Rest and Recovery: for the New Year enthusiast, the athlete and the novice exerciser

 

The New Year is here!  Every January I’m inspired by enthusiastic people sharing their New Year’s resolutions with me.  It is very apparent that the fitness business booms in January.  With an increase in fitness related activity, inevitably, there is   a rise in injuries a few months down the road, usually in March or April.  This is because the common trainer and novice client or gym user will usually not train with proper rest and recovery in mind. 

Proper rest and recovery must occur when we put stress on our body, such as when we exercise.  This is not much different from the need to sleep and eat well during a hard week at work.  The human body’s ability to adapt and change its composition is amazing.  To achieve your New Year’s goals, you have to be diligent about training efficiently, eating well, and recovering properly.  The first two are well known, but the third isn’t - that is why injuries occur very often in the beginning of a sport season or when someone exercises too much, too soon.

This article was originally written as a training/education tool for 14 year old female soccer players.  Their zealous attitudes about training for soccer are so wonderful to witness.  My goal for the original article was to teach the athletes about taking care of their bodies after our training sessions were over.  With proper rest and recovery practices, the athletes should maintain positive feelings around strength training and not be discouraged by muscle soreness or overtraining.  A novice exercise participant can also feel positive about working out, if they take rest and recovery into account in their training plan.  This will also ensure they ward off anxiety about a huge change in their lifestyle.

Why are rest and recovery needed?  To change the composition of our muscles and body, we must put the body through stress by exercising.  The result of the proper amount of exercise is micro-injury to the muscle tissue.  The micro-injury causes the muscles to rebuild and repair, i.e. increasing muscle mass.  This process also causes an influx of feel-good hormones which improve mood, metabolism, and energy levels.  To maximize this process, you must be vigilant about rest and recovery.

Factors that Effect recovery and training

Training, nutrition, supplements, sleep, travel, school, work, psychological factors, physiological factors, genetics, environmental factors, social life, recovery interventions

Time! This is a discussion about rest and recovery on a macro level.  A micro level analysis would be concerned with rest and recovery in between sets, intervals, heart rate monitoring, lactate threshold, and short distance sprints.  The objectives of rest and recovery (below) refer to the variables that are important after a complete workout or following a match/race.  Assigning a rest time period in between certain exercise/competition bouts is YOUR job (or your trainer’s).  This is because every individual has a different threshold to reach before rest and recovery is necessary.  Choosing the appropriate amount of rest for optimal recovery depends on their fitness levels, stress levels, and sleeping habits.  This article will not give you the exact time you need for optimal recovery, but   will define the variables that will help you make better decisions about planning your training program.

THE OBJECTIVES OF RECOVERY

• Restore glycogen levels. This is the primary nutrition goal of the restoration process. Failure to do so has negative implications for the next workout or the next day. Glycogen is a source of energy for our muscles. Our body breaks down carbohydrates from our diet to form glucose and glycogen. If the glycogen is not used for energy, it is then stored in the muscles and liver for later use. Glycogen is the source of energy most often used for exercise. It is needed for any short, intense bouts of exercise from sprinting to weight lifting because it is immediately accessible. Glycogen also supplies energy during the first few minutes of any sport. During long, slow-duration exercise, fat can help fuel activity, but glycogen is still needed to help breakdown the fat into something the muscles can use. Ideally, you would like to restore glycogen levels to pre-exercise state.
•              o How to achieve restored glycogen levels: Carbohydrates should be taken within 2 hours after exercise. Research has shown that eating 100-200 grams of carbohydrate within two hours of endurance exercise is essential to building adequate glycogen stores for continued training. Waiting longer than two hours to eat results in 50 percent less glycogen stored in the muscle (Jentjens R, 2003).
• Restore depleted electrolytes. This issue should be addressed during and after exercise. Electrolyte replacement is crucial. Electrolytes are salts in the body.  They are found in blood, tissue, and fluids.  Proper balance is essential for muscle coordination, heart function, fluid absorption and excretion, nerve function, and concentration.  When a person sweats, essential electrolytes are lost.  Salts act like a sponge, holding the fluid in the body. If you drink a large volume of plain water, the body thinks it’s over hydrated because the water dilutes the concentrations of sodium and other dissolved substances in the blood. This switches off thirst and switches on the kidneys to increase urine output. Sodium, magnesium, potassium, chloride, and calcium are all important minerals lost in sweat. Avoid caffeine and colas because they delay the re-hydration process.
• Hydrate and rehydrate
• Minimize the breakdown of muscle by consuming protein after training. This encourages the focus on anabolic adaptations to training. Catabolic adaptations include the breakdown of muscle.
•      o Anabolic- metabolic pathway that constructs larger molecules from smaller molecules. For exercise this is the hormone response related to muscle growth and protein synthesis.
•      o Catabolic- metabolic pathway that destructs larger molecules into smaller molecules. In exercise science, this refers to the hormone response that breaks down muscle and causes overtraining (chronic syndrome). In some instances, catabolism is necessary for the muscles to use molecules for energy (breakdown of ATP and respiratory gases).
•      oFor meal planning: using a protein to carbohydrate ratio of 1 to 4 can prevent muscular breakdown.
• Offset the effects of free radicals. This is an environmental concern. Free radicals in the blood stream are caused by pollution and food additives. They can break down healthy cells, which can lead to a variety of health problems and predisposition to cancer. The use of antioxidants and vitamin C can help offset free radicals and their effects.
• Reduce inflammation. The stress of training produces a healthy amount of inflammation and unhealthy amounts of inflammation. Inflammation is a natural protective mechanism of the body to heal and stimulate blood flow to the damaged tissue. There must be a balance between allowing the body’s natural inflammatory response to take place and minimize swelling that inhibits muscular contractions. The best way to reduce inflammation is using isometrics and ice application.
• Boost the immune system. Systematic high level training will severely stress the body’s immune system. This must be addressed by moderating lifestyle and proper nutrition.  Shortly after exercise your immune system will be suppressed. Since exercise does stress the body, it takes real energy and physical resources for the body to adapt.
•        o Cortisol levels increase after exercise. The increased level is only temporary. The cortisol levels are increased because of its relationship to insulin. They have an inverse relationship. Insulin has an immense impact on metabolism by controlling the tissues to uptake glucose from the blood. Insulin levels decrease because the muscles are metabolizing glucose so insulin has no role during exercise, this in turn increases the counter hormone cortisol (L. Plat, 1996).
•      o Cortisol is associated with chronic stress and overtraining. Chronic stress and overtraining provide unhealthy levels of cortisol in the body. An acute increase in cortisol levels after exercise is necessary for the body to adapt and therefore healthy.
•      o This is the reason why you should not participate in exercise if you have a cold or virus. You will become more vulnerable to worsening your symptoms.
• Acquire adequate sleep. Get at least 8 hours of sleep every night. If sleep debts occur, your body’s ability to build muscle, maintain/lose weight, and the overall health of the participant/athlete will be compromised.
•      o If someone is not losing weight, but is eating healthy and exercising efficiently; I always ask about their sleep patterns. Not getting enough sleep is one of the big hurdles people encounter with unsuccessful weight loss.

 

I’m writing this article for a few very important reasons.  The first one is to educate my athletes on the importance of this subject in becoming a high level athlete, and I hope they begin to understand that the human body is quite the task master.  For the novice exerciser or the New Year’s resolution enthusiast, this article is to remind you that motivation and a strong will are not the only things that will help you achieve your goal.  Your success will be determined by the information you choose to accept and act upon.  Exercise is a process, hopefully a life-long one.  Proper rest and recovery is a big part of the process.  Without the proper amount, you are doing unintended harm to your body.

 

After reading this article, I hope that your exercise judgment has improved.  Applying this information will consist of trial and error along with a high level of self awareness.  Some examples of this would be: 

• Knowing the difference between the verge of injury and an acceptable amount of muscle soreness due to your previous workout/competition.
• Understanding the difference between what you want to do and what you can do, physically.
• Knowing how to take care of your body after and before a match/competition.

Works Cited

Eric Shamus, J. S. (2001). Sports Injury Prevention and Rehabilihition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Jentjens R, J. A. (2003). Determinants of post-exercise glycogen synthesis during short-term recovery. Journal of Sports Medicine , 117-144.

L. Plat, M. M. (1996). Effects of morning cortisol elevation on insulin secretion and glucose regulation in humans. American Journal of Physiology; Endocrinology and Metabolism , 36-42.

Zatsiorsky, V. M. (2000). Biomechanics in Sport: Performance Enhancement and Injury Prevention Volume 9. Malden, MA: Blackwell Science.

2 Responses to “Rest and Recovery: for the New Year enthusiast, the athlete and the novice exerciser”

1. Lannie Barrack says:

   February 3, 2010 at 6:22 am

   Hey, just wondering if you could have any more details so I can find a lttle bit more about it?
2. admin says:

   February 8, 2010 at 9:32 am

   Hi Lannie, Please email me at Jenn@impactfitnessdc.com. I will be glad to answer any questions.