Recovery - The ABCs

Get a group of over 50s together and I guarantee that within 5 minutes someone will mention their dodgy knee/shoulder/hip or similar. We feel age creeping up on us, despite our best efforts to hide from its inevitability. Recovery, from a fun day in the mountains or from excessive days in the office is a HOT topic.

So, by popular demand, here’s an ABC overview.

A - is for Active vs Passive Recovery. It's possible to get bogged down into semantics as to what exactly is passive and what is active, so let's try and keep it simple. To me it's a spectrum with active at one end and passive at the other.

Passive recovery includes things like: sitting on the sofa and putting your feet up, being massaged by someone else, largely waiting around for mind and body to recover itself. We know that it takes time to recover if we want to get stronger or faster. Exactly how much time is up for debate.

If you've ever had Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) then you'll know that there's not a lot that will make much difference to the pain. You are in for 48hrs of discomfort. Yes gentle movement or massage and contrast bathing may help, but it's marginal gains.

Any action you take will move you into the Active recovery end of the continuum. Which includes: anything that you actively do with the intention of speeding up the recovery process. For me it blurs into warm-up territory. The yoga I did this morning is actively helping my body recover from 14 hours stuck driving a car at the weekend. It's also warming my muscles up for whatever exercise I have planned for later in the day. I know how prepared my body is for challenging stuff just by how easily I can do the warrior 3 pose.

Certainly, as I age I've stepped up both sides of the recovery coin. But active recovery is where my heart leans too increasingly. Total rest days are now almost unheard of and if I do take one, it has more to do with resting my mind, than my body. I come from a family of creaky joints that crack like old house floorboards. If I don't keep moving I seize up. Movement is the oil that keeps my joints lubricated. But on my recovery days, all intensity is taken out. I no longer even attempt recovery runs, they are now walks, short walks. The number one mistake self coached athletes make is not doing their easy sessions easy enough. Think zone 1 not 2.

B - is for Balance. As we walk the fine line between over-and-under-training. My top tip here is

be prepared to be surprised. In both good and bad ways, and obviously adapt accordingly. I've lost track of the number of times a recovery outing has turned into something else. Sometimes this is bad; see the 'Do No Harm' tip below. On the other hand it can be good to discover that actually after an extended warm up you detect some hidden strength and the desire and drive to go with it. Having this flexibility in your mindset can mean you pull off a hard session rather than a recovery one. Of course this means you've only bumped your recovery further down the road. The debt will still have to be paid at some stage if you want to avoid injury and over training. The reverse is also very true. Being prepared to amend your plan according to the feedback from your body and mind is a useful tool. If you have a history of over doing and under recovering then perhaps following a more rigid plan will suit you best rather than my ultra flexible ideas. I do like the fact that my smart watch, drops the suggested training load range every 3 weeks specifically to encourage recovery weeks. Similarly, the numerous training platforms like Strava and Training Peaks can make assessing training load a lot easier. Just remember they are only as good as the data you give them. Wrist based heart rate measurements are often wildly inaccurate. Heart Rate Variability can also be used to stay on track and is more useful than purely resting heart rate. I've found it to be super sensitive to things like stress, lack of sleep and alcohol, which play into your readiness for a workout as much as anything. Whilst I like and sometimes use all of these tools I do think they over emphasize cardio fitness and neglect muscles & connective tissue (tendons and ligaments) which is crucially significant for us older folk, so bare that in mind.

Last year I was fortunate enough to spend a big chunk of November in Spain, with my husband, we happily rotated between biking, climbing and hiking. This mixing of sports meant we could keep active day after day with minimal down time. Similarly winter is largely skiing based activities and different from our summer routine. This is very different to those of you who have one very dominant sport, often running or biking. Here, timetabling recovery periods maybe particularly necessary. Mobility and strength routines can also play a supportive recovery role.

C - is for Fundamentals First. Yes, Yes, I know fundamentals doesn't begin with a 'C' but my blog, my rules and who wants to hear that 'consistency' is hugely important yet again and that success often comes down to it. Fundamentals first allows me to add a few more tips:

• Do No (more) Harm - which basically means listen to your body. Nobody knows your body quite as well as you do, especially by the time you've got into your 50s and beyond. If you really tune into the messages it tells you, then you are onto a winning formula. Over-use injuries don't crop up out of nowhere. If after a good warm up your legs are still feeling like lead then perhaps that interval session you had planned should be swopped to a recovery walk or some gentle yoga.

• Neglect the fundamentals of food and hydration at your peril. Under-eating not only harms a workout performance but makes recovering from said workout soooooo much harder. Don't do it. Like most of my clients I am carrying more fat than I would like, but seriously under-fuelling workouts is NOT the way to reduce your bodies lard. It's often tempting but I can't emphasise enough is worth avoiding, especially if you like pushing yourself hard in your workouts. In my 30s and 40s I didn't need recovery smoothies after hard and long training, but they definitely help me bounce back quickly now.

• Look objectively and non judgementally at your day, your week, your month and your year, and ask yourself how much time is spent on easy workouts or recovery and how much is hard work?The exact split will vary from individual to individual but the important thing is that there should be a split rather than all the same intensity, all year round. One of the biggest changes I have made is to do more polarized cardio (less of the moderate not really hard and not really easy sessions). I confess I do still do some, they are fun, especially if out with friends when controlling intensity can be problematic and my hilly XC skiing inevitably has me stuck in zn 3. But, I make a point of trying to have hard and easy days in my week and allow myself no more than 2 hard days per week. The following picture shows my Strava relative effort graph for the last couple of months with a steady rise in output and now in my 2nd week of lower activity, recharging in between seasons.

  
  

  

  
  

• and lastly, whilst I have all sorts of recovery aids, from my old foam roller that still gets used after 20 years, right up to some fancy compression legs. These gadgets are only the icing on my cake, often times they are an aid to help me get better quality sleep which is the real recovery magic. Sure, I'm more likely to smell of eau de tiger balm/arnica/hemp oil than any perfume and I love contrast bathing to help me squash in multiple back to back days of fun biking, skiing or running. I do however encourage you to concentrate on getting the fundamentals right first, shiny tools and potions second.

Clearly this is a big topic so if you'd like me to do a deep dive into any of the specifics or have questions then DO get in touch.

References:

https://uphillathlete.com/podcast/recovery-by-feel-with-coach-scott-johnston/

https://vitality-pro.com/biohacking/cold/ultimate-guide-cold/

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2adlVdMS08rZKQ9XmkD41H?si=S0Ka9mlHTs6C3mWT0Sheew&nd=1&dlsi=99d00c6f7ecb4e23