Recovery

Your body, like any tool or machine, needs to be taken care of, maintained, checked and repaired. Exercise burns fuel that needs to be replenished and the rigours of exercise cause fatigue that needs to be alleviated.

You have a 45 minute window after exercise in which you must cool-down, stretch, refuel and rehydrate.

Why Cool Down? During exercise your body expends large amounts of chemical energy that leaves behind large amounts of chemical waste in your body. This waste must be removed from your muscles and tissues in order for recovery and adaptation to take place. If left to settle and stagnate you will feel prolonged stiffness and your muscles will remain short and tight.

You have 45 minutes to cool-down, stretch, refuel and rehydrate

The Cool Down: Don’t stop dead and rush through your stretches like you’ve got something more important to do, or worse still, hit the showers and leave without kick-starting your recovery. You need to slow the body processes down gradually over about 5 mins through gentle jogging, light rowing, low resistance cycling, fast walking or easy swimming. This will allow you to settle your breathing, heart rate and blood pressure. This active part of cooling down also keeps the muscles gently contracting and relaxing acting like pumps to help remove lactic acid and the other waste products. If these waste products are allowed to settle in the muscles and tissues they will cause increased muscle soreness, tightness and dramatically increase the risk of future injury to these tissues.

Static Stretching: this involves placing the target muscle in a lengthened position and holing it there for an extended time. You should hold your stretches for 30 seconds at a level of moderate but bearable discomfort and repeat twice for each muscle. Learn which muscles you have been using and prioritise your functional stretches for that session.

Put your enthusiasm into every aspect of your health and fitness

Eat and Drink: next you need to start replacing the fluids lost and energy expended and also deliver the building blocks for muscle repair. Aim to start taking on water and fruit juices gradually at this time, best served close to body temperature. Eat and drink a good mixture of simple carbohydrates (natural sugars) and complex carbohydrates (starchy foods) for energy. Vitally, eat or drink a light meal or supplement that offers up to 30g of healthy, lean protein for repair within these 45 minutes. For meat eaters, 30g of protein can be found in a tin of tuna steak or a medium chicken breast. Many protein supplements such as shakes and bars may proclaim to deliver more than 30g per serving, but this is purely to catch the eye of the unwitting consumer. If you consume more than 30g of protein you will simply excrete the excess.

Thirst is not an accurate measure of hydration. Look when you pee because when hydrated your urine will be just lightly coloured. If it is darker and has a strong odour, you are already approaching dehydration. Water is vitally important to hydration and is best absorbed at a temperature close to your body temperature (37°C). For best absorption and rehydration aim to drink slowly and steadily rather than gulping down pints at a time.

Warm-up, work hard and start your recovery straight away. Put your enthusiasm into every aspect of your health and fitness.