Some athletes tend to focus all their attention on training, under the motto of training harder and harder, and that’s fine, but a mistake is often made that can lead to performance plateaus and even injuries.
This common mistake is not paying attention to a part of preparation as important as the training itself: muscle recovery.
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How to recover in cycling?
There are many recovery techniques in cycling to help increase our athletic performance.
During the recovery phase, the body rebuilds muscle fibers. To fully understand how recovery works after training, we will delve into these two concepts: post-training and the metabolic window.
Working on post-training
Post-training is a crucial part of our athletic development, and despite what you might think, it’s not just about the days after a competition or training session. No, post-training, widely practiced in professional cycling, begins immediately after finishing.
To understand how post-training muscle recovery works well, we need to become familiar with the concept of the metabolic window after training. This window is the recovery period when our body is most predisposed to nutrient absorption.
During training, muscle fibers break down and there is muscle protein destruction. Our body will then seek to replenish this damage, and it is during this period—usually lasting about two hours—that nutrient absorption is most effective. That’s why during this assimilation phase we must provide our body with proteins, carbohydrates, and minerals to start muscle rebuilding.
Recovery bars, or the trendy “recovery shakes” (recovery shakes), will be very helpful as they contain quickly absorbed nutrients.
Water contrasts
An easy-to-follow recovery technique that will increase our relaxation and greatly contribute to improving performance.
Applying this technique is as easy as taking a relaxing hot water bath to dilate your veins and arteries, then immediately applying cold to cause vasoconstriction of the circulatory system. This way, we promote muscle elasticity and also its regeneration.
Water contrast therapy is also very effective for injury recovery.
Active recovery and rest
Another popular recovery technique is “active recovery.” Active recovery is a recovery phase where we exercise in short, low-intensity sessions. The goal is to promote muscle activation with low-intensity exercises and work on our optimal cadence, which should be between 90-100 rpm. With this high cadence, we avoid overloading the muscles, allowing for good muscle recovery.
Tapering weeks
Have you ever heard the expression "take a step back to gain momentum"? The concept of tapering weeks is somewhat like that. It involves inserting weeks into our training plan where we train at low intensity. This way, the muscles work in a relaxed manner and eliminate lactic acid, then we can push them to the max again to enhance their development for competition.
Nutrition; a key factor for recovery
Sometimes we think that training alone is enough to improve, and this is a serious mistake. While training is the cornerstone of any sport, nutrition is another key factor.
Post-workout nutrition is fundamental, with a balanced dose of carbohydrates and proteins. To maintain nutrition aligned with training, you should not neglect any of these nutrients and maintain a good nutritional level.
Proteins
Essential after every workout. Proteins help build muscle fibers. If you are looking for a quick recovery, you won’t find it here; protein intake is a long-term process, not a sprint.
Antioxidants
They are very important for reducing oxidative stress, which helps reduce muscle pain after demanding workouts. These are recommended for quick recoveries.
Carbohydrates – Mineral Salts
We already discussed the importance of these nutrients in a previous paragraph. They are essential for our recovery. Especially important during the metabolic window phase.
Rehydration
During exertion, the body suffers from significant dehydration. It is essential to return to optimal hydration levels after a competition or training. Isotonic drinks or rehydration powders will undoubtedly help us.
Methods to recover tired legs
It’s something all cyclists have to deal with to some extent: feeling tired legs. It’s inevitable that it will happen at some point, but there are plenty of solutions you can try. The two most classic, of course, are maintaining good hydration levels both before and after exercise, and the often underrated stretches. But besides these two essentials, here are some tips to speed up muscle recovery in the legs.-
Compression stockings
An effective, cheap, and simple recovery method. Compression stockings are a perfect ally for muscle recovery; wearing them for an hour a day will improve circulation and blood flow, reduce fatigue and heavy legs, and promote muscle oxygenation.
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Sports massage
If you follow sports competitions, you’ve surely heard professional athletes talk about their masseur. And that’s because sports massages are highly recommended for muscle recovery, they eliminate toxins generated by training, keep muscles elastic preventing shortening, undo typical muscle knots, and thanks to all this, prevent injuries.
Our recommendation is to get a massage at least once a month, preferably from a physiotherapist. If your budget or availability doesn’t allow for that, you can always resort to self-massage; just be sure to do it carefully and try to gain some basic knowledge to avoid pressing where or how you shouldn’t, turning a benefit into a potential problem.
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Slightly elevated legs
Never underestimate this recovery method. It is much more effective than it seems and so easy to do that you can do it while watching your favorite TV show.
It simply involves lying down and placing a pillow or cushion under your legs so they are slightly elevated and keeping them like that for a while. What might seem silly to some has a big impact on our recovery as it promotes venous return and relieves the feeling of heavy legs. Some athletes even sleep with their legs elevated to recover.
Professional Compression Therapy for the legs
Of all the methods we've seen, this is possibly the least common in amateur settings but it is one of the most talked about and has some of the fastest muscle recovery results; a professional Compression Therapy machine.
The famous Compression Therapy machine is nothing more than boots, shorts, or pants, depending on what you are looking for, with air chambers that generate pressure to achieve a vasoconstrictor effect. It has a very powerful effect on muscle recovery and in a short time improves blood circulation, oxygenation, and tone, leaving your legs feeling “like new.”
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Myofascial Release
A very effective and easy-to-execute recovery method, but it requires some equipment—simple and inexpensive. The necessary equipment ranges from a small tennis ball as a very basic tool to massage rollers with channels and irregular surfaces.
Basically, what we do with these tools is a self-massage that we can combine at the same time with stretches. The goal is to apply pressure to the muscles to relax them and relieve muscle tension.
Myofascial release has many recovery benefits such as reducing muscle tone, improving venous return, eliminating contractures, etc.
- Hydrotherapy – Cryotherapy
This method is a favorite of many cyclists, both amateurs and professional cyclists.
Although at first glance the name may sound like a complex method, nothing could be further from the truth; in fact, it is very simple to apply. Because cold has an anti-inflammatory effect, all we have to do is take a cold water bath—or contrast bath, with cold and hot water. This cold water bath will close our capillaries, which is known as vasoconstriction, and then they will open again: vasodilation. This method is very effective and provides a great sensation of recovery.
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Electrostimulation
A sophisticated method, but one that can still be applied even at home. That's right, nowadays there are electrostimulation devices affordable for all budgets and easy to use.
All electrostimulation devices have several specific recovery programs after training. All we have to do is connect the electrodes, choose the appropriate program, and let the device work.
The goals of this recovery method are very varied, but they mainly focus on increasing blood flow to the muscle, thereby increasing the flow of nutrients and thus regenerating muscle fibers damaged by the effects of training.
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