RECOVERY STRATEGIES FOR RUNNERS - ARE WE FOCUSING ON THE WRONG THINGS?

By Satyajit Apte, Physiotherapist

Let’s look at a specific, yet relatable scenario. There’s a race coming up in 2 weeks, one that you’ve been training for for over 4 months. You’ve put in your blood, sweat and tears into it and you’ve been slowly but surely getting faster. At this point, it’s very easy to get ahead of yourself and try pushing even further and even faster in those last few weeks leading up to a race and that’s where you get injured, and depending on how severe the injury is, you either have to run the race a lot slower, or not at all.

Recovery is an often overlooked and underrated aspect of sport, especially in running, and if you’ve ever been on social media, you would have seen all kinds of ‘recovery hacks’ involving different stretches, expensive compression garments, ice immersion, saunas, fancy massages, needles and colourful tapes. These videos may seem legitimate based on the number of views the clip might have, how confident and assertive the supposed ‘expert’ sounds, or even based on all the positive comments others are leaving on the video. The truth (fortunately or unfortunately), is a lot more basic and boring.

Based on the best available research we have at the moment, the three most impactful factors when it comes to athletic recovery are sleep, downtime, nutrition and hydration. As seen in the pyramid above, there is solid unfaltering evidence for the effectiveness of sleep, nutrition and hydration for recovery. The strategies in the middle of the pyramid such as ice water immersion or compression have had less exposure in research. They seem to have some benefits for recovery, but the jury is still out. Anything else that’s either on the top of the pyramid, or not included in it at all are strategies based on minimal or no evidence and may be considered fads that are momentarily popular.

Hang on, does this mean that I shouldn’t be getting a massage or having dry needling done, even if it makes me feel better? Not really. There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of those strategies, however they should not be prioritised over the foundations of the base. On that note, let’s dive a little bit deeper into how you can optimize these fundamental pillars of recovery, and for the sake of this blog, let’s talk about it in the context of running.

1.    Sleep

By far the most important aspect of recovery. Sleep deprivation has been shown to have negative effects on performance, mood state, metabolism, and immune and cognitive function. Failing to have good sleep habits chronically can lead to a sensitised nervous system, increased metabolic stress and inadequate repair and recovery of muscle tissue. A few recommendations to ensure quality sleep, not just before the race, but during the months leading up to it are highlighted below

2.    Nutrition and hydration

Nutrition is another super important factor that determines optimum recovery and readiness. There is a lot of interest in post-exercise recovery nutrition regarding topics such as the kind of nutrients, and the timing of said nutrients. Recovery between exercise sessions may have two separate goals; restoration of body losses or changes caused by the first session to restore performance levels for the next, or, maximising the adaptive responses to the stress provided by the session to gradually make the body better at the features of exercise that are important for performance, and a lack of nutritional support can interfere with one or both these goals. It is generally clear to most that a high protein intake is considered beneficial and assists in muscle rebuilding, however, carbohydrates have been mistakenly seen as the ‘enemy’ in the general population with a lot of people adopting low-carb diets. This can be dangerous in misinformed runners, many of whom are looking to lose weight, do not understand the value of carbohydrates as fuel/energy for the body, and hence end up cutting this crucial macronutrient from their diet. This could lead to serious injuries like bone stress injuries/stress fractures.

Another side effect of the interest in recovery eating is an industry that appears to promote an aggressive and one-size-fits-all approach to postexercise nutrition, when in fact, the optimal approach is individual to each session and each athlete.

Bottom-line, ensure that you’re staying well hydrated and adequately fueled throughout your training as well as just before the race. Carbs are not the enemy! Visit a dietitian to understand when and how much to fuel when it comes to carbohydrates

3.      Downtime

The third biggest factor for recovery is downtime. Simply taking time-off from running will give your body time to heal and adapt to the stresses of running so that you can return stronger.

Flogging your body 5 days a week in anticipation of a race will only lead to you overtraining or getting injured. Once race-day is around 2-3 weeks away, it is a wise idea to start tapering down your total running volume. This can be done by reducing running frequency (the number of days you run in a week) or total running mileage (the distance you run in the week). Don’t worry, those 2 weeks of reduced running volume before your race are not going to slow you down, quite the contrary. The other kind of downtime that not many people address is mental downtime. It’s important to mentally detach from running and running-related thoughts from

time-to-time. This means spending time away from speaking about running, watching videos on running and obsessing over your Strava data. Take time out to divert your emotional and mental energy to other cherished activities, spend time with your loved ones and do other things that make you happy.

Moral of the story here is that recovery is crucial for runners (or any athlete for that matter). Make sure that your efforts are focused on the ‘biggest-bang-for-your-buck’ strategies like sleep, nutrition, hydration and downtime rather than anything else. To re-iterate, there is nothing wrong with going for a massage or getting into an ice bath as long as you’ve got the

above key strategies covered, but you shouldn’t be losing sleep or missing meals over not getting your massage for the week or missing out on the compression for the day.

If you have questions about the benefits of exercise or need help staying motivated, call us today to book and appointment on 0266 435 646, or while you are here jump online and use our online booking option.