Sports injuries can be caused by a specific trauma such as a fall, check or collision. Sometimes however, the cause is unknown and the injury can be related to an under-recovery or over-training issue. If you do not allow your body to fully recover between sessions, it becomes susceptible to injury.
To help your body recover between sessions, we need to understand the body’s response to exercise. The Super-Compensation Cycle is a great summary which is divided into three phases:
1. Fatigue: the body uses up all of its fuel sources, runs out of energy and develops micro-damage
2. Recovery: the body starts to repair and refuel
3. Adaptation: your body “super-compensates” and grows stronger
If your body does not recover and make it back to baseline between sessions, it will not have the opportunity to make any strength or training gains. Instead, it will head down the path of tissue breakdown, compensation, faulty mechanics and injury.
Recovery Techniques
What strategies can we use to help our body to repair and refuel during the recovery stage?
1. Nutrition
Refuel, re-hydrate and re-build. Your body benefits most from a combination of protein and carbohydrates within 30 minutes of completing exercise. You need to refuel the energy stores you used and rebuild/ repair muscle damage. Drink enough fluids to replace what you lost to sweat during exercise. Aim for 2-3 cups of water for every pound lost during exercise.
Ideas: chocolate milk, smoothie with low-fat milk or Greek yogurt, cheese, whole-grain turkey wrap, bagel, trail mix, dried cereal, fruit: banana, pear, orange
2. Sleep
Not getting enough sleep, increases your perception of effort (making activity the following day seem harder), decrease your cardio performance by up to 11%, slow your body’s metabolism of glucose (your fuel), and increase levels of cortisol which can impair memory and interfere with muscle recovery and growth. You need to get enough sleep, which is between 7 to 10 hours for most athletes. Take control of your sleep and set a routine and put down your phone!
There is a trending theme through the next couple of techniques, see if you can identify it!
3. Active Recovery
Aerobic exercise after competition/ sport is thought to be better than passive recovery (doing nothing) due to enhanced blood flow assisting the body to bring in oxygen and clear the byproducts and waste from exercise. Active recovery can be a sport specific cool-down, cycling, jogging or swimming. Maybe hit the swimming pool at an away tournament?
4. Massage – foam roller
Massage as part of recovery helps to improve circulation and improve tissue mobility. When muscles work during exercise, they can tighten and can form adhesions / scar tissue. Foam rolling is one type of self-massage that helps to reduce the sticky points (adhesions) between the fibers and help flush out the area. Using the foam roller prior to stretching can increased the benefit of the stretches.
5. Hydrotherapy
Immersion of the body in water applies external pressure – known as hydrostatic pressure. By combining the effects of pressure with cold or a hot/ cold bath, we can assist the body with blood flow and clearing of lactic acid and the byproducts of exercise. The goal is to reduce exercise soreness and decrease inflammation. Time recommendations are as follows:
Cold tub: 55 degrees for 10 – 15 min
Contrast Bath (Hot/ Cold): start and end with cold. 1:1 ratio, typically 5 x 1 min
6. Compression Garments
Compression garments help to prevent blood from pooling in your legs. The graded external pressure helps the veins return blood to the central body. They also limited the space available for swelling and can help to reduce muscle soreness and inflammation. Compression garments can be very helpful for recovery during travel after a tournament or game when you may have to be sitting for a long time.
© JP.PT 2018
Did you figure out the underlying theme between active recovery, massage, hydrotherapy and compression garments? CIRCULATION. The goal is to assist the body with blood flow and removal of the byproducts of exercise.
Try incorporating some of these techniques with your sport and hopefully we can keep you healthy and in the game! If not, I know a great sport physical therapist!
Jessica Pawlik
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