Personal Training 14b: recovery

This post is part of an ongoing series about my learning process as I train to become a personal trainer.

In this post, I’m going to consider issues surrounding what my course notes describe as “cool downs” and what I like to think of as “recovery”.  It’s a partner to the post I did last week on warm ups.

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The official recommendation 

My course materials recommend that a cool down should contain two parts: 

1. Static stretches - I discussed what I thought the main arguments are around static stretching last week, so please refer to that post for my thoughts.
2. A revitaliser – this is intended to reactivate neuromuscular responses and ensure that the trainee leaves the gym in an elevated state of mind.  Most of my course tutors tend to be unable to describe the purpose of this part with a straight face so if you do anything for this purpose, please let me know.

I’m not proposing to say any more about this recommendation.

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My approach to recovery

My current approach to recovery includes the following considerations: 

• Soft tissue management – I believe that soft tissue work is great for making short-term improvements on the way you feel and the way you recover.  I’ve written about my own soft tissue work before and I think that you can do a lot with a foam roller and a baseball.  However, I think that different people have different requirements for soft tissue management.  I also think that it depends on whether they are training movements that are having a balanced effect on their development or whether they are still banging away at the bench press without ever having done any rows.  I certainly found that when I started doing a more complete set of strength exercises (i.e. press, squat and row in addition to the pull ups, dips and deadlifts), my requirement for soft tissue work decreased rather than increased, despite the increased workload. 
• FOR CLIENTS:  I think that I will use a small amount of foam rolling on the legs, as they will probably be using their legs in ways that they haven’t used them before and it’s also a good way to improve mobility quickly.  However, I’m not going to keep pushing the foam roller on a client who has difficulty getting down onto the floor.  
• Static stretches – I don’t do a massive amount of stretching and I probably do a lot less than I did when I first started lifting weights but I still do a bit.  Most of the stretching I did (and still do) relates to hip mobility and many of these stretches are lunge type stretches.  For the detail, you can see one of my old stretching programmes (I like reading these and looking at pictures of how small I was).  The other stretches I like are for the pectorals and for the latissimus. 
• FOR CLIENTS: I think that I will probably always include a hip mobility stretch if I know that the client has a sedentary job and that possibly also applies to a pectoral stretch, depending on just how slouched they are.
• Food – it’s hard for me to explain how much of a difference there is in my ability to recover when I am eating paleo + diary and when I am eating grains.  The difference is just huge.  One large pizza is enough to really slow my recovery and make a workout seem much tougher to recuperate from.  This seems especially relevant to me as I increase volume.  As regards timing affecting recovery from a workout, I don’t seem to see much difference whether I eat immediately afterwards or later in the evening.
• FOR CLIENTS: I don’t necessarily see myself recommending any food post-workout unless their goal is muscle building.  However, for fat-loss and general well-being (feeling better) I will be recommending that they at least try a diet without sugar for a few weeks to see whether they feel better (and I’m sure that they will) and then, if that works, I will be recommending that they experiment without bread/pasta and see whether that has a positive impact as well.  Obviously the normal “eat more vegetables” recommendation applies as well.  I will be intrigued to see what happens.
• Sleep – I know that I can lift a much higher volume when I get lots of sleep.  I think that many people in the Western world now get by with a lot less sleep than they actually need and I believe it ages them.
• FOR CLIENTS: I can see that I would recommend that they try and get 8-9 hours a night if this is possible or more if they feel that they need it. 
• Supplementation – other than fish oil and protein powder, I don’t really see many supplements having a noticable effect and I don’t really think it’s my perrogative to do the research and make recommendations about long-term health issues unless they do have a noticable effect.  I know that my recovery is affected by how much protein I eat and how my joints feel is affected by how much fish oil I take, particularly if I’m lifting heavy and plenty of volume.  That doesn’t mean I don’t take other supplements, I do.  I take Vitamin C, D and Zinc, as well as glucosamine and chondroitin.
• FOR CLIENTS: I will probably recommend that clients experiment with fish oil and if they are needing to increase their protein intake but don’t really get along with tuna and meat then I will suggest a protein powder.

That’s it, really.  Soft tissue maintenance, some stretching, quality food and plenty of sleep.  I can’t really think of anything more effective.

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Some resources and thoughts on recovery

Here are a few interesting links about the way in which other people put recovery sessions together:

1. Glenn Pendlay describes the training and recovery schedule of Jon North, an Olympic lifter looking to break the American Record.
2. Conditioning Research points to the effects of a hot sauna to increase hypertrophy.
3. Australian Kettlebells has a full discussion of recovery.
4. Keats Snideman discusses the importance of sleep.
5. Vern Gambetta suggests that perhaps we might be overthinking things and suggests that we: “train hard, train a little harder, go easy and then rest. Don’t take an ice bath or get a massage every time you break a sweat, instead learn how your body responds to various training stressors and learn what you need to do to recover from those.”

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That’s it.  A short a sweet post this week.  But please let me know if you have any tips for better recovery that I should be aware of.