The Key to Success in Athletics

Mark 6:31 -

And He said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while." 

The importance of rest is often over looked when it comes to the athlete. As athletes we are hard wired to drive towards our goals both micro and macro at all costs, but often we are derailed by our own passion and determination. In the world of athletics it is easy to only focus on the “task at hand” goals in order to reach success of our chosen sport(s) and turn a blind eye to what is equally important to our progress.  At first progress comes easy but after a period of time and countless hours spent honing our skills in and out of the gym we begin to experience a “regression”, sliding backwards in-spite of our efforts. 

I am a Masters division Weightlifter who primarily exists inside my garage daily toiling away towards my goals. This is my second chance at being an athlete in my life, my first experience in athletics was as a semi-professional LaCrosse player in New York. I was in my early twenties and to say I wasn’t as focused on the almighty “recovery” aspect of athletics is a gross understatement. The good news is when you are young, your body is a lot more forgiving and adaptable to daily stresses of life that its placed under. My career as a LaCrosse player unfortunately came to an abrupt end with a severe injury, fortunately however it taught me a decade long lesson of the importance of rest and recovery. 

My second chance of having an athletic life is solely due to years of strength & conditioning rehab, regular chiropractic care and other supporting therapies. I am fortunate to have found a sport that I am very passionate about as well as one that promotes my health and recovery. The harder it gets the stronger I get therefore the better off my over all health is. One thing I have come to realize as THE most important factor in having any successful athletic career is the need for rest. Simply put, “rest” is the secret sauce that can make or break you and unfortunately it’s often over looked in our quest for sport dominance. 

When I finally got serious about the sport of weightlifting I was lifting in my garage five to six times a week for and hour or more at a time. I was also doing supplemental exercises either that same day or on what should’ve been my rest days. Even though I was following a decent beginners lifting program and eating fairly clean, I was not seeing progress. As a matter of fact I was actually regressing and I felt my body breaking down to the point I couldn’t walk across a parking lot without stopping multiple times and stretching trying in vain to alleviate my back and leg pain. 

I did not understand that what I was doing was actually grinding my body, mind and spirit into the ground in the name of athletic performance. I mixed and matched different modalities to try and fix my issues, but the more I added the worse I got. Finally I did the smartest thing possible for my training, I found an experienced coach. In our very first conversation he immediately identified that I was way over training my body, which from my background was completely foreign to me. Luckily I learned years before in LaCrosse the golden rule that you ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS listen to your coach. 

I have to admit, when my coach put me on his program and I only had four days per week with a lot of stretching and recovery work, I was more than skeptical. How will this work I wondered, I had found weightlifting through CrossFit and even though the WOD’s were relatively short in duration, we trained all the time. The more I talked to my coach the more he explained the scientific reasons for a shorter work cycle and more rest which will produce better stronger and longer lasting results.

So to all of those who are new to this sport or have been “self-coaching” for any length of time and are not seeing progress like you had hoped to, I strongly suggest you take a long hard look at your “rest and recovery” practices. I’m going to outline some general practices that I personally do. I have found great benefit from these in both my athletic life as well as my personal life, and I believe if you put these to practice you will also see the benefits.  

These practices are easily broken up into three categories and I will discuss them in the order of importance. Now, understand that as you read them you may consider them fairly “common sense”, and they are. It’s just that we for some reason as humans, we feel the need to make things more difficult or we don’t believe something that seems easy will actually work. So first I want to talk about the hands down most important thing you can do to help yourself be a better athlete and person...SLEEP. 

Sleep is when everything good happens to you, and I’m talking about much more than a warm bed and sweet dreams. We need to make it a priority to get a minimum 7-10 hours of sleep per day to get all the benefits that sleep has to offer. While you sleep your body is hard at work handling your “recovery” so you are prepared for the next day. From your cells on up to your bones and muscle tissue, you are repairing and rebuilding yourself bigger and stronger. Did you know that while you sleep you are losing body fat, well you are! Your body is using your stored energy and glycogen reserves to fuel the recovery process, therefore you are burning fat to make these things happen. Also a benefit of sleep is that it is a form of intermittent fasting. Let me  briefly explain what this is and why its beneficial. 

Intermittent fasting is simply a period of time where you are not eating (unless you sleep walk to the fridge and pig out, you fast while you sleep). When we wake up our hormone cortisol is pretty high (it naturally elevates throughout the night) and it peaks in the morning when you wake up. Cortisol is a catabolic hormone, which means it breaks things down in the body for a different use. So, it breaks down your glycogen to get glucose (responsible for your bodies energy) and it breaks down your fat from fat cells. All this happens in-order to repair your body from the damage of daily life, and the harder you work out the more repair your body needs to do. So in short, you wake up every day as a fat burning furnace, stronger than you were the day before. The simplest equation I can give you is this: the more sleep you get, the healthier and stronger you will be. 

The next best method of recovery second only to the almighty sleep is Stretching. Any time you stretch your muscles before, during or after a work out you are repairing damaged tissue. Take the time to warm up and stretch out before a work out and you prevent issues like pulled or torn muscles or extreme tightness during certain exercises. There are all different types of stretching you can do yourself;  from yoga to myo-fascial release and  foam rolling to different types of massages and therapies. I’m not going to spend a lot of time describing each one, but just know that something is better than nothing. You need to stretch and lengthen your muscle tissue for you to be at peak performance, period. I will list a few of the best methods I have found that works great and leave it to you to investigate to see if it’s a good fit for you. 

I personally use myo-fascial release techniques that I got from Kelly Starrett (google or search youtube for: MWOD), as well as I perform certain yoga moves to help supplement my daily mobility. I also get a sports massage(a type of deep tissue massage) by a certified and licensed massage therapist...this is a big difference than having a friend or loved one give you a quick half-assed back rub. And lastly, I also get a therapy called the “Graston Technique” done whenever I have an issue that the other methods just wont release or fix, such as pain and tighness in my IT band(Iliotibial Tract). The iliotibial tract or iliotibial band (a.k.a. IT Band) is a longitudinal fibrous reinforcement of the fascia lata. The action of the ITB and its associated muscles is to flex, abduct, and medially rotate the hip. In addition, the ITB contributes to lateral knee stabilization.

The “Graston Technique”. This is a therapy usually performed by a chiropractor, but can be administered by  a certified therapist, that focuses on the removal and repair of scar tissue and adhesions on your muscle surface. This technique was developed by trainers and athletes for the recovery of high level athletes, and you will immediately see the benefits from your very first session. not only does this get rid of scar tissue and adhesions but it also restores muscle mobility. Anytime you work out, you are generating tons of “micro-tears” on your muscle tissue. Our bodies send collagen to repair these tears, but collagen is a lot like adhesive tape...it repairs but you lose mobility as well. This therapy is a great way to stay in top condition while training hard and is one of THE most used therapies (second to Chiropractic's) with professional athletes helping them maintain at a high level for the longest duration possible. 

               And lastly, to complete my rest and recovery regimen I utilize a few at home therapies such as: hot/cold showers; Epsom Salt baths and ice packs. The hot/cold shower is a good “at home” therapy you can do to reduce inflammation and muscle soreness. Simply take a shower as hot as you can stand it focusing the water on the affected area, then slowly turn the water to the coldest you can stand it and repeat for a few “hot/cold” revolutions. You will find that this greatly increases your circulation and helps to flush out toxins as well. Epsom Salt baths are great for recovery and relaxation and the replace much needed minerals back into your body after you have used them up in your high intensity work out. The trick with this is simple, dont use too hot of water, you want it warm but not to the point of you sweating. Think about it, you want to ABSORB the minerals not sweat the ones you have out. The gerneral rule of using ice packs is fairly simple. Use it after a work out or at night before bed for ten to fifteen minutes at a ime(you can use ice up to 4-5 times per day depending on the condition or inflammation). A cheap way to make a reusable ice pack is pour 1/3 rubbing alchol into a freezer bag and 2/3 water. this makes for a cold gel-like ice pack that wont completely freeze. 

Thats it folks, I hope you found this helpful and beneficial. I apologize that this article is so long, but in reality it only skimmes the surface of the importance of “rest and recovery” to the athlete/person. So go forth and be strong, but don’t forget to get sufficient rest in order to be the best athlete you can be.