Often people reach out asking me questions like, "Curran I am feeling sore what should I do?", or "Curran how do I know how much I need to lift, or how much time I need to take off, should I ice this, should I rest that?". Recovery is such an underrated topic of discussion, and so many people focus their time, and efforts in the gym pushing their bodies, ONLY to leave the gym without properly cooling down, stretching, and then later in the evening icing and or practicing other forms of recovery.
Personally I have been invested in Muscle Stimulation (By Compex) as one of my forms of recovery. To learn more check out their website here https://www.compexusa.com and I have found then after using the Compex I experience quicker recovery turnaround. To quickly explain what Compex does for recovery, it contracts the muscle group, and clears lactic acid from the muscle group in 6 minutes. There are massage, pre warm up, recovery, active recovery programs which all can be used to stimulate the muscles forcing more blood flow through them allowing them to recover from the micro tears, and training tension more quickly. The Compex can also be used for 0 Load Strength Training. I will go into this more in future videos, and blogs to further explain and discuss their Explosive Strength, Endurance, Resistance modes.
Foam Rolling: Take 10-15 minutes a day and roll out your muscles. If you have a specific muscle group that is tight, and giving you trouble, I always say "when in doubt roll it out" I do not believe there are TOO many specific techniques to be had when foam rolling, but I am sure some people are Professionals. Locate the tight muscle, and use the roller as if it was someone giving you a massage. Roll the muscle back and forth elongating it, and stretching it.
RICE:
Rest: Take some time off. Try to isolate the injury, and work around it. If you have a leg/ankle injury it may be best to try low impact training, or you may have to avoid training in its entirety.
Ice: This is obvious try and ice the body part/injury after training,
Compression: Ace Bandages, and Compression Recovery Pants, Leggings, Socks, Braces. This not only keeps the injury tighter, it has been proven to increase blood flow to the injury, and speed up the recovery.
Elevation: Keep the injury above your heart if possible to help reduce swelling! This may be hard if it is a rib, but do what you can.
The images below are from my Chiropractor, which I have been going to the last 2 weeks in hopes of straightening out some long overdue problems I have had. I have found myself wondering why I have certain pains, and limited mobility in certain areas. My frustration grew without me being able to enhance my mobility, but I came to learn that this was NOT always my fault, as there was a much larger underlying problem in my foundation (skeleton).
I am excited to see how things progress over the next few months while I step up my training intensity in two a days 5 days a week.
