World Class Athlete Recovery – What Mo does after hard training and racing!
The following is a guide to how to recover from our hard training sessions and racing.
Some of it you will be able to do all after every session, some of it will only be possible on a weekend, but the more of it you can incorporate into your training the better.
World class athletes spend many hours a day working just on recovery. It can take up to 48 hours to recover from a hard session or race. If you want to be the best, train like the best...
1.) Re-hydrate – after finishing your race or session rehydrate with sports drink. This needs to be done within 10mins of finishing
2.) Re-fuel – a light snack which contains both carbohydrates and protein to get fuel back in to your muscles. A chocolate milk drink is ideal. If you don’t like chocolate milk, find an alternative. You want something with a carbohydrate-to-protein ratio of 4:1.
3.) Stretch – This should be 10-15mins of stretching and should be done after you have re-hydrated. It can be at the same time as you snack. Stretch all your muscles out – you should find that you are much more flexible than when you started your warm-up!
4.) Ice Bath – are you tough enough? This is a great way of helping muscles recover. You can either sit in a bath of cold water for 10mins or run the cold shower on your legs for 15-20mins. Another method is hot/cold treatment 30 seconds hot shower, 30seconds cold shower continuous for 10-15mins. Try them all out and see what works best for you.
5.) Eat – Within 1-2hours of finishing eat properly. A well balanced meal with carbs, veg and protein.
6.) Sleep – have a power nap or at the very least put your feet up and relax for an hour.
7.) Bath – About an hour before bed have a hot bath with muscle soak in it.
8.) Stretch – again!
9.) Sleep – Have a good night’s sleep.
