The Role of Recovery in Endurance Training

In the pursuit of fitness, we pay a great deal of attention to the usual biggies - the exercise program, what kind of whey protein to drink after training, what meals best suit our goals... but in all this, how much care and attention do we give to post-exercise recovery? 

As professional endurance athletes know very well, recovery time plays a crucial role in injury prevention and alleviating muscle damage. Without adequate rest, we run the risk of harming our bodies and preventing them bouncing back quickly. The human body, be it that of elite athletes or just someone keen on fitness, needs ample time for optimal recovery for muscle repair. Without enough rest, there cannot be peak performance. 

Endurance training - biking, running, swimming, working with low weights - puts a lot of strain, both physical and mental, on the human body. This kind of strenuous exercise is often of high intensity. Be it team sports or individual training, something more than a recovery drink and a good night's sleep is necessary for preventing injury and achieving optimal performance. 

Why? 

Because recovery gives our bodies and minds the space to repair and rebuild torn muscle fibers and tissues and strengthen them. No wonder this is such an important part of every good endurance training program worth its salt! 

What IS recovery?

Recovery plays a vital role in your training, be it strength training or endurance training. Every time you put your body through the wringer - be this any form of intense exercise - you cause stress to it. Endurance exercise causes our body's cells and tissues to break and tear as they go through the rigors of training. To quote the Journal of Applied Physiology, regularly performing endurance exercises adapts our bodies' muscle fibers and leads to "a slower utilization of muscle glycogen and blood glucose, a greater reliance on fat oxidation, and less lactate production during exercise". 

For these gains to happen, the body has to be restored to its pre-exercise state. That is when the muscle tissues damaged during exercise can be repaired, glycogen stores in muscles can be replenished, metabolic waste accumulated in our muscles can be flushed out, and inflammation and muscle soreness can be reduced. 

When we incorporate regular rest days into our training schedule, we allow for muscle growth and physical and mental recovery. 

Recovery is split into two main categories - active and passive.

Active Recovery

This is the kind of recovery you go through while you are actively performing any exercise session. This can be as simple as walking around to get your breathing back in gear or as detailed as performing low-intensity exercise to cool off after an intense training session. This helps with blood circulation, enhancing blood flow to muscles, reducing muscle soreness and stiffness, and flushing out metabolic waste.

Passive Recovery

Passive recovery is the recovery that takes place after the completion of any training session. When you train intensely one day or run a race and take off the following day, you are engaging in passive recovery. This kind of recovery aids the body in repairing tissues, reducing inflammation, and replenishing glycogen stores. 

Sleep

Sleep is a critical component of recovery, allowing the body to undergo essential restorative processes. Unfortunately, this is something most of us tend to overlook, thus hampering our rate of recovery. As many as 35% of the world's population does not get enough sleep. While this is bad enough for regular purposes, inadequate sleep in pro and amateur athletes can impede the recovery process massively. 

Not only is sleep vital in supporting muscle recovery, but it also supports immune function, helps balance hormone levels, and enhances mental clarity.

Importance of Recovery in Endurance Training

Prevents overtraining and reduces the risk of injury

We have all been here, right? So taken up with our new training regime or getting that beach bod that we have in mind, that we go at it like hammer and tongs. Or we get such a rush from the program that we want to do it every day and just see how many PRs we can hit! 

Unfortunately, the only thing that happens with this approach is injury. Yes, even the best will in the world cannot prevent injury but without adequate recovery, the chances of injury risk increase. Overtraining will only lead to fatigue and decreased performance. It is only with proper recovery that the body can maintain the balance between training and rest, which is so important to prevent overtraining and promote growth. 

Enhances performance

Just like how excessive endurance training leads to a decrease in performance, adequate recovery can enhance performance. How? By allowing torn muscles and tissues to repair and reknit stronger, our bodies' endurance improves, enhancing overall performance. With consistent and effective recovery methods, not only will our performance show a marked improvement, but our stamina will increase and so will our overall athletic performance. 

Balance hormones

Exercise puts stress on our bodies. Intense exercises like endurance training will cause an increase in the stress hormone, ie cortisol, in our bodies. When we allow for adequate recovery time, we allow our bodies to restore the hormonal balance, thereby promoting overall health and well-being. 

Endurance training can lead to overuse injuries if the body doesn’t have time to recover. Recovery practices, such as rest, proper nutrition, and stretching, help reduce the risk of injuries by allowing the body to heal and adapt to training stresses.

Recovery Strategies To Maximise Gains

Now that we know the positive impact on recovery for endurance training, let's see what strategies we can employ so we can maximize the gains. 

PWO nutrition is key

What you eat post-workout is important as the body needs to be replenished from its diminished stories. Heavy-duty training takes a lot out of the body's glycogen stores and by having a healthy meal rich in protein and carbs, we can help our body. Till recently, the advice was to have a hit of protein within 30-60 minutes of training. Which led to many of us having a scoop of protein in the shaker bottles stashed in our gym bags. Now, new research suggests we needn't be so stressed about it, we can go home and have a balanced meal and still hit our targets.

​Hydration is important

We lose plenty of fluids during the day and more so during training. In a hot and humid country like India, where the sweating is excessive, it is even more important to hydrate well. Loss of essential salts means including electrolytes in the drinking water will help maintain fluid balance and better nourish our muscles. 

Practice good sleep hygiene 

We cannot stress this enough - sleep is the most important aspect of rest and recovery. Disrupted sleep can impact everything from muscle growth to mental health. To avoid this, a good sleep routine - going to bed at the same time every day, ensuring our sheets are fresh, ensuring the room isn't too warm or cold, and there are no gadgets around to distract us - is very important. At least seven hours of sleep is necessary for us all. 

Stretching those sore limbs

Warm-up and cool-down stretches rarely get good press. By the time we finish up with our session, we rarely have the patience to faff around with slow, gentle stretches. This would be a mistake. Gentle exercises to stretch the muscles that we stressed out in our training will stop us from feeling stiff and sore later. Self-myofascial release using a foam roller will release muscle tightness, improve circulation, and ensure that the blood flow to the muscles is good. Saunas and sports massages are also excellent options for releasing muscle tension and improving recovery.

Listen to your body

Now this is something we don't do enough of. We all have good days and bad days. Some days, the body might be telling us to take it easy. On other days, it might be signaling that the previous day's session took a bit more out of it than usual and it needs a little more TLC to recover. Some other days, we might feel like switching things up by having a jacuzzi session to massage your sore body. Or taking a meditative class to help calm your mind. Or just a couple of more hours of shut-eye.

When our bodies tell us something, it is best to pay attention. Give it the love it needs. After all, it is the only one we've got!

The physiological changes our bodies go through when we go through the rigors of intense exercise routines like high-intensity or endurance training need to be offset by suitable recovery strategies. Rest and recovery play a critical role in injury prevention, enhancing performance, and promoting health and well-being. If sustainable training is our goal (and it should be!), then recovery must have a starring role in the proceedings. 

If you are interested to see how we incorporate rest and recovery in our training programs, get in touch with a member of our team today and we will be happy to share our process with you.