Towards the end of my time in affiliated baseball, recovery became a big buzzword. Several companies started to market products to us geared around recovery. We had a recovery room fashioned behind the training room in spring training. We invested time and resources into recovery and we would implement recovery days into throwing and rehabilitation programs. With a schedule upwards of 140 games a season, it's easy to see why recovery became such a hot topic. However, the emphasis on products for recovery may have caused us to missed the mark. What is recovery? What are athletes supposed to recover from? How did athlete's recover before these technologies? How can you implement recovery?
An important thing to understand is that the body naturally recovers. We stress our bodies through exercise, daily living and/or injuries and illness. Our bodies naturally heal from those stressors and may become stronger as a result. The idea of recovery is more about creating an environment for your body to recovery naturally.
What does recovery mean?
The human body is constantly changing and adapting due to the stress of our environment. Our bones stay healthy through a breakdown and buildup of bone cells. Muscles get bigger through a process called hypertrophy where muscle cells breakdown under stress and build back up. Our cells are constantly replicating to mend damaged areas and adapt to stress. Recovery is the process by which the body rebuilds in response to the stressors it has been exposed to. There are several ways in which our bodies do this. My plan is to briefly introduce each of the factors of recovery with the intent to more closely examine each in separate posts.
Sleep
I cannot over emphasize the relationship between sleep and recovery. Sleep is the timeframe where a majority of your recovery occurs. Certain phases of sleep release chemicals that promote healing and recovery both in the brain and the rest of the body. The best thing you can do to promote recovery is to adequately sleep.
Nutrition
A close second to sleep is nutrition. The food we eat provides the body the necessary materials it needs to carry out the reactions associated with recovery. Protein is used to rebuild damaged structures. Carbohydrate replenish fuel sources. Fats are used to create hormones which send messages to the cells to carry out recovery and cell building procedures. The intake of stimulants, such as caffeine, can effect your sleep and neurological system which may alter your ability to recover, which I'll discuss later. Hydration facilitates the movement of fluids throughout the body, again aiding in recovery. Your diet is crucial to how well you recover.
Lymphatic System
The lymphatic system is a system in the body that processes extracellular fluid. When we exercise we create microtrauma in the muscle cells and connective tissues. In the event of an acute injury, there may be more concentrated cellular damage that presents as swelling or bruising. The lymphatic system is responsible, in part, for removing the fluid where it is filtered and returned to the circulatory system.
There are several different machines and implementations that are designed to stimulate the lymphatic system to help process the extracellular fluid. These machines are often what we termed "recovery" while I was in affiliated baseball. Our recovery room was filled with products to promote lymphatic drainage. They can be very helpful with generalized soreness and swelling associated with injury and/or exercise.
Autonomic Nervous System
The autonomic nervous system is responsible for the involuntary activity of the body such as heart rate, blood pressure, metabolism, etc. The autonomic nervous system is divided into the sympathetic, often termed fight or flight, and the parasympathetic nervous system, often termed rest and digest. The parasympathetic nervous system is critical for physiological recovery. When the body is in a parasympathetic state, it is repairing the damage from the day. Lack of recovery can often be attributed to disruption of the autonomic nervous system.
To aid recovery, the body must be in a parasympathetic state. The good news is that this is a natural physiological process; the bad news is that we can disrupt that. Stimulants can put the body into a sympathetic state as well as activities that stimulate the brain and release adrenalin. Meditation and diaphragmatic breathing stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system leading to a recovery state.
Summary
The above considerations are the very tip of the iceberg for each category. There is no easy fix or machine that will magically help recovery. However, understanding the process can help to make the most of the physiological process to recover. Each consideration is also deeply interconnected. Poor nutrition can wreak havoc on the autonomic nervous system especially when stimulants are overused. Poor hydration can make the lymphatic system sluggish. Sympathetic nervous system stimulation can lead to poor sleep. Understanding aspects that help the body to recover leads to maximizing the body's natural process. That's all for now, from the training room.