Understanding Recovery: A Step-by-Step Breakdown
- Cameron Branch
- 17 hours ago
- 3 min read
Athletes preparing for major competitions train at extreme levels every day to achieve top-level performance. However, the body cannot sustain peak intensities indefinitely without breaking down. Recovery is essential not just for daily performance but also for the long-term health and career longevity of athletes. Unfortunately, many athletes lack knowledge about effective recovery strategies. As a result, they often neglect this crucial aspect of training, believing instead that more training always equals better results. While hard work is important, true improvement comes from balancing training intensity with adequate recovery not just from training harder alone. Neglecting recovery can lead to compounding fatigue - a phenomenon where the body is not fully recovered from one training session before starting the next. Over time, this can result in overtraining, poor performance, and increased risk of injury.
The takeaway: Recovery is not optional - it is part of the training process.
The Human Body is Extremely Adaptable - If Respected
A training session involves both a training stimulus and should involve a recovery stimulus. When an athlete trains, the goal is to purposefully stress the musculoskeletal system and the central nervous system. With time and an adequate recovery stimulus these systems rebuild and adapt, making the athlete stronger than before. This process is called supercompensation.
It's important to note:
The training stimulus must be intense enough to create fatigue (i.e., it must challenge the athlete).
However, it is specifically through recovery that improvement and increased performance occur, as the body adapts to the stress.
Without respect for the recovery process, adaptation and performance gains cannot happen.
Defining Fatigue: Training Smarter, Not Harder
It’s common for athletes to experience physical fatigue and muscle soreness during and after a challenging training session (Dupuy et al., 2018). However, the rate of complete recovery defined as “the return of physiological systems that follow metabolic, inflammatory, and muscle damage” (Hausswirth & Le Meur, 2011), varies greatly among individuals. The rate of complete recovery is determined by a combination of factors:
An athlete’s physical and psychological profile
Technical efficiency
Accumulated fatigue
Training volume and load
If you feel physically sore and fatigued after training or competition, your instinct may be to completely rest. However, research shows that achieving full recovery requires consideration of four critical levels not just inactivity.
The Hierarchy of Recovery
The recovery stimulus performed after a training session is just as important if not more important than the training stimulus itself.
Passive recovery includes rest, massage, ice baths, chiropractic care, and relaxation exercises such as breath work. While each of these methods plays a role in recovery, passive recovery alone is not enough to support complete recovery, especially in high-performance environments (i.e., multiple training sessions per day).
Active Recovery involves movement-based activities that help increase blood flow, remove cellular waste from muscles (Corder et al., 2000; Monedero & Donne, 2000), and deliver oxygen-rich blood to tissues. Examples include walking, hiking, swimming, cycling, foam rolling, and flow-based stretching (like yoga).
Periodization is a framework that strategically plans training, general physical preparation, and competition to optimize individual and team performance. It includes four components:
Frequency: How often you train each week
Intensity: How hard each session is
Time: How long each session lasts
Type: The nature of the activity (e.g., weight training vs. volleyball practice)
Proper periodization ensures training and recovery are balanced throughout the season or championship cycle.
Lifestyle Factors includes foundational recovery pillars sleep, nutrition and hydration. When these three areas are consistently prioritized, your recovery and ultimately your performance will significantly improve.
Bottom Line:
Training hard is important, but true performance happen when athletes prioritize recovery just as much as their training sessions.
Final Action Step!
Thank you for reading! If you thought this article was helpful, please click the share icon and share the article to your profiles so other athletes and coaches can benefit.
Follow along here on Instagram where I provide weekly tips on foundational resources including training, recovery, nutrition, and mindset!
Also, be sure to check out other articles within the The Athlete Toolbox.
Author
Cameron Branch
Comments