FITNESS GAINS TAKE HOLD NOT ON THE BIKE BUT AFTERWARDS WHEN YOU REST. HOW TO RECOVER & ADAPT TO MAKE SURE YOU DO JUSTICE TO YOU R TRAINING?
“Train hard, recover harder,” goes the old adage, and it’s worth paying attention to: recovery is the key to your performance improvement. When you train hard, the adaptations and improvements occur after the training. How quickly and consistently your fitness improves is in large part determined by how well you recover. But recovery is not like FTP – it can’t be precisely measured. So how can you tell if you’re recovering well or need to work harder at it?
From Fitbits to infrared light machines, the sports industry is awash with putative elixirs and devices that promise to monitor, accelerate and improve your recovery. The growing emphasis on recovery is welcome, but how do you avoid falling victim to misleading marketing claims and take the steps that really will make a positive difference? We spoke to two prominent coaching and scientific experts, John Wakefield and Iñigo Mujika, to assess the key metrics for optimal recovery and the best ways to keep track of them.
Get the basics right
Measuring and improving recovery is no simple matter. It is a complex, multifaceted concept, not least because of the interactive combined physiological and psychological components. Taken singularly, these factors
