If you want to stay ahead of the curve in fitness trends, just follow what the strength and conditioning coaches for professional athletes are doing. The 2019 minimum pay for an NFL rookie is $480,000. In the NBA, it’s $838,464. Olympic athletes, still considered amateurs, have the opportunity to earn millions in endorsement deals for coming home with hardware from either the summer or winter games. The financial upside in sports has grown substantially in the last 20 years. It’s the job of their coaches and trainers to guide and prepare them for victory. At the elite level, the difference between winning and losing can translate into millions of dollars. Lebron James has mentioned in interviews that he will spend upwards to a million dollars annually for recovery and regeneration services! His body is his business.
You may not be playing for an NBA title but you can reap the benefits from a few of the recovery techniques that our elite athletes are using.
Before I get into listing and explaining what some of these techniques and products are, I want to explain why they are important. Exercise is a controlled stress on the body. We can control the frequency, intensity level, duration, and type of activity. Nonetheless, it is stress on the body physically, neurologically, and emotionally. The physical demands have been acknowledged for years, but the other stressors have become center stage recently. Improvements in the body are made as a response to a stimulus. The objective should be to create a mild overload with either load, cardio pulmonary or mobility that will promote an adaptation from the body. The adaptation starts in the recovery phase. It’s in the adaptation phase where the body becomes stronger.
SLEEP. First on the list is sleep. Once relegated for the weak and lazy, sleep is the most important part of recovery. It’s not even close to the other recovery methods. It’s during sleep that hormones such as human growth hormone and
testosterone kicks into high gear and start tissue repair. Sleep aids such as melatonin have a 50% response rate amongst users. It’s been noted that limiting screen time prior to bed, sleep sound machines, and masks that block out all light can pay dividends in creating a good sleeping environment.
NUTRITION. Next on the list is nutrition. It’s been said that you can’t out-train poor nutrition. Proper nutrition will not only fuel you for your workout, but also aid in tissue repair and combat the inflammatory response to cells that happens from training. Minimizing processed sugar intake to reduce inflammation after a tough workout can do wonders. Eating green leafy vegetables can detoxify the liver so that it can function better in producing hormones and consuming adequate protein (1 gram per kilogram of bodyweight), which repairs and aids tissue, are just a few tips that can help.
CONTRAST BATHS. Cold plunge baths and contrast showers have been proven to improve recovery. It’s documented that the Romans used this technique years ago. The objective is to contrast from hot to cold. The warm water will open up the blood vessels and improve blood flow. Then switching to cold will shunt blood to the internal organs as a protective mechanism. Then repeat the cycle. You want the hot cycle to be 3 times longer than the cold and to repeat this cycle 3-4 times for optimal results. This has been known to decrease inflammation and reduce the amount of lactate in the blood.
COMPRESSION. Compression garments have claims to minimize post exercise oedema, remove waste products from the muscle, improve local blood flow, and improve concentration of creatine kinase. The problem is that there has been minimal research, not to mention the inconsistencies. Much of the improvement has been perception, which may be more psychological. Companies, like Under Armour, have done a great job of marketing these products.
BREATHING. Breathe exercises and meditation has been discussed for centuries for having a healing effect on the body. I was recently at a conference where a well recognized strength coach stated in his presentation that “We all need to apologize to the Yogis about breathing. They were right!” What’s new is the research
explaining how controlling your breath calms your brain. The brain is the control center telling your body how to respond to stresses placed upon the body. A 2016 study accidentally stumbled upon the neural circuit in the brainstem that seems to play the key role in the breathing-brain control connection. The circuit is part of what’s been called the brain’s “breathing pacemaker” because it can be adjusted by altering breathing rhythm, which in turn influences emotional states. Further research suggests that slowing down your breathing increases “baroreflex sensitivity”, the mechanism that regulates blood pressure via heart rate.
Stay tuned for my next post, where I’ll share more techniques in Part 2 of Recovery and Regeneration- The Most Important Part of Your Workout.
See you at the studio.