Recovery Techniques

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Recovery Techniques

Last month we talked about the recovery time cycle and how you can optimize your training by timing the sessions to correspond to the over compensation stage of your recovery.

This month, we are going to look at some basic recovery techniques and how to minimize the risk of over training by providing you with some basic tools for you to use to gauge whether or not you are over training.
The most important form of recovery is in fact rest and there are two forms, passive and active rest. Sleep is the most important form of passive rest.
A good night’s sleep of between 7-9 hours provides invaluable adaptation time for athletes to adjust to the physical and emotional stressors experienced during the day.
Other forms of passive rest involve techniques that help the mind to switch off from all surrounding stimuli.
Massage is also great to assist you to recover. As a Massage Therapist, I can also help you here. The benefits of massage are far reaching. However, the investment in getting a regular massage treatment from a therapist is often cost prohibitive, so, purchasing a massage stick , may be your next best choice.

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Last updated on March 28, 2025 7:32 pm

Active recovery during exercise is also helpful. This can include some form of active stretching in between sets.

The wearing of compression garments in between exercise sessions has taken the sporting arena by storm and is now being used as a way of recovering from strenuous sessions more and more.

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Last updated on March 28, 2025 7:32 pm

Hot and cold therapy is another method currently employed by sports people to assist in the recovery process.

Knowing that you are recovering well is crucial to remaining fit and healthy. Far too often, I see people, especially my fellow trainer colleagues and other sports people overdoing it and getting sick more often than not, or even worse, getting injured. Some simple observations that you as an athlete can do to gauge whether or not you may be overtraining include:

1.         Monitoring your body weight. A sudden drop in body weight (more than 3%) is not a good sign
2.         Montioring your heart rate. A sudden increase in morning Heart Rate of 6 beats per minute is not a good sign either.
3.         Sleep disturbances (+/- 2 hours for more than 2 days)
4.         Low quality sleep for more than 2 days
5.         Feeling constantly tired

So, keep a training log and document things like your pulse rate in the morning first thing after waking, how many hours sleep you had and the quality of sleep.

Write down your moods and feelings.

Weigh yourself regularly to keep an eye on any sudden weight loss/weight gain.

I bet you your excellent training sessions correspond to good nutrition and good sleep and your poor performances in training correspond to high stressors in life, poor sleep and poor nutrition.

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