After doing some research, I’ve come across some methods of recovery(from injury and just regular training), such as taking Vit. C, B Complex, MultiVit/Min,ZMA,L-glutamine… stretching, EMS, sauna, soft tissue work, and hot baths.
What else could I possibly include to speed up recovery?
where are your hot and cold showers?? (3 min hot as you can stand it/ 1 min cold as you can stand it x 3)
Oh yeah…contrast showers. I feel like it just isn’t cold enough for me when I do it though. Maybe that’s just because the skin is still a bit hotter from the hot cycle.
If you’re in a warm climate, your “cold” might not be optimal coldness, especially during summers.
Maybe someone could answer if contrast showers are worth it, even if the cold isn’t cold? (the muscle tone might not be reset after the hot cycles)
It’s winter here. I can take it colder, but I guess that’s not the point of contrast showers exactly.
Oh yeah, what’s the consensus here on upping the Vit. C intake? I read up on this site about how it could actually be harmful, but a few others said they felt recovery was greatly increased. Another site said that it can have a detrimental reaction to free iron in the body.: http://unisci.com/stories/20013/0927015.htm
You can use ice in the bathtub if you have a separate shower.
Sleep, rest, psychological means (ie., just “chilling” out), sound diet, sound training workloads…
There seems to be a bunch of misinformation in that press release. You cannot use a dosage that is 10-15 times the RDA to draw a conclusion that everything over 10% of that dosage is harmful. The applicable word here is pseudoscience.
The RDA for Vitamin C is in the process of being revised upwards from the present 60mg. Present research suggests that bioavailability is maxed out at 200mg for men and 75-90mg for women. If you take more than 450mg in a single dose, the excess is removed through the kidneys and bioavailability in the bloodstream and at the cellular level actually goes down.
See this study and several papers by Levine on the matter of bioavailabiity of Vitamin C:
Vitamin C pharmacokinetics in healthy volunteers: evidence for a recommended dietary allowance.
Levine M, Conry-Cantilena C, Wang Y, Welch RW, Washko PW, Dhariwal KR, Park JB, Lazarev A, Graumlich JF, King J, Cantilena LR.
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-1372, USA.
There are a number of studies on Vitamin E and Betacarotine as well as Vitamin C suggesting that mega doses of vitamins may in fact be harmful (but most studies have involved terminally-ill patients or heart attack sufferers thus, once again, drawing conclusions for healthy invividuals from the results is questionable). The principal study on E suggests that moderate increases may be good (as I recall an increase from the 30 IU RDA to 60-100 IU was beneficial) but 450 IU and higher was related to an increase in overall death rate.
BTW, sleep seems to be highly underrated as a method of improving recovery, and I would start there.
Yes, sleep is highly underrated. Unfortunately it’s a double-edged sword. The more muscular fatigue and soreness you carry, the harder it is to sleep.
Perhaps the best way to speed recovery is to manage loading so to minimise the need for recovery? Also no one has has included accupuncture or fasical release yet… they are my two!
Edit: Ok maybe I missed body work earlier!
If this isn’t possible, is a “contrast” shower without cold enough water actually a bad thing?
Fascial release and general massage has helped me greatly, thats my two cents
Same here. The hardest part is finding a good massage therapist.
What do you look for in a good massage therapist?
Experience and success w/ athletes.
One that doesnt cause bruising or stifness after massage. One that helps release trigger points without making them worse.
MASSAGE IS STRESS! Especially if you are getting pounded! Certainly the best option is little and often. If you can only afford one session a week then I think you need to do it at the end of the week preferably with a days rest afterwards before you start again. It takes time to recover from the massage.
I dont think ive ever had a stressful massage before, wouldnt that only be during times of injury. Right now i dont have any injuries (knock on wood) and i feel very fresh and relaxed after the workout. I have it on the day that i dont workout at all, and i feel great. Im curious to know what about massage you find hard or stressful?
It’s just your definition of stress. Just because it feels nice doesn’t mean it isn’t stress. Deep tissue work definitly needs some time to recover from though it helps in the long run.
What about wearing compression tights post work out?
Found this in a search
[i] Using recovery modalities between training sessions in elite athletes: does it help?
* Barnett A.
Centre of Excellence for Applied Sport Science Research, Queensland Academy of Sport, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. [email]abarnett@hku.hk[/email]
Achieving an appropriate balance between training and competition stresses and recovery is important in maximising the performance of athletes. A wide range of recovery modalities are now used as integral parts of the training programmes of elite athletes to help attain this balance. This review examined the evidence available as to the efficacy of these recovery modalities in enhancing between-training session recovery in elite athletes. Recovery modalities have largely been investigated with regard to their ability to enhance the rate of blood lactate removal following high-intensity exercise or to reduce the severity and duration of exercise-induced muscle injury and delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Neither of these reflects the circumstances of between-training session recovery in elite athletes. [b]After high-intensity exercise, rest alone will return blood lactate to baseline levels well within the normal time period between the training sessions of athletes. The majority of studies examining exercise-induced muscle injury and DOMS have used untrained subjects undertaking large amounts of unfamiliar eccentric exercise. This model is unlikely to closely reflect the circumstances of elite athletes. Even without considering the above limitations, there is no substantial scientific evidence to support the use of the recovery modalities reviewed to enhance the between-training session recovery of elite athletes. Modalities reviewed were massage, active recovery, cryotherapy, contrast temperature water immersion therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, compression garments, stretching, electromyostimulation and combination modalities.[/b] Experimental models designed to reflect the circumstances of elite athletes are needed to further investigate the efficacy of various recovery modalities for elite athletes. Other potentially important factors associated with recovery, such as the rate of post-exercise glycogen synthesis and the role of inflammation in the recovery and adaptation process, also need to be considered in this future assessment.
PMID: 16937953 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
I tried to find the full paper but couldn’t, :o can others?