Recovery in Sports
Recovery is not just a passive phase between your performances, it is an active process during which your body repairs and rebuilds, and during which your brain and mind make new connections. In order for the athlete to reach his full potential, enhance the benefits of training, increase his performance and be in the best possible condition for competitions, recovery must be strongly integrated into life as one of the most important part of maximizing performance, reducing the risk of injury, staying healthy, and overall well-being. With the help of breathing, recovery can be significantly enhanced and accelerated, which makes the athlete's life much easier.
There is a tendency to talk about recovery, but in reality, in goal-oriented sports, investing in recovery often takes a back seat compared to other training. When aiming for results and success, the amount of training and increasing the skill of the sport are the main parts, and although recovery is talked about as an important part, its multifaceted and real effect on physical and mental performance, and especially on the athlete's health and well-being, is not fully understood. The whole thing is a bit crazy in itself, because effective recovery is one of the biggest cornerstones of success. An irreversible athlete feels in his body and mind that he is not "in full swing" and his self-confidence starts to crack easily.
When irreversible, the athlete's ability to concentrate is weakened, physical performance is reduced, mental capacity is reduced, and motivation and purposefulness may be lost. A heavily loaded athlete is at risk of getting injured and also getting sick more easily at the point when all the power is taken out of training and the mental stress from competitions takes over. It has been proven more than once how an athlete gets sick right before the competition. In a constant state of physical and mental load (stress state), the power of the immune system weakens considerably and the athlete is more easily exposed to illness. When an athlete learns to give himself moments of recovery every day, the immune system remains active and the athlete stays healthy.
Once recovered, the athlete can trust his own condition and abilities
Having recovered well, the athlete's self-confidence is high, he feels motivated, focused, strong and can more easily direct all his energy to the performance itself without worrying about his own condition or mood swings. This article will explain to you why recovery plays such an important role in terms of peak performance and performance maintenance, and what are the concrete benefits and scientifically proven undeniable benefits of breathing training for effective recovery and speeding up the recovery process.
"I think the biggest thing for all athletes is recovery - the ability to recover from week to week, from practice to practice, and always return to the field in peak condition."
– Larry Fitzgerald
Reasons why recovery is key to performance and why it deserves your full attention:
1. Muscle repair and growth: After an intense workout, your muscles need time to repair and grow. Without adequate recovery athlete is in risk of facing an overtraining syndrome, which weakens performance drastically and can lead to injury.
2. Recovering the Energy: During recovery, your body replenishes energy stores, ensuring you have the maximum amount of stamina and strength needed for demanding workouts and competitions.
3. Mental recovery and recharge: Recovery is not just physical, it is also mental. Effective recovery provides a much-needed break from the mental demands of your sport, reduces stress and improves concentration.
4. Injury prevention: Effective recovery gives stressed muscles, joints and nervous system time to heal and adapt, thus reducing the risk of injury.
5. Systematicity: Systematicity is also important in recovery and it enables maintaining a high intensity of training in the long term, which is a key factor in terms of athletic success.
The power of breath in recovery
Conscious breathing and the right breathing techniques will enhance and speed up your recovery. This is why this less understood "secret weapon", breathing, is a necessary element if you want to perform according to your best abilities.
1. Enhanced oxygen supply to muscles: Correct breathing techniques remove waste products and optimize oxygen delivery to muscles, which speeds up the process of muscle growth and repair. This enables a more effective training interval and faster development in a shorter time.
2. Calming the nervous system: Calming the active nervous system is key to recovery. With the help of breathing, you can calm the active state of the nervous system and start the body's recovery process immediately after the performance, during the day and in the evening before going to bed, which makes it easier to fall asleep and improves the quality of sleep.
2. Reducing stress: High stress levels can hinder recovery. Right breathing exercises activate the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting relaxation of the body and mind, reduce the amount of stress hormones, activate natural Melatonin production and allow your body to recover more efficiently.
3. Controlling inflammation: Inflammation is a natural response to the physical stress of exercise, but excessive inflammation can prolong recovery time and increase the risk of injury. Breathing exercises can calm the body's inflammatory reaction and muscle pain, allowing you to recover faster and return to training sooner.
4. Mental recovery: Recovery is also about mental and emotional renewal. Breathing helps to relax and calm the mind, manage stress, increase concentration and maintain a positive mindset, which is critical to long-term success. When mentally recovered, failures do not hinder development, but become part of development and learning.
4. Recovery during performance: Active recovery should also be combined within the performance. With the help of breathing, you can recover between performances, during changeovers, during set breaks and also during the performance itself. When you learn to restore yourself within the performance and control the state of your own mind, you learn to control your own energy reserves and guarantee maximum energy to the parts of the performance where it is mostly needed.
Oxidative stress
Stressful factors for the body, such as sports, can lead to acute oxidative stress, which in turn can have a very harmful effect on cell structures. A study conducted at Cameron University in Macareta, Italy, involving a total of 16 racing cyclists, showed that the relaxation caused by diaphragmatic breathing immediately after exhausting long-term exercise increases the athletes' antioxidant defenses, lowering cortisol levels and increasing the natural rise of melatonin. The result is a lower level of oxidative stress, which would suggest that calming and restorative diaphragmatic breathing could protect athletes from the long-term adverse effects of free radicals.
How you can combine restorative breathing techniques with sports
Effective recovery process consists four equally important parts:
1. Recovery after training and competition: With breathing exercises performed after training and performance, you can start the recovery process immediately by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, calming the body's stress state, promoting the body's metabolism and optimizing the flow of oxygen to tired muscles. It has been researched that 5-10 minutes of light active movement after performance is a contributing factor in recovery, but dynamic movement alone is not a sufficient factor for effective recovery. You can easily combine restorative breathing techniques with exercise, or at the end it's enough to take just five minutes separately for a recovery breathing exercise.
2. Recovery and energy management during performance: Breathing techniques allow you to lower your heart rate and breathing rate, optimizing oxygen supply to the muscles, while saving and managing energy; between repetitions, on the bench, during set breaks and during performance (for example downhill in cycling and after a sprint in football). With the help of breathing, you can calm your mind and control excess reactions and emotional outbursts that consume unnecessary energy. By learning to control your breathing, you learn to control your energy, which is one of the most important skills of an athlete.
3. Recovery during the day: Less noticed recovery during the day plays a significant role in terms of overall recovery. By utilizing breathing techniques, you can give the nervous system the breaks it needs during the day and take care of optimal oxygen supply to the muscles and cells, which greatly promotes recovery.
4. Recovery in the evening: The body and mind should calm down in the evening before going to bed. A good night's sleep is "vital" for recovery. If your body, mind and nervous system are in an active state, falling asleep is often difficult and the quality of sleep and also recovery suffers despite falling asleep. When you consciously calm down the body's functions and the turmoil of the mind, it becomes easier to fall asleep even after a late performance and you guarantee yourself the best possible recovery during the night.
Other beneficial effects of breathing for recovery
Elasticity and relaxation: In tight tissue, the metabolism and energy flow is weakened. With the help of breathing, you can release tension in the body, increase tissue elasticity and promote muscle relaxation, which is an advantage in speeding up recovery.
Mental recovery: Breathing exercises are not limited to physical benefits, but also reach deep into different levels of your mind. With the help of various breathing exercises, you can quieten and "reset" your mind, deal with your various post-performance emotional states, let go of thoughts and subconscious action patterns that hinder development, create a winning mindset for yourself and maintain a quality of mind that promotes positive development.
Utilizing the breath is easy and simple
Utilizing breathing is definitely the most effective way to enhance and speed up physical and mental recovery and at the same time make sure that the immune system is actively functioning and the athlete stays healthy. One of the great benefits of breathing is that you can use it for recovery in any sports situation and in your free time.
You also don't need any aids to breathe, and you don't have to go to any training center or a special place to breathe. Breathing can be used anytime and anywhere. When you just systematically remember the importance of recovery and actively use restorative recovery breathing techniques, over time it will become automatic and integrated into everyday life.
Sources:
- Martarelli D, Cocchioni M, Scuri S, Pompei P. Diaphragmatic Breathing Reduces Exercise-Induced Oxidative Stress. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2011; 2011: 932430
- Pizzino G, Irrera N, Cucinotta M, Pallio G, Mannino F, Arcoraci, Squadrito F, Altavilla D, Bitto A. Oxidative stress: Harms and benefits for human health. Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2017; 2017: 8416763.
About the author:
Tomi Räisänen is an internationally trained breathing expert, educator and a Breath Coach. Tomi specializes in breath training for athletes and promotes the benefits of breath training in sports around the world.