Best Recovery Strategies After Exercise and Sport
Lots of us think to exercise to keep healthy, lots of us train specifically for something, lifting weights, cycling, running, playing sport. Yet few of us put time into recovery after exercise. Recovery strategies after exercise help your body recover so you are best prepared for your next exercise session. What does that mean? You get more out of your body at each session, and, you could help to prevent injury related to fatigue.
So what are the best recovery strategies after exercise and sport?
For this we asked Dr Molly Connelly, physiotherapist here at Physiologix in the Gap, for her advice. Dr Molly runs the recovery centre and is a physio for The Australian Tennis Open, helping the very best athletes from around the world, be at their peak performance for this high level event.
Sleep
Sleep for recovery is paramount. In fact, as this diagram from S Harlson et al shows, it is possibly the most important factor in recovery. The average adult needs 7-9 hours sleep a night (and about 8-10 hours for teenagers). Try to avoid exercise the 1-2 hours before bed. Gaining a good sleep routine is essential to helping sleep, together with avoiding screens in the hour before bed.
Naps in the day are ok, in fact can be beneficial for some athletes not achieving optimal sleep time. However, late afternoon naps can have detrimental effects, so time of day should be taken into consideration when napping. We strongly advise you chat more with your Physiologix physio for strategies around this but also make an appointment to chat to your GP who can review if there are any other reasons around poor sleep (for example sleep apnoea, hormonal changes, possibly low iron etc) and discuss if medication may be required.
Ice bath recovery:
If you are game to try it, ice baths can help facilitate recovery after you have finished your exercise. You still need to complete your cool down, but after that an ice bath is recommended for 5-15minutes. This can range from 11-20 degrees. For a slimmer, more petite person less time/cold is recommended.
What does the ice bath do? Ice baths help to lower body tissue (such as muscle) temperatures and slow blood flow, which in turn can reduce inflammation, swelling, pain and cardiovascular strain. Ultimately, this helps enhance recovery from fatigue and delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) (Stephens et al., 2017).
Can water immersion help recovery?
If the water is not cold it can still be of benefit to your recovery after your exercise session. Jumping in your own pool, a local pool or maybe the Enoggera dam, and walking in the water can be one of the best ways for lymphatic drainage, the same thing that many people have post exercise massage for. The deeper the water the better. Ideally you can hang and tread water using a pool noodle around you or a run belt for support. This allows maximum immersion of your body vertically in the pool. The cooler the water back towards the 14 degrees the better, but if the water is warmer just stay in there longer if you can.
What about hot cold recovery or contrast baths.
Contrast baths are another form of water immersion therapy that involves alternating immersing the body from hot to cold water repeatedly, which can help promote recovery for those experiencing DOMS, joint stiffness and fatigue.
The most common protocol for contrast baths is immersing the recovering limb in hot water for 10 minutes and then immersing in cold water for 1 minute. Then continue to alternate between hot (4 minutes) and cold (1 minute) at a 4:1 ratio for time spent in hot:cold water for another 3 repetitions, finishing with the last immersion in cold water. This said, there is no definitive protocol and athletes and coaches often have their own preferences (Shadgan et al., 2018). This is a guide from Stephens et al is a guide to different cold water immersion protocols depending on many factors - one size does not fit all!
Massage
Massage has mixed evidence when it comes to facilitating recovery. There is no strong evidence supporting its use for improving functional performance or DOMs. However, whilst massage may not be strongly linked with improved recovery or performance, it may have potential benefits for injury prevention and management. For example, there is evidence suggesting that massage can increase flexibility and aid in injury prevention, thus massage should still be incorporated into an athletes training program.
Compression garments
Compression garments have been shown to decrease perceived muscles soreness following fatiguing activity and have also been shown to have positive effects on subsequent bouts of endurance and resistance exercise (Leabeater, James, & Driller, 2022). Furthermore, they have been shown to increase blood flow at rest and thus has positive effects for recovery after exercise.
Research shows that tights (hip to ankle length compression garments) are the most effective compression garment for recovery (O’Riordan et al., 2023), though be sure to make sure they’re tight – you may need to go down a size to ensure adequate squeeze!
Just remember not to wear them to sleep in!
Hydration
The key to hydration during and after exercise is to make sure you use electrolytes but look to source a product that is not too high in sugar. And remember to stay hydrated on the 24 hours leading up to and after exercise, NOT JUST DURING!
Diet
Sporting nutritional needs vary between individuals, which is why we suggest you speak with a certified dietician to better understand your diet needs. Nutrition demands will change with the type of exercise you do and can differ based on whether you are male or female and how old you are.
Other Articles like this:
Recovery After Exercise
Are Technique and Injury Related
References:
The Relationship Between Anemia and Sleep: https://www.sleepfoundation.org/physical-health/anemia-and-sleep
