I did something crazy six days ago: I decided to join a group of runners on a streaking challenge. No, this challenge will not involve any of us running across a soccer field in our birth suits. Instead, following BC-runner and blogger Solana "The Beast" Klassen's lead, we will be running a minimum of 3 km every day for the month of November. After less than a week, I am already really glad to know a few tricks to accelerate my recovery. Getting in 3km in speed training sessions or after teaching group fitness classes is a lot harder than I imagined...
From my own experience and from reading scientific research on the topic, I found out that recovery from running is affected by four key components: blood flow, muscular and joint inflammation, hydration, and nutrition.
In this post, I will share my most useful recovery tips.
Tip 1. Cool Down like a Pro
Immediately at the end of my workout, I would do some light jogging or brisk walking for about 5 minutes. This would help my heart rate get progressively down and reduce the risk of feeling nauseous or light headed. It would also keep the blood flowing, helping my body filter and flush out the lactic acid I built up doing intervals. That is a common cool down, followed by most runners, but I found that it is sometimes not enough to prevent pain and tightness the following day.
After intense training sessions or a race, I would force myself to keep on moving and do dynamic stretches such as leg swings, hip circles, arm circles, and some ballet-inspired moves. I would not do any kind of static stretches, however. Keeping the blood flowing is key to a good recovery and studies have shown that static stretching does the exact opposite by reducing blood flow to the stretched muscle. Even in terms of stiffness and flexibility, there are no studies I have read yet that could convince me of the benefits of static stretches over dynamic or assisted/proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation stretching (also called PNF).
Tip 2. Use Ice and Water to Stop the Fire
Water can be an amazing anti-inflammatory in its many forms. When I would have a relatively intense workout, I would try to stay hydrated throughouth by drinking a cup of electrolytes-enriched water every 20 minutes or so and finish by drinking at least half of a sports bottle of water mixed with some lemon juice. Lemon contains electrolytes including potassium, an electrolyte known to be key to good muscle function. I would only put whole lemon slices in the water if I know the lemon was not treated with pesticides. On the following days, I would also pay more attention to staying well-hydrated by drinking a glass of water every two hours or so when not exercising.
The other way water can help you recover is as a cold jet on your sore muscles. I nearly always finish my hot showers with a jet of cold water up the legs. But to accelerate recovery, nothing beats a full on ice bath. There is no way to make ice baths a comfortable experience, but for me they work better than any food supplement or cream. I did, however, found some ways to make the experience a little more tolerable:
- Take a hot shower before, especially if the ice bath is more than an hour after the actual workout or the weather was cold
-As a runner, you only need to "freeze" the inflammation in your legs, so I you can still wear a swimming suit, arm warmers, gloves and a toque to only keep cold what needs to be cold
Here are the steps to prepare yourself and the water for an ice bath:
- Start by filling the bathtub with cold water up to the top of the hip bone when sitting
- Put a bag of ice in the water, and session after session progress to colder and colder ice baths with more ice cubes. I currently can tolerate two bags.
-Try to stay in as long as you can handle it. Depending on how hard I have been training it would be from 5 to 15 minutes. It is not recommended to stay in more than 20 minutes or if shivering hard.
Here is a short video summarizing the benefits of the ice bath for runners if not yet motivated enough to endure the pain:
Tip 3. Drink teas
They call me Loose Leaf Runner...
Limeflower tea
Well, my nickname is Loose Lease Runner for a reason: tea is my favourite recovery drink. I tend to prefer green tea, pu'er and kombucha, three teas known for having great anti-inflammatory properties. I would also incorporate them into all-natural fruit and veggies slush drinks with pineapple, blueberries, cherries, mango, papaya and kale: all very rich in nutrients that can help reduce inflammation in both the joints and muscles. In the evening, I would drink fruity caffeine-free herbal teas, my two favourites being limeflower tea and tea made from fresh grated ginger and lemon. Ginger is actually well-known in naturopathy and traditional medicine for its anti-inflamatory properties.
Tip 4. Fight fire with fire
Spicy foods are a runners best friend (except just before a race)
For food, I fish for healthy fats and proteins. To make sure I get enough liquids I would eat mostly stews and soups with a variety of beans, lentils, kale or swiss chard cooked with a lot of spices and garlic. Thai or Indian-style curried soups and stews are my favourite. I would also often use hummus and lentil crackers as a post-workout snack on the weekend: it tastes great and is rich in both proteins and healty fats.
Here is the recipe for a tangy and spicy lentil soup of the kind that I love:
Tip 5. Rock and Roll Tightness Away
I have a love/hate relationship with foam rolling. It is boring, sometimes even painfu, butthere is no denying how efficient it is at helping me keep an optimum range of motion for running (or even just walking normally on my worse days).
I use my foam roller for some self-masssage of the thighs, legs, glutes and hip flexors just before going to bed (studies found it is when it is the most efficient at preventing DOMS). I also recently started to bring with me a portable massage stick to use after my warm up before a race, workout, or track practice. It works marvels when I feel a bit stiff even after doing dynamic stretching moves.
Here is a little more on that massage stick:
From my own experience and from reading scientific research on the topic, I found out that recovery from running is affected by four key components: blood flow, muscular and joint inflammation, hydration, and nutrition.
In this post, I will share my most useful recovery tips.
Tip 1. Cool Down like a Pro
Immediately at the end of my workout, I would do some light jogging or brisk walking for about 5 minutes. This would help my heart rate get progressively down and reduce the risk of feeling nauseous or light headed. It would also keep the blood flowing, helping my body filter and flush out the lactic acid I built up doing intervals. That is a common cool down, followed by most runners, but I found that it is sometimes not enough to prevent pain and tightness the following day.
After intense training sessions or a race, I would force myself to keep on moving and do dynamic stretches such as leg swings, hip circles, arm circles, and some ballet-inspired moves. I would not do any kind of static stretches, however. Keeping the blood flowing is key to a good recovery and studies have shown that static stretching does the exact opposite by reducing blood flow to the stretched muscle. Even in terms of stiffness and flexibility, there are no studies I have read yet that could convince me of the benefits of static stretches over dynamic or assisted/proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation stretching (also called PNF).
Tip 2. Use Ice and Water to Stop the Fire
Water can be an amazing anti-inflammatory in its many forms. When I would have a relatively intense workout, I would try to stay hydrated throughouth by drinking a cup of electrolytes-enriched water every 20 minutes or so and finish by drinking at least half of a sports bottle of water mixed with some lemon juice. Lemon contains electrolytes including potassium, an electrolyte known to be key to good muscle function. I would only put whole lemon slices in the water if I know the lemon was not treated with pesticides. On the following days, I would also pay more attention to staying well-hydrated by drinking a glass of water every two hours or so when not exercising.
An ad for "wata" sporting 100m world champion Yohan Blake (click to view)
The other way water can help you recover is as a cold jet on your sore muscles. I nearly always finish my hot showers with a jet of cold water up the legs. But to accelerate recovery, nothing beats a full on ice bath. There is no way to make ice baths a comfortable experience, but for me they work better than any food supplement or cream. I did, however, found some ways to make the experience a little more tolerable:
- Take a hot shower before, especially if the ice bath is more than an hour after the actual workout or the weather was cold
-As a runner, you only need to "freeze" the inflammation in your legs, so I you can still wear a swimming suit, arm warmers, gloves and a toque to only keep cold what needs to be cold
Here are the steps to prepare yourself and the water for an ice bath:
- Start by filling the bathtub with cold water up to the top of the hip bone when sitting
- Put a bag of ice in the water, and session after session progress to colder and colder ice baths with more ice cubes. I currently can tolerate two bags.
-Try to stay in as long as you can handle it. Depending on how hard I have been training it would be from 5 to 15 minutes. It is not recommended to stay in more than 20 minutes or if shivering hard.
Here is a short video summarizing the benefits of the ice bath for runners if not yet motivated enough to endure the pain:
Tip 3. Drink teas
They call me Loose Leaf Runner...
Limeflower tea
Tip 4. Fight fire with fire
Spicy foods are a runners best friend (except just before a race)
For food, I fish for healthy fats and proteins. To make sure I get enough liquids I would eat mostly stews and soups with a variety of beans, lentils, kale or swiss chard cooked with a lot of spices and garlic. Thai or Indian-style curried soups and stews are my favourite. I would also often use hummus and lentil crackers as a post-workout snack on the weekend: it tastes great and is rich in both proteins and healty fats.
Here is the recipe for a tangy and spicy lentil soup of the kind that I love:
Tip 5. Rock and Roll Tightness Away
I have a love/hate relationship with foam rolling. It is boring, sometimes even painfu, butthere is no denying how efficient it is at helping me keep an optimum range of motion for running (or even just walking normally on my worse days).
I use my foam roller for some self-masssage of the thighs, legs, glutes and hip flexors just before going to bed (studies found it is when it is the most efficient at preventing DOMS). I also recently started to bring with me a portable massage stick to use after my warm up before a race, workout, or track practice. It works marvels when I feel a bit stiff even after doing dynamic stretching moves.
Here is a little more on that massage stick: