Ask The Dawg's

Question: After a good hard workout or game I tend to get a lot of muscle soreness and stiffness. Is there anything I can do to prevent this?

Answer: This is a good question and an important one. After all you do still want to be able to function after an intense workout or game.

This is known as Post Exercise Recovery. There are many different ways you can help with the recovery process but I will touch on a few. First I will explain why you get sore. When you train hard, you build up lactic acid in the blood. This blood then pools to the trained areas which causes pain. This is in addition to micro tears in the tissue, and other stresses on the immune system and joints.

The four recovery techniques I will discuss are: Contrast showers, AIS (Active Isolated Stretching), SMR (Self Myofacial Release) and Nutrition.

1. Contrast Showers: Contrast showers can be a little uncomfortable. You must be able to tolerate hot and cold temperatures. The idea hear is to have 3:1 ratio of warm to cold water. Either 60 sec hot : 20 sec cold or 3 min hot : 1 min cold basically whatever you can tolerate. Simply stand in the shower. Put the warm water on for desired time and then immediately put the cold water on for 1/3 the length. Alternate back and forth for 10-20 minutes.

The purpose of this is to pump the blood throughout the body by making the blood vessels constrict (cold water) and dilate (warm water), which prevents blood from pooling into certain body parts and moving the lactic acid around. It also decreases inflammation in the muscle tissue resulting from the microtears from the workout.

2. Active Isolated Stretching(AIS): To do this you need some kind of long rope or towel approximately 7 feet long. Unlike most stretching techniques, this method of stretching requires you to hold your stretch only for a couple of seconds, repeated 6-8 times. AIS helps increase range of motion, break up lactic acid and brings nutrients to the muscle.

As an example I will discuss the ever-so-tight hamstrings. This muscle group is tight on most people simply because of the amount of sitting we do. Lie on your back and tie the rope around the bottom of your Right Foot. Both legs are fully extended. Take a deep breath and contract your Quadriceps and hip flexors of your right leg to raise the legs as far as you can. These are the antagonistic muscles. When you get to your end range, slowly exhale and gently pull on the rope. Hold for 2-3 seconds and lower the leg to starting position and repeat 6-8x trying to go further each time. Do all three angles (middle, outer and inner hamstrings). AIS can be done to any major muscle group in the body.

The best time to perform AIS is 3 hours after training. Be sure to do a light warm up such as skipping or a light jog.

3. Self Myofacial Release(SMR): A 3 foot long, 6” diameter foam roll is best for this, however a tennis ball will also work. SMR is simply a self massage. This is great for breaking up any knots or adhesions in your muscle. A warning, like a regular massage it can be quite painful.

To perform SMR, lie on the foam roll so that it is perpendicular to the muscle you want massaged. Start at one end of the muscle and slowly roll down the length of the muscle. Where you feel pain, this is where the adhesions are. At this point you want to hold it at that position for 15 seconds and then continue down the muscle. A common area that causes pain is the IT band (muscle on the outside of your leg from your hip to your knee) and Hamstrings.

Do this immediately following exercise or throughout the day while watching TV. It can make a great difference in the recovery process. This can also be done to every major muscle group in the body.

4. Nutrition: One of the most important parts of Post Exercise Recovery is what you put in your mouth, before, during and after exercise. Your body can only perform and recover as well as you eat. Like a car, bad fuel = bad performance.

When you work out hard or play a game your body is put under stress. You deplete glycogen stores and muscles begin to break down. Due to this, to recover properly you must consume the correct foods before, during and after your workouts in order to recover properly.

Before : You must eat lots of protein, low glycemic carbohydrates, and good fats 6-7 times a day. Eat at least twice before training or before a game (the later you exercise, the more meals you should have).

During: For the best results in keeping your muscles in an anabolic(growing) state BCAA's(Branched Chain Amino Acids) will help. Also drinking a lot of water will help the immune system.

After: Within 30 minutes you must have Protein Powder (total body weight x .25=grams of protein needed), glutamine (amount depends on goals), high glycemic carbs (amount depends on goals) and 2-4 grams of Vitamin C. These 4 supplements all work together to repair muscle tissue, replace glycogen stores and improve the immune system.

In addition to the above, take a Multi Vitamin and Fish Oil with every meal and 0.7ounces x your body weight of water to help with joints and the immune system.

Another factor in the recovery process is Sleep. During good quality sleep is when your body repairs best so if you are not sleeping well, then you must find a way to do so.

In conclusion, performing the above steps will help in Post Exercise Recovery. All 4 areas should be done often. This means not only when you are sore, but on your off days, throughout the day. The better and faster you recover, the sooner you can get to the high intensity training/sport. After all it is not much good to you if you train hard one day and then have to rest 4 days to recover. So try these techniques and improve the quality of training to get the best results!!!