Cutting Edge Ideas to Speed Athletic Recovery

The best athletes push the pace as hard as possible as often as possible to get better as quickly as possible. This intense drive to win often leads many into a state of overtraining. This is an athlete’s worst nightmare, forcing time off in the middle of a season and more prone to injuries. Overtraining is not only dangerous but also unhealthy and causes numerous symptoms such as lethargy, chronic joint pain, insomnia, depression and loss of mental focus. The best athletes ride the fine line between training as much as humanly possible and overtraining. If you can improve your recovery between each training session, you will be fresher for the next round and you can train much more intensely. After intense workouts, it takes a certain amount of time for your body to recover enough to be able to train again. In conditioned athletes, this time is much faster than couch potatoes. However if you recover faster, you will be more ready to train sooner, allowing you to fit in more sessions during the week.
One of the first measures to go about for improving your athletic recovery is to incorporate rest/recovery time within your physical training program. This means planning your training routine with days off where you will be resting and not training. It’s also smart to vary your program to work different movements, tempos and volume to keep the body and mind fresh with new stimulus and avoid getting stale from boring routines. Include prehabilitative and/or recovery days in your program where you actively work out soreness with light exercises, movements or stretches. During both training and competing, use as many physical modalities and therapeutic activities in between workouts as possible to get the most benefit and feel the best. This includes contrast baths, ice, massage, chiropractic and physical therapy modalities. Getting enough sleep rest is crucial for complete recovery. For most athletes between 7-10 hours/night is adequate but quality sleep is essential.