Recovery

This month I’d planned a brief overview on recovery. However a few days ago a friend signed me up to ‘Open AI’, (open artificial intelligence) so I thought I’d test it out. 

I asked for a 500 word blog post on the physical training principle of recovery. Here’s what it generated. My additions are within the **.

When it comes to physical training, it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that more is always better. After all, if you want to get stronger, faster, or fitter, you need to push yourself to your limits, right? While it’s true that challenging workouts are an essential part of any training program, it’s equally important to understand the physical training principle of recovery.

Recovery refers to the process of repairing and restoring your body after exercise. When you work out, you place stress on your muscles, joints, and other tissues, which triggers a series of physiological responses that ultimately lead to improved fitness. However, if you don’t give your body enough time to recover, you can actually hinder your progress and increase your risk of injury. **In addition to the risk of immune system complications**.  

There are several components to the recovery process, including rest, nutrition, hydration, and sleep. **In addition to these I’d penned – Optimal training program, connective tissue length and tension restoration and environment which I’ll expand on later**. Let’s take a closer look at each of these components and how they contribute to effective recovery.

Rest

Rest is a critical component of the recovery process, as it allows your body to repair and rebuild itself. When you rest, your body is able to divert resources away from immediate energy needs and focus on healing damaged tissues, reducing inflammation, and restoring balance to your hormones and other physiological systems.

While some athletes may be tempted to skip rest days in favour of more training, this can actually backfire and lead to overtraining, burnout, and injury. It’s important to listen to your body and prioritise rest when you need it, whether that means taking a full day off or simply scaling back your intensity or volume for a few workouts.

**Incorporating rest days otherwise known as half recovery or full recovery weeks is ideally built into your training program proactively during the program design phase as opposed to reactively. ‘By the time you need too, it’s too late’ is one way of viewing it**. 

Nutrition

Nutrition is another key component of recovery, as the foods you eat provide the building blocks your body needs to repair and rebuild itself. After exercise, your muscles need protein to repair damaged fibre’s, while your body requires carbohydrates to replenish glycogen stores and fuel future workouts.

In addition to macronutrients, it’s also important to consider micronutrients like vitamins and minerals, as these play crucial roles in many physiological processes. For example, vitamin C is an antioxidant that can help reduce inflammation, while iron is essential for oxygen transport and energy production.

**I’m impressed by the mention of micronutrients**. 

Hydration

Proper hydration is critical for many aspects of physical health, including recovery. When you exercise, you lose fluids through sweat, which can lead to dehydration if you don’t replenish those fluids. Dehydration can impair your performance, increase your risk of injury, and hinder your body’s ability to recover.

To stay hydrated, it’s important to drink water before, during, and after exercise, especially if you’re sweating heavily. You can also replenish electrolytes like sodium and potassium with sports drinks or electrolyte tablets, particularly during longer or more intense workouts.

Sleep

Finally, sleep is a crucial component of recovery, as it’s during sleep that your body does much of its repair and rebuilding work. When you sleep, your body releases growth hormone, which helps repair and rebuild damaged tissues, and your brain consolidates memories and processes information from the day.

Unfortunately, many people don’t get enough sleep, which can impair physical and cognitive performance, increase stress levels, and hinder recovery. Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep per night, and prioritise good sleep hygiene practices like limiting screen time before bed, keeping your bedroom cool and dark, and avoiding caffeine and alcohol in the evening.

In conclusion, the physical training principle of recovery is essential for effective training and optimal health. By prioritising rest, nutrition, hydration, and sleep, you can help your body repair and rebuild itself after exercise, improve your performance, and reduce your risk of injury and burnout. Remember, it’s not just about how hard you train, but also how well you recover.

This is now back to me below:

In addition to Open AI’s four points I have added training program design which I view as the most important aspect of recovery (followed closely by sleep), connective tissue length and tension and environment. 

Training Program Design

The key to optimal recovery resides in the design of your training program. Recovery is one of many aspects built into and accounted for in a quality individualised training program. No amount of recovery methods will help if you’re overtraining, under recovering (one of the newer interpretations I’ve heard) or any other label used for not getting the adaptations/results you’re working towards.

A simple example of this aspect of program design might be is 4 x 12 week training blocks in the year with a full week recovery at the end of each block rounding out the 52 weeks in a year. This is one of a near infinite combination depending on competition schedule, events, goals, sport and so on. 

Connective Tissue Length and Tension

Stretching and massage (or rolling on a roller/tennis ball or trigger ball and the like) play an underrated role in recovery. For 30 years I’ve been surrounded athletes and sports people who struggle in these area’s until they are shown a better way. 

Interestingly I’ve had countless conversations with athletes wanting to be more flexible and not a single conversation with an athlete wanting reduced flexibility.  

Environment

Here we’re talking about manipulating our external environments including hot (sauna/spa/steam room), cold (ice bath/cryotherapy), beach, sun, sand, surf, forrest, rock pools, being out in nature and our internal environments including meditation and breathing exercises that can be incredibly beneficial.

These aspect of recovery have gained popularity in recent years particularly in the mainstream due to commercial interests if I can be so blunt. That said, athletes and coaches have known of their value for mind and body for decades. As an example I had ice baths as a regular part of weekly training and post competition protocols over 20 years ago.

These are all great options for you to try and feel what resonates for you. One point on environment. 

I was talking to a combat sports athlete earlier today who resides in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, across the road from one of the nicest beaches in the world. He’s religious when it comes to his training and sauna/pool exposure post training, but didn’t utilise the beach. 

I encouraged him to incorporate the ocean as part of his recovery protocol. Exposing the body to the sun, sand, salt water, fresh air, negative ions, vitamin D, the living environment and energy of the ocean is arguably unmatched in my view. Especially if you happen to live in paradise! 

There you have it. 

How do you think artificial intelligence did?