POST-MATCH/TRAINING RECOVERY TECHNIQUES
This article outlines the different procedures that you should be using after matches.
1. The immediate cool down period following a match or a training session should follow immediately upon the termination of exercise. It provides an opportunity to return the body to its pre-exercise state. This is as critical for long term fitness as the warm up. Specifically, the physiological justification behind the cool down after physical activity is:
- It makes it possible to attain a ‘physiological balance’ more quickly
- It slowly lowers heart rate, thus preventing any rapid and erratic changes.
- It helps to reduce the levels of excess hormones generated during refereeing.
- The muscle pump is continued during cool down, aiding circulation, preventing dizziness and helping the removal of waste products
- It gradually lowers body and muscle temperature without overloading the cooling system.
- Blood pooling (possibility of fainting)
- Sluggish circulation
- Slow removal of waste products
- Increased muscle soreness
- Irregular heart beats
Example:
2. Active recovery training is an important component of any training schedule and these sessions are scheduled the day after a match or intensive training sessions. In fact, compared with complete rest, low intensity recovery training facilitates the body to recover even faster and to a greater extent due to an increase in blood flow through the exercising muscles.
3. Contrast bathing is a method of recovery that is becoming more and more popular within the athletic world. It is where the body is subjected to warm and then cold water temperatures in an attempt to promote recovery after a tough training session or a match. The theory behind such a technique is that the cooling brought about by cold water immersion has a constricting effect upon the blood vessels, causing them to narrow. This process has been demonstrated to limit the damage that can occur in muscles post exercise, i.e., swelling, soreness and pain. The process of heating brings about the opposite effects. The heat causes the blood vessels to dilate, thus increasing blood flow through the muscle. This will in turn increase oxygen delivery to the muscles and also the delivery of healing agents such as antibodies. This will help to clear by-products of fatigue such as lactic acid at a faster rate than passive recovery.
Therefore, the use of heating and the cooling causes a pump like action within the muscles, which promotes faster recovery along the lines of your active recovery training sessions through increased blood flow through the fatigued muscles. Consequently, research has indicated that contrast bathing causes recovery rates similar to the observed through active recovery training session, i.e., lower blood lactate levels and an improved perception of recovery. The recommended procedure for contrast water therapy is as follows (published by the Australian Institute of Sport), with a cold water temperature of 12 – 15 degrees and a hot water temperature of 37 – 43 degrees:
SHOWERS 1 – 2’ HOT, 10 – 30” COLD REPEAT X3
BATHS 3 – 4’ HOT, 30 – 60” COLD REPEAT X3
This procedure should not replace your active recovery training sessions (see weekly training plans) that follow your matches, but should be used in combination in order to promote as faster recovery as possible following your matches.
Select Group Referees cooling down after an intensive training session
4. Refuelling of the muscle glycogen (glycogen is stored Carbohydrate (CHO)) stores is an extremely important part of the recovery process and the rate of CHO refuelling is crucially dependent upon the diet consumed during the post training session / match period. There is a period of a few hours after exercise when the capacity for muscle and liver glycogen refuelling is at its peak. Therefore ingestion of high GI index CHO within the first two hours after exercise is essential for optimum recovery. A total of about 50 - 100 grams should be taken in as soon as possible with sports / soft drinks, sweets, snack bars providing a practical solution to the problem of achieving adequate CHO intake without a referee having to consume foods if they are not hungry (which is often the case after an exhausting training session / match). Also, the intake of protein in combination with CHO is also recommended at an approximate ratio of 4 parts CHO and 1 part protein. This can be achieved via whole foods and / or commercially available sports drinks. The benefit of protein combined with CHO intake after exercise is mainly two fold. Firstly, studies have demonstrated that the combination of these two macronutrients helps to maximise glycogen replenishment within the exercised muscles. The figure above, taken from Ivy et al., clearly demonstrates that the rate of recovery in glycogen depleted muscles was greater, and also more rapid, when a CHO – PRO supplement was ingested, when compared to a high (HCHO) and low CHO (LCHO) intake alone. Secondly, the combination of CHO and protein has been demonstrated to improve recovery rates through promotion of protein synthesis within the muscles, i.e., the rate at which your muscles rebuild after exercise training. Drinks such as Lucozade Sports Recovery are ideal for this. As with refuelling, rehydration is an integral part of the recovery in order for the body to be optimally prepared for further bouts of training and competition. In order to determine the amount of fluid loss during an exercise bout before and after body weight measurements can provide a rough indicator of the amount of fluid that needs to be replaced:
EVERY KILOGRAM OF BODY WEIGHT LOSS = 1 LITER OF FLUID LOSS
As with drinking during exercise, it is better to rehydrate with sports drinks, or even home made drinks such as diluted fruit drinks, as these drinks contain valuable sources of CHO and protein, which is needed to refuel the muscles and also electrolytes as sodium to help promote re-absorption of fluids through the gut. Ideally the volume of fluids drank during the rehydration phase should be greater than the volume of fluids lost to sweating during exercise. 5. Decompression garments are currently used by the Select Group referees as part of their recovery following training sessions and matches. These garments are designed to aid recovery through increased circulation and blood flow through the muscles during and after exercise in a similar way to the contrast bathing technique, i.e., removal of waste products such as lactic acid and a continuing muscle pump action. Indeed independent testing of elite athletes has shown decompression garments can reduce build-up of lactic acid by up to 37 per cent immediately after sustained exercise. This in turn means less soreness and a faster recovery.
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