This piece was originally boxed into a corner over at the Endurance Corner site. I've since added a few bits here and there but the overall gist hasn't changed one iota. All told, it's about the importance of true recovery in the training plan, a favorite topic in my coaching regimen. So relax and enjoy!All work and no rest makes for an injury-prone and weakened weekend warrior.
Time and again the athletes I guide are forced to listen to me talk about "hastening recovery." "It's not enough to just wait until you're feeling better," I'll bark. "You need to do better. You gotsta puts the 'very' in recovery."
The gist I'm trying to get across is that instead of just waiting for recovery to occur, as many athletes tend to do, you're to grab the bull by the horns and actually do something to assist your cause. Incidentally, grabbing a bull by the horns will NOT assist your cause. I'd also advise not grabbing him anywhere else, particularly anything that dangles.
To be strong like bull you need to quit bull-shitting yourself and treat recovery as though it were training. It is, after all, and this is no BS. What you do when you're not training determines what you can do when you are. Quite simply, non-training time affects your training, and fatigue is a choice. So don't just do your best Sitting Bull impression…get moving! Take part in some intentional recovery.
Intentional or active recovery, it is well established, is a much more optimal way to enhance recovery than is inactive or passive recovery---that malevolent chronological assassin. Now you don't need to do anything drastic, you Raging Bull you, but simply get the blood pumping a smidge, to assist in removing all the inflammatory metabolites and damaged proteins, all the meanwhile delivering a fresh supply of carbohydrates and amino acids. The priority is to heal (much like a dog might), and not to "train" per se. You're basically trying to download, rather than strictly unload (or reload). And you certainly don't want to do anything that delays recovery. Go too hard and all you're doing is delaying your body's supercompensatory capacities, and thus its potential for growth and increased fitness. And that's what recovery is essentially for: to promote your adaptation to training, so you can improve your performance sooner. So go easy or go home.
Ultimately, movement is the best medicine we have (along with laughter and, for us old guys, Viagra), but it's not enough in and of itself. You need to do whatever it takes to enhance recovery, so long as 'whatever it takes' is deemed legal; thankfully, most recovery-boosting options are. And better yet, many of them are free. And though there's very little scientific research to show us which recovery strategies are proven to work, it's important not to disregard the accumulated experience of veteran athletes and coaches. Below is how I generally work recovery into the overall picture.
But first, I need to stress (but not too much, as stress kills) that after twenty-five years in sports, I've only ever known three or four to five athletes who have ever truly over-trained (I am one of them, having suffered from a severely tapped endocrine and immune system). Most of us have never reached this state and never will. We are never really over-trained but simply under-recovered or "over-reached" (i.e., we bit off more than we can chew, and certainly more than we can swallow). And so I preach the enormity of recovery, and why it should never be neglected.
Incidentally, the difference between over-training and under-recovering is straightforward: over-training is simply the imbalance between stress and recovery, regardless of scale (and regardless of the source of stress), whereas under-recovery is quite simply too little recovery. Keep in mind that under-recovery could have very little to do with training stress and may involve life's myriad other stressors.
Now, onto hastening recovery…
1) Planning. To understand the significance of recovery, you need to grasp the fundamental principles of progressive overload. It's important to draw up a training plan that incorporates not only higher degrees of stress/training stimulus (of which you can actually absorb…i.e., benefit from), but also consists of adequate bouts of recovery. And while you don't always know how you're going to respond to training (and therefore, when you might require additional rest), you'll have a pretty good idea that if you've planned a hard training block, you'll need to back it up with the appropriate amount of rest. But again: rest as needed, not as planned. Insert a "floating rest day" or "recovery on demand" as it's needed. But be sure to plan to rest as well. This is not a new concept here but so many athletes fail to embrace the "hard/easy" rule (which may very well be the "hard/easy/easier" rule or the "hard/harder/hardest/easy" rule and so forth). These overly compulsive types like to train themselves into the ground each day just so they can elevate their fragile confidence. Remember that fitness isn't suddenly erased because of a day without training; in fact, that's when it's built, assuming you did the work beforehand. Now do the rest.
Moreover, planning should not only incorporate a broader range outlook on progressive overload, but also a more immediate, pinpointed view. Essentially, what I mean here is that if you train with no regard for your recovery, or with little regard for tomorrow, you'll assure yourself of limiting what you can accomplish then. As I like to croon, "Your recovery begins the minute the workout does." (Unlike your workout, it doesn't end.) And it begins with hydration and nutrition, along with a close cross-examination of exercise intensity and duration, respecting ALL factors that may lead to impaired recovery (cadence choice, clothing choice, etc.). Call it recovery-based training if you will, but the point is to continually look ahead by looking at what you're doing now…and why you're doing it.
2) Sleeping. Thankfully, sleep is free of charge, yet can recharge your batteries. (Keep in mind that sleep is not free when staying at the No-Tell Motel.) Skimp here and you'll eventually be skimping on your best efforts elsewhere, in training. Sleeping includes napping, a learned skill but one that helps release more of that ever-important human growth hormone, your body's very own recovery drug.
3) Relaxing. Relaxing is also free, but it's truly amazing how few people know how to do it. (e.g., we run errands, when we could be walking them!) Sometimes in life it's important to spend some time doing nothing, and perhaps even less. I mean, how great is it to do nothing and then rest afterward! Ask yourself: are you capable of doing nothing today?
4) Hydration. It's crystal clear that rehydration is imperative when attempting to augment recovery. And while drinking can be very expensive---particularly when it's alcohol or bottled water---municipal sourced water (albeit overly chlorinated) remains gratis, and that's good.
5) Eating. Eating is not free, nor should it be. But we need to eat to survive, so there's really no point in looking at its cost. And anyway, skimping here will ensure that the cost will be much greater later. The key thing with recovery-related nutrition is to know that your immediate recuperation needs depend on what you shove down your gullet (and when you do so) and that your long-term wellness also greatly depends on it. Food is the only source where we humans get our energy. Take in nutrients, not just stimulants.
6) Elevating. The heart pumps blood through the body, but it takes work. (The soleus muscle almost acts as a second heart, while it fights gravity and pumps blood back up the body.) You can (and should) make this an easier task by laying down or elevating your legs whenever possible. Another cheesy Chuckie/Chuckie Cheese saying, "Elevate your performance by elevating your legs."
7) Bathing. Lots of reputable coaches like to dispute the benefits of cold-water soaks but I'm of the mindset that they help. And anyway, if you believe they do, they do. Contrast baths (hot then cold back to hot again) also fall into this same category. I do believe, however, that ice baths are not all that wise for those whose immune system is already on red alert (i.e., half-Ironman and Ironman finishers and overly skinny folks with a propensity to remain cold for hours afterward.)
8) Compressing. Triathletes adore trends and today's latest, greatest is to wear compression "gear". It's one trend I'm actually all for, except of course in the fashion sense, and, trust me, I know ALL about being fashionable. Lame attempt at humor aside, compression can help. Whether or not it does, doesn't matter. You should decide yourself, like with all things in life.
9) Massage. Massage is not cheap in this day and age, but self-massage can help hasten recovery. I typically advise "stripping" the lateral quads, site of much of our training abuse. If you cannot dig into your muscles without grimacing, you are not 100%. Use your hands or a high-density foam roller or perhaps a device like The Stick or one of those high-tech thumping electronic massage thingamajigs.
10) Warming-up and cooling-down. While I don't always emphasize the importance of these factors to those I guide, I absolutely have them do it. The only time I neglect including a warm-up or cool-down is when additional workouts precede or ensue. The first workout of the day ALWAYS involves a long enough warm-up (i.e., however long it takes), while the last workout of the day always incorporates a lengthy cool-down (and rarely do we finish the training day with a more abusive exercise bout like a run).
11) Stretching. I myself am not a fan of stretching (with the exception of my imagination) and typically do not recommend it. (I believe that a large range of motion plays a trivial role in endurance sports and can add to what I affectionately call muscle "slop".) But with enough caution applied, there is virtually no risk. Some studies show that stretching can speed recovery (by way of increased glycogen uptake) where others demonstrate absolutely nothing. If you believe it helps, keep doing it. If you'd rather not, keep doing that---or something else---instead!
12) Thinking. Without over-doing it (a tendency of so many triathletes), thinking can certainly facilitate your cause. Use your brain to look for ways to enhance your recovery. The brain is the most critical organ involved in training (and remember: training is everything, including recovery), but also the toughest to train. Unfortunately, some of us have limited potential in this regard. If you're one of these types (and I shan't name names), I advise copying smarter athletes. Hell, that big-toothed character Tony Robbins has amassed a substantial fortune by simply looking at the best performers in various walks of like and noting what their common traits were. He then copied it all, packaged it and pawned it off on those too afraid to copy one another.
13) Fun. Laughter. Delight. Smiling. Joy. Happiness. Pleasure. Bliss. Ecstasy. Hugs. Take part in these vital parts of being human as often as possible, and you WILL recover more quickly. Fun is free and 'free' is my second favorite four-lettered F word. (My absolute favorite four-lettered F word is also free of cost [sometimes, anyway], but involves another person. And one needs to be sure he or she is also having fun while doing it.)
In addition to thee methods there are plenty of others ways in which to speed recovery, including IVs (to speed rehydration, bypassing the gut and going straight into the bloodstream), NormaTec "Boots", medicine/drugs, and so on. Cost often ends up the biggest inhibitor to most these options, but if money is of no concern I typically advise doing everything (legal) in your power to speed recovery. As my old teammate Lance Armstrong likes to say, "Recovery is the name of the game…whoever recovers the fastest does the best." Here's a guy, incidentally, who needn't worry about money.
Ultimately, it's important to recognize that an athlete who repeatedly overloads his or her body without allowing adequate recovery time will eventually reach a state that requires a much longer period of rest. And this is no place to be if you want to be competitive or do YOUR best. Training isn't just about seeing who can hurt the most but who can gain the most. And so, as they say, "it's not how hard you train, it's how hard you recover."
In subsequent write-ups I hope to touch on the different types of fatigue (to which there are plenty) and talk about recognizing when to cut a workout or training block short, or to back off to an easier, more appropriate load, one that may not help you as much in the short-term as over the long haul. I may also talk some about quantifying and tracking your recovery (which I deem far more critical than keeping track of your training stress, since life outside of training can be equally as stressful, ergo affecting your recovery).
In the meantime, don't just stress. Do the rest.
