10 Strategies Promoting Physical Recovery for Optimal Athletic Performance

10 Strategies Promoting Physical Recovery for Optimal Athletic Performance

To promote optimal athletic performance, and train at high intensity, the athlete must rely on physical recovery strategies+
. As an athlete you must be prepared to train and perform, day in, day out. To ensure the body can respond to high intensity performance, the athlete must practice physical recovery techniques. This requires discipline, practice and attention to your body. You are not only recovering from practice, or competition, but the daily demand of work, school and home life. These strategies are used as a guide that will allow you to perform at your optimal physical and mental ability. A rested body and mind is essential for the health and well-being of the athlete.

Practice these strategies for optimal athletic performance as you would your technique, training program, or healthy training table.

10 Strategies Promoting Physical Recovery

• Maintain Proper Hydration

• Drink plenty of water before, during and after practice and competition.
• Fluid loss of  > 1% of total body weight can be associated with an elevation in core body temperature during exercise.
• For every pound of fluid lost during practice/game, 24 ounces of fluid is required to restore body hydration.
• Refer to Hydration Guidelines

• Replenish your carbohydrate stores

• Carbohydrates are a primary energy nutrient, and provide fuel for the working body.
• Include 3.5 to 4.5 carbs per pound of body weight (8-10 g/kg of body weight).
• Good sources: raisins, bagel, whole wheat bread, rice, pasta, bananas and dried fruit
• It is important to choose foods that have high nutrient density for health.

• Maintain lean body mass (muscle tissue) by replenishing protein stores

• Exercising muscle must be rebuilt to maintain strength.
• Athletes should consume about 1.5 g/kg body weight.
• Choose lean protein sources: Skim milk, fat free cheese, yogurt from skim, 95% lean ground beef/turkey, white meat tuna, non-fried fish(salmon), beans and peas, soy milk isolates, whey isolate, and protein bars.

• Allow adequate cool-down from training

• Low intensity exercise for 10 minutes after training session, or competition.
• Jog, Stationary bike, brisk walk.

• Stretch after each workout, or competition

• Perform easy mat exercises, or stretching routine.
• Perform stretch routine in morning and/or evening for 10 minutes.
• Interrupt prolonged sessions of sitting while at computer or desk with 3-5 minutes of light stretching.

• Maintain good posture when sitting at desk, computer and home

• Poor sitting posture increases tightness and will cause fatigue of muscles and soft tissue.
• Avoid slumping in a flexed posture when sitting. This increases stress on spinal structures.
• Postural Relief Measures:
• Take short, 2-3 minute stretch breaks after sitting for >45 minutes.
• This allows blood to circulate and changes the loads on joints and soft tissues of the body.

• Take a 10 minute meditation break

Meditative Break

• Relax on the floor with your legs elevated on a foot stool, or just flat on the floor.
• Perform slow breathing. In through the nose and out through the lips.
• The abdomen should rise and fall slowly. 
• Focus your thoughts on your breath.
• References:
• Working Out, Working Within
• Thinking Body, Dancing Mind

• Get adequate sleep

• As an athlete you need your sleep.
• Optimal sleep is considered 8 to 9 hours.
• Too much sleep, or not enough effects your mental capacity, physical recovery, and can be the sign of overtraining.

• Use an ice pack, or a cool body soak

• Cold is beneficial for muscle recovery.
• Cold is also an anti-inflammatory, reducing swelling and the accumulation of lactic acid.
• Walking in a cool pool, or sitting in a cool bath for 10 minutes is good for rejuvenating a fatigued, or sore body. A cool shower can also be used.

 

     

     Ice Bath for Recovery

• Listen to your body

• If aches and pains persist, or you are feeling particularly fatigued, consult a sports medicine professional(medical doctor, athletic trainer or physical therapist).
• Do not let minor injuries become serious, threatening your ability to perform at an optimal level of performance.

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These 10 Strategies of Physical Recovery for Optimal Athletic Performance are intended as a guideline. Practicing these strategies will help promote healthy training habits, prevent overtraining and maximize performance goals on the athletic field.



References:

• 105 Premier Resources on Sports Injury Recovery
• (http://www.physicaltherapyaide.org/sports-injury-recovery/)

• Rest and Recovery 
• (http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/sampleworkouts/a/RestandRecovery.htm)
• The Art of Athletic Recovery
• (http://www.active.com/fitness/Articles/The_art_of_athletic_recovery)

• The Athlete's Guide to Recovery: Rest, Relax, and Restore for Peak Performance

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A Guide to Good Posture

A Guide to Good Posture

Source: infofit.ca via FitFluential on Pinterest

This is a great guide to good posture. There is one important suggestion that I must add. That is to become more attentive to how you feel during the day. Remember that fatigue will sneak up on you at work, around the home, or driving around town. When muscles fatigue and you do not provide some postural relief, the muscles will become painful. It is recommended that postural relief, fatigue avoidance exercises be performed throughout the day, even before fatigue is experienced.

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Stop Back and Neck Pain: Postural Relief Fatigue Avoidance

Postural Relief and Fatigue Avoidance: Stop Back and Neck Pain

Most Back and Neck Injuries are not the result of a single event.

Back and Neck pain can be caused by sudden onset. This may be related to an acute injury. Sudden onset injuries are caused by trauma that may be related to a fall, motor vehicle accident, or quick positional change, such as a quarterback being blind-sided by a defensive end. This is often referred to as a whiplash mechanism of injury. These injuries can be serious, and for the most part, unavoidable.

Sanchez Blind-Side

Back and Neck Pain is the result of...

• Poor Posture: Postural stress is accumulative in nature. This is the result of sustained positional changes of the neck and back. Often related to forward head position, or a rounded back, stress can result in overuse of muscles, chronic compression of discs or joints.

Forward Head Posture

• Incorrect Body Mechanics: Poor body mechanics are related to the incorrect manner in which you perform a specific task. This can be related to poor static postures, such as sitting, or poor dynamic postures, such as lifting. These injuries can cause repetitive trauma, or repetitive trauma. Lifting boxes at work on a repeated basis, or a one time lift of a box in the garage at home, can place undue stress on spinal structures and muscles resulting in injury. Poor mechanics can also be referred to as poor technique. This is often seen in the weight training room. Young athletes performing Squats can place unusual stress on spinal structures that are likely to be injured in the maturing bone.  Whether you are lifting a piece of paper, or a heavy weight, proper body mechanics must be emphasized.

• Loss of Flexibility: Loss of joint mobility can normal mobility and muscle imbalances. This may be related to increased skeletal growth in the young athlete, maintaining sustained postures at the computer, or inattention maintenance of normal mobility of the extremities through decreased activity. When it comes time to move, and normal mobility is not present, injury can occur to soft tissue or spinal structures.

• Stressful Living and Work Habits: Stressful habits, whether at work, home or on the playing field, are often related to decreased rest and recovery. The manner in which you perform or engage in an activity can result in fatigue. This fatigue may be physical, mental or emotional. If we do not provide adequate relief from stressful activity, fatigue may result, causing increased activity of an already tired body and mind resulting in injury, or increased perception of pain.

... A slothful body suffers the distress of deprivation - Hans Selye

• Poor Sleeping Positions: The posture that we maintain during our sleep is important for recovering your body from postures, physical exertion, and mental activity that we engage on a daily basis. If we are to spend the day with the neck craned forward in poor posture, and choose to sleep with pillows propping our head forward in a flexed position through the night the muscles will become tight on the front of out neck, and the joints of the neck will become stiff and unable to sustain an upright posture.

• Decline of Physical Fitness: Maintaining your health through physical fitness is the foundation of injury prevention. Specifically, if your muscles are conditioned to sustain physical activity, fatigue is avoided. Exercise improves physical function through improved cardiovascular health and by delivering oxygenated blood to working muscles. Strength training promotes increased capacity to perform work tasks and lean body mass. Leg strength and core stability, when combined with proper lifting technique, promotes the prevention of back and neck injury.

What You can do to STOP Back Pain and Neck Pain

You have control over Back and Neck Pain. The most effective action is to relieve the postural stress that accumulates with your daily activity. By relieving postural stress you begin to avoid the exaggeration of fatigue on muscles and soft tissue, joints and potential nerve and vascular structures.

Postural Stress Fatigue Avoidance

This schematic of the progression of postural stress, pain and injury demonstrates the effect of static positions on the musculoskeletal and neurovascular structures that ultimately lead to Cumulative Trauma Disorders(CTD's). The ability to Stop the progression of postural stress and fatigue is to be proactive in the Relief and Avoidance strategies you can employ through the day. If you wait until pain occurs, it is more difficult to unwind the effects postural stress has on muscular and support tissue, such as, fatigue, tension, decreased blood flow and compensation patterns of adjacent structures. For example, if the rotator cuff muscles fatigue in the shoulder due to sustained elevation(computer mouse), the upper trapezius muscle that connects the shoulder blade to the back of the head can overcompensate. The result is increased upper trap pain and headaches related to activation of trigger points.

If You Keep Working a Fatigued Muscle, It Will Start Screaming at You.

- Randy Bauer, Physical Therapist

Postural Relief and Fatigue Avoidance

The effect of a sedentary lifestyle, disuse and poor posture are weakness and fatigue of muscles with work. This also includes a sedentary job. It has been shown that working all day in a seated, sedentary position has a negative impact on back and neck related pain, and on your health. 

Providing postural relief measures is the best choice for the proactive approach to stop Back and Neck Pain before it arises. When fatigued muscles are asked to continually work they can become painful. The goal then is Fatigue Avoidance through Postural Relief Strategies before pain occurs.

Here are 5 Postural Relief Strategies You can practice for Fatigue Avoidance, and Stopping Back and Neck Pain before it rears It's ugly head.

• Take periodic microbreaks from sustained seated postures for 1-2 minutes on an hourly basis throughout your work day. For someone that already has significant back and neck pain directly related to sitting You may want to stand every 20-30 minutes. Another excellent recommendation is to use a Sit Stand Option chair such as the Salli MultiAdjuster Ergonomic Saddle Seat, and the Bambach Saddle Chair(below). These chairs provide excellent postural support for normal spinal alignment, a sit stand option, and correct sitting ergonomics at your work station, at home, or in the office.

Bambach Saddle Chair

• Perform upper back, neck and shoulder range of motion stretches for relief of working postures. See the video below: RBauerPT Channel.

Neck Pain Causes and Postural Exercise

• Perform lower back, hip and lower extremity range of motion stretches for relief of sustained sitting postures.This may include standing from a seated posture, placing both hands on your hips and leaning backwards, lightly stretching the low back.

• During your lunch or break take a short walk. This may only be for 5-10 minutes, but that is okay. During your walk take some deep breaths; inhale through the nose, exhale through pursed lips. Also reach your hands overhead, and behind your back(clasping your hands at your low back). Walking has many health benefits, and is a great way to restore the mind and body.

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. 

- John Muir (1838-1914)

• Take a short meditative break a couple times a day. This will help relieve eye strain, provide a relaxation effect, and improve your focus. Try pushing yourself away from your desk, sit in a supported position. 
• http://www.humanscale.com/products/?shop=1To Stop Neck and Back Pain, attention to Postural Relief and Fatigue Avoidance must be practiced on a daily basis. With practice and careful attention to how you use your body in static and dynamic postures, repetitive or acute stress can be prevented. Developing the habits of physical exercise, and mental and physical recovery techniques, will promote a Healthy You. 

To Stop Neck and Back Pain, attention to Postural Relief and Fatigue Avoidance must be practiced on a daily basis. With practice and careful attention to how you use your body in static and dynamic postures, repetitive or acute stress can be prevented. Developing the habits of physical exercise, and mental and physical recovery techniques, will promote a Healthy You.