Recovering for Optimal Performance

One of the things I’ve always noticed during my tenure working with athletes is that there seems to be common themes of successes and struggles. In the training room or weight room at Gonzaga, high school athletes in Spokane, or now with Parisi.

High school and Junior High sports are up and running. It’s always fun entering into a new season of competition. Whether a “grizzled veteran” or a rookie on the team, a new season brings a sense of excitement and optimism for what’s to come. As a normal part of the excitement comes increased demand; more and longer practices, more intensity, and a heightened sense of stress

Managing this stress is an important aspect of success in athletics. Our bodies need stress to get stronger and more athletic. The increased level of stress that a new season brings makes it that much more important to remember a very important key to athletics. Bodies don’t improve from the workouts; they improve when we recover from working out.

Without proper recovery we continually empty the tank, without refilling it. Intensity is great, unless your gas tank is on empty. There are all sorts of recovery tactics to help with recovery for athletes. In my experience it is the simple ones that have the best effect.

Tips

How to make sure you or your athlete is ready to perform at an optimal level when it matters most.

Sleep

We’ve all heard it over and over, but it can’t be overstated that quality sleep is a staple for high performing athletes. The younger the athlete, the more sleep they need. A bare minimum for high school athletes is 8 hours, though 9 would be better. Add an hour to that for for 6th – 8th grade athletes, and probably an additional hour for younger athletes.

Tips for better sleep:

Have a consistent bed time and wake time. If we go to bed at a different time every night, our body doesn’t get into a sleep rhythm as well. Keep your bedtime consistent throughout the week (this means even the weekend!)
No caffeine after lunch! With energy drinks and pre-workout supplements being so popular right now this one can be hard. But if you need an energy drink to get ready for a practice, you might be lacking sleep or nutrition to fuel your body. These products can ramp you up, but they don’t just wear off when practice is over. They can stay in your system for 12 hours or more and affect the quality of your sleep.
No phones or screens in the bedroom, or within 30 minutes of bedtime. Screen lights can disrupt the quality of our sleep. Plus the fact that if one is scrolling social media, or watching videos, they probably aren’t sleeping. Cut off the screen usage 30 minutes before sleep time

Nutrition

Schedules are crazier than ever, and it’s hard to find the time to eat a proper meal. Especially when running from school, to training, to practice. Athletes need to fuel their bodies to perform optimally. Eating once or twice a day just isn’t going to be enough for a high performance athlete. I always start with just making sure the athlete is eating. We can figure out what they should be eating later.

Tips for fueling an athlete:

If practice is after school, an athlete should have already eaten breakfast, lunch, and a snack.
If practice is a little later after school, they should have an additional snack.
Ideally a meal should have a protein, a carbohydrate, and a fruit or vegetable. Our snacks can fill in the gaps if one of those components is missing from a meal.

Like I said earlier, the first priority is to just eat. The second priority is to make sure what we are eating will help optimally fuel performance.

Water

I had a rule as an athletic trainer for athletes who ask for ibuprofen before practice because of a head ache. I’m going to ask you how much water you’ve drank that day. Then I’m going to require that you drink a bottle of water before practice before giving the ibuprofen. Headaches can be a result of dehydration and proper nutrition.

Tips for hydrating:

Drink at least 7 glasses of water per day (there’s no magic number, 7 is just a target. The best way to know if your hydrated is if urine is clear 2x in a day)
Keep a water bottle with you. (And actually drink from it:)
Add some flavor to your water to help you drink more. There are lots of products on the market saying they’ll help you hydrate better, the truth is, they’re not that effective. But, what they are effective at is making the water taste better so you actually drink it.

To perform at your best, an athlete has to feel their best. In order to feel good, proper sleep, nutrition, and hydration is required. If you have any questions of the above tips I’d love to help you! Feel free to respond to this email with any questions, I’m here to help!

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