Are you mid-way through your sports season & feeling increasingly more fatigued? Are you finding it is taking longer to recover after a gym session? Are you noticing aches and pains you don’t normally feel? These are probably signs your body needs help.
It’s important to take care of your body to optimise performance and your own health. As an ex-professional swimmer, I know exactly what your body needs for recovery. For 6 years I was training more than 20 hours a week, in an outdoor pool with competitions every second week. The intensity was high, however the probability of sustaining an injury was low. The reason for this was I followed a simple set of steps.
STRETCH: The evidence on muscle stretching for reducing tension and therefore tightness is very simple. A research paper in 2009 reported that a prolonged muscle stretch can reduce afferent activity. This means that information led back to the brain is reduced. Thus, structured stretching programs can help to reduce muscle tension and tightness.
FOAM ROLLING: Recent literature in 2015 showed that when people incorporated foam rolling as part of their exercise, joint range of movement increased. This result was seen pre-and post-exercise performance and can be related to competition and training. Therefore, it may be helpful to foam roll muscles before and after exercise and competitions for that extra benefit.
REST: A review in 2015 found that sleep deprivation can negatively affect exercise performance, specifically for endurance and repeated exercise bouts. So, rest up before and after training sessions and competitions for an advantageous effects on your performance.
If aches, pains or increasing body fatigue is affecting you, contact us at PROHEALTH PHYSIO and allow us to assist in the rehabilitation of your injury and get back to being the best version of yourself.
REFERENCES
Herda, T. J., Ryan, E. D., Smith, A. E., Walter, A. A., Bemben, M. G., Stout, J. R. & Cramer, J. T. (2009). Acute effects of passive stretching vs vibration on the neuromuscular function of the plantar flexors. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 19(5), 703-713.
Fullager, H. H. K., Skorski, S., Duffield, R., Hammes, D., Coutts, A. J. & Meyer, T. (2015). Sleep and Athletic Performance: The Effects of Sleep Loss on Exercise Performance, and Physiological and Cognitive Responses to Exercise. Sports Medicine, 45, 161-186.