January 2005
ISSUE TWENTY-NINE
January 2005
Introduction
-Tyler Hass
page 1
Coach’s Spin
- Greg Glassman
Page 1
On Recovery
- Robb Wolf
page 2
Recovery:
The Next Generation !
- Dan John
page 4
Interview: Carl Valle
Recovery and Regeneration
Techniques
- Tyler Hass
Page 7
“Growth happens outside of the
gym.” You have probably heard
that before, but what does it mean
to you? For every article I can find
on recovery, there are hundreds, if
not thousands of workout articles.
Never in my life have I met a
recovery specialist, but I know
hundreds of trainers. You would
think that there would be more
“between workout” specialists if
continued page ... 9
continued page ... 2
At CrossFit’s certification/seminar in Golden Colorado this fall, an event
commonly referred to as the “First CrossFit Summit”, several presenters spoke
of the importance of rest and recuperation in athletic training and alluded to
valuable current trends and research on the subject of recovery.
Chief among those inspired by the conversation were Dan John, Tyler Hass,
and Robb Wolf. My respect and admiration for Dan, Tyler, and Robb coupled
with my bad attitude and admitted ignorance of “modern recovery techniques”
made Tyler’s suggestion to dedicate an issue of the CFJ to recovery an
interesting idea - especially if Dan and Robb could be cajoled to help.
For the record, my bad attitude towards any established corpus of recovery
information stems from several quirks of my intellectual temperament and
the nature of my clinical practice. It has been my professional experience that
successful training protocols present themselves over time through superior
performance among their adherents. Repeatedly over my career exceptional
performance has been easily and quickly rooted out and attributed to the
particulars of the performer’s training regimen. A natural process of question
“What About Recovery?”
Introduction
-Tyler Hass
1
January 2005
muscle growth happens between the
workouts. But sadly, there are very
few specialists in this field and they are
rarely seen outside of the elite athletic
community. This month we are going
to take a look at this often neglected
side of the training equation. If you
need one word of encouragement to
get you interested in this topic, here
it is: according to speed coach Charlie
Francis, proper regeneration techniques
can lead to a 40% increase in quality
work. The significance of that number
is astonishing. And Charlie Francis
knows what he is talking about; he
has coached sprinters to world record
breaking performances.
The CrossFit Workout of the Day
has worked many miracles in just
20 minutes a day- sometimes more,
sometimes less. But there is another
miracle to be found in the other 23
hours and 40 minutes of the day. A
40% increase in quality work is enough
to make a new man out of anyone. But
recovery comes at a price. It is not a
passive process, but a time consuming,
planning-intensive process. Many people
assume that we mean sitting around,
letting it happen and not getting in
the way of what the body needs to
do. However, we are talking about
major lifestyle changes that even very
dedicated athletes struggle to commit
to. It takes more time, more planning
and perhaps more discipline than the
workout itself.
The recovery process is also a very
active process inside your body. Many
athletes are lean, carry a lot of muscle
and rarely, if ever, train in the mythical
“fat burning zone”. This is called the
“Sprinter’s Paradox”. It has confounded
aerobics junkies for years. How do
power athletes stay so lean without
doing any long distance cardio? The
answer is the recovery phase. Carl
Valle, who is interviewed in this issue,
put it nicely: “Recovery to the body is
not passive or shutting down, it is more
like the efforts done to rebuild a city
after a bomb was dropped.” It takes
a lot of energy to rebuild a city, and
within your body most of that energy
will come from stored fat.
What does a regeneration specialist
do? The toolbox of a recovery
specialist is vast. Their tools include
nutrition,
stretching,
ice,
heat,
massage, electrotherapy, chiropractic
adjustments, meditation and more.
On top of this, a skillful regeneration
specialist will know which methods
to use, when and how much. For an
athlete on a budget, a massage after
every workout is not practical and not
necessary. The intensity of your active
recovery efforts are proportional to
the intensity of your training and your
level of experience as an athlete. But
there are benefits to be had by people
of all levels of qualification. In Europe,
it is much more common to see these
techniques applied to post-surgical
patients to help them rebound from
their afflictions more rapidly. Again,
the purpose is to assist the body in
rebuilding itself, so its relevance in
the medical community is obvious.
Massage is a major part of most
regeneration programs. It is difficult to
find a good masseuse, especially since
they treat mostly middle-aged women,
rather than hard-training athletes
with dense musculatures. According
to regeneration specialist Waldemar
Matusezewski, “The effect of restorative
massgage on recovery is two or three
times higher than passive rest. This
is due to massage’s promotion of: 1)
continued flow of blood and lymph
to active muscles and 2) lactic acid
removal.” The type of massage used
varies from sport to sport, athlete to
athlete, and according to the training
style. One professional massage every
two weeks will be beneficial for most
people. The cost/benefit ratio is not a
linear relationship. A daily massage will
provide only slightly more benefit to
most people than once a week. And
once every two weeks for maintenance
and occasional bursts during a crisis
phase will be best for most people.
If you feel that you are in deep in
overtraining and feel injuries coming
on, it is safe to call this a crisis phase.
The key point is to find the minimum
amount necessary to be of benefit
so that you do not waste time and
money.
CrossFit has built-in mechanisms to
facillitate recovery, the most important
of which is variation. Athletes who fall
into a very narrow specialty require
more care, because they are more
frequently training on the outer edges
of their recovery capacity. The capacity
for these athletes is not a systemic
As a CrossFitter you have likely been:
fatigued, sore and generally beat up
at one time or another, or perhaps
continuously! This is a result of training.
What will largely determine the results
you obtain from training is a multifaceted
concept, recovery. Adequate recovery
allows for more training and ultimately
improved performance. In some
respects recovery is the Night to our
exercise Day (this analogy will be more
true than we can imagine). In exercise
we release hormones, mount immune
responses, cause inflammation and use
things like glycogen and lipids for fuel.
Recovery complements this process.
Accelerating the things we want and
mitigating the less desirable processes
will provide more return on our
exercise investment.
Much in the spirit of “World Class
Performance in 100 Words” recovery
comes down to: Eat a Zone favorable
or other hormonally intelligent diet
On Recovery
- Robb Wolf
continued page ... 3
end.
- Tyler Hass
What about Recovery?
Introduction
...continued from page 1
2
January 2005
with predominantly antioxidant rich
“Paleo” foods. Sleep 8-10 hrs per day
in a completely dark room. Go to
bed as early as possible. Laugh. Avoid
excessive stress.
This is admittedly a black box
approach to the recovery issue. One
need know nothing about why these
recommendations
will
optimize
recovery to reap ALL the benefits.
Occasionally however understanding
some “why’s” will improve both
implementation and compliance, so let’s
look at these topics a bit more closely.
Nutrition
A quick search of Google with the
topic “post-workout nutrition” produces
an impressive chunk of information
concerning the nutrition and recovery.
Most of the recommendations seem
to point towards a combination
of carbohydrate and protein to
optimize muscle gain and glycogen
replenishment. Scientific literature and
empirical evidence seem to support
this plan but I recommend a more
moderate approach than most of the
bodybuilding and endurance sources
that love cheap insulin spiking carbs like
maltodextrin. I like to see lean protein
sources combined with predominantly
fruit, yams/sweet potatoes or squash
for the carbs. This ensures variety, low
glycemic load and high nutrient density
with an emphasis on antioxidants. The
basic protein/carb plan regardless of
composition appears to be beneficial
for the aforementioned anabolic action
both directly by non-insulin mediated
nutrient transfer but also indirectly
by suppression of cortisol. With the
smart selection of antioxidant rich
plant materials, one is also reducing
inflammation and providing alkalinizing
material for acid/base buffering. The
acid base buffering can facilitate greater
workout intensity and may be important
in deep sound sleep. Good stuff!
For those familiar with the Zone it
should be obvious that following a basic
Zone diet will fall into step with these
recommendations. There is however
a post-exercise window of enhanced
insulin sensitivity. This is a period of
time in which nutrients are transported
into the cell without the action of
insulin. Some make the argument for a
larger amount of carbs to be consumed
at this time. For Zoners this could
mean shifting some carbs from other
meals to the post exercise window.
This is heresy for Zone purists but
many have found success with this
approach. Whether one follows a strict
Zone diet or experiments with nutrient
timing to take advantage of post
exercise insulin sensitivity, I think the
combination of hormonal control and
food quality ensure that the nutrition
side of recovery will be addressed.
Supplementation is a pretty hot topic
with an enormous array of potions
guaranteeing a competitive edge. I
think very few are worth considering
and here they are:
Creatine- 2-5g per day may be
beneficial for a wide variety of reasons.
Check the CrossFit message board
archives for more details.
Alpha Lipoic Acid- 500mg per day.
ALA enhances insulin function, acts as
both a fat and water-soluble antioxidant
and is a key player in the production of
our own antioxidants.
Phosphatidylserine- 200mg per day.
Seems to reduce cortisol.
Vitamin C- 500mg post workout
and before bed may reduce cortisol
and mitigate inflammation. Avoid
consuming vitamin C with iron rich
foods.
Sleep
I likely recommend this book 100+
times each year but here comes my
plug again, Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar and
Survival by TS Wiley and Bent Formby.
If you have not read it yet, please do
so. If you have read it already, give it a
shot again. The bottom line with sleep
is get 9-10 hrs per night in a completely
dark room. This will normalize
inflammatory conditions, autoimmunity,
insulin resistance and hormone status
(good things like growth hormone,
testosterone and estrogen).
Remember the last section discussing
nutrition? If you lack sleep you do not
digest or absorb food normally. All
that effort to weigh out perfect Zone
block meals is derailed. Do you also
remember the little line I mentioned
about nutrition affecting sleep? This is
where all this recovery stuff gets very
interwoven: Sleep affects digestion,
nutrition affects sleep. Things like stress
affect both.
Stress
Psychologists have quite an array of
terms for “stress”: (real, perceived).
What we are concerned about is
stress that: raises cortisol, compromises
immune function and disturbs sleep and
digestion. Interestingly, if one is well
fed and adequately rested one is more
resistant to stress. I hope I am getting
across the highly intertwined and self-
reinforcing nature of all this. If one is
under stress it becomes even more
critical that nutrition and sleep are as
good as they can be.
Contrast Hydrotherapy
It may seem amazing that one activity
could have a positive bearing on sleep,
digestion and stress, however some do
exist. One of my favorites is contrast
hydrotherapy, or simply alternating hot
and cold water soaking. In an ideal
...continued from page 2
On Recovery
- Robb Wolf
continued page ... 4
What about Recovery?
3
January 2005
world one would have a fairly hot tub
of water, say 100-104* F and a cold tub,
say 34*F. One would sit in the hot tub
for 3-5 min and then go immediately to
the cold tub for 30-60 seconds. This
process could be repeated 3-5 times
with a profound state of relaxation
and euphoria being the result. Cold-
water immersion seems to be a part
of many folk medicine traditions and
there is an impressive body of evidence
that indicates the practice improves
insulin sensitivity and reduces stress
and inflammation. If one does not have
tubs of hot and cold water available
alternating the shower temperature is a
pretty close second.
...continued from page 3
On Recovery
- Robb Wolf
Putting it together
How does one integrate this
information into a daily program?
Here is the action item list:
1)
Eat a Paleo Zone favorable diet.
Possibly add a few select supplements.
2)
Sleep 9-10 hrs per night in
complete darkness.
3)
Find ways to manage stress.
Watch Dr. Phil and Oprah, if they have
no usefull advice at least you can laugh
at them.
4)
Add a contrast hydrotherapy
session post workout and prior to
bed.
5)
If one area of recovery must be
compromised the others need extra
attention if disaster is to be avoided.
Keep in mind that recovery is a holistic,
multifaceted process.
Recovery: The Next Generation !
- Dan John
At a recent workshop, Doctor
Lonnie Lowry noted that we need
to learn to “Quantify” recovery.
Simply, we need a daily reminder
and a daily checklist to make sure
we are balanced in our fitness goals.
Since this workshop, I have been having
my athletes use a simple ten point scale:
Nutrition (4 points): 2 points for a
good breakfast, 1 point for two snacks,
1 point for two additional meals…for
a total of 4 points. (Breakfast, snack,
lunch, snack, dinner is a four point day.)
I think “good” choices, the superfoods,
are the key, but I will accept just about
anything from an athlete who is just
learning that success is more than
just dinner and soft drinks each day.
Sleep (3 points): 8 hours is 2 points.
One or two hours more is 3, one or two
hours less is 1 and less than that is none.
Relationships (1 point): Things were
good today: 1 point.
Fights, stress, break ups: No points,
maybe even negative points.
“Alone” time (1 point): If the athlete
had some time during the day to
collect their thoughts and relax without
any time or work or school issues…
you get 1 point. You need to figure
15 minutes at least…but that is not
on the internet, phone, or a car, either!
Play time (1 point): If the athlete
found some time in his or her day to
simply laugh and enjoy themselves
in the company of others…not
with a television on nor a phone
nor the internet…you get a point.
Table conversation is the best,
followed by old- fashioned games.
Tally this up each day. You should
strive for “tens” across the board. If you
increase your training load from walking
to full-time Olympic lifting, you need to
really look at these five areas. Lowery
also recommended comparing and
contrasting your training profile to your
recovery profile.
The single discipline athlete could have
a chart from one to ten. Even if that
athlete does nothing, that day should
be assigned three or four points (out of
ten). An exhausting workout would be
a ten and you can gradually get a feel
for workouts from a “four” to a “ten.”
Athletes doing two things, for example,
sports training and general conditioning,
should break each workout into five
point clusters. Although you may
have a sports workout of an easy
nature, tactical preparation or game
planning, an exhausting workout,
and perhaps a Workout of the Day,
would tally up to an eight - or nine-
day in that “Practice” might be easy,
but your conditioning was very hard.
So, for the single sport athlete, an
Olympic Lifter for example, a day’s
breakdown might look like this:
Lonnie Lowery Scale
For
comparison,
nutrition
expert Lonnie Lowery offers the
following scale.
Nutrition: 8 points
Hydration: 2 points
Sleep: 3 points
Rest: 1point
Meditation/Relaxation: 1 point
Emotional Support/Relationships:
2 points
Warm-up: 2 points
Stretching: 1point
Total of 20 points.
continued page ... 5
end.
What about Recovery?
4
January 2005
Nutrition: (4 points)
Made my snacks the night before…
good idea
Sleep: (2 points)
Watched some T.V., up by 6:00
Relationships: (1 point)
Nice talk with an old friend today
Alone Time: (0 points)
Never a moment to myself
Play: (1 point)
Whipped everybody in Stratego
Recovery (8 points)
Workout (9 points)
Another day of nailing big Cleans
after Max Front Squats…sore!
This athlete is in a recovery “deficit.”
Maybe not a big deal, but if you do this
for three days or longer, you might find
those nagging injuries and other issues
showing up. Some argue that it might
take up to two months to fully deal with
overtraining! Maybe a little foresight
early might save some issues later.
For the athlete who has an athletic
practice AND a conditioning practice
(or whatever you may call it), the
workouts tallied together might look
like this:
Nutrition: (2 points)
No time for breakfast today…made
up for it all day
Sleep: (3 points)
Slept in…still a little tired
Relationships: (0 points)
Really tired of my significant other’s
family
Alone Time: (0 points)
Not really
Play: (1 point)
Does watching T.V. count?
Recovery (6 points)
Practice (4 points)
Not the toughest ever, but I was off
my game
Workout (5 points)
CrossFit WOD just about killed me
This athlete is in trouble. A minus
three deficit is obviously going to take
its toll…and soon!
Additional Tips from Dan John
Minerals: Biggest Bang for the Buck I
was sitting with Brian Oldfield, former
World Record Holder in the shot put,
at discus camp and he leaned over and
told me: “None of these guys will listen,
but they should be taking minerals.”
Brian was tired of throwers asking
about the newest fad in nutritions,
mostly this or that magazine’s magic
protein, and gave me the secret to
recovery: minerals. “They are the
biggest bang for the buck.” Magnesium
and Potassium are my two secret
weapons. Mg is the best single nutrient
I can think of, see the Eades’ book,
“Protein Power Lifespan Program” for
more information. K is great, too, as
any low carb dieter will tell you. Those
two supplements are start to a better
recovery.
Splurge I bought a hot tub a couple
of years ago. I have a friend who gets
a monthly sports massage. A visit to a
chiropractor might help some lifters...a
vacation might help others. That is what
splurge means: spend some money or
time providing recovery. I thought of
this while sitting in my hot tub watching
the stars.
Eat your protein. Eat your fats
The greatest mistake of my life was
listening to the high carb nonsense of
the Seventies and Eighties. It is nearly
impossible to recover, not to mention
grow and improve, on a high carb diet.
You need protein
and fat to recover,
grow and improve.
Ignoring
this
advice will be very
detrimental to your
lifting career. Don’t
make my mistake!
The Bulgarians are
reported to get half
their calories from
fat, the Romanians
discovered
that
ultra-high protein
diets
increased
muscle mass (no
surprise) and lifting
ability. I favor the
The Meat, Leaves
and Berries Diet
,
but there are many
other variations.
Hot tubs and cold showers Myth or
not, I don’t know, but the combination
Recovery: The Next Generation !
- Dan John
...continued from page 4
continued page ... 6
What about Recovery?
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5
January 2005
of hot tubs and icy showers is the best combination I have ever read about or practiced for recovery. The Bulgarians explained
the benefits of both in the Seventies and I find the combination wonderful for joint recovery as well as a chance to simply “chill.”
Cold showers have even been touted as a fat loss tool, so maybe you get an extra boost for doing them. I am convinced of the
ability of this combination to help recovery.
Recovery: The Next Generation !
- Dan John
...continued from page 5
end.
What about Recovery?
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6
January 2005
Interview: Carl Valle - USATF II, CSCS
Recovery and Regeneration
- Tyler Hass
How did you first become
exposed
to
recovery
and
regeneration techniques?
My first focus on the recovery process
was from my high school swim coach
Peter Foley. He explained to us, the
team, how to be a total athlete for 24
hours a day, not just 2. A total athlete
was a person that organized their
lifestyle to get a full night’s sleep and
not eat junk food. He understood the
reality of the situation with student
athletes not learning ways to juggle
what I call the four S’s. The four S’s are
Sleep, School, Sport, and Social. If you
distribute the hours among priorities of
needs over wants, you can have it all
in life. This process worked for me and
I transformed myself from a neophyte
to a part of three state championship
swim teams. By just learning how to
construct a foundation of principles and
guidelines on doing the basics and being
consistent, I could expand the individual
basics and become more precise and
more aggressive with modalities later.
Don’t build on quicksand by rushing
to get into supplementation and soft
tissue therapy.
I was influenced in graduate school
by Charlie Francis, one of the
greatest speed coaches in the world.
Speed Trap and Training for Speed
opened my eyes to what methods of
recovery could be enhanced through
a regeneration specialist and through
the pedagogical coaching side. Not
only was recovery part of rest, it was
interlaced and monitored by the coach,
athlete, and staff. Those two books
accelerated my career and abilities by at
least ten years. After learning about the
modalities, I went into the trenches and
did internships and employment with
the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, University
of South Florida, continued to coach
Swimming and Track, and performance
enhancements companies. I then had
to learn the art of coaching by being
creative and motivational to athletes in
the real world.
I would say my last advancement into
the world of recovery and regeneration
was forged by Travis Skaggs. Travis a
brilliant soft tissue therapist in Tampa.
Not did he prove that his methods
of massage and body work were the
top in the world, but he could dive in
to areas of recovery that others were
not only not aware of, but do it in
amazing success. Watching him work
on athletes in the NFL, MLB, NHL,
and Olympic track sprinters made me
understand what my own training did
on the athlete, a period of time that
coaches usually don’t invest into time
wise. I needed to know if my intensities
and volumes were too much for the
athlete or if the postural changes being
invested into were happening from an
objective opinion. Travis never failed to
be fully honest about my training and
helped me refine areas of training that
helped athletes improve their training
dramatically.
What types of benefits do your
athletes see once they start
taking an active role in their
recovery?
Most clients I work with ask if the
recovery methods I suggest or mandate
will make them better athletes and the
answer is most of the time a stern “no”.
Without the hard work on their sport,
recovery would just be pampering or
wasting time. Recovery maximizes one’s
training by making their next workout
better by improving the ready state of
the body. If recovery means improved
performance, I would argue that, if the
athlete was injured or over- trained,
the methods used for rehabilitation
were forced restor the rehabilitation of
a minor injury not fully addressed.
From Travis Skaggs I learned that there
are three phases of training of sports
massage that could improve an athlete’s
performance. The first is rehabilitation,
the second is recovery, and the
third is performance enhancement.
Rehabilitation, or using massage to
treat a common muscular injury speeds
up the repair process by removing
any residual side effects of natural
repair- like adhesions or localized
tightness. When an athlete “pulls a
muscle” this could reflect many faults
in a program and a qualified sports
massage professional can see what I
call “Fractal Errors”, or patterns of the
mistakes that can be scaled at various
levels or time periods. Many mistakes in
training echo, like not resting properly
between sessions, between training
cycles or seasons, or even between
reps. Athletes that constantly have the
same problems need to connect the
dots and find the constant variables that
are part of the losing formula of injury.
After the athlete is training consistently
over a long period without injury or
illness, a coach can employ bodywork,
a general term of therapy that includes
massage. Massage is a broad array of
hands on techniques and is a primary
method of improving recovery of the
athlete’s body to improve the recovery
of muscle tone, skeletal alignment, and
even the elasticity and the power of an
athlete. This can only be done if general
and frequent preventative work is done
to keep athletes from being injured in
the first place. After an athlete is what
I call stable from consistent training and
massage, they can use the soft tissue
therapy to maximize the recovery time
period, be it hours or days, so they can
train with full intensity during the next
workout. This level of therapy is what I
call the recovery enhancement phase, a
period of time between workouts and
a state of refinement of the restoration
of the athlete.
The final level of massage or bodywork
is actual performance enhancement of
athletes through temporary change to
continued page ... 8
What about Recovery?
7
January 2005
their muscles and nervous systems. This
level of therapy is done right before a
game or competition and allows for a
temporary state of tissue enhancement.
The therapist will help lengthen the
propulsive musculature, even out the
texture of the tissue, and passively
activate the nervous system.
Another effective tool is a stretch
rope called the “Fraid Nots” (
http://
www.tomdrum.com/nots.php
). It can
maximize any basic stretch program.
If an athlete focuses during a short
15-20 minute time period every
day they can enhance their existing
program greatly if they are not already
utilizing flexibility training. A basic static
stretching program can work wonders
and the costs are virtually nothing for
a team. I suggest all coaches, athletes,
or trainers pick up a ‘Fraid Not” kit.
Each one is less than 10 dollars and
includes a chart, book, rope, and door
strap. Any efforts to try to save money
by going to the Home Depot will be
fruitless since the rope in the kit is the
softest and most durable rope I have
encountered. Athletes can see changes
in their body from improvements in
skeletal alignment, feel less restricted,
and even see better performances.
Which modalities give the
most bang for the buck? For an
unsponsored athlete on a tight
budget, which methods would
you prioritize?
Let us first start off with a quote,
“Limits are for those who have them,
excuses are for those that need them.”
In life, I try to break the rules by
thinking outside the box! No budget?
Create one. A resourceful person will
try to bargain with a massage school
to get free therapy for their team of
oneself because massage students
need practice hours and why not take
advantage.
The first start of prioritizing methods is
ensuring that you are doing the free or
very economical methods first, such as
sleep and thermotherapy. Sleep should
be worshiped since it costs nothing
and obviously doesn’t require training.
Thermotherapy such as heat or cold
use can greatly enhance the removal
of soreness and sometimes help speed
up muscle repair. Contrast showers
have been theorized to create a beta
response in the nervous system by
leading authors in sports medicine, and
any relaxation of the neuromuscular
system is a plus. The nervous system
must be quieted if one is to maximize
speed and power. Most of these
methods are virtually free because they
are included in health club memberships
or college facilities.
Do you use ice? If so, when is it
best to apply it? What type of
injuries respond best to icing and
are there any situations in which
to avoid cold therapy?
The use of ice is a trend with many
performance centers across the
country. While the use of therapeutic
cold is limited in application, it’s
required by a large population of
athletes. Just because you use it to cool
off your drink doesn’t mean that you
are a master of water in solid form. Ice
has very specific qualities that must be
respected. In fact some people have
cold allergies and should never use cold
baths or similar forms of therapeutic
cold. Ice can be used for the treatment
of many injuries and conditions from
impact and collision sports, but one still
must analyze why it is being used. If one
has tendonitis of the knee and uses ice
to mask pain, therapeutic cold is actually
risking additional damage to the joint
because they are treating a symptom
of an underlying problem. In my
experience cold can be used to control
inflammation and reduce edema by
preventing the swelling of the legs from
intense training or competition. When
large impact forces are encountered,
muscle damage can be so severe it
can cause swelling. Edema swelling can
delay the regeneration of the legs and
retard the improvement of a training
program if it occurs frequently or at a
time when the athlete needs to be a
100%. I feel that ice can basically help
with pain and inflammation.
Interview: Carl Valle - USATF II, CSCS
Recovery and Regeneration
- Tyler Hass
...continued from page 7
end.
What about Recovery?
8
January 2005
and answer mines more potent
strategies quickly: “Where does this
guy come from; he learns so quickly?”
“He’s a gymnast.” “Why are these guys
so much stronger than the others?”
“They powerflifted for years.” How
did she get so lean so quickly? “By
cutting her intake of high glycemic
carbohydrate.” By watching, learning,
asking, and experimenting we have
been able to build a successful program
whose methods were harvested
entirely from elite performers. I want to
ask, someday, “Who are those amazing
athletes?” to which the answer comes,
“the new resters”.
I am waiting for a group, or even a
single elite performer, to lay the fruit
of his training on superior recovery
techniques. If and when an athlete bests
Greg Amundson or Josh Everett and
differs from them largely in his penchant
for cold beers, massage, ice baths, or
the company of pretty woman – we’re
going to tinker, analyze, and evaluate
these predilections with ourselves and
then with other athletes. I’m still waiting.
I am personally hopeful that pampering
and advanced recuperative techniques
will make a substantial difference.
Wouldn’t that be cool?
The reports, this month, don’t give
me reason for encouragement. Stress
control, massage, sleep, contrast
hydrotherapy, hydration, recreation,
stretching, and chiropractic treatment
top the list of promising recuperative
techniques. While none of these are
foreign to us, or even new to sport
training, we’ve no evidence that
they make measurable differences
in accelerating the development of
elite performance. I can appreciate
the potential these modalities offer
to comfort, but I’m not seeing the
increased performance.
In spite of this curmudgeonly view of
recuperative technologies I must add
that our nutritional prescription may
be lending it’s value via accelerated
recovery. We know, through regular
observation, that most fad dieters (low
fat/high carb/low protein, chiefly) never
stand a chance of surviving our protocol
regardless of rest or ramping up. We’ve
further noted that close adherence to
our nutritional protocol, by initially, at
least, weighing and measuring food
to establish accuracy and precision
to the diet confers an advantage that
less diligent compliance cannot match.
The suspicion is that our nutritional
strategy accelerates recovery allowing
for one or two more super productive
workouts each week. Over time this
creates distinct athletic advantage.
It must be pointed out that while
acknowledging that sleep deprivation,
dehydration, and inflexibility are
detriments to performance I’ve seen
no evidence that sleep, water, or
flexibility beyond “normal” levels help
performance. Playing basketball in
handcuffs will limit your game, but I’m
not going to suggest that the removal
of handcuffs is the key to increased
basketball performance for all basketball
players.
If we clump the recuperative
modalities together as “pampering”
what my clinical practice suggests is that
the pampered athletes are generally
performing below the 50-percentile
mark. Those most inclined, for instance,
to yoga, meditation, and chiropractic
tratment are not our fire-breathers. I
don’t think that yoga, meditation, and
chiropractic treatment are injurious to
performance; I think that self-pampering
and longing for comfort are, however,
correlative with low drive and success.
Why is it that those most inclined to
worry and ask about “overtraining” are
about as likely to set a new record in
the Olympic Decathlon as they are to
ever overtrain?
Much of the talk about recuperative
techniques centers on avoiding or
curtailing “overtraining”. It is my
considered opinion that overtraining is
indicated by retrograde performance
and specifically does not include
symptoms mitigated or alleviated by
additional sleep, fluids, massage, or
pampering alone. Overtraining is not
sleep deprivation, soreness, or systemic
or musculo-skeletal fatigue due to
excessive training volume. Overtraining
is a neuroendocrine beat down
associated with excessively intensive
work – more rest won’t necessarily
help, reduced intensity will.
While
insufficient
recuperative
techniques may be a factor in limiting
training adaptation, it most clearly,
obviously, and certainly, pales compared
to the limitations inherent in not
training hard enough. One powerful
and obvious difference between the
CrossFit approach to athletic strength
and conditioning and other protocols
is that we work harder, i.e., at higher
intensity. There may be temptation to
think that a program that advocates
workouts lasting about 30 minutes
offers more rest than those lasting
several hours, but the problem with
three-hour workouts is not that they
leave two and one half hours less
recuperation time, but that they are
not nearly intense enough to optimize
adaptation.
Does my contention that undertraining
is much the greater monster than
overtraining imply that I think
overtraining is rare or impossible? No,
no, no, and hell no, but I do believe
that the biggest factor in overtraining is
not under-recuperation but inadequate
ramp up to higher intensity levels.
Nowhere is this more apparent than
with our Workout of the Day (WOD).
We have counseled in “Getting
Started” and repeatedly elsewhere
that the WOD is designed to exceed
Coach’s Spin
- Greg Glassman
...continued from page 7
continued page ... 10
What about Recovery?
9
January 2005
the capacities of the world’s fittest
humans and that starting CrossFit by
throwing yourself at the WOD 100%
will result in devastating failure. We’ve
recommended that anyone attempting
CrossFit first get through a month of
“going through the motions” before
diving in with full intensity – “establish
consistency before intensity”. Countless
bad-asses from sporting and special
operations communities, long regarded
as bullet proof, have been burned at
the stake of ego and intensity. More or
better rest could not have helped.
Furthermore, though discomforting,
counterproductive, and generally ugly,
overtraining is not the dread monster
to be avoided at all costs as commonly
portrayed. Overtraining is similar in
disruption to a cold and never as
severe as the flu. Show me an athlete
who has never overtrained and I’ll show
you someone far from his potential. It
is actually very, very, easy to make sure
that you never overtrain, but optimal
development comes on the margins
of overtraining. That’s right, if you are
far from overtrained, you are far from
peak performance.
Everything that isn’t exercise is
recuperation, but for me the benefits
of off time come not from enhancing
athletic
performance
but
from
enhancing life. Exercise, fitness, sport,
and even health are only important
in that they serve a broader purpose
– life. We are made more alive by
exercise and fitness but reading, playing,
studying, and loving also make us more
alive and enrich us greatly entirely
independent of our physical well being.
I wholly recommend that you focus
the 23-½ hours daily of non-exercise
not on increased physical performance
but on enriching your soul. If you
should, however, find a path to athletic
greatness that necessitates luxuriating,
alcohol, massage, and perhaps, pretty
woman, send us the particulars and
we’ll get busy resting. In the meantime
we’re going to keep pushing for more
work, done quicker, and getting on with
the business of life in our off time.
end.
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What about Recovery?
...continued from page 9
Coach’s Spin
- Greg Glassman
10