Introduction
Athletes love to train. Being in the gym pushing their limits, sweating, and challenging their own limits. They feel themselves getting better in the moment and reaching new heights. However, while this may FEEL like what is happening from a physiological standpoint athletes are actually decreasing their fitness and performance while they train. The magic of adaptation occurs not DURING training sessions but in the time of rest and recovery outside of training.
That’s right everyone. We are talking about all things recovery today.
Recovery isn't a new topic in the training space or one that’s lacking in information, controversy, and different opinions. Common recovery methods and modalities athletes are likely familiar with include: sleep, sauna, stretching, compression therapy, massages, rest, and cold water immersion. While the effectiveness and degree of impact these methods have varies greatly the goal is to improve the rate at which the athlete's body recovers from the damage done within training.
In this article we will dive into a few of these topics and discuss how athletes can use them to improve their recovery. Over time we will discuss all of the different recovery modalities and techniques.
Section 1: The Role of Rest Days in CrossFit
Why Rest Days Matter: The infamous rest day. Crossfit athletes as a group tend to despise this idea of taking an entire day and doing absolutely nothing. They love to feel their body move, break a sweat, and get that endorphin spike from training. However, as a general rule every athlete should take at least 1 if not 2 FULL days of rest per week. This gives the body uninterrupted time to repair damaged tissues, replenish fuel stores within the body, and reduce systemic fatigue to a degree much greater than the typical recovery time day to day between training sessions. As stated above it’s important to remember that we don’t actually get better when we are training, but when we recover from the training we have done!
Signs You Need a Rest Day: Physiology is incredibly complex and responsive. Much more so that we often give the body credit for. If someone is in need of a rest day and has been pushing too hard in training or ignoring their recovery the body will give signs that an athlete needs to take some time to heal. Persistent soreness, poor sleep, irritability, lack of motivation, lack of libido, loss of or greatly increased appetite, and constant injury are signs the body is in need of recovery.
How to Plan Rest Days: At Ascend Athlete we recommend our athletes take a 3 days on 1 day off, 2 days on, 1 day off approach to training. This training schedule is a variation from what coach Greg Glassman and Dave Castro recommended over a decade ago. This matches with our 7 day work week well and can be adjusted if an athlete has a different work schedule than the traditional Monday-Friday. Many athletes will perform “active recovery” on their first rest day. While this can have a purpose and be beneficial to a degrees there is some nuance to active recovery that we will dive into in the next section.
Section 2: Active Recovery for CrossFit Athletes
What is Active Recovery?: From a PURE scientific standpoint there is no such thing as active recovery. The body is either recovering or there is fatigue being built. Now the nuance in active recovery comes in the sense that TYPICALLY the activities done on an active recovery day generate such little fatigue that athletes still recover more than they would from a normal training day. Active recovery days are a great opportunity for athletes to gently move around then spend time addressing their mobility, flexibility, and giving their body some tender love and care that is likely needed. A secondary use for active recovery days is to perform low impact Zone 2 cardiovascular work. Zone 2 generates very little fatigue and many Crossfit athletes need to improve their aerobic base so this is a proper use of an active recovery day.
Examples of Effective Active Recovery: Walking, swimming, biking, rowing, bike riding and yoga would be examples of activities that properly fit into what we would recommend on an active recovery day. These activities won’t increase fatigue in the body or cause any damage to tissue that will inhibit the recovery progress, hence impacting training the next day.
Benefits of Active Recovery: From observation one of the most profound benefits of a properly executed active recovery day is improvements in mobility and injury prevention. Athletes hate working on their mobility and when that training is placed in an already full training day it is typically skipped or not given full attention. Providing an opportunity to spend a prolonged period of time to address any tightness an athlete is feeling and work on light mobility drills and stretches goes a long way overtime in improving athletes mobility and keeping them injury free. Athletes feel like they are doing something that is progressing them toward their goal, BUT their body is still getting that much needed recovery.
Section 3: The Power of Quality Sleep in Recovery and Performance
Why Sleep is Essential for Athletes: Explain how sleep impacts muscle growth, hormone balance (such as growth hormone and cortisol), and cognitive function. Last, but absolutely not least we have sleep. Sleep is by far the most important, impactful, and critical recovery modality there is. When we sleep our tissues repair, hormones are created, injuries are repaired, our cognitive function recharges, and all of this happens in these uninterrupted hours our body continues to function and work while we dream and rest. Listing out every single benefit of sleep on every system of the body would take far too long for this article, but the truth is that there is nothing else you can do to improve your recovery that will be more beneficial than sleep.
Tips for Better Sleep: With sleep being our most paramount recovery tool it's worth noting some actionable things we can do to improve our sleep quality and routine. First, a consistent sleep and wake schedule. Our body's internal circadian rhythm craves routine. Having a consistent time you go to bed each night and wake the next day improves our quality of sleep. Secondarily, limiting screen time prior to bed. As annoying as the bluelight blocking glasses commercials can be, there is some decent research showing that the blue light from our phones and electronic displays mimics natural light enough to trick our brain into thinking the sun is still out. Athletes should aim to decrease their use of electronics around an hour and half prior to when they aim to go to bed or invest in some blue light glasses. They are relatively cheap these days (the pair I have is from Amazon for maybe $20) and truly do make a difference. The last big rock to move we will discuss today is room temperature and light. Studies have shown that optimal sleep occurs when the room temperature is between 60-67 degrees Fahrenheit in a completely pitch black room. So turn those thermostats down and grab some blackout curtains in order to make sure you are getting the best sleep and recovery possible.
Sleep Goals for Optimal Recovery: Sleep duration is pretty cut and dry from what the scientific literature tells us. For athletes who are training hard, less than seven hours is likely going to impact recovery and performance. Eight to nine hours is going to be optimal for most of the population and there is nothing but potential benefit from sleeping longer than nine hours a night. As stated above sleep is when our bodies heal and replenish themselves and the more time we can provide the body to do that the better we are going to recover and perform physically and cognitively.
Conclusion
Recovery is potentially the most important part of the equation for an athlete to reach their full potential. Rest days, quality sleep, and some active recovery properly applied can increase the performance trajectory for an athlete substantially. Don’t take be a scientist with your training and ignore your recovery or you are undoubtedly leaving performance on the table.
View recovery as another variable and portion of your training each day. Plan when you will go to bed and wake up. Make sure the room is cool and completely dark, and give your brain adequate time to calm and become sleepy after the busy days we all lead. Becoming a successful athlete takes attention to detail throughout the entire day, not just in your training. Recovery and although it was not discussed today, nutrition plays an integral role in training outcomes.
Start implementing these recovery recommendations and best practices in your daily routine today and see the payoff in your training nearly immediately! We will continue to discuss other recovery modalities in future blogs, so make sure you follow Ascend Athlete Training for more performance boosting tips!
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