8 Helpful Tips for Running Recovery
In running, consistency is so important and a good recovery routine can help you to build that consistency.
Have you ever not gone for a run because your body was sore from your last session? Or maybe you went for the run anyway and ended up getting injured?
In running, consistency is so important. To improve, we need to be in the habit of running multiple times a week and giving our bodies the opportunity to adapt and improve, but if our recovery plan is not on the same level as our training plan, this consistent training might be a struggle, and that is where sessions get missed or injuries happen.
Having a recovery routine is what will give you the best chance of keeping your body strong and keeping you able to bring your best to each of your training sessions. To help you get to this place, we wanted to share eight tips, from cooling down, to eating right, that will bring you to the next level of running recovery.
1. Cool Down
It is really easy for us post-run to go straight home, shower, sit down on the couch and limit our movements for the rest of the day. It is easy and it is also tempting. Our first tip is to urge you to fight this temptation. When we run, we create a build-up of lactic acid within our system. If we stop our session without cooling down, this lactic acid will be more likely to cause muscle soreness and cramps.
As soon as your run is finished, reduce your intensity and lightly jog or walk for an extra 10-15 minutes. When you do this type of cool down, you begin to redistribute blood flow, lower your heart and breathing rate gradually, allow your body’s temperature to drop, and help release and remove lactic acid, reducing the risk of muscle soreness.
We try to build these cool downs into our Lupa experiences and courses for this reason.
2. Stretch
Stretching both before and after your exercise is something that can have an impact on the quality of your recovery.
Doing some dynamic stretching before you run will help you to increase your range of motion and reduce your chance of injury. This type of proactive work will make your post-run recovery that bit easier.
Then, after you cool down, it is time for your post-run stretching. We recommend you incorporate some static stretching into your post-run recovery routine. The NHS says that stretching after a run can help you to cool down gradually, improve your flexibility, and support the relaxation of your muscles. Holding static stretches for your thighs, hips, hamstrings, calves, IT bands, glutes, and lower back, for 15-30 seconds per posture will help you to feel a lot better for your next run.
3. Hydrate
Looking after your hydration levels before, during, and after your runs is critical if you want to be able to recover well and run regularly. When we run, our body sweats to help us cool down. If we don’t replace the fluids and nutrients in our bodies that are lost with sweat, then we run the risk of becoming dehydrated and suffering from fatigue, muscle cramps, headaches, and dizziness.
Hydration is all about getting water into your cells and it is not quite as simple as simply drinking more fluids. As Sports Nutritionist, Freddie Greswold, put it, electrolytes are like the door to the cell. Without the door open, the water can't get in. Rather than hydrating you, the water will instead turn to waste. You can learn more about how to get the right electrolytes into your system here and when you do, you can effectively drink water and have it be absorbed and used by our cells to aid recovery.
4. Eat Right
Good nutrition is one of the best ways to kick start our post-run recovery process. After a run, you should try to have a protein and carbohydrate-packed meal, and the sooner the better. BBC Good Foods say that you should ideally eat within 30 minutes of finishing your run, and try to include 20g of protein in whatever meal you eat.
Having carbohydrates in your post-run meal is critical to refill your glycogen stores to fuel your energy and recovery, and consuming 20g of protein will help your body to promote tissue repair, muscle growth, and reduction in inflammation. These things will have an major impact on how you bounce back ahead of your next session.
If you are stuck for ideas, here are some meals that Healthline recommends for runners.
Our breathing can help us to reduce our heart rate and our levels of lactic acid. Both of these aid our recovery process.
5. Breathe
Our breath is so powerful. It has the ability to anchor us into the present moment, fuel our bodies, and even alter our heart rates. We have talked before about how we can use our breath to be more mindful when running, but we can also use our breath to benefit our recovery routine.
Dean Somerset, BSc. in Kinesiology, certified exercise physiologist, and certified strength and conditioning specialist, says:
“If you’re trying to relax and recover from stress or working out, long breathing cycles will decrease your heart rate and breathing rate and you’ll feel a sense of calm and relaxation compared to faster and more shallow breathing”
On top of reduced heart rate and enhanced relaxation, long and deep breathing cycles bring more oxygen into our muscles and reduce the buildup of lactic acid. Like we said earlier, when we reduce the build-up of lactate, we reduce the risk of muscle soreness and make our recovery process more effective.
6. Roll it Out
Foam rolling has taken the exercise world by storm in recent years and for good reason. In 2019, The Journal of Body Work & Movement Therapies found evidence that foam rolling after a run can help to reduce delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS. DOMS is that feeling of soreness, tenderness, and discomfort that you experience after exercise. We have all been there.
DOMS is often the reason we have to miss training sessions or do not perform as well on our runs. That means that by foam rolling for just a few minutes after your runs, you will be doing yourself and your future sessions a big favor.
7. Sleep
Sleep is essential for recovery from exercise. Sleep is where our body gets the chance to do much-needed maintenance on itself. In this time of maintenance, our body works to repair tissue and build muscle, helping us to become stronger and to recover faster.
To benefit from your sleep, you need both quality and quantity. It’s not always easy but as Moxu say, by developing a wind down routine, managing light, keeping your room cool but not cold, and reducing caffeine intake close to bed time, we can improve in this area and fully benefit from sleep’s recovery powers.
Easy runs and rest days help our muscles to repair and for us to prevent injuries.
8. Make sure Easy is Easy
Some people get frustrated on rest days or ‘easy’ runs, they feel like training every day at their maximum is what they need to do to be their best running self. The reality is that rest days and easy runs are as important as any other day in your training plan. Your body needs time to recover, and rest days will give it that time.
Easy runs help your body to build endurance but they also help to give your mind and body a chance to rest and recover, while still fitting in some training miles. Rest days also shouldn’t be optional, they are in training plans on purpose because they help your body to repair itself and prevent injury. That is why it is so important to take it easy and rest when your training plan says so.
In running, consistency is so important. To improve, we need to be in the habit of running multiple times a week and giving our bodies the opportunity to adapt and improve, but if our recovery plan is not on the same level as our training plan, this consistent training might be a struggle, and that is where sessions get missed or injuries happen.
Having a recovery routine is what will give you the best chance of keeping your body strong and keeping you able to bring your best to each of your training sessions and with the tips we have shared, you should now have the guidance you need to get to the next level of running recovery.
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