Recovery Essentials

There are so many technologies and methods out there for recovery. If you are involved in professional sports or are in the sports training environment professionally, you know what I mean. This space has really taken off in the last decade or so. Everyone is talking recovery and how important it is.

No doubt, it is very important. If you aren't recovered, you can't perform at your peak. It's why you see Lebron and all of the other stars in the NBA getting their designated games off now so they can be at their peaks in the playoffs. There are various ways to measure your level of recovery, all with their advantages and flaws. Teams and players are looking for any way to find an edge and recovery is the latest focus.

The role of recovery has always existed and is no different itself, today, than it was hundreds of years ago. Right now, it just happens to be in the mainstream for sports.

The number one recovery tool is still sleep. Nothing trumps sleep and nothing likely ever will. I don't care how many other methods of recovery you are using, if you aren't getting quality sleep they won't help much or for long. This is because your body is designed to heal and repair itself during sleep. If you don't sleep, your body doesn't go through these processes, at least not at the depth experienced during sleep.

I'm sure you've experienced this yourself. When sleep deprived, you are more irritable, susceptible to illness, more easily fatigued, less coordinated, have more difficulty focusing and so on.
If you want to recover, you must make sleep a priority.

Movement promotes recovery.

An often overlooked, primal method of recovery is movement. Moving promotes recovery. Not aggressive, fast, explosive movement, but general low impact movement. Rolling, rocking, crawling, squatting and hanging for example can be great recovery movements. The key to these movements in recovery is that they have to be low intensity and frequent. 10 minutes spent moving around an hour after your game ended won't be any different than if you just sat on the couch.

The mistake a lot of guys make is spending hours on the couch after a game, watching sports or movies and eating crap food while drinking alcoholic or sugary beverages. That's a really bad recovery protocol. If you must do this, break up your lounging by getting up and moving around often. Walk around, get down on the ground and rock or roll, find a doorway to hang in for several seconds, squat down during the commercials, alternate a glass of water with your other drinks, mix in some real food. Most importantly, move often. Even if it's just to stand up, squat once, reach your arms up over your head and sit back down every 15-30 minutes. Couple this with those 10 minutes of moving around and you will feel much better the next day. If you are too tired to do this, then go to bed and get some sleep. Get up in the morning and start moving around; don't wait until you get to the field.

Take-away: get good quality sleep coupled with frequent, low intensity movement!  

Now, Reclaim your Game!