8 Ways To Improve Recovery For Training

1. Use Dynamic Stretching Pre Workout

As you might recall from my previous blog about my pre workout mobility routine you might remember how i mentioned that i do no static stretching pre workout. While that is mainly for performance improvement reasons there have also been research showing that a stretched muscle before training actually improves your chances of getting injured. Think of the rubber-band analogy on this -  a stretched rubber band is more likely to rip rather than one not so stretched, your muscle tissues are similar. By using a dynamic warm up pre workout your able to achieve;

- Getting your Heart Rate Up

- Getting Your Body Through Range Of Motion

- Creating Muscle Activation for stronger power output

 

Those 3 things are major keys to prepping your body for a training session and a great way to help prevent injuries, You might ask why this is a tip for helping recovery and while it does not really improve recovery it does help your chances of preventing injuries in the first place so using some pre-hab work can help you from getting damaged to begin with.

a simple dynamic routine you could use if you don't want to do my 15 min mobility routine;

- Leg swings

- Skipping (yes skipping, really preps the hips, Ankles and quads)

- Long and high jump

- Shoulder dislocations

- Arm Swings

- Swinging from a pull up bar to help decompress the spine

 

 2. Use Static Stretching and Foam Rolling Post Workout

So while static stretching is pretty much forbidden for pre workout i do recommend you take some time post workout to do some static stretching. Static stretching post workout will allow you to loosen up tight muscle tissue and help with not getting as sore when your done training. When your done training your muscle tissue is nice and warm so you can get a good stretch. You don't have to do a ton but i do recommend at least stretching the;

- Hips

- Groin

- Quads

- Hamstrings

- Lower Back

Those areas are the main ones that need attention after a solid training session. Another thing to include post workout (not pre workout) is foam rolling. A lot of people foam roll before there training and all that does is put you in a relaxed mindset, thats not the mindset you want to be in when squatting, benching, or deadlifting heavy ass weight. Ask yourself would you go to a massage place before a heavy training session or after? Simple- you would go after to help loosen up and recover, the same goes for foam rolling or myofacial release, save that stuff for post training. Post training i recommend spending some time rolling out the;

- Ankles

- Calfs

- Groin and hamstrings

- Quads

- Upper Back (rear delts and traps)

- Lower Back

for those that can't afford massages every month i really recommend getting a foam roller as it is one of my greatest tools to help me stay in the iron game.

 

3. Eat Enough Calories To Support Your Training

You knew that if i was talking recovery that i eventually was going to bring up nutrition. There is no way around it. If your not eating enough food then you are cutting the chances of recovery in half and just increasing your chances of underperforming. I see to many people trying to workout for their food and i recommend the opposite- Eat for your training and to support your training. If you know you are going into a heavy week of training then you should probably eat more to keep yourself performing through those tough training cycles. For other parts of your training you might not need as much food to recover and thats important to pay attention to as well. The main rule is eat for your activity and what your going to be doing in the near future. A simple concept i like to apply is;

- For tough training weeks increase Carbs by 10-20%, or increase fats 10%-20% or increase a little of both. Keep protein the same.

- For easier training weeks just eat at regular calorie level (figure that out here) or decrease carbs and fats by 10-20%.

If you don't track then thats fine as well, just try to eat more around times of harder training and maybe decrease some during not so intense periods of training. This is another reason that training in a proper periodized program is so important to your overall longterm lifting success.

 

4. Use Electrical Stim

This is the newest form of recovery that i recently got into and it is one of the best investments i ever invested in for my health. An electrical stim unit might sound scary to incorporate but it really is actually awesome and when used right it can double your speed of recovery of sore muscles. I would love to do a study or have a study done on this someday as i believe the results of it would be pretty mind-blowing from what i myself have witnessed. My experience with electrical stim has been pretty mind blowing. This last training phase of PH3 has been the most taxing training i have ever gone through and there were some days that my back was just completely shot and sore but after using electrical stim on it, it allowed me to continue training and not just train but continue to crush PR's! It really is incredible. I also found the more often i use it the more better my recovery is. I can't speak on very much scientific results of using stim because there is not a lot of official research out there, but speaking on how it helped me has been amazing and i highly recommend it. Those of you like myself that have desk jobs will benefit greatly from this.

Get Your Tens Unit on Amazon for only around $50

Then try this approach

- Lower Back for 20 min

- Mid Back for 20 min

- Upper Back and Traps for 20 min

- shoulders if you are having shoulder pain for 20 min.

I want to put an emphasis on shoulders here as well as the back because during pH3 i almost suffered a shoulder injury in phase 2 but using the stim unit and BFR (we will talk about that below) i was able to keep my shoulder feeling good and even good enough to lift heavy and contune to get stronger. Coming form someone that has a history of shoulder issiues this is huge.

 

5. Get Brave and Try a Contrast Shower

Next up is one that i talked about in my old blogging website a couple times and to this day i still apply this very painful and unpleasant experience to help in recovery. Simply put a contrast shower is a shower where you take your normal temperature shower then at the end of your shower your turn the dial to cold and last for about a couple minutes. Something interesting overtime that i found was to flex the sore muscle as hard as i can while being put under cold water for intervals of 10-20 seconds this can help really reducae pain and help in recovery if you have some nagging pains. Back, Shoulders and biceps are things that get very tight on me from the taining i do and i apply this contrast interval flexing method for them pretty frequently to help in recovery. Once again really no science behind this that i know of, but i have found anecdotal evidence it helps so take from this what you want but don’t knock it till you try it.

 

6. Use Bloodflow Restiction Training

Unlike some of the other things i mentioned this one has some real research supporting it and the research on iti is pretty insane. Read The  research here 

So while wrapping your limbs and training sounds quite scary i can assure you it is completly safe when done properly and it can really help you in;

- recovery

- maintaining muscle size during times or injury and or helkping with hypertrophy without having to lift max loads.

For powerlifters BFR training is a miracle because it allows us to save our main strength for the main movements and allows us to give it our all so then we can use BFR on our smaller msucle groups and still get hypertrophy work in but only using submaxinal weights which is really cool.

jeromy lennoke is someone that you want to look up if you want to learn more about using bloodflow restrcition but im going to  include a breif description and how to impliment it in your training below for reference.

What to wrap with?

- For upper body you can wrap with quick release medical tourniquets

- and for lower body you can wrap with simple cheep knee wraps 

Where to wrap?

- For upper body wrap at the very top of the arm and have teh tightness of it be a 9/10, if it hurts before you start then it’s to tight.

- Lower Body wrap at the very top of the thigh and keep tightness a 7/10.

Whats The Application Method?

Permorm an exercise with 50% of the weight you would usually use for 8 reps and then do 30 reps followed by 15 second rest, then do 15 reps followed by 15 second rest then do 15 reps followed by 15 second rest then one last set of 15 reps.

An example would be;

- Bicep Curls 4x/30/15/15/15

That is the easiest way to integrate it in your training. Now i put this in a recovery article because i found when i was having shoulder issues in Phase 2 of PH3 when i would do extra BFR training it actually eliminated the pain almost completly. Research has shown it to help patients, injured and i also see this a great tool for just helping through general sorness as well. Try it out! The pump is amazing! The best exercises to use BFR on are;

- bicep curls

- tricep push downs

- leg ext

- leg curls

- calf raises

 

7. Supplement With Layne Norton's Carbon Recover

No i do not get paid anything to say this thats just how much i value Layne's Carbon Supplement line. Carbon Recovery is a BCAA type product but also contines L Carnitine, Citriline Malate, and even Cherry Tart Extract which has been shown recently to help improve recovery between training sessions (Howatson G, McHugh MP, Hill JA, Brouner J, Jewell AP, van Someren KA, Shave RE, Howatson SA. Influence of tart cherry juice on indices of recovery following marathon running. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2010 Dec;20(6):843-52.)

I always say supplements are not needed by any means but if you have the money, this one is well worth it. Get Carbon Recover Here

 

8. Walking, Resting, and Sleeping are Major Keys

Kind of an interesting thing to put as the last tip i know but lets go through this. First walking. Walking is something that is so easy almost anyone can do it and the benefits of walking are endless. Walking helps circulate blood to sore muscles which actually helps in recovery better than if you were just sedentary on a couch. You dont have to walk for a long time either, just a 15-20 min walk is all you need to get the benefits from it. I love going on walks during my rest days.

Next up resting, resting is just that - doing activitys that allow your body to just rest. Reading a good book, laying out in the sun, playing some video games, surfing the web, watching netflix all these are great things that can clear your mind from training and just allow your body to recover. Last but not least - Sleep. Sleep is the main facotr in a lot of things in life and your recovery to your training is no diffferent. Getting enough sleep alows you to train- harder, stronger, smarter, and just feel motivated as well. Get 6-9 hours of sleep a night for maximal recovery. The ammount of sleep you need will just depend on you but listen to your body and give it what it wants.

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