Active recovery - What it is, and how it can be used?

Welcome one and all to part 4 of The Recovery Series on the Macro Man Fitness Blog.

In the past few weeks we have covered compression clothing, ice baths, and most recently massage.

In this article I’m going to talk a little bit about active recovery, what it is, and how it can be used to help aid recovery.

Active recovery is a fairly simple concept – it is enabling your body to recover from hard exercise by doing some mild exercise. One of the most common for this is swimming, but also cycling and walking.

The basic idea is that you are doing some form of exercise that allows you to raise your heart rate, and increase blood flow. So just going for a very slow and lethargic walk won’t really cut it.

By increasing heart rate and blood flow it can help to flush away waste products from the muscles such as blood lactate¹.

A large amount of the research uses cycling as the selected exercise choice, and recommends working between 30% of your lactate threshold² or 30-40% VO2 Max^3,4,5. But for the regular trainer, this means absolutely nothing and can be a bit of a pain to find out. So – how else can we judge how hard to work?

Without being research driven, as it is completely different from person to person, it is recommended at a level where you are breathing heavier than normal but would still be able to hold a conversation. This shows an increased breathing rate, and therefore blood flow as you begin to breathe faster to supply greater oxygen for the increased pulse rate.

So if you decided to go out and cycle to recover, it would be a cruising speed, not just turning the pedals over to stop you from falling, but also not fast enough to be physically challenging on your muscles or aerobic system.

If you went out for a walk, it would be somewhere between the slow stroll home after leg day at the gym, but not as fast as the hypnotic hip movement of speed walkers at the Olympic Games. A walk with a hyperactive dog would probably be about the right level.

Now earlier on I mentioned swimming, and I haven’t really got back to it yet.

Next week we’ll talk about …

Just kidding. Swimming can be great when used as a recovery tool, because it is a form of exercise that can allow you to either be partially or fully submerged in water, so using either the lower body or whole body to propel yourself, it raises heart rate, and it is non-loaded.

What do I mean by this? If you’ve ever swum you’ll know the feeling of weightlessness in the pool. This is because the water takes the weight of your body, so there is no pressure going through your joints in activities such as aqua jogging, unlike if you were road jogging where your knees can take a beating.

I am not saying that you’re not working when swimming, because if you were to stop moving completely you’d drown. So don’t do that. Not wise. But swimming is definitely a good way to recover between high intensity exercise bouts⁶.

So there you have it, some info on active recovery. So now your options include, wearing leggings, jumping in some cold water, getting a massage, using a foam roller, or doing some more exercise to help you recover.

Next week is the grand finale of this series, and it will be looking at what I believe to be the two biggest factors in getting adequate recovery – sleep and nutrition.

So head back to the Macro Man Blog regularly, see what the other awesome authors are writing about, and check out the latest installment from yours truly. And of course – share it around. You can also subscribe as a FREE premium subscriber and get our blog posts delivered straight to your email address!

Thanks for reading,

Rob Nitman. BSc. ASCC.

References:

1.     Martin, N.A. et al (1998). The Comparative Effects of Sports Massage, Active Recovery, and Rest in Promoting Blood Lactate Clearance After Supramaximal Leg Exercise. Journal of Athletic Training, 33(1).

2.     Spencer, M. et al (2006). Metabolism and Performance in Repeated Cycle Sprints: Active versus Passive Recovery. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 38(8).

3.     Fairchild, T.J. et al (2003). Glyocgen Synthesis in Muscle Fibers During Active Recovery From Intense Exericse. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 35(4).

4.     Gupta, S. et al (1996). Comparative Study of Lactate Removal in Short Term Massage of Extremities, Active Recovery and a Passive Recovery Period After Supramaximal Exercise Sessions. International Journal of Sports Medicine, 17(2).

5.     Bond, V. et al (1991). Effects of active and passive recovery on lactate removal and subsequent isokinetic muscle function. The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 31(3).

6.     Lum, D., Landers, G. & Peeling, P. (2010). Effects of a Recovery Swim on Subsequent Running Performance. International Journal of Sports Medicine, 31(1).