Recovery: By Chris Williams

The message below was written by Chris Williams, Director of Athletic Training, Bradley University. Chris is the guest writer for the second 2013 edition of the Yuletide Mania Video Series:

Recovery is a really hot topic right now in the athletic world as well as the general population. Everyone wants to know how he or she can recover faster so they can feel better for their next workout. Unfortunately, there is no perfect method or any magic pill for fast recovery, but there are a few methods that I use to get my athletes feeling recovered faster.

The first, and most common, method that I use is the ice bath. I set the temperature of the cold tub between 50-55 degrees. The theory behind the method is to cause vasoconstriction of the blood vessels, which will flush out any waste sitting in your veins after your workout.  The optimal time to do this is right after you are finished working out or training. I have my athletes sit in the ice bath from the chest down for 10-15 minutes. I tell my athletes to avoid using the hot tub after a workout or practice, because this will produce the opposite effect. The blood vessels will dilate and more blood will rush through the veins and sit there. This will cause you to feel a lot more sore the next day. The only time I allow my athletes to get in the hot tub after practice is to do a “contrast bath”.

 The second method that I use is called a contrast bath. I use both the hot tub and cold tub for this method.  The theory behind this method is to create a “pumping mechanism” for your veins. The hot water does the exact opposite of the cold water. The hot water causes your veins to dilate. The dilation and constriction of the veins creates a pump that helps push out the waste that I mentioned before. I set the hot tub at 103 degrees. I have the athletes sit in the cold tub for 3 minutes, then walk over to the hot tub and sit in there for 2 minutes, then back to cold for 3 minutes, then back to hot for 2 minutes, and then finish in the cold tub for 3 minutes. I always have the athletes end in the cold so the veins end in the constricted phase.

 The third and final method that I wanted to talk about is a newer and very effective method that is really starting to catch fire in the athletic world. The Normatec MVP is a devise that uses 2 leg sleeves that have multiple compartments. These compartments fill up with air and puts pressure on the feet, calves, quads and hamstrings, and hip flexors. They fill up in that order to flush out the veins distally to proximally (in the direction of the heart) to help move out the waste. A typical treatment time is between 20-30 minutes. A lot of NBA teams and athletes have posted pictures on the Internet of their athletes using this device. I even saw pictures of Lebron James and Shaquille O’Neal using this same devise on Twitter.

Those are three methods that I use the most to get our athletes feeling as recovered as possible for their next workout/practice.  It is also important to make sure that they stretch after activity and have a proper cool down to help their muscles relax and decrease lactic acid build up. Like I said before, there is no perfect method to recovery, but these three methods have kept my student athletes feeling refreshed for their next practice or workout.