Recovery: The Supercompensation Cycle
There are many strategies to help you recover faster from your training. I will be looking at the super compensation cycle, dispel some of the myths of recovery and look at the concepts of short term vs. long term adaptions.
We’ve all awoken with tight, store muscles following a training session the previous day. Maybe you have trained at too high an intesity, lifted too much weight or maybe you didnt cool down correctly? Perhaps in the hours that follow a session you have already started to feel sore? Recovering from a training session soon becomes a priority for anyone who has increased their training load or even people new to training. Anything from the 20 minute eating rule to foam rolling, to anti-inflammatory drugs and ice baths. So why do we need to recover from exercise? What works and what doesn’t?
Using the graph above: the first stage of recovery is ‘overload’ this is the stimulus (A) from a training session. If you do the same sessions every day you will not provide a stimulus great enough to overload the body. Fatigue is necessary to cause muscle damage. The more intense and the longer in duration it is, the greater the training load. If sessions are long in duration, intensity has to be adjusted and vice versa when sessions are short; unless they are recovery based. Following a session the body becomes fatigued (B) and needs to repair itself.
The next two stages make up the recovery period. It is during this period we adapt and our performance improvements are made.
The second stage is ‘restoration’. This is when the body returns to it’s pre exercise state (C). Training load will dictate the time spent in this stage. Fitness level, sleep, alcohol, diet, tobacco use will all impact this stage. This is when the body wants to replenish glycogen stores and repair damaged muscle tissue.
The third stage is the ‘adaption’ phase. This is the result of the training stimulus or ‘overload’ phase. With the correct recovery time the body adapts to find the same load easier next time.
The final stage, is the result of over-training or not exercising. Recovering between sessions avoids this.
This last stage is ‘reversal’ and involves the loss of body adaptions to exercise (D). This occurs when we do not provide our bodies with an adequate time period to recover or training ceases altogether. It could also be the result of poor nutrition or inadequate sleep.
Now we've went through what recovery is; here are the strategies that work and how to use them.
The 20 minute Eating Rule
This isn't a fallacy, insulin response spikes following exercise. Insulin plays a pivotal role in the breakdown and absorption of glucose. It can be further increased with the consumption of carbohydrate, protein and caffeine. Consuming 1-2 grams per kilogram of body weight of carbohydrate post exercise, 20 grams of whey protein and a strong coffee or espresso will maximise this insulin response. Why is this important? After an intense session glucose has been the main substrate oxidised to fuel working muscles. This means your glycogen stores will have been tapped into. Assuming a normal carbohydrate intake, total stores will be approximately 400-500 grams, meaning a 1 hour session at a high intensity is likely to have depleted more than 50% of your total glycogen. The 20 minute eating rule is more important to people who will train again in <24 hours and even more important for those training again in <12 hours. If your doing resistance training it is even more vital you eat immediately after exercise.
When the 20 minute rule isn't always the best strategy is when the priority is to improve fat utilisation. Withholding carbohydrate post exercise can enhance aerobic adaptions. Cyclists and distance runners have been using this training low technique for decades. Some athletes take it a step further and will have a nap after doing such sessions and only eat after waking up. Protein would still have been consumed during and after the session.
Ice Baths and Anti-Inflammatory Drugs
Rapidly cooling muscle tissue decreases the amount of inflammation, as it constricts blood vessels. The problem with this is that the body sends inflammation as a response to cellular damage to muscle cells. This is one of the precursors to aerobic adaptions. Using ice baths reduces the amount of time this signalling cascade is active, reducing longer term adaptions. Anti-inflammatory drugs offer the same benefit. Once again this is short time gain that impacts long term adaptions. Use anti-inflammatory drugs when racing, but not for short term recovery. Don't use unless you have competitive races in succession of each other.
Stretching
Here is a technique which in my opinion is the most effective in enhancing your recovery; other than providing your body with sufficient nutrients. Its hard to be dedicated to this because after a work out you most likely feel tired. Quite often when I’m doing a lot of training I’ll wake up with my muscles feeling tight, but as soon as I start running or cycling I feel great. Muscles get tight so make sure you do your post training stretches. For the best results progressively stretch a muscle further after 30-60 seconds, repeat at least 3 times per muscle. Take your stretching a step further by scheduling 30-60 minutes of just stretching once per week. Your body will thank you for this in the long run.
It's a fallacy that you need to spend a lot of time stretching to warm up. In some cases it can even increase your risk of injury. Stretching pre-exercise should be dynamic and include foam rolling. I often skip this when cycling and running if the session is a constant speed, by gradually running faster until I reach the speed I intend to maintain. If it's an interval session I'll start my session by exercising at a low intensity gradually bringing my heart rate up to what I will be training at. I'll then bring heart rate back down, do some dynamic stretches and then start my session to bring heart rate back up. Once I again reach the heart rate I'll be training at, I'll slow my intensity down for 60 seconds and then I'll do my first interval.
Recovery Sessions
Since swapping rest days for recovery sessions I’ve found I can train at a higher training load and recover quicker between sessions. A recovery session is simply a session at a very low intensity. I usually keep these sessions <1 hour and at <65% heart rate. Quiteoften they'll only be at 50-55% heart rate. A recovery session is also a great opportunity to do some extra stretching. Why these sessions work is because you are exercising at a low intensity, causing very little muscle damage. It helps to remove waste products accumulated from more intense sessions and the increased blood flow increases nutrient delivery, enhancing recovery. If you have had a hard session earlier in the day or the previous day this can be what is needed to loosen up tight muscles. Alternatively have a warm bath and do some stretching afterwards.
Conclusion
It can be weeks, months and even years before bad recovery habits catch up with you, so stay on top of your recovery by committing to good post session habits. Ensure your recovering from your sessions by eating the right foods post training. Remember ice baths and anti-inflammatory drugs are for immediate recovery, not long term adaptions, so only use when necessary.
Comments