Recovery Please

RE: Recovery Please

orca1946 — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:19:41 GMT

Try to not use the same muscle groups each day. Do different workouts for random days to help.

RE: Recovery Please

Big AL — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 06:25:32 GMT

Fortress, Here are a few nits that I use outside of the pool to improve my recovery: 1) Take a multivitamin just to make sure you are covered. 2) Omega-3 gel tab, supposed to improve healing (?), seems to work ok. 3) Feed the pain. More pain gets bigger meals :wine:, no pain gets a snack. 4) Don't sleep on the side that hurts. The side you sleep on tends to get less circulation, so keep the hurting side up when laying down. 5) Drink lots of water. 6) Adjust lifting routine to accomodate pool training. Lift before swimming if you are planning your swim workout to be recovery. If the day for weight training comes and you are still exhausted from the days before, go ahead and lift, but drop the intensity a notch. Save the heavy lifting for another day.

RE: Recovery Please

The Fortress — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 03:27:52 GMT

RE: Recovery Please

Former Member — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:45:04 GMT

Good idea, Al. I think I will try that with breaststroke.

RE: Recovery Please

Big AL — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:19:06 GMT

When it comes to recovery, the best thing is to use what strength and energy you have wisely and don't break yourself down beyond a nights repair, especially if you like training hard everyday. Seems simple enough, but what if you are a butterflyer and want to train for the 100 or 200? Are you going to train 500, 1000, 2000 yards a day at 40+? Maybe Dennis Baker could handle it, but many of us would be destroyed for days or weeks. Beginning a butterfly regimin, I budget my workout for about 500 yards a day to start (and not every day). I could swim 10 x 50, or 5 x 100, or whatever fits into my coaches workout. Swimming it all together is ok for the first few, but then the pain, fatigue, dropping the legs, and poor technique result in much of it being wasted effort and reinforcing poor habits. The best results for the least amount of pain (and I don't mean the tired kind of pain) is to salt that 500 yards over the entire workout. The first 25 of 100 fly in a race is not that difficult, so why not focus on the back half or last 25? If the coach gives you a 10 X 100 freestyle set, do the last 25 fly.... take an extra 5 seconds from the normal send off if you like. Maybe go the last 50 if you are ready for it. Your heartrate is already up and you should have enough energy to maintain good butterfly technique.... for sure more than if you did the first 75 fly and are now struggling for the finish.:dedhorse: I guarantee you will not be afraid of that last lap anymore... in fact you will look forward to your new found confidence in completing it faster and better than before.

RE: Recovery Please

Former Member — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:27:16 GMT

Love the Deep Tissue Massage (find one that specializes in sports) -- and Bi-Weekly Chiro apts. Worked like a dog all week, 31+ hours of exercising and pool time and "spinned" on top of that, took it easy on Saturday (only 1 1/2 hours of pool time) then posted three PR's on Sunday's meet. Tapering? What tapering?? Wait - is it time to eat?

RE: Recovery Please

Former Member — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:08:12 GMT

Anyone try traumeel? Added bonus: if it doesn't work for you, you can give it to your dog, cat, or horse. From www.1800petmeds.com/Traumeel Tablets-prod10795.html: How this product should be used: The usual dose of Traumeel Tablets for newborn puppies is ½ tablet 3 times a day, for weaned puppies 1 tablet 3 times a day and for adult dogs 1-3 tablets 3 times a day. The usual dose for adult cats is 1 tablet 3 times a day. The usual dose for foals is 5 tablets 3 times a day and for adult horses 6 tablets 3 times a day. Tablets can be mixed with a little water without losing their effectiveness. It is preferable to administer tablets between meals. For ease of administration tablets may also be mixed with a little honey and spread on the part of the animal where it tends to lick itself. For instance, on a cat's front extremities. Another possibility is to insert tablets into a small amount of food, with horses into a piece of dry bread, carrot or apple and with cats or dogs into a piece of cheese or meat.

RE: Recovery Please

Former Member — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 08:19:16 GMT

Celabrex.

RE: Recovery Please

The Fortress — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 03:17:14 GMT

I did, at my Chiro's recommendation, when I fractured a rib, last March. I really don't know if it helped, assisted in helping (Rub A535 + Tylenol 3) or had no effect at all. I used both the ointment and tablets. At some points I was even ready to swallow the ointment if it would have helped at all. My ART doc gave me a sample of the tablets to try. I feel better today, but I don't know if it's due to the traumeel or the fact that I didn't swim over the weekend. Probably the latter.

RE: Recovery Please

Former Member — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:26:55 GMT

Anyone try traumeel? I did, at my Chiro's recommendation, when I fractured a rib, last March. I really don't know if it helped, assisted in helping (Rub A535 + Tylenol 3) or had no effect at all. I used both the ointment and tablets. At some points I was even ready to swallow the ointment if it would have helped at all.

RE: Recovery Please

Former Member — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:28:07 GMT

Fort I think cycling would be a great change for you. You could buy one of theses bikes and never leave the pool. Watch the video you have to go to their home page to see the video. translate.google.com/translate

RE: Recovery Please

Former Member — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:51:17 GMT

one anecdotal story: I took a break sunday from my usual weightlifting routine, and rested instead. Monday at swim practice I zipped through 16x100 on 1:30 with no real difficulty. Tuesday I did my usual weightlifting, and today at swim practice I felt quite a bit more sluggish than monday. Maybe a day of rest made the difference between monday and wednesday for me.

RE: Recovery Please

Former Member — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:56:20 GMT

extract of the herb known as "Devil's Claw" works very well My girlfriend took that. Look what happened to her.

RE: Recovery Please

Former Member — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:37:09 GMT

What about L-Glutamine? Has anyone tried that? You did not hear this from me and if anyone asks if I said it, I will deny it.... but, extract of the herb known as "Devil's Claw" works very well at reducing post-hard workout soreness. It works better than, say Aleve and the like. en.wikipedia.org/.../Harpagophytum_procumbens The local grocey store sells a drink in the health foods section called "Function Shock Sports" that contains this and works very well. http://www.functiondrinks.com/ OK, since you are a lawyer, I have to note that I am not a medical professional, nor do I play one on TV. Further, the above does not constitute an endorsement of the use of herbal products or any particular product. It is merely an anecdotal discription of an non-scientific, non-controlled personal experience and your mileage may vary. The user neither claims that the above supplement is fit for either its stated purpose or any other purpose so, if you decide, say, to use it for enemas, hey - that's your kink not mine. Not all potential side effects are known. If your breasts fall off or you suddenly decide to sing the entire score of "Cats" at work, I had nothing to do with it. Any and all use of herbal supplements should be undertaken only under the supervision of a trained medical professional or witch doctor or that strange girl who you used to know in high school who wanted you to call her "Moonflower" when, in fact, her name was really "Phyllis Glumpfenmeyer", although she always had the best pot. And, as always, do not remove mattress tags under penalty of law and a visit from the matress police. -LBJ

RE: Recovery Please

Former Member — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:41:01 GMT

What can we do to recover faster? -Take a really, really cold shower directly after practice (I guess the best thing to do is to bring a tub of ice cold water, but in lack of such a cold shower is OK) I guess you don't live anywhere near the US/Canada border, speaking as you, so lackadaisically, about "cold" water. The ONLY thing cold water is good for, is to speed up the process of cooling beer.:drink:

RE: Recovery Please

Former Member — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:29:41 GMT

:lmao: I see it stimulates appetites, LBJ. Just great, I already walk around starving all the time. If I just do a few wee sprints and then recover, how am I supposed to: have sufficient endorphins, de-stress and burn calories? Oh, I did stretch a lot today. I haven't noticed any appetite increase at all, but after a 2 hour straight swim I'd eat a brick if it had mayo on it, so that's not a good yardstick. Have you tried massage? That's another A+ method of recovery. -LBJ

RE: Recovery Please

Donna — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:29:55 GMT

You know me I don't take a day off unless I am forced to. Mostly because if I don't swim in the morning my back is locked up all day long. But there are days I swim EASIER to recover. I also find a protien shake before and after practice is very helpful (within 40 minutes of workout). Usually even during my taper I hurt somewhat up until about 2 days before the big meet. Coach and I have figured out for most of my general meets a 3 day taper is plenty. I have done this enough now to not worry if I hurt the day before the meet, it too will go away!

RE: Recovery Please

poolraat — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:24:55 GMT

I take 1 day off each week, usually Sunday when the pool is closed, and I don't do any other type of training on those days either (unless a hike in the mountains in the summer counts as a workout). If I'm really tired, I may also take a day in the middle of the week where I take it easy and do mainly drills and short, easy intervals. My routine is generally to swim 6 days a week with a double on 1 or 2 of those days and a 1-1/2 hour session of yoga at least once a week. In the last few weeks I've added spinning on 2 days a week and eliminated the double swim workouts. I'm also finding that I can't do a swim workout that's heavy on kicking or sprinting on the spin days. I'm going to follow the swim-spin-yoga routine until I begin my taper for nationals, then I will drop the spinning.

RE: Recovery Please

aquageek — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:49:51 GMT

Isn't it in powder form? I'm skeptical about the efficacy of supplements too. I took an amino complex supplement. It said 5-10 pills a day, I could only choke down 3 of them, they were huge. Green tea supplements - that's my latest kick. No idea if they do anything. If I had to strip away all the voodoo pills I take, I'd never part with my daily multi vite and flax seed and fish oil.

RE: Recovery Please

Former Member — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:45:39 GMT

I've been subscribing lately to the chocolate milk as a recovery drink theory and so far I think the theory has merit. When I have chocolate milk after practice or a dryland workout, I just don't seem to be as tired the next day.

RE: Recovery Please

Former Member — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:39:14 GMT

Green tea supplements - that's my latest kick. No idea if they do anything. Pinky out, please! NB Green Tea is excellent for cleaning your system and getting over colds and the like.

RE: Recovery Please

The Fortress — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:24:13 GMT

Yes, I have tried that, and, to be honest, don't think I got a lot out of it. Plus, the quantity of amino supplements required is overwhelming, lots of large pills daily. As with That Guy, even a small run the day before a competition, is ruinous to my swimming, something I have learned the hard way. I have come to the conclusion that rest is the only real recovery. I've tried to trick myself into doing something light or different and that never seems to work well for me. Isn't it in powder form? I'm skeptical about the efficacy of supplements too. I don't run a week before a meet. But I think I'm still stuck in the something light or different rut during regular training. Although I will say that cross training seems to agree with me more than swimming more.

RE: Recovery Please

aquageek — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:14:57 GMT

What about L-Glutamine? Has anyone tried that? Yes, I have tried that, and, to be honest, don't think I got a lot out of it. Plus, the quantity of amino supplements required is overwhelming, lots of large pills daily. As with That Guy, even a small run the day before a competition, is ruinous to my swimming, something I have learned the hard way. I have come to the conclusion that rest is the only real recovery. I've tried to trick myself into doing something light or different and that never seems to work well for me.

RE: Recovery Please

art_z — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:48:42 GMT

So how much and what recovery do we need? Reg swimming you can practically swim every day because it is much less impact on your muscles than weightlifting. I used to be able to do this when I was younger. Log 6k+ workouts 5 days a week. Not anymore. If i do 6 to 7K in a workout, I take the next day off, or do a 2.5k swim at max. Around age 40 (41 now) is when I really started to notice the increased recovery time.

RE: Recovery Please

The Fortress — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:47:27 GMT

I haven't noticed any appetite increase at all, but after a 2 hour straight swim I'd eat a brick if it had mayo on it, so that's not a good yardstick. Have you tried massage? That's another A+ method of recovery. -LBJ After a couple hours at the gym/pool, that's how I feel too. I did book a massage when I was so sore over the weekend. Definitely helped!! I'm not quite desperate enough to try the ice bath yet. Anyone try traumeel?