Episode #9 How To Recover Like A Beast

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Question from a listener: My ankles and feet swell up after a hard training session/race and I get hip and low back pain. What can I do to recover better before the next workout?

Injury/Exercise recovery are similar and also a bit different.

Depends on the type of injury. Some injuries are best treated with rest and therapy (along with a whole host of other things that I am going to talk about a little later – that will dramatically speed up the healing process).

Other injuries- ones that you can train with- are manageable with a slightly more focused general endurance/high intensity training recovery protocol.

General items and practices that can speed up recovery from exercise/chronic/minor injury:

• Ice baths, Cold rivers/unheated pools/lakes/the ocean (if you’re not in Florida or Hawaii…) Cold showers, Whole Body Cryotherapy- stimulate a cascade of anti inflammatory and healing hormonal responses within the body. Regular practice is best.
• Beet Root Juice- Organic beets or a product like BeetLite – natural anti inflammatory- with the added benefit of nourishing the endothelial tissues (lining tissues of the body- particularly in the cardiovascular system), improved oxygen efficiency in exercise, improved metabolism, use over time boosts both mitochondrial density as well as mitochondrial efficiency. Improves endurance and power. Speeds recovery.
• Rebalance the nervous system- Stress produces cortisol- begets inflammation…Constant endurance exercise as well as life’s stresses keep the body in Sympathetic dominant mode (fight or flight)- and literally turns off your body’s healing capacity. In order to heal and recover quickly- you MUST have practices that rebalance the nervous system- examples include:
  • Meditation
  • Restorative Yoga
  • Sleep
  • Tai Chi or Chi Gong
  • Calming herbs and or food concentrates
  • Bodywork like Massage, Reiki or Structural Integration
  • Tone therapy
• Healing foods like bone broths, tendon broths and the like that contain the raw materials your body needs to heal itself.
• Compression – in the lower extremities, compression pants, socks, or calf sleeves will help keep fluids moving and keep them from accumulating. Great for recovery as well as keeping swelling down.
• Focused Strength and Conditioning/ Functional Movement Re Training/ Neuromuscular Repatterning training.

Back to the question though-

• What to do about the edema? – Edema in the lower extremities- especially when it is worse in the evenings is a sign that your heart/kidneys and blood vessels aren’t working as well as they should be. Fluid regulation is done by the kidneys and heart/blood vessels – when they are functioning properly keep the fluids moving through the body without having them get stalled in the extremities.
• Fluids get stalled in the extremities when the blood vessels are a) more porous then they should be and 2) when the blood fluid content is too high (kidney function) and sometimes 3) when the heart is not keeping things moving at a high enough speed.
• Back and hip pain- what can help?
• Traction like an inversion table can provide temporary relief
• Structural Integration can often provide lasting change for this situation
• Yoga can often help rebalance the over tensioned muscles
• Foundation training
• Specialized weight training/movement training/neuromuscular repatterning exercises (like Egoscue, Alexander method, Feldenkreis, and Structural Performance methods)
• If the back pain is severe (in this case it is in the low back/hip) it may be related to lumbar disc compression. MRI and possibly Spinal Decompression if the other methods are unsuccessful)
• Most often this type of pain is associated with structural imbalance, trauma, and, compensatory movement patterns- over a period of time- Long term success will require lifestyle changes like those listed above.