If you’re anything like me, you are pretty sore now that you did Murph. Everyone has no problem with training hard all the time, but most people slack when it comes to putting in effort towards their recovery. There’s a lot to consider when it comes to recovering, so let’s get into it!
Time Between Stimuli:
Research has shown that it can take up to 2 days to recover from a hard training stimulus. This was done by tracking differences in HRV or Heart Rate Variability. Your HRV goes down when your body is in a state of stress or fatigue. A heavy training bout, such as Murph, can cause your HRV to be much lower than normal. Its important to focus on recovery during this time, as a lower HRV has been correlated to increased injury risk. Take it easy on the volume and intensity for a day or 2 after these kinds of sessions. Whoop is one of the best tools out there to track this variable. The image below is provided on Whoop’s website and gives a good illustration.
Hydration and Nutrition:
Hydration is crucial after putting your body through the ringer. Exercise builds up a lot of “waste” and its important that you drink enough water to move that stuff out of the body and to replenish the fluids that we lose with our sweat. Active people are recommended to drink 10+ cups of water per day, but it can get much higher depending on how active you are and how much you sweat.
Nutrition can’t be forgotten either. We need to take in plenty of protein, fat and carbs to help replenish and repair our bodies. Carbohydrates are especially important in order to replenish the glycogen stores in our muscles.
Sleep:
Sleep is pretty self-explanatory, but a lot of people slack on their sleep. If you aren’t giving yourself 8-10 hours of sleep after a hard training session, you are shooting yourself in the foot. Sleep is extremely important in the regulation of many different hormones that are vital for performance and general health.
Body Work and Mobility:
There are many different opinions out there about what is actually necessary or beneficial when it comes to body work. In my experience, things like body work and stretching can be powerful for decreasing the perception of things such as soreness and stiffness. This leads to better participation in training in the following days after an event.
Massage, foam rolling and other soft tissue work, are great for bringing blood flow to our tissues and for moving waste products out of the area. This speeds up the recovery process and gets you back to feeling good before your next session. You should aim to spend at least 1 day per week on these things if you are someone who trains vigorously on weekly basis.