Making the Most of Recovery Aids

Expert Discussion Recovery and Regeneration
1

hi guys, so the training schedule i’m on is mon thurs circuits and lifting, tues and fri running and lifting, wed abs, sat morning easy and sun off (weekdays all late afternoon)

i ice bath mon and fri mornings and get a post-workout massage on tuesday

is the ice bathing and massage a good setup with how the workouts are?

and the massage is 20 min, if i don’t have any injury pains, what should i tell the massesue to do in order to get the most out of the recovery aspect of massage?

2

If the sport is sprinting (guessing here) I’d shift Ice baths to those days (if they have the greatest CNS demand), contrast on the others.

Priority order for massage

    • Where it’s tightest/stiffest first
    • Where you can’t get to easiest with flexibility/self mobilisation - back/shoulders etc
    • Lower Body
3

generally friday and mondays have been the hardest days, though i’vee been ice bathing in the am and training in the pm so i assume u mean i should ice bath after the hard cns workouts. since fall break is this weekend the schedule will move and i’ll ty to shift my recovery schedule around (i just fit the ice baths where it was easiest with my school schedule).

and thanks for the massage priority, i’ll keep that in mind! testing is wed and thurs this week, so im taking my massage tues (not high volume so not as useful if i take it thursday) (massage can either be post-practice tues or wed), i’ll probably just have her not go so deep so i can be nice and loose for testing.

4

Yes, Cns days for ice baths.
You can change the massage around, but just don’t focus on legs only all the time, though important.

5

just to make sure i’m understanding clearly, ice bath AFTER cns days?

6

Yes, Ice after CNS days

7

you think it’d be better to have massage afternoon after cns days or ice bath morning after cns days (workouts are from 4:30-7:30)?

8

recovery schedule for spp:

monday -> contrast bath am, cold shower pm
wednesday -> ice bath am
thursday -> massage pm
friday -> contrast bath/ice bath am

notes:
-hard cns day is monday
-trying not to ice day after massage as recommended by the masseuse
-wed is a recovery day
-sun is off

9

have masseuse primarily working on calves, hamstrings and lower back

mon -> cold shower pm
tues -> massage pm
wed -> contrast bath am, cold shower pm
thurs -> nothing
fri -> ice bath am

ice l. knee area post-workout, post-hip stretch

10

really like the term masseuse here :slight_smile:

11

haha, i’m not sure i know what you mean

12

a massage therapist is professionnal service

a masseuse might refer to more than massage lol

13

oh, learn something new everyday! yeah, i just get a 20 min massage and assigned stretches, haha

14

decided that im not getting enugh out of icing or contrast bathing so far after workouts so im now using this schedule (all immediately post-practice):

sun -> off
mon -> ice pcl knee, cold shower
tues -> massage
wed -> contrast bath
thurs -> ice pcl knee
fri -> ice pcl knee, cold shower
sat -> ice pcl knee

i actually feel more cns relief from the cold shower running down from the top of my head, and noticed that the ice baths werent helping my soreness as much as the contrast bath, but was helping my knee feel good, but i can ice that separately

15

tb2010
I might suggest 3 intensive contrast baths done after your high or power speed dominant days and keep everything else as you are doing.
The idea is to treat your entire body routinely to shore up energy in all areas on a cellular level as well as just feeling good.
Charlie believed a great deal in treating things as a whole as much as possible and I have found through his instructions this to almost never let me down.
Here are some quick thoughts and notes about contrast baths.

  1. If I could dunk in a hot and or a cold I would pick this as number one but I have a shower with great water pressure and I turn my hot water tank up high.
  2. Head always needs to get wet and you need to keep it under the water in both hot and cold cycles thru the time you do the contrast
  3. Sometimes I extend the hot and the cold but usually once I have been doing many of them over time.
  4. Hot and colds improve my training, mood, recovery , sleep ( i know it sounds too good to be true but…) 100 percent of the time. The more I need a hot and cold the less I feel like doing it.
  5. Something is better than nothing. = any amount of contrast will do but you will progressively adapt so you must change the contrast or do something different over time if this is the case. One of our clients buys ice and fills it in a tub and contrasts from shower near by
  6. some people just can not do hot and colds. Ben Johnson hated them. We cant all be so talented or get massages every day from Charlie and treatment from dr’s and top notch physio people. MOst of Ben’s career he did not have anything except Charlie doing all the work.
16

thanks for the response angela! i’ve actually ended up doing a slightly different routine:

-stretch after every workout
(all post stretch)
sun-off
mon-ice
tues-massage
wed-contrast bath
thurs-ice
fri-contrast bath
sat-ice

being up in ithaca NY, i can actually just turn the 15’ walk back to my dorm as my icing as its very cold and i just dont need to wear as much clothing. and i’ve realized i like the contrast baths much better. i’ve been using the 3x3’ hot, 1’ cold for the contrast but have varied to 2’/2’ sometimes. maybe i’ll consider some more time variation if i find they are becoming less effective

and by get the head under you mean like everything but the face, right? because i can’t hold my breath for that long a period of time (i’ve been using tubs and sometimes a shower for the warm)! haha. i’ve just being up to my neck so far. also, i’ll consider doing contrast on mondays if i have time, but practice tends to go very late on those days
wed-

17

I like your answer tb2010. I think it’s cool ( no pun intended) that you view walking back to your dorm as a method of reducing inflamation. Why not?
I think one of the most important things you are telling us is you are actively thinking about how to recover and doing something about it. Are there better ways? Perhaps. You are learning what works for you and over time you will learn and experiment more.
As for getting the face wet… umm, I am not sure why everyone has such issue with this. The forehead is part of the head and I do think it’s important not to isolate body parts.
Try this. Next time you do a cold cycle challange yourself to relax and visualize your facial expression. Is your face all tense and scrunched? Are does your face look like your practicing meditation? Does it make sense to work against yourself or try and relax? Just try it and see what you think. Relaxation promotes circulation and tension restricts blood flow.
Ideally dunk tanks are the way to go. But once again you sound like you are doing a thoughtful job at addressing CNS build up and finding benefit from your chosen methods.

18

about the face i actually am concerned about breathing. if the cold cycle is the short one and is 1’ long, and my whole head is underwater, i can’t hold my breath for that long, haha. since it seems best to get everything, i assume the best strategy is to have everything under but then come up to take breaths?

and i do prefer the dunk tanks, easy to control the temperature and make sure the whole body gets hit, though i’ve had a shower act ok as the hot portion when i’ve needed to (still used an ice bath for the cold)

19

Yes, I know the cold water is breath taking. You are doing a good job I think. Just keep doing it and I hope things continue to improve for you as well.

20

For those in cold climates with outdoor hot tubs, I have had athletes go from hot tub to pile of snow as their cold treatment. They would lie in the snow on their back and throw snow on their front side.

Ange used to have an avatar of her in the snow doing something similar.