Recovery from training is becoming recognized as one of the most important aspects of physical activity and overall wellness. As we sort through the myriad recovery strategies and their varied levels of scientific support, it’s important to remember that both scientific and anecdotal evidence point to the value of an appropriate recovery plan to encourage adaptation, wellness and performance.

The ideas outlined in this article cover an array of tactics for enhancing recovery.  All of which can help factor into how you craft your strategies and classes as a NASM-CPT trainer.

Although some may prove more effective than others, it’s crucial to remember that any interventions will likely work better when tailored to individual clients. Keep in mind that the most effective strategy for you might be to experiment to determine which ones prove feasible and successful for the people you work with.

TYPES OF RECOVERY

Though recovery is a critical phase of the exercise-adaptation cycle, it is among the least understood and most under-researched components of training. Essentially, recovery is a process that includes rest, refueling through nutrition, rehydration, regeneration (repair), resynthesis, reduction of inflammation and restoration that ultimately returns the body to homeostasis.

Jonathan Ross, a highly recognized and respected trainer from Baltimore, advises his clients that if they’re “hitting it hard,” then they need to devote equal time to “quitting it hard” to appropriately recover.

It’s helpful to think of three categories of recovery:

• Immediate recovery, which happens in the short time between successive efforts, e.g., between repetitions within a set of biceps curls
• Short-term recovery, which happens between sets, e.g., between interval sprints or weight training sets
• Training recovery, which happens between workouts or competitions (Bishop et al. 2008)

Focusing on training recovery offers the greatest potential benefit because everything that happens outside of an exercise session—i.e., life—has a potential impact. Hence, the need to ask: Are we truly recovering from training, given the body’s perception of stress and the hectic schedules many of us keep? Furthermore, how do we measure or monitor recovery?

MONITORING RECOVERY

Usually, an evening of restful sleep coupled with good nutrition and hydration will restore homeostasis and full recovery (Pocari et al. 2015). However, we can now monitor various physiological parameters in real time to validate recovery and improve the recovery process.

For example, measuring resting heart rate (RHR), heart rate variability (HRV) and ventilation (breathing) patterns can provide valuable information on the dominance of our sympathetic nervous system (SNS) or parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), the latter of which is responsible for rest, repair and recovery. It’s also helpful to review the scientific evidence for six specific means of achieving it: active recovery, massage, compression, cryotherapy, hydrotherapy and sleep.

ACTIVE RECOVERY

Two studies highlight the value of active recovery, which typically uses movements ranging from spurts of anaerobic activity to very light-intensity activity (e.g., cool down). The idea is to accelerate the removal of lactate and hydrogen from muscles while stimulating blood flow and signaling proteins (to initiate healing/adaptation) into the localized tissue.

One study found that active recovery after repeated intense exercise resulted in faster returns to homeostasis compared with passive recoveries that used no movement (Ahmaidi et al. 1996). Another study found that following high-intensity work with active recoveries performed at 60–100% of lactate threshold helped muscles recover faster than did more passive recoveries performed at lower intensities at 0–40% of lactate threshold (Menzies et al. 2010).

Read more: Active Recovery – Rest Days, Workouts, and Exercise Examples

MASSAGE

Advocates of massage say it decreases muscle soreness, pain and stress, improves circulation and lymphatic flow, and creates an enhanced perception of recovery. Researchers, however, have questioned its value and warn of its potential to create more muscle damage if performed too aggressively or too soon after exercise (Schaser et al. 2007; Wiltshire et al. 2010).

One study discovered that massage performed immediately after exercise resulted in reduced blood flow and impaired removal of lactate and hydrogen ions from muscles, thereby slowing recovery (Wiltshire et al. 2010). By contrast, other researchers discovered increased muscle activation and proprioception, and reductions in delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS) with massage (Shin & Sung 2014).

In yet another study that examined cycling performances separated by 24 hours, massages were found to be superior to passive recovery, but a combination of active recovery and cold-water immersion provided slightly greater benefits than massage (Lane & Wenger 2004). Despite massage’s popularity, few reports demonstrate positive effects on repeated exercise performance. Consequently, we still cannot say if massages are truly effective at influencing muscle and overall recovery.

COMPRESSION

Delivered via clothing or through inflatable devices (e.g., pulsatile pneumatics), compression is believed to alleviate muscle fatigue and soreness, accelerate lactate and metabolic byproduct removal, reduce muscle stiffness, increase venous and lymphatic flow and muscle oxygenation, and accelerate recovery while also improving performance.

Various studies examining the effects of elastic compression (i.e., fabrics) and pneumatic compression (e.g., prosthetics) have generally concluded that both benefits and drawbacks do exist, but without any risk of harm (O’Donnell et al. 1979; Miyamoto et al. 2011; Cochrane et al. 2013).

Elastic compression clothing (which incorporates constant pressure) appears to reduce some muscle soreness and perception of fatigue, but it also slows the removal of metabolic byproducts. Pneumatic compression (which incorporates pulsatile pressure) tends to have a greater effect on increasing blood flow and decreasing muscle stiffness, but it offers little or no improvement in power, strength or performance.

Miyamoto et al. examined markers of muscle damage (e.g., creatine kinase, interleukin-6) and found no clear evidence of attenuation of these markers with compression that would indicate accelerated rates of recovery (Miyamoto et al. 2011). Although research is somewhat minimal on the true effects of compression, there appear to be some small recovery benefits with little concern about harmful side effects (Hill et al. 2014).

CRYOTHERAPY

Cryotherapy temporarily reduces muscle temperature, stimulating vasoconstriction and reducing inflammation and pain. Critics of cryotherapy point to an overall slowing of normal regenerative inflammation and an increasing risk of further injury from extended exposure of skin and nerves to cold temperatures (Schaser et al. 2007). Some practitioners now advocate alternating hot and cold applications, but little research supports this practice.

Although post-exercise cryotherapy remains popular, the reality is that temporary muscle cooling is unlikely to have a significant influence on muscle repair or recovery. Furthermore, in animal-based studies, it did delay recovery (Schaser et al. 2007). Unfortunately, the evidence on cryotherapy’s usefulness is weak and inconclusive due to research inconsistencies involving study design, temperature and duration.

HYDROTHERAPY

The cardiovascular system responds to hydrotherapy (water immersion) by changing heart rate, peripheral blood flow and resistance to flow. It also changes the temperature of the skin, muscles and core, influencing inflammation, immune function, muscle soreness and perception of fatigue. The three most common immersion techniques are cold water immersion (CWI), hot water immersion (HWI) and contrast water therapy (CWT), which alternates immersions between hot and cold water.

These techniques have been extensively examined and appear to have some benefit, although CWI and CWT demonstrate greater benefits than HWI (Halson 2013). In one study, CWI treatment demonstrated lower perceptions of muscle soreness and smaller decrements in muscle strength 24 and 48 hours post-exercise versus CWT (Ingram et al. 2009).

SLEEP

The fields of health and medicine recognize the importance of sleep upon overall health and wellness. Sleep and recovery depend on two vital data points:

• Basal sleep, which is the amount the body needs every night to recover
• Sleep debt, which accumulates if we do not get our basal sleep every night

If sleep debt piles up, rising stress and cortisol accumulation in the body will impair recovery and threaten our health. Considering how much psycho-emotional stress people deal with every day, trainers should take time to inventory the stress their clients or athletes face outside of their workouts and consider the ramifications on recovery and performance. Disregarding or underestimating the importance of sleep may expose your clients to a higher risk of nonfunctional overreaching or overtraining.