How to Get to the Next Level

FASTER

Athletic Recovery in Your Conditioning Program

By: Jeff Laughlin, MS

Remember the movie “The Replacements”? It’s the story of a group of misfits, who get a second chance to prove themselves in the NFL. They are led by Keanu Reeves, a would-be quarterback with a pretty spiral, and a fear of getting hit too hard.

In the end, the misfits win the big game and Reeves wins the girl, but in between, you get a look at the crushing blows these guys take in every scrimmage and in every game. Two-and three-hundred pound bodies pounding one into the other. Crushing hits to legs, and backs and heads. Sweating, straining athletes pushing themselves to reach their potential.

And lots and lots of ice.

If you are a competitive athlete of any kind, you know that is the real life behind peak performance. Pushing yourself to the limit in training, giving it all you have in competition. And then finding a way to recover, so you can keep moving forward.  

Whether you are a runner or a cyclist, a softball or a basketball player, or any other athlete – at some point during your competitive regimen, you have to stop and wait for your legs to recover, and for your body to feel sharp and responsive again^[1]. Because, if you don’t, you will continually be tearing down muscle and it will not have a chance to build and grow stronger.

What happens within the body during peak performance?

Whether you are in the midst of a strict training regimen, or you are competing regularly at top level, your body takes a beating. You may feel sore, stiff and swollen. But inside your body, here is what happens:

1. Toxins are released into the blood stream -- as a result of intense training and the glucose-to-lactic acid process during anaerobic training, cellular debris accumulates in your blood stream. It causes that delayed weak feeling and general sense of malaise.
2. Muscles suffer “micro-tears” and swelling – as a result of pushing your muscles past their prior threshold, they suffer microscopic tears. Your body reacts with that halting soreness that makes it hard to reach your socks in the morning and swelling as your lymphatic system tries to heal the tissue.

All of this is fodder to increase strength, agility and endurance, of course. And a good thing. But the faster you can recover from the pain and weakness, the faster you can get back on the field or in the gym.

How do you help speed recovery?

One of the best treatments to aid athletes of all levels in recovery is called “Floating”. Floating, is a total-relaxation therapy designed to detoxify the body, relax muscles at the cellular level and improve overall blood flow. In effect, floating directly counteracts the pain and general malaise that comes from increased exercise and weight training. Detoxification removes the overflow of toxins and any remaining lactic acid in the body. Total relaxation and increased blood flow combine to bath the muscles in endorphin-induced pain relief while feeding them the nutrients they need to heal and grow stronger.

What is floating exactly?

Floating consists of lying in a shallow pool of salt water, within a room that limits external distractions such as light and noise. The water and air temperature are set precisely at 93.5 degrees (the exact surface temperature of human skin). The water is saturated with Epson salt that cradles the body and releases it from gravity’s pull. The sense of complete relaxation is like nothing else you have ever experienced.

In no time, the athlete will be free of stiffness; muscle pain will subside. And he or she will be ready for the next challenge.

Information for this article came from these additional sources:

A Day in the Life of an Athletic Trainer; Wikipedia. Found September 28, 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletic_training

The Art of Athletic Recovery; Active.com. Found October 1, 2007 http://www.active.com/story.cfm?STORY_ID=13138&CHECKSSO=1&NUM=1&RESET=0&CATEGORY=keep%5Ffit

Lactic Acid and Performance; About.com, by Elizabeth Quinn, July 2006 http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/exercisephysiology/a/aa091301a.htm

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