Exercising has become a million-dollar business, dominated by technology, supplements and equipment. What is really needed for physical recovery? Recovery from exercise plays an equally important role as the performance itself because neglecting recovery is directly related to progress.
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Running and training are full of myths. Some of them still live tenaciously, even though they could have been proven wrong by science a long time ago. There are many running myths that can affect people’s training and beliefs about how they should train. Some of the myths can also affect how we see training in general. Here is just a small fraction of common beliefs.
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Let’s be honest, goal-oriented training and running can sometimes be really hard, also mentally. Months of training for a marathon, for example, is not always only a joy. There are bad days, the weather is bad for many days in a row, the darkness of winter tires the mind and the thought of running feels hard. It’s easy to burn out, but it can also be avoided.
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Balanced training takes rest into account. There is active and passive recovery, each with its own good points. Passive rest is easier for most and active rest often turns too hard and exhausting.
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Sometimes we miss several training sessions in a row. The longer the break is, the more adjustment needs to be done. So, how to get back in training, if you miss several days of running. And why you missed those running sessions?
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Many professional athletes go to altitude training camps, some like Kenyans living high altitude all the time. There is a lot of discussions about whether you should live and train at altitude or just live. We will look, what the basic information you should know about altitude training.
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Should you run every day or not? Some people like to run every day, while others prefer a rest day. Which one is more beneficial and are they something you should consider? There are many factors that should be considered.
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Marathons are fun, right? We all know that after marathon muscles are quite sore for a couple of days. But, there are happening a lot more than muscles fatigue and soreness. Following things might sound crazy and scary, especially if you are a beginner or just planning to run a marathon. Remember, everything is temporary and overall feelings during the marathon and after crossing the finish line beats everything else.
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I have a great opportunity to get an interview with Juha Hautakorpi, sports massage therapist. Who also do endurance sports. He provided a lot of information about massage therapy and when it’s good for us and what to take into account when timing the visit.
I’m Juha Hautakorpi sports masseuse and VoiceWell therapist.
I graduated as a masseur in 2015 and a year later I attended a sports masseur course. I graduated as a Voicewell therapist in 2019.
Immediately after graduating from massage school, I started my own business, since that this is being my full-time job. Formerly, I’m a professional electrician, but that jobs were never my own thing. It was very difficult for the electricians to jump on the school bench. But the decision was right and I have not regretted it for a day!
Well-being, as well as exercise, have always been of interest and you could easily access this world through massage. The possibilities for further education are also completely limitless.
The slightly outdated idea is that sports massages are always better and harder than traditional classical massages. However, they do not differ in their massage technique in any way.
The professionalism of a sports masseur comes more through the right technique, strengths and various mobilizations that are adapted to the client’s possible sport.
For example, completely different treatment must be performed if the client has a marathon the next day or if he has run it the day before.
The greatest significance of massage is the improved recovery from exercise. Which in itself reduces the risk of injury and it also has a great effect on the psyche and general endurance. With a massage, you can also get rid of small jams quickly before they become big problems.
In massage, the frequency of visits is influenced by many things. It is difficult to say any rule suitable for everyone. In general, I recommend to everyone that you should visit for a massage as needed, but regularly! The more and harder you training, the more important body care becomes.
Training directly after a massage is rarely recommended. Unless the massage is done specifically as a pre-exercise.
Massage can be considered a kind of exercise for the muscles and nervous system, which, like training, requires its own recovery time. The stronger and deeper the treatment, the longer it is recommended to take a break from training.
In general, the next day training is okay, as long as you remember to do a good warm-up. Ideally, massages should be scheduled for a week that does not have maximum performance and is generally a lighter week. So that there are no technically demanding performances on the same or the next day. Because massage can momentarily interfere with muscle nerve.
After the massage, it is good to keep the small movement and a light walk is an excellent option. On the same day, it is also good to do light static as well as dynamic stretches at least an area that has been treated. Stretching after a massage allows the muscle to be better stretched to its own maximum muscle length, but no deep stretching should be done on the same day as it is often too hard a strain on the nerve in the muscle.
It’s a slightly old idea that sports massage is always more intense and it should hurt. There may be unpleasant moments during a massage, but pain alone is not the right measure of successful treatment. Communication between the client and the masseur is vital. However, pain is a personal thing for everyone and everyone experiences it differently.
Sometimes a hard massage is even worse than a lighter treatment, after a hard massage recovery takes longer through the micro-rupture of the muscles and the next performance is not as effective as after a lighter treatment.
I would say there is no reason to miss a massage, many have uncertainties about their own body and the idea of one criticizing is very understandable. When it comes to a professional, it doesn’t matter what your appearance is, or how poor condition you are. It may be that you are the masseuse’s seventh client on the same day, and she/he is not at work judging anyone but helping in the best way possible.
This question is encountered almost daily, I also advised to drink plenty of water at the end of each massage.
The general argument I hear is “massage removes toxins from the body,” but I have not found any justification for this. The muscles do not accumulate “waste” which the massage release and remove from the body.
During treatment, muscle tension is reduced, blood circulation is improved, fluid metabolism is accelerated which moves fluid from the muscles towards the kidneys and thereby dries out the body. For this reason, you can often visit the toilet immediately after the massage.
So it is important to get plenty of fluids back into the body, which will also ease the post-massage headaches that many experience.
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In a physical perspective, there is some difference between women and men. Women are often described slower and weaker, because of the physical factors, but that’s not necessarily the thing. Women can be stronger and faster than men, like the same way some men are stronger and faster than other men. It depends on the training background and many other things. But in the scientific perspective, there are many differences between men and women. So should they train the same way?
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We all know that nothing is better than good night sleep and how important they are. Unfortunately, nowadays many suffer insomnia and other sleeping problems. Sleeping affects us in many ways. This post does not only consider how it affects us but also evening training and sleeping relationship.
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Relative energy deficiency (RED-S) is a result of prolonged insufficient energy intake. It’s common in female sports, repeated weight loss and an eating disorder. But also men can experience RED-S.
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I have a great opportunity to get an interview with Holley Samuel RD, LDN, CPT. She provided a lot of tips and shared her free guide, so continue for reading. You can find her social media and website end of the interview.
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We all have been there, the race which wasn’t going as it was planned. Some point every runner experience the bad race, but they are good for learning. There are many things which, can be overwhelming especially for new runners. Many of us might run our first race, without much knowledge and preparation. I did that too, so here are some things which I wish I had known before the first marathon, and points which many runners had said.
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We often speak certain factors and their importance for running performance. But as often we forget the amount of these factors. Some of the training factors are not as important as others, some provide only minimal benefits or not at all, and still, we use them more than we know.
Continue reading “The perfect recipe of running”
How often you feel physically or mentally tired after work? Some people like to go running the end of the day, but can your occupation affect your training performance? Many factors affect our training performance, and people often forget their job until they feel drained or stress out.
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Overtraining syndrome can happen to everyone, you don’t need to be an elite athlete. There are many signs and symptoms which might indicate overtraining or overreaching syndrome. These symptoms are easy to ignore as we all sometimes feel tired and fatigue. So, when it’s the right time to stop and consider things again?
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Long hours in the outside, sweating and discomfort. Runners know how to push their body to the limit, but do they know how to train their brain.
Mental training is not only for a professional athlete. Mental factors are seen as high self-esteem and confidence, but it’s much more.
How to build a training plan? What you should take account? What is periodization training cycle? This post will answer these questions and help to put your goals in the training plan.
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We all have seen athletes using an ice bath or hear them speaking about a cold shower. After a workout in hot weather, you might want to take a cold shower to cool down. Or just refresh yourself. Is there really any benefit for it or can it be even harmful?
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How important proper nutrition is for you? There are roughly three types of people; eat what they like and don’t really care about nutrition, eat rich nutrient food and cares about nutrition and people between these groups.
Continue reading “SCIENCE TALK: why nutrition matter?”
I have written about warm-up earlier, you can find it here. It contained benefits and importance of warm-up, the excellent warm-up protocol to follow. Now, let’s talk about cool-down. How easy it’s just end your work-out doing nothing afterwards? You have just spend around an hour hard exercise you don’t have interest or energy for cool-down. Hands up, if you can recognise yourself?
Continue reading “SCIENCE TALK: cool-down, do we need it?”