Best recovery techniques for athletes

Mini massage gun used to aid athletes in recovery. Kaiya Biller | Lariat

During the season, athletes can become sore and fatigued from all of their practices and contests. To help them continue to compete at a high level, there are various methods and techniques to keep the lactic acid away and help small injuries that can be played through. 

Stretching is a technique athletes use to get their muscles ready for exercise. Many people think of stretching as just a warm up technique and not a cool down one as well. Stretching after a workout helps the muscles not tighten up and get as sore after a workout and is also great to increase flexibility and mobility. 

“One of my favorite stretches is laying with your back flat on the floor and putting your legs up against a wall,” athletic trainer at Saddleback College AJ Juarez said in an interview. “Because as humans we walk around and even when we sit our legs are always down, which can overwork them. When you have your legs elevated, gravity can pull swelling away from the knees and ankles and can activate lymphatic drainage.”  

One of the most common devices used for athletes of many sports is Normatec compression therapy. This involves using leg sleeves or a waist sleeve that compresses your leg to reduce inflammation and increase blood flow. The compression boots work great for sports where there is a lot of running to keep the legs less sore and at peak performance. 

“I love the Normatec boots too, they are great,” Juarez also said. “They take the swelling out of the knees and push it up towards the hips which helps athletes recover and not be as sore.”

Rolling out is another common thing for athletes to do. This is very common because the athlete can roll out with a foam roller, a tennis ball or even use their water bottle. 

The purpose of rolling out is to loosen tight muscles and increase blood flow. Rolling out before the athlete works out can also be beneficial. Pre-rolling helps warm up muscles and can help improve flexibility. 

A helpful machine athletes can use as well is the Game Ready. The Game Ready uses hot and cold air to help control and stop swelling, muscle spasms and help sprained ligaments. 

The Game Ready system contracts like one’s muscles does normally which targets deep tissue. The compression aspect also helps get fluid out of the injury site. The Game ready comes with many different sleeves, meaning it can be used on mostly every body part. 

Electric stimulation is a unique way to help one’s body recover as well. This method uses electrical currents to bring more blood to the desired area. This helps with soreness, pulled or strained muscles. 

Electric stimulation is used with ice and Game Ready systems to help significantly reduce pain and swelling at a faster rate than most other methods. 

Ice baths are another way for athletes to recover. This involves filling a tub with cold water and lots of ice. Although this sounds unappealing, it has many benefits that make the coldness worth it. 

Ice baths help relieve soreness and help muscles recover quickly to get ready for practice or a game. Ice baths work almost instantaneously as when one gets out, the muscles feel less sore.

Massage guns are a very useful tool for athletes as well. A massage gun is a tool with different heads that vibrate to give a massage-like sensation. The different heads help massage different areas of the body. 

This method is beneficial by helping manage soreness, increase blood flow and improve range of motion. Pairing the massage gun technique with stretching or rolling out can help even more with soreness, increase flexibility and range of motion. 

Athletic trainers can also help by working on a specific area by scraping or massaging. Their hands-on technique gets deeper into the tissue than a massage gun can which can help get knots and tightness out of muscles. 

“Soft tissue massages are a great recovery tool because it helps elongate the fibers back to normal.” said Syd Kantor, another athletic trainer from Saddleback. 

There are many different devices, stretches and techniques for athletes to use and help them recover at a faster rate. This will overall help them with their body pain and performance level.

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