Top 5 Things To Do For Recovery

Recovery 101

Have you ever had a long run, race, or workout that chewed you up and spit you out? I know I have had plenty. So what do you do afterwards? Do you curl up in a ball and wait out the storm of pain and suffering or do you do everything you can to have a proactive and smart recovery?

1. Rehydrate

Rule number one in recovery is to properly hydrate. Having ideal fluid balance in the body requires starting the event optimally, fueling and hydrating throughout the event, but also rehydrating afterwards. You will almost always still be in a deficit of fluids by the end of the event, so it is of utmost importance to rehydrate with water and electrolytes. Hydration plays a crucial role in several physiological processes: it helps maintain blood volume, regulates body temperature, and improves ideal muscle contractions.

2. Refuel

Quickly refueling and continuing to fuel throughout your longer workouts makes a huge difference of what happens to your body and its ability to recover. If you are feeding your body for optimal performance, fueling immediately with carbs, followed by quick protein intake will do the most to make your body repair and restore. Don't be afraid of carbs. They are the most readily available form of fuel during training!

3. Active Recovery

Have you ever gone on a longer car ride after a race or workout? It's terrible. Nothing makes you feel more geriatric than getting out of the car after that. The more you can move after workouts or events, the better you are going to recover. If you can walk, stretch, jog, or do a light workout, your body will thank you by being less sore overall.

4. Quality Sleep

This is an obvious one but still one that people overlook. Getting 8+ hours of sleep and quality sleep is a huge way to improve recovery time. Try going to bed within an hour of the same time every night. Avoid excessive screen time, food, chocolate (my fave), and mentally stimulating things during the hour before bed. If you're waking up tired, snoozing the alarm, or averaging a low average amount of sleep, work on this!

5. Modalities

We live in a day and age where we have a lot of cool recovery stuff at our disposal. Foam rollers, roller sticks, stretching tools, and mobility tools are some of the best things that you can own ands know how to use to keep your muscles healthy and ready to work. Beyond that, we have all of the preventative medicine means to improve and streamline recovery. With things like dry needling, cupping, and shockwave therapy, or cryotherapy, PEMF, and compression at Swift Recovery, we have everything that any athlete could need all in one place.

If you would like to optimize your recovery to improve your performance or if you're dealing with an injury and would like some professional help, book a phone consultation today!

P.S. we also do sweat testing, running gait analysis, and VO2Max testing, all of which are super helpful in helping you achieve your fitness goals!

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