You train hard every time you hit the field or the gym floor, but you’re not making the gains you want.
You’ve created the programme and periodization model for the year… but your athletes aren’t where they should be.
You or your athletes are breaking down a little too easy.
You might be training hard, but do you recover hard?
Recovery is often what separates the good players from great players. The science of recovery is out there and proven, there are countless studies and papers outlined how well recovered athletes perform Vs. under recovered ones. This week I’m going to outline how 4 areas, 1) Sleep, 2) Social Time, 3) Movement and 4) Refueling can impact your performance and how you can get better at each.
Sleep
Sleep is one of the best ways to recover after exercise. The physiological adaptations that occur during deep sleep cannot be mimicked by other form of recovery. There are numerous studies showing the link between lower sleep and injury. The less sleep we get the higher the chance of an injury occurring. Optimal sleep is 7-9 hours, however, the latest figures show the average sleep is 6.5 hours, largely due to the increase in technology and the ability to access news and content 24/7.
Screens are backlit with something called ‘blue light’. Blue light can have an awful impact on our circadian rhythm, the physiological system that tells us when it’s time to sleep. Some studies have pointed to blue light exposure moving a person’s circadian rhythm up to 6 time zones, delaying the release of melatonin (the sleep hormone) anywhere from 30-60 minutes. So with that in mind, think of how damaging it is when you go to bed at night to stay up for 30 minutes mindlessly scrolling through Facebook and Instagram. Not only is it wasting your own time but it’s deeply affecting the quality of sleep you’re going to have when you eventually do fall asleep. Instead of getting into a deep sleep where the biggest recovery and growth happens, chances are you’ll constantly be in a light sleep. Having alcohol close to bed time has the same impact on deep sleep.
My top advice to achieve ultimate recovery through sleep is to create a sleep routine and stick to it as often as possible. Following the same time frame and steps every night can help train your body into knowing when it’s time for bed, much like how a parent gives a child the same bedtime every night to train them into sleeping. Aim to avoid technology and screen time for at least 30 minutes before bed and try leave your phone out of the bedroom all together. Also, eating a large meal close to bedtime isn’t ideal as digesting the food could impact on your circadian rhythm also.
Social Time
Much has been made about athletes and drinking bans but a few drinks with friends after a game has been proven to be highly beneficial to the following week’s performance. Obviously there needs to be a responsibility on the athlete not to binge drink and consume copious amounts of alcohol but having a few drinks in a relaxed environment and replaying the performance casually with friends has been a winner in a number of studies.
Making time to step away from the high pressure environment and sometimes from your team mates is very important. Sport is not the only life we lead, everyone, athletes and coaches need time to be with partners, family and friends as a form of mental recovery which is as important the physical.
Movement
We’ve all had those days after performance where we wake up stiff and sore. Some forms of low intensity cardio can be a really beneficial form of recovery in this instance.
Cardiac output work is great for two reasons,
1) increasing the heart rate will also increase overall blood flow. This is a great way to flush out any lingering by-products and also deliver nutrients to the recovering muscles.
2) low intensity steady state cardiac output work like tempo runs, cycling, rowing and swimming can help increase overall levels of fitness, bringing the athlete’s baseline up.
Refueling
Refueling refers to the things you do post competition and training, nutrition wise, to get yourself back to baseline as quick as possible. I like the term refueling because it has a much bigger message than just nutrition. When it comes to athletes and performance food is not just food. It’s our source of energy, food to us is petrol to a car, it’s fuel. Refueling implies we’re loading up to go again.
We’ve discussed in the Sunday blogs so there’s no bad food, just more nutritious and less nutritious food. Athletes need to be educated on the breakdown of macronutrients and the role each has. Carbohydrates don’t make us fat, they will be our main source of energy for competition. While there are defined recommendations for carb loading pre-comp most adult athletes will have a strategy that works well for them, I don’t tend to try change that too much. Unless there’s a problem with performance and you reckon it’s nutrition related I like to leave the athlete with what they’re comfortable with.
Post comp is where you can make a big difference in my opinion. Depending on your situation, you may be able to have meals for your athletes on site but if you don’t have that luxury you can spend a bit of time educating the athlete on how to create their own post game/training meal.
For refueling carbohydrates will play a big role. When we train our energy stores get depleted, to replenish them we need to take on carbohydrates such as potatoes, rice, grains, pastas and such.
To aid muscle recovery and avoid breakdown we need to be getting a source of protein. Of course, a shake works well immediately after competition but if you don’t have access to it it’s not the end of the world. Within a couple of hours, ideally, we’ll be able to get a meal containing a lean source of protein. The amount here isn’t as important as the overall daily amount of protein the athlete is getting in. Hopefully this is around 2g per KG/BW. However, there’s strong evidence pointing to the link between sleep and protein synthesis. Taking 20-30g protein before bed can increase the body’s protein synthesis through the night while you sleep. Definitely a good tactic the night of a tough game or training session.
So, there we have it. Sometimes it’s not about how hard you train but how hard you recover. If you feel you’re doing everything else right but still struggling check your recovery routine. If anyone reading would like more info on all of the studies I got the information from please reach out. And if I’ve missed your favorite form of recovery please leave it in a comment below!
See you next time,
Rory.