<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve paid any attention to our website, writing or social media you might notice that we quite like evidence-based practice. If you\u2019re doing things that aren\u2019t supported by science or, heaven forbid, have been shown to be useless, there\u2019s a good possibility you\u2019re wasting your time.<\/p>\n
Recovery techniques are full<\/strong> of snake oil and fancy techniques that are as much use as corduroy toilet roll. We\u2019re going to break down the fact and the nonsense today so you can avoid spending all your cash on useless recovery tech.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve said it a thousand times and you\u2019re probably about as bored hearing it as we are saying it: the basics need to come first. You don\u2019t need to try compression gear if your diet and sleep patterns are crap. Start with the diet, hydration, sleep and basic supplementation<\/a> before you start using cutting-edge tech for your cookie-dough lifestyle.<\/p>\n If recovery is your goal, you need to be treating these lifestyle choices as fuel and maintenance for your body. Taking them seriously is the first step on the road to premium recovery. Using fancy technology when you only sleep 4 hours a night is redundant.<\/p>\n Compression gear looks fancy (who doesn\u2019t love an excuse to wear spandex?) and splits into two distinct camps: compression clothing and \u201cvasopneumatic devices\u201d.<\/p>\n The former is your average 2XU or other generic brand of tights that use graduated compression to try and improve blood flow and venous return to improve recovery. Sadly, the research doesn\u2019t seem to agree: soreness in consecutive days was reduced but lactate clearance was practically irrelevant (1<\/a>) and performance markers are unaffected (2<\/a>).<\/p>\n Serious compression devices like NormaTec recovery sleeves provide a much more intense compression, almost akin to sports massage or foam rolling \u2013 it makes sense that results might be more noticeable here.<\/p>\n While there is some early research on these devices, the literature is scant and suggests a mix of beneficial and detrimental effects depending on how you use it (3<\/a>). This means it might help but it might also cause further injury\/fatigue if used ineffectively, so we\u2019re waiting for further investigation before taking a defined stance.<\/p>\n These two methods are aimed at improving interstitial drainage: the movement of metabolites and waste products from the muscles due to improved blood flow. The problem is that the literature, once again, pulls this theory\u2019s pants down: recovery doesn\u2019t seem to improve, the only real effect is reducing tightness in the muscles (4<\/a>, 5<\/a>)<\/p>\n Cupping is an extreme version of taping, involving using a vacuum to cause serious vasodilation in specific areas. Research on cupping is rare and tends to focus on chronic pain, with many patients reporting improved wellbeing but effects are considered to be \u201cminimal[ly] clinically relevant\u201d (6<\/a>).<\/p>\n Despite looking like an awful method of torture, acupuncture and dry-needling have become popular among sports therapists and reluctant athletes.<\/p>\n Research actually shows that this can increase blood flow to the area (the bit getting stabbed) in the short-term (7<\/a>) but it isn\u2019t obvious that this will have a direct relation on session-to-session recovery. 5-10 minutes of improved blood flow isn\u2019t indicative of long-term recovery gains.<\/p>\n We\u2019re not sold on acupuncture and it seems to be one of the most disquieting recovery tech \u2013 research already indicates that it has huge boosts in treatment anxiety (7<\/a>) and we\u2019re not inclined to believe it necessitates this for such small benefits.<\/p>\n This is a controversial one because jumping into ice baths looks hardcore and Rocky did it so it must<\/strong> work. We\u2019re going to break this down real quick so that we don\u2019t get bogged down in the huge amount of misinformation and speculation out there.<\/p>\n Cold\/CRYO Therapy: <\/strong>The research on cold and cryotherapy is more of a problem than a help \u2013 research is all over the place and the mixing of \u201cexperience-based\u201d and \u201cperformance-based\u201d studies has made this worse.<\/p>\n Basically, nobody knows yet. It\u2019s theoretically possible that it can reduce signalling for initial exercise-based stress (8<\/a>, 9<\/a>), but it is too early to say for sure. Just don\u2019t do anything stupid.<\/p>\n Warm Therapy: <\/strong>It\u2019s not as effective as cryotherapy(9<\/a>), but it feels pretty great at the time. Reduce symptoms using heat therapy if you\u2019re really feeling the pain, but don\u2019t expect any real recovery benefits.<\/p>\n Contrast Therapy:<\/strong> Huge amounts of anecdotal evidence suggesting it helps reduce soreness (absolutely true), but almost no consistent signs of improving performance in the short-term (10<\/a>).<\/p>\n Ozone therapy is clinically exciting but at the very cutting-edge of recovery techniques. While it has found some popularity in the NFL where performance and recovery technologies pull astronomical budgets.<\/p>\n Initial research suggests that an intricate therapy plan can reduce overall oxidative stress and improve immunity\/recovery (11<\/a>). This is a very niche area of recovery technology but seems promising \u2013 the research is a few years away but has promising theoretical applications in animal and<\/strong> human models.<\/p>\n If you want to take your training seriously then the altitude chamber is about as hardcore as it gets. This chamber is a great way of controlling pressure, which has been shown to adjust red blood cell count and a variety of other markers. The kicker is that you have to sleep in this weird tube-looking thing for serious benefits.<\/p>\n For all this effort, what results can you expect? Sadly, you\u2019re not going to reduce the experience of DOMS<\/a> (12<\/a>) but this seems to be unimportant when you can use other methods for this. Animal models suggest, however, that altitude chamber use can be a serious influencing factor on the repair and maintenance of nervous system tissues (13<\/a>).<\/p>\n We\u2019re still sceptical about the application of altitude chambers but they\u2019ve seen huge popularity with the tour de France die-hards and other world-level athletes. There\u2019s some theoretical validity to their use but nobody is interested in theoretical recovery gains; if you\u2019ve got thousands of dollars lying around and want somewhere funky to sleep, it might be a recovery-enhancing way of avoiding your significant other.<\/p>\n You\u2019d be forgiven for thinking we\u2019re sceptical of a lot of these methods \u2013 probably because it\u2019s true. The fact is that any \u201ccutting edge\u201d method is going to lack a solid foundation of evidence or it wouldn\u2019t be cutting edge: it\u2019d be established.<\/p>\n US Gymnastics coach Christopher Sommer points out that if, as a serious coach or athlete, you\u2019re following the evidence you\u2019re already behind the curve. Our perspective is simple: if you know what you\u2019re doing and you have the resources, try everything that isn\u2019t contradicted by the evidence.<\/p>\n If you want to try cold therapy and you don\u2019t mind the shrivel-inducing cold, you do that. If you want to try a hypo\/hyperbaric chamber and ozone masks and compression gear, go for it. These recovery methods are only a problem for the time and resources required and, as long as you\u2019re nailing the basics, it\u2019s really a matter of finding what works in a practical\/functional setting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you’ve paid any attention to our website, writing or social media you might notice that we quite like evidence-based practice. If you’re doing things that aren’t supported by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":14455,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1975],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fitnesstraining"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/uk\/the-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/uk\/the-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/uk\/the-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/uk\/the-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/uk\/the-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14446"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/uk\/the-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24459,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/uk\/the-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14446\/revisions\/24459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/uk\/the-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/uk\/the-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/uk\/the-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/uk\/the-core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Getting the Basics out of the Way<\/h2>\n
Compression Gear<\/h2>\n
Taping and Cupping<\/h2>\n
Acupuncture and Dry Needling<\/h2>\n
Cold\/Contrast Therapy<\/h2>\n
Ozone<\/h2>\n
Altitude Chamber (Hypo\/Hyperbaric Chambers)<\/h2>\n
Closing Remarks<\/h2>\n