Posted: July 19, 2005

Multisport: Recovery Training - Chapter One

This article is brought to you courtesy of Training Smart Online – The Experts in Training Program Design. We specialize in coaching athletes for: triathlon, marathon, swimming, cycling, running & more! Contact us at: www.trainingsmartonline.com.

By Angela Calder, Australian Institute of Sport

Acknowledgments:

The ACC wishes to acknowledge the following people for their contribution to the Advanced Coaching Study Pack – Recovery Training:
Angela Calder, Performance Unit, Australian Institute of Sport
Janet Bothwell, National Coaching Director, All Australia Netball Association
Bruce Osborne, South Australia Squash Association
Frank S Pyke, Director, Victorian Institute of Sport
Mark Sayers, Department of Sports Studies, University of Canberra
David Pyne, Department of Physiology and Applied Nutrition, Australian Institute of Sport
Sue Hooper, Department of Sport and Racing, 2000 Olympic Taskforce
Laurel MacKinnon, Department of Human Movement Studies, University of Queensland
Macmillan Education Australia
The National Coaching Foundation, UK
Sports Medicine Australia

ACC staff
Ben Harris 
Diane Bugg
Janice Yeung
Belinda White
Rebecca Layton
Tatijana Milicevic
Nicole den Duyn

Chapter 1: The Principle of Recovery

Background reading and references
Article 1:
Calder, A. 1990, Restoration and Regeneration as Essential Components within Training Programs.
Article 2:
Rushall, B.S. and Pyke, F.S. 1990, The Principle of Recovery.
Article 3:
Maughan, RJ. 1994, Fluid and Electrolyte Loss and Replacement in Exercise.
Article 4:
Rehrer, NJ. 1994, Fluid and Electrolyte Requirements in Running and Cycling.
Article 5:
Griffin, J. 1994, Dehydration and Rehydration Issues in Sprint Training and Competition.
Article 6:
Nevill, M. 1994, The Importance of Hydration.
Article 7:
Wellington, P. 1994, Swimming: A Special Case for Fluid Replacement.
Article 8:
Fenn, C. 1994, Winter Sports: Problems of Exercise in the Cold and at Altitude.
Article 9:
Burke, L. 1994, Practical Issues Related to Travel, Altitude and Environmental Conditions.
Article 10:
Smith, C. 1994, Fluid Balance in Weight-classified Sports.

Background

Recovery is a general term used to describe the adaptations to workloads after an athlete has been exposed to training or competition. For a healthy, functioning athlete the term refers to a positive response to training stimuli leading to adaptation to those stressors. Such adaptation can be physical or psychological in nature and the recovery processes involved are often referred to as restoration and regeneration (Calder 1990). Failure to recover from training and competition invariably leads to maladaptation.

Failure to adapt to training stressors, either physical or psychological, can lead to detrimental conditions common to many athletes such as overtraining, overuse or burnout. These require specialist intervention by clinical practitioners from sports medicine and sport psychology. This type of recovery is called rehabilitation and lies outside the scope of this article.

Until recent times talent was the sole prescription for success in sport, but today, to be the best, athletes need to work harder, pushing themselves to greater physical and mental extremes, and be able to adapt to such rigorous work. Training hard and training smart are not always synonymous. For many athletes the question becomes ‘How can I train hard without getting injured or sick?’ The answer is simple. To be able to perform at their best without experiencing these setbacks, each athlete needs to follow the formula for success:

Work Hard + Recover Well = Best Performance

Many athletes work hard but often ignore recovery training activities except when they are ill or injured, yet these practices are an essential ingredient for a balanced training program. Indeed, the principle of recovery is one of the basic principles of training (Rushall & Pyke 1990), but it is the one most frequently forgotten by athletes and coaches.

The principle of recovery

Work alone is not enough to produce the best results; an athlete also needs time to adapt to training. The principle of recovery refers to that part of training where the benefits of the work undertaken are maximised through practices which reduce residual fatigue and enable the athlete to cope with workloads more effectively. This enhances the athlete’s capacity to undertake more work, as well as their capacity to work more efficiently, which in turn encourages better adaptation to training.

Recovery techniques aim to reduce residual fatigue from training

Training sessions are designed to bring about improvements in athletic performance. This is achieved in part through progressively overloading the body systems and fuel stores that underpin each of the five ‘S’s of training:
· Stamina
· Strength
· Speed
· Suppleness, and
· Skill.

Underlying this progressive overload principle is the understanding that in order to develop a particular capacity or system, that capacity must first be challenged or stressed. This stress is provided by the training load that represents the stimulus for change to occur. The work undertaken results in a degree of fatigue or depletion of the physical or psychological systems involved. Adaptation to training is accelerated when residual fatigue is reduced as soon as possible after training and the challenged functions are restored quickly to normal operational levels.

Overtraining, overuse and burnout

If positive adaptation to training results in improved performances, then it is also important to recognise that negative adaptation can also occur. Essentially the wide range of overtraining signs and symptoms is a reflection of the extensive influence of the athlete’s immune system when it is unable to cope with excessive stress. Overuse problems are an indication of biomechanical problems due to excessive or inefficient mechanical loading, and burnout occurs when athletes are so psychologically drained they lack motivation and sometimes lose all interest in their sport.

The onset of these conditions is diverse and varied. No two athletes will respond to training loads in the same way because adaptation rates vary from one individual to another. Consequently it is not always appropriate to prescribe the same workloads for all athletes but it is absolutely essential to monitor their responses to training so that workloads can be varied to suit each individual’s adaptive capabilities (see Chapter 2).

Rest: passive and active rest

Passive rest

Sleep is the most important form of passive rest. A good night’s sleep of seven to nine hours provides invaluable adaptation time for athletes to adjust to the physical and emotional stressors they experience during the day. Other forms of passive rest involve techniques that help the mind to switch-off from all the surrounding stimuli. Getting to sleep can sometimes be difficult because of the excitement of the day’s events so it is important that athletes develop habits to promote a good night’s sleep.

Meditation, flotation or reading are also examples of passive rest. Some of these are readily accessible to all athletes but a few are less accessible because they require specialist training or they are quite expensive (see Chapter 4).

Active rest

Rest periods vary depending on the volume and intensity of the work set, the energy systems being trained and the fuel stores used. The table below provides some suggestions for the duration of recovery time for specific biochemical systems and processes.

System	Recovery time
ATP-PC replenishment	2-5 minutes
Removal of lactate	30-60 minutes (active recovery) 60-120 minutes (resting)
Muscle glycogen replenishment	Up to 48 hours

Active rest is much undervalued by athletes. The end of the training session is an ideal time to introduce active recovery activities, although active rest can also be incorporated throughout the session. Recovery activities are selected to fulfil a number of tasks. They can either help recover the physiological state of the athlete, eg light walking or cycle to recover the lactate system, or they can focus on musculoskeletal recovery, eg stretching and exercises to promote a return to postural efficiency through musculoskeletal balancing programs. Also, recovery activities can focus on psychological recovery with the use of visualisation, breathing and meditation as techniques that can be used during a game or match, eg recovery between points in a tennis match, at half time, or after the training session or game.

Cross training can often be used as a form of active rest provided the work intensities are modest (light aerobic) and the exercises undertaken are different to those normally performed in training. Pool work, either walking or swimming (particularly backstroke and side stroke), are excellent modes of active recovery after a game, as is stretching in a warm pool. These techniques are frequently used by many Australian football codes and basketball teams and clubs. (See Appendix 1 for an example of a pool recovery session.)

Rest days are essential. At least one day per week should be a non-training day to allow athletes time for physical and psychological recovery. It is important that athletes have this time to develop interests outside their sport in order to have a balanced lifestyle. The old truism that ‘all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’ reflects the need for variety to prevent staleness and boredom. An athlete with one or two interests in addition to their sport can access this stimulation more readily than the athlete who focuses on sport to the exclusion of everything else. Finding the balance between study/work, training, and social and domestic commitments is one of the biggest challenges for high performance athletes. Rest days allow athletes to integrate these demands more readily and maintain a healthy balance in their lives.

Sleeping tips

Things to do:
1. Practise relaxation techniques before going to bed (listen to relaxing music, progressive muscle relaxation, breathing exercises, visualisation)
2. Lie down to sleep ONLY when you are sleepy
3. If you don’t fall asleep within 30 minutes after turning out the light, get up and do some relaxation work (see point 1)
4. If you wake up in the night and can’t go back to sleep, get up and do some relaxation work (see point 1)
5. Get up at the same time each day

Things to avoid (evening)
1. Caffeine (eg coffee, tea, coke, chocolate)
2. Nicotine
3. Alcohol
4. High protein meals
Reduce thinking and worrying in bed Learn to switch-off

Fluid and fuel for recovery

Preparing for an event or training session and also providing afterward for the replenishment of fluid and fuel stores used in training requires planning. Athletes are responsible for balancing their nutritional intake in accordance with the demands of their training.

The most critical components for recovery relate to fluid and fuel replacement strategies. Monitoring fluid loss so that it is kept to a minimum is essential. Body weight loss of 2% or more during exercise, results in measurable physiological changes which lead to a reduction in aerobic output. Educating athletes to hydrate to keep pace with sweat rates is important and this can be monitored through urine checks and pre and post training weighing (Coaching Focus 1994).

Adequate supplies of glycogen in the muscles and in the liver are needed to support the energy demands of an athlete and promote recovery for the next training session. Dietary CHO is the primary source for the body to manufacture glucose.

CHOs are classified in terms of their glycaemic index. This refers to the relative rate of absorption of glucose from a particular food.

When food containing CHO is eaten, the amount of glucose in the blood rises to a peak after about 20-30 minutes. The glycaemic index (GI) of a food is determined by the rate at which CHO is available for glycogen resynthesis in muscles and the liver. Foods are compared to white bread or glucose (both of which have an arbitrary GI of 100) in terms of their rate of CHO digestion and absorption.

The glycaemic index of some foods (from Macdonald, N (1995) Glycaemic Index – an update and overview Nutrition Issues and Abstracts No. 6 June 1995)

High (GI >85)	Moderate (GI = 60-85)	Low (GI <60)
white bread wholemeal bread Nutrigrain cornflakes Weetbix potato rockmelon raisins bananas corn chips sugar/honey cordial/sports drinks glucose	pasta/noodles popcorn porridge potato chips/crisps Special K white rice (boiled) sweet corn sponge cake oranges orange juice chocolate	apples/pears cherries peachesa pple juice (unsweetened) All-bran baked beans lentils ice cream yoghurt fructose brown rice (boiled) milk (all types) peanuts

Foods with a high or moderate GI are recommended for rapid replenishment of glycogen stores in the liver and muscle. However, if foods with a high to moderate GI are mixed with foods of low GI, the food with the low GI will lower the rate of absorption of CHO into the blood stream.

Consequently athletes need to be educated to have a sandwich, piece of fruit or a sports drink with them to consume after training. There is a window of opportunity immediately after strenuous exercise to replenish muscle fuel stores at a faster rate than by delaying carbohydrate replacements (approx. 30 minutes).

Some protein intake with these carbohydrates is also recommended especially after hard training such as weights, sprinting or tackling, or when impact activities have been undertaken. Protein is especially important for muscle regeneration and the prevention of exercise-related anemia. In particular, athletes involved in anaerobic activities require additional dietary protein to facilitate training adaptation and recovery. The intake of a protein source providing 6-12 g of essential amino acids (equivalent to 10-20 g of protein from a high quality source) may be valuable in a recovery snack since it has been shown to have a substantial effect on net protein synthesis. Also, because insulin plays such a vital role in replenishing glycogen stores after exercise, it's important to focus on how to make it work optimally. Studies show that protein, when combined with carbohydrates, almost doubles the insulin response. This makes it seem logical to include some protein along with your complex carbohydrates. A ratio of 4:1 is a good recommendation; any more is believed to interfere with rehydration. It is important to note though, that protein foods should not be consumed at the expense of carbohydrate foods. Focus on high-carbohydrate foods and meal choices first.

Meals need to be balanced nutritionally. The total diet composition over the long-term should be close to 60-70% carbohydrates, 15-20% protein, and 15-20% fats.

Minerals and trace elements are important for muscle regeneration. However, extra intake of these by taking synthetic supplements may not be as effective as increased dietary sources due to the reactivity of some elements and metals with other foodstuffs in the gut. Professional nutritional advice is necessary for those athletes who experience considerable muscle damage, or those who are continuously fatigued. Iron deficiencies or problems with absorption are not uncommon in athletes of both genders. If an athlete is consistently tired, the following checklist may help to eliminate possible causes and direct the athlete to seek professional help if fatigue persists.

Fatigue fighters checklist After each training session Drink & eat Walk/move (at least 5 minutes) Stretch Hot/cold shower Evening/end of day Hot/cold shower/spa/sauna Stretch & self-massage (especially legs) Practise relaxation 10-15 minutes before bed (music, progressive muscle relaxation, visualisation, breathing exercises)

Note: 1. Monitor how you feel each day - Great OK Tired/stuffed Get up at the same time each day Record how you feel 2. You need at least four hours between training sessions 3. If the fatigue fighters don’t work, seek help from a specialist

Article courtesy of www.trainingsmartonline.com - Expert Triathlon Coaching and Triathlon Training Programs.
This is chapter one of a five part series.

© Copyright Angela Calder, Australian Institute of Sport, 2005 - Reprinted with Permission