Training & Recovery
Recovering from training and any other (life) stress can often seem like a complex task, and can be particularly challenging to stay consistent with.
Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be.
We often forget that recovery is not only physical, but mental too. Whether it is sport, gym training, work stress, financial worry, relationship troubles, or anything else that gets in your way, they all have the opportunity to break you down.
We need to treat our recovery as important as the training program itself.
Just remember, prevention is better than the cure.
HOW OVERTRAINING CAN OCCUR:
No rest days or balance of hard/light days.
Monotonous training programmes (no variety).
Greater than 30% training load increase in a week.
Training consistently in a calorie deficit (underfed state).
Ideal Training Load Progression
SO, HOW CAN WE RECOVER?
Firstly, the physical recovery should be starting as soon as each session ends!
This is the time to relax (cool down) , refuel (eat) and replenish (hydrate). Some physical recovery strategies include: light aerobic activity, stretching, massage, contrast showers (30sec hot/cold for 4 mins), cold baths (up 10 min), meditation, naps, and so on.
Secondly, your day-to-day emotional/cognitive recovery is super important. The inability to cope with stressful situations can lead to a greater perception of stress and a reduction in physical health and performance. A period of ‘deactivation’ is necessary to prevent the stressor from one situation impacting on another situation.
This is where spending time away from the stressful triggers (e.g. training, work, mobile phones, draining environments, etc.) can be most impactful. Instead, try spend time on some old hobbies or reconnect with nature and get some sun. Otherwise, simply do something different! Get out of the repetitive habits you might be stuck in.
Check out our free ‘IP Recovery System’ pdf download below:
Most athletes know that they should be recovering, but often don’t know where to start. We are flooded with new technologies and fad diets on a regular basis, so it all gradually blends into one confusing puzzle of information overload.
We developed this system, or checklist, to make recovery a much more simple and easy-to-apply concept.
Success in sport is typically seen through the lens of putting in hours and hours of hard work, with little afterthought to what happens in the hours, days, and weeks following training.
But ultimately, you can only train as hard as you recover…
This system will help you build the starting blocks to begin making recovery a priority, and to gain some basic understanding around the true value of common methods that are too often misrepresented.
In as little as 10 mins per day, you can make a huge difference to how you feel between the daily grinds of sport.