Optimize your Recovery process with these three components!

As our professional players near their playoff runs and fall college season drop heavily into conference play, it’s a great time to talk about what you can do to be your best on the big matches and game days ahead.

The idea of “peaking”, of organizing your training and recovery to be your physical best on the games that matter most, is a fundamental principle of the training construct called Periodization. “Periodizing” your training is just organizing all the elements of your physical training – things like your speed work, your fitness work, the amount of decelerations and accelerations in your practice, the total and type (ex: high speed running vs sprints) of distance covered in training, your strength work, etc. – in such a way that, on match day, you feel your freshest and most athletic. One of the great track coaches of the 20th century, William Freeman, said that many athletes just take the Nike approach to training – they ‘Just Do It’. Olympians, however, plan out their training to be their best when they need it the most… and then he dropped this hammer: “And that’s why they’re Olympians and you are not.” The takeaway there? Planning your training can help you achieve the goals you have for yourself. Also, Ol’ Bill didn’t mess around, did he?!

When it comes to optimizing your recovery to be your best on game day, the most important – and easiest! – thing to do is to take care of yourself away from the field. Many of you practice a multiple days a week and often have a game two either on the weekend or placed throughout the week. And while that sounds like a lot (and it is), that’s also only a small percentage of your time each week, for many youth athletes, it adds up to less than 6% of your week. So, before you get lost in the weeds of flashy recovery aids like compression boots, ice baths, hot/cold contrasts, red laser therapy, and massage, it’s important to look at the other 94% of your week that’s NOT at sport practice, and then use that time as best as you can so that you can be as best as you can.

When it comes to helping you recover to be your best, nothing has as big an impact as the Big Three: Sleep, Nutrition, and Hydration. If you can maximize these three areas of your physical preparation, the research is unequivocal: you feel better, you’re more injury resistant, and you have higher levels of speed, power and fitness. The National Strength and Conditioning Association, the governing body of strength coaches and sports scientists, developed a graphic to show the importance of Sleep, Nutrition, and Hydration on recovery. As you can see, Sleep, Nutrition, and Hydration form the solid base upon which you recover from your training and matches… if you’re looking to be your best, start with these three!

But, as always, don’t take my word for it, here’s what the research says:

• Youth athletes who sleep less than 8 hours per night are almost 2x more likely to sustain an injury compared to youth athletes who sleep 8 or more hours per night.

• Even small levels of dehydration can decrease strength by 2%, power by 3%, and high intensity endurance by 10%.

• UEFA’s most recent position statement outlines how critical nutrition, particularly adequate protein consumption, is to maximizing both rehabilitation from injury and recovery from matches and training.

More injury resistant; more speed, power, and endurance; and better recovery from injury and matches? I can’t think of any athlete who wouldn’t jump at those!

Here are some rough guidelines for each of the Big Three for you to track your progress; these are the general guidelines that research says are good for most people, most of the time. As always, it’s important to consult with your physician for your specific needs.

(1) Sleep: 8 hours or more per night. (Getting less than 8 hours of sleep increase injury risk 1.7x compared to sleeping 8 or more hours.)

(2) Hydration: half your body weight in ounces of water per day. (This does not account for water loss through sweating, which can increase the demand for some people.)

(3) Nutrition: 1 gram of protein per 1 pound of body weight per day. (Putting aside the switching of metric and standard units, this 1g/1lb of bw/day help repair muscle tissue and optimize recovery.)

As you look to achieve your goals during the final push this competitive season, optimizing the Big Three of recovery can be a great start! One of the goals we talk about with our athletes at ATSC is hitting these Sleep, Nutrition, and Hydration markers at least 80% of the time. You’re not going to be perfect with these every time, every day… and that’s okay! But if we can consistently (re: more than 80% of the time), hit our Sleep, Nutrition, and Hydration goals, very often we can feel better, move, better, and recover better from the intense training and games each week. Take advantage of your time away from the field to maximize your recovery and finish the season in a big way!