5 proven techniques to shorten your client's recovery time

5 proven techniques to shorten your client's recovery time

If your client wants to build muscle faster (naturally, of course), the first thing you would do is increase their training volume as this is theKey factor for hypertrophy.

But what if your client is already having trouble recovering between sessions? Increasing training volume will not help. In fact, it could even affect their performance and, worse, put them at increased risk of injury.

So, to avoid these problems, you must first improve your client's recovery from exercise.

And while it's tempting to simply pick a popular recovery strategy for your client (e.g. cold baths), many of the techniques out there are plagued with controversy. Some say they actually speed up recovery, while others insist they're completely useless - or, worse, hinder long-term strength and muscle growth.

So how would you ever know what recovery techniques to have your client perform? Don't worry, here are the top five recovery methods that are scientifically proven.

#1: Active recovery

If your client is dealing with monumental muscle soreness (i.e. DOMs) the day after a particularly intense workout session, more exercise is probably the furthest thing from their mind.

But it wasn't meant to be.

Activity can help increase blood flow throughout the body by eliminating the buildup of lactate in the blood and "accelerating" the delivery of nutrients (e.g., amino acids) and oxygen to your client's muscle tissue.

This improves recovery. Of course, that doesn't mean you should have your client run a marathon every day after an intense training session.

Instead, get them to do something called “active recovery.”

Here, your client is doing a type of exercise that is less intense than their regular training days.

While the definition of "less intense" may seem ambiguous, an active recovery day should generally include low to moderate intensity activity, no more than 60 to 70% of your maximum effort.

Examples of suitable active recovery activities include:

To swim:A low impact exercise that is gentle on your client's joints and muscles. A Study 2010 published in the International Journal of Sports Medicine found that triathletes who followed a HIIT session with pool recovery had better exercise performance the next day.
Cycling, walking and jogging:The basic principle of participating in active recovery is once again to improve blood flow – so “ “Gentle” activities like cycling, walking and jogging are perfect.

#2: Massage

According to a Meta-analysis 2015 published in Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine, massage can help bring blood flow to the area being worked on.

So it really shouldn't be a surprise to hear that massage can speed up your clients' recovery process. This is even more impressive 2018 meta-analysis Of 99 studies – which compared the effects of ten different recovery methods, including active recovery and cryotherapy – found that massage was the most effective recovery technique.

Special:The meta-analysis showed that massage had the most significant effect on DOMs, perceived fatigue and various markers of muscle damage 72+ hours after exercise.

However, before you recommend massage as a recovery method to your client, it should be noted that massage during college usually took place immediately after training. Meaning?

It is unclear whether a massage the day after training still has a beneficial effect. So if you base your recommendations strictly on research, your client would need to schedule a massage right after their workout session.

This immediately results in two foreseeable problems for your customer:

Time: Could your client fit an hour of massage into their schedule - in addition to the hour-long training session they have with you? Money: Massages are not cheap. Assuming each session sets your client back $80 (a very low estimate, by the way), he would have to spend $960 a month if he worked out three times a week. Ouch.

What about massage guns?

With these concerns running through your mind, you may be wondering, “What if my client used massage guns instead?” They are cheap and portable. So it's a good alternative to massage, right?

Not really. The truth is that there is a lack of research on the effectiveness and safety associated with massage gun use.

The risk comes when your client finds areas that hurt and thinks they need to increase pressure - perhaps driving over an injury, a bony prominence, or even a vein-artery nerve bundle.

In other words:The massage gun isno game for an experienced masseurwho has the necessary specialist knowledge of human anatomy and can therefore distinguish between bones, muscles, fascia and nerves.

Bottom line?If your client doesn't have the time or money to get frequent massages, point them in the direction of the four other recovery methods mentioned in this article.

#3: Compression garments

It's easy to see how light exercise (i.e. active recovery) and massage can help improve your client's circulation - and in turn speed up their rate of recovery. But compression socks? Sounds a lot like marketing nonsense.

But Research doesn't lie.

As it turns out, compression garments effectively direct blood to the heart, increasing the speed and volume at which it flows.

To understand the “recovery-enhancing power” of compression garments, let’s bring the same thing back 2018 meta-analysis mentioned in the “Massage” section.

Although compression garments were not as effective at reducing DOMs or perceived fatigue as massage, they were essentially tied with active recovery as the second most effective modality for reducing DOMs – and were the third most effective at reducing perceived fatigue.

This result is supported by another Meta-analysis 2017 To examine the effects of compression garments on recovery from resistance training and subsequent performance.

You have to admit that this is impressive considering that your clients only have to wear one piece of compression clothing and that produces almost the same results as light movements! Talk about a life hack.

However, there are a few things you need to keep in mind to ensure your client gets the desired recovery effects from their compression garment:

Area: Your client should wear the compression garment on the area that needs recovery (i.e. wearing compression socks will not help with bicep pain). Fit: The compression garment needs to fit properly - it shouldn't be so tight that it cuts off your client's blood supply, but it also shouldn't be so loose that you can see air bubbles.

#4: Foam rolling

And when it comes to affordable and accessible recovery methods...who can forget foam rolling? It speeds up recovery in the same way as all other techniques mentioned in this article : Promote blood circulation.

There are many studies that support foam rolling's ability to increase recovery rates after exercise.

For example this Study 2015 found that foam rolling after exercise can help reduce DOMs and therefore improve performance in subsequent workouts. Furthermore, a current study 2017 Foam rolling, published in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, has also been shown to be effective in reducing muscle soreness after exercise.

But there is a caveat. Unlike the previously mentioned recovery methods (i.e., active recovery, massage, and compression garments), existing research is not compelling enough to recommend foam rolling as a standalone recovery method.

In other words:In addition to foam rolling, you should also have your client use other recovery methods such as cycling and low-intensity walking.

Also, be sure to teach your client the rules of foam rolling:

Do: Apply low to moderate pressure, ranging from 2 to 5 on a pain scale of 1 to 10. Using too much force when rolling out an area can increase your client's risk of injury. Don’t: Make sure your client doesn’t roll “high-risk areas” such as ligaments, joints, lower back, and neck. Also discourage them from continuing foam rolling if they experience sudden and sharp pain (which could be a sign of injury).

#5: Immerse yourself in cold water

Okay, so the final recovery method is special. Instead of increasing blood flow, cold water immersion helps speed up your client's recovery rate by reducing it instead.

But wait. How would that be beneficial?

That's because all that post-workout muscle soreness can be attributed (mainly) to muscle damage and inflammation.

As such, induction of vasoconstriction – through body cooling – can reduce inflammation and subsequently influence the nervous system to reduce pain and improve perception of recovery. And guess what?

Research (again, the 2018 meta-analysis) shows that cold water immersion works.

However, you shouldn't be too concerned with pushing your client to use cold water immersion as a recovery method.

Studies suggest that cold water immersion should only be used as a short-term recovery strategy. For long-term use, cold immersion after exercise could reduce muscle growth and strength gains by attenuating the inflammation necessary for hypertrophy.

Therefore, cold water immersion may only be an appropriate recovery method for your client if they participate in competitions that have multiple events on the same day (e.g. Strongman or CrossFit).

Even then, it should only be used on the day of the competition. Also note that the following protocol is recommended:

Set the water temperature to around 10-12°C (50-53.6°F). Have your client submerge his body up to the neck. Get them to stay in the water for ten minutes.

Recovery methods do not replace basics

All of these recovery methods are great. However, it is important to emphasize to your client that they do not replace the basics of recovery:

Eat enough calories:Your customer's body needs energy to counteract inflammation – and heal any microscopic tears your muscle tissue may have suffered from resistance training. A severe calorie deficit accelerates muscle breakdown. This means that your customer cannot afford to eat too little.
Achieve your daily protein goals:Your customer should not only consume calories, but also consume theman adequate amount of protein daily—generally somewhere in between 1.6 to 2.5 grams of protein per kg of body weight (depending on your customer's TDEE). Your client should also spread their protein intake evenly across three to four meals per day; Research suggests this maximizes muscle protein synthesis throughout the day.
Get a good night's sleep every night:The human growth hormone plays a key role in growth, body composition, cellular repair and metabolism (i.e. it can help your client's body repair itself and rebuild muscle after exercise); its level peaks during sleep. And that's why your client needs to get at least seven to eight hours of sleep every night.
Stay well hydrated: Preliminary investigation suggests that the less hydrated your client is, the worse the DOMs would be. Although more research is needed on this front, one plausible explanation is that water plays a crucial role in removing waste products and toxins resulting from the breakdown of muscle tissue. The more water your client drinks, the faster their body eliminates these waste products – and the faster they recover.

Take away

As one certified personal trainer, you should give your customer the freedom to use recovery methods that they feel work best for them. Often it is a combination of the methods mentioned in this article.

While you cannot control the effectiveness of your client's recovery approach, you can evaluate and adjust your programming based on its performance. If they're clearly having trouble recovering between workouts, don't hesitate to tweak workouts to fix this.

After all, progress is always slowBetter than your customer getting hurt– and have to take some time off from training.

References

... more about that in the next part.
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