By: Caleb Burchfield
In the strength and conditioning world, there are many ways people use to recover. Many of those ways can prove to be valuable. While there are all sorts of methods used to recover, there are several pillars of recovery that should be prioritized.
Sleep
Getting a good night’s rest can prove to be one of the most important aspects of recovery. It is recommended that everyone gets 8-10 hours of sleep every night. “One widely held view is that the need for sleep increases as a function of time spent awake, and that sleep is necessary to provide restoration with respect to molecular, cellular, or network changes, which occur specifically during preceding waking.” (Vyazovskiy, 2015) Sleep is one of the most critical components in recovery.
Diet
Diet is another important variable in recovery. How you eat can fully affect how your body recovers from resistance training. If you fill up your body with junk, that is going to weigh it down and make it feel way heavier and less efficient. If you fill your body with healthy, clean food, you are going to feel way more energetic and feel way cleaner. It is necessary to optimize the consumption of energy, nutrition, and liquids. Sometimes, just a regular diet may not be enough, and you may need to add supplements to cover areas that you cannot reach within your regular diet. According to two research papers, meat in general, butter and fatty meat caused higher levels of Exercised induced muscle damage and exercise induced muscles stress while fish, vegetable and olive oils exert a modulating effect. (Mielgo-Ayuso, 2021)
Soft Tissue
Another method of recovery is soft tissue work. This can include dry needling, cupping and massaging. Many people can be intimidated by dry needling and cupping, but some people find it highly effective for them. Massaging is the most common form of soft tissue work and it can increase or decrease neural excitation depending on the method used. It can also change the heart rate, hormonal levels, and change your mood. (Weerapong, 2005)
Final Thoughts
There are plenty of ways to approach recovery, some ways work better for some people and other ways work better for other people. Make sure to consult a professional when researching these different methods for recovery, and simply remember that recovery is an essential component of your fitness plan. Be sure to add in breaks from exercise to allow your body to physiologically recover. Sleep, diet, and hydration are staples in the recovery phase to recover properly.
Works Cited
Vyazovskiy, Vladyslav V. “Sleep, recovery, and metaregulation: explaining the benefits of sleep.” Nature and science of sleep vol. 7 171-84. 17 Dec. 2015, doi:10.2147/NSS.S54036
Mielgo-Ayuso, Juan, and Diego Fernández-Lázaro. “Nutrition and Muscle Recovery.” Nutrients vol. 13,2 294. 20 Jan. 2021, doi:10.3390/nu13020294
Weerapong, Pornratshanee et al. “The mechanisms of massage and effects on performance, muscle recovery and injury prevention.” Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) vol. 35,3 (2005): 235-56. doi:10.2165/00007256-200535030-00004
