Rest & Recovery - an integral training component

As I started putting down my next quarter’s training plan for the Hyderabad run in August , I was all charged up to put my best foot forward - I enthusiastically thought about spending more time in the gym, increasing the intensity of strength training, achieving greater running mileage, doing more hill runs and what not. My chain of thoughts was suddenly interrupted by the realization that doing all of this would really depend upon how quickly I can recover between the workouts. The last thing I want to do in my enthusiasm to ‘do more’ is to work-out when the body hasn’t fully recovered (read fully benefited) from the previous work-out. In this article, I talk about possible ways to achieve quicker and effective recovery between the workouts.

First things first – before we look at the ways to recover faster, let’s understand why exactly it is important to recover well between workouts? The answer really lays in understanding the mechanics of strengthening. In a nut-shell, physical workouts result in the microscopic rupturing of muscle fibers, which leads to muscle soreness. This soreness can peak within 1 – 3 days post the work-out, a phenomenon often referred to as DOMS (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness). Now, it is during the time of rest and recovery that body ‘rebuilds’ the ruptured muscle fibers which are stronger (and at times larger) than the original muscle.

In this sense, the actual strengthening of muscles takes place outside the gym hours. During the physical work-out, one only lays the foundation for muscle strengthening by actually rupturing the muscle fibers (as counter-intuitive as it may sound!). This is the reason why rest and recovery should be an integral part of one’s work-out. In fact, one should not consider the work-out complete till one has fully recovered and reaped the benefits of the strenuous work-out. 

Let us now turn our attention to the next important question - how could we recover faster and more effectively? Following are some common principles that seem to work well.

1. Get sufficient sleep

It is interesting to note the typical stages in a human sleep cycle:

(i) Stage 1: This is simple dosing off stage where eyes are closed but the body is getting ready to sleep. 
(ii) Stage 2: This is the light sleep stage. This stage is characterized by a drop in body temperature and slowing down of heart rate. 
(iii) Stage 3: This is the deep sleep stage where the body processes slow down even further. Moreover, at this stage the brain is in a state of rest due to which supply of blood to muscles increases. From recovery perspective, this is the most important stage as bulk of the physical healing and muscle repair happens at this stage! 
(iv) Stage 4: This is the deepest phase of sleep and is often referred to as Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. This is the stage of sleep where one starts dreaming.

For our context, there are two important points that one should note here:

• Quality of sleep is important – It is during the deep sleep phase of non-REM sleep (i.e. stage 3) where healing and recovery takes place.
• For most adults the body needs around 7 to 9 hours of daily sleep to function efficiently. The demands of heavy work-outs may necessitate an even longer sleep duration to ensure proper recovery.

For me personally, this is the most critical recovery factor and is also the one which is the hardest to achieve. If I am ever faced with a need to choose between cutting down on workout hours vis-à-vis cutting down on sleep hours, I choose the former over the latter.

2. Keep yourself well hydrated

Water plays a vital role in regulating body temperature as well as facilitating proper muscle and heart function. Lack of appropriate water level in body can result in a drop in blood plasma (liquid component of blood that suspends blood cells) volume due to which muscle cells don’t get the required nourishment. This tends to retard muscle recovery thereby leading to prolonged soreness of muscles.

So, the next question is how much water intake should one target in the days following a heavy workout? There is no specific answer for this – however, research indicates that as a rule of thumb one should target daily water intake around 0.7 ounces for every pound of body weight. In other words, one should target a daily intake of around 45 ml water for every kilogram of body weight. For a person like me (76 kgs), this corresponds to around 3.4 liters water every day.

3. Enrich your diet with sufficient supply of proteins

The role of nutrition is critical in facilitating quick recovery between workouts. In particular, the intake or proteins is important as proteins are the building blocks of muscles and facilitate repair of damaged tissues.

• Nutrition immediately post a work-out: There is ample research that suggests that one should target a post work-out meal comprising of 4 parts of carbohydrates and 1 part of protein (i.e. 4:1 Carbohydrates: Protein ratio) to kick-start quick recovery. Note that immediately post a work-out carb intake is important as carb reserves are depleted due to high intensity work-out and need replenishment. Chocolate milk is a commonly available option that serves this purpose.
• Routine protein intake: A healthy human body should consume around 0.8 grams of protein per kg of body weight (everyday). However, for individuals involved in running and heavy workouts there is additional recovery requirement due to which the protein intake should be around 1.2 to 1.4 grams of protein per kg of body weight. This can typically be met with options like egg whites, sprouts, dals, curd and milk (for more details, you can refer to one of my previous blogs published in July 2015 - Fuel your engine with right nutrients!)

In addition to this, one should try to get frequent intakes of protein at regular intervals during a day. Moreover, consuming a relatively large portion of protein just before the night’s sleep is a great option (it provides essential recovery nutrients at a time when the body is best positioned to recover).

4. Try hot turmeric milk for accelerated recovery

As antiquated as it may sound, this always works. So how does this really work? When we undertake intense workouts, our muscles burn the energy stored in the form of glycogen to produce lactic acid. This lactic acid quickly breaks into lactate and hydrogen ions. The hydrogen ions lower the pH of our muscles leading to that feeling of fatigue and burning sensation that we feel after high intensity workouts (or for that matter after speed runs).

To offset the effect of the drop in pH, it is good to consume something alkaline. That’s where turmeric milk is immensely helpful. Moreover, turmeric is also known to have several health benefits due to its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties.

5. Make foam rolling a regular feature of your training schedule

For starters, the connective tissue in our muscles consists of a soft tissue portion (also called ‘fascia’) that provides support and protection. The fascia often becomes constrained and restricted due to overuse of muscles during heavy workouts, which leads to soreness and inflammation. Now, foam rolling is a simple self-myofascial release (SMR) technique which involves rolling the tender muscle groups over a foam roller for 30 – 60 seconds using one’s own body weight.

This one is my favorite and something that I have adopted in a big way in the last few months. If you want to try out one thing from the list of recovery techniques listed in this article, try this one for 3 months and see the difference. To learn more details around how to use a foam roller, watch this excellent YouTube Video from Gagan Arora:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_KEgKK-9bQ

6. Make stretching a regular feature of your work-out

Stretching after a workout can help in relieving the body of muscle soreness and stiffness. It also helps to flush out waste products from the muscles which facilitate quicker recovery. Additionally, stretching can help improve flexibility, which is critical for any athlete trying to achieve bigger stride-lengths (especially the flexibility of hip flexors, glutes and hamstrings).

In addition to the recovery and flexibility benefits of static stretching, one should also build in active dynamic stretching into the work-out routine. As the name suggests, dynamic stretching involves rapid stretching movements that repeatedly put the muscles to undergo a range of motion. This helps in increasing the suppleness of blood-flow to muscles and also aids in improvement of muscular endurance and anaerobic capacity. Some simple dynamic stretches include exercises such as dynamic lunges, leg-kicks etc.

7. Try compression garments

Compression garments are relatively tight-fitting clothing such as socks, sleeves etc. that provide support during sports activities. Unlike most of the other recovery tips listed in this article, the impact of compression garments is yet to be fully established scientifically. However, there are research studies that indicate that compression garments have a moderate effect on lessening the severity and duration of DOMS.

According to a research published in the British Journal of Sports medicine – 2/3^rd of the athletes who wore compression gears after workouts that cause perceptible muscle damage said that the gear helped in lessening the severity of muscle soreness. The general view is that the external pressure from the compression gear reduces the space available for swelling to occur within muscles, which in turn may lead to feeling less soreness.

Even though the benefits of compression garments are yet to be fully established, it still warrants a try. For me personally - compression socks tend to work very well. 

I hope the article provides some useful information for quicker recovery tips and helps you make the most out of your hard high intensity work-outs!

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Sundeep Singh

(+91 - 98181 19794)

Sources:

• http://breakingmuscle.com/olympic-weightlifting/the-importance-of-sleep-for-weightlifters-and-other-athletes  
• http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/sleep-101 
• http://greatist.com/fitness/18-scientifically-proven-ways-speed-recovery 
• http://www.coreperformance.com/daily/recovery/5-recovery-secrets-of-endurance-athletes.html 
• http://www.muscleforlife.com/stretching-before-aerobic-exercise-or-weightlifting-yes-or-no/
• http://therun-way.com/dont-waste-your-airtime/ 
• http://www.runnersworld.com/newswire/compression-gear-has-moderate-effect-on-muscle-damage
• http://www.runnersworld.com/running-tips/is-lactic-acid-a-bad-thing 
• http://lactate.com/questions/question_01a_what_is_lactate.html
• http://breakingmuscle.com/mobility-recovery/does-foam-rolling-really-work

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About the Author: By background, Sundeep Singh is a Mechanical Engineer from IIT Delhi and holds an MBA from IIM Kozhikode. Given his flair for mechanics and passion for running, he loves to analyze and write about the finer nuances of running techniques / strategies. Sundeep’s best run till date is ADHM 2015, which he completed in 1:31:20.