaching
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