Do recovery tools work?
In this latest article, coach Kevin looks at recovery tools and how effective they are. Read on to find out more
The sports recovery industry is a big business. It’s part of the sports medicine and rehabilitation industry, which was valued at nearly 6 billion dollars in 2017. As an athlete, you’ve probably heard of quite a few different recovery tools, either discussed by other athletes, popping up via adverts on social media, or being discussed in podcasts. I think it’s reasonable to draw a parallel between this subject and nutrition – both have many, many options, opinions and preferences, not a massive amount of very conclusive science. As a result, it’s a bit of a minefield when trying to figure out how to make sense of it.
So this is not at all an exhaustive list, but here are some common recovery tools:
Nutrition
Sleep
Compression
Massage
Sauna
Stretching
Yoga
Cryotherapy
Foam rolling
Electrostimulation
I started with what I believe to be the big two – nutrition and sleep. It’s not hard to find conclusive scientific studies to say that if you get either of these wrong, you’ll affect performance or that getting it right will help recovery and subsequently improve future performance.
Here’s a study that looks at the effect of sleep duration on various sports, and this one is a review of studies looking into post-exercise nutrition strategies.
As we go down the list (in no particular order from the top two onwards), the verdict from scientific studies starts to become a little less clear or the size of the benefits less. Afterall, some of these can be very difficult to properly scientifically test: it is hard to double blind test ice: an athlete will know if they are in an ice bath or not!
That’s not to say that they are not beneficial, but the sample sizes generally seem to have to go up to prove a difference, and the effects get smaller. What is probably more critical about everything from compression down (plus any other new recovery tools that might appear in your Instagram feed) is how they make you feel.
Training sessions are, on the whole, adding stress to our system. When you add up all the different types of stresses we experience, we need something to balance these out. Where some of the more alternative recovery methods may have the most use is in how they get you to relax or switch off. Whether it’s the increased blood flow, reduction in inflammation or just the physical human contact that means that you feel better after a massage doesn’t really matter – the key point is that if you feel better and more relaxed after a massage, then have them! The one thing that a lot of the additional methods have in common is that they force you to stop and stay still. Perhaps any noticeable recovery benefit is more to do with the fact that the athlete has been forced to stay still, or get off their feet for 30 minutes.
The same goes for any recovery method – and this is what the science won’t tell you. Therefore, the best thing is to try various things out till you find what works for you, what you enjoy, and what makes you feel the most relaxed either during or afterwards (of course, you might want to start small rather than invest in a home cryotherapy chamber straight away).
If training adds stress, then we certainly don’t want to feel like we have to squeeze in lots of different recovery methods to an already busy schedule, so another thing to consider is what will be the most convenient? Can you stop for a massage on the way home? Or do some foam rolling while in front of the TV with your family in the evening?
So to conclude, if you focus on sleep and nutrition and get them right, then you probably don’t need to go any further than that. But it’s worth experimenting to find what additional recovery tools might work for you and what you enjoy. It’s very common that athletes put a lot of time and effort into training but don’t give recovery as much time and thought as they could. So once you’ve found what works for you, commit to making an effort to plan and deliver on recovery to really get the best performance increase possible from your training. You’ve done the hard work of training, don’t let that be wasted by skimping on recovery and neglecting taking care of yourself and your body.
Kevin opened a B&B for cyclists in France in 2014, & then a year later decided to start a cycle coaching (level 3) qualification. This was mainly in order to be able to better support his guests (but also to make his own training more effective too). At the B&B he runs the odd training camp for cyclists but mainly offers coaching advice while guiding guests. An engineer by background, he happy diving into all sorts of training data, but also understanding that coaching is about much more than just the numbers!
After being introduced to triathlon by a good friend & then taking part in races for a couple of years he decided that a level 2 coaching course with British Triathlon was the way forward, completing this in 2019.
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