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What are Recovery & Regeneration Strategies?

Generally speaking, the idea behind using different methods of recovery and regeneration is to “speed up” the process of recovery between training sessions and/or competitions.

Everything from EMS, to cyrotherapy, to soft tissue work and light workouts have become relatively commonplace in the training programs of many different athletes.

The real question, however, is whether or not such strategies are necessary, or even a good idea?

…And if they are useful, which methods should be used and how often should they be used?

When NOT to Use Recovery Methods…

The first thing to understand is that different methods of recovery and regeneration should absolutely NOT be used all the time.

The goal of training is to stimulate adaptation and in many ways, trying to minimize the after affects of training as much as possible can often lead to dimished results.

The trace effects of training are important for maximizing the body’s adaptive drive towards supercompensation.

In other words, don’t overuse recovery and regeneration methods if the goal is to get the best results from your training.

The Right Time to Speed up the Process

The most appropriate times to use different recovery and regeneration techniques are either A) when autonomic balance needs to be restored and B) when maximum performance needs to be achieved on a specific date, i.e. because of a competition.

This means you should really only use such methods to prevent going too far into an overreaching state and to peak for a competition, especially during a brutal competitive season with weekly, or even more frequent, competitions.

In such cases, it’s important to use different methods to help the body return to a state where it’s physically ready to perform at the highest levels.

Individualizing Recovery Methods

Aside from making sure you choose the right time to use recovery and regeneration methods, the next most important factor is to make sure to select the right recovery method for the job.

When the body is in a chronically sympathetic state, you need to choose methods that stimulate parasympathetic function and reduce sympathetic drive.

Such methods will help restore autonomic balance and prevent the cascade of negative effects that accompany prolongued exposure to stress hormones.

Using HRV is the real key to being able to individualize which recovery methods should be used. This is hugely important because using the wrong method can actually make things worse and slow down the process rather than speed it up.

Much more information about how to use heart rate variability can be found in the Ultimate Guide to HRV training that comes with the BioForce HRV system.

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Cardiac Power Intervals

Developing the cardiovascular system’s ability to deliver oxygen is of central importance to improving conditioning. A great deal of research has validated the connection between central factors such as cardiac contractility and VO2 max, power at anaerobic threshold, etc.

In other words, the more oxygen your heart and vascular network can deliver to the working muscles, the higher the potential for aerobic energy production. In the preceeding weeks, the overall load has been gradually increasing, but in this week four, it’s time to up the load by focusing on develping the heart’s ability to deliver oxygen at higher intensities.

The changes that take place as a result of such high intensity intervals are likely an upregulation in the mitochondrial content of the heart itself, shifts in the isozyme of muscle fiber of the heart, and there may even be an increase in mitochondria in the brain itself.

More details of how different training methods work can be found in my book, Ultimate MMA Conditioning

Recovery Methods

At this point in the training program, it may be necessary to use various recovery methods in small volumes to prevent overtraining. This is particularly true if you haven’t been using BioForce HRV to monitor and manage your training throughout the program.

Specifics on the type of recovery method you should be using will be discussed in an upcoming video that will be posted shortly. The most important thing to understand is that using the wrong recovery method can actually slow down recovery rather than speed it up.

Doing too much of this type of work can also slow down progress in general. Recovery methods should only be used to prevent the body from getting into an overtrained state, not simply to recover faster. Using recovery methods too often can slow down progress and prevent the body from adapting to the training stimulus.

Conditioning Blueprint

As discussed in the video, The Conditioning Blueprint will be released on Tuesday, April 9th. As a special bonus, anyone that purhases the DVD within the three days will be getting the next 4 weeks of this conditioning program included with the DVD.

The material covered on the DVD is focused on programming and if you’re interested in learning more about how to write effective conditioning programs, this is definitely going to be a DVD that will help you.

All the details will be coming soon…

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Anaerobic Threshold Training

Anaerobic threshold training has been a part of training programs used to improve endurance for centuries. Referred to by different names, the key principle in the method is simply to train within the range of your anaaerobic threhold.

Although research has revealed there is not really a “threshold” as a single heart rate, per se, as many used to believe, but rather a range of heart rates where lactate begins to accumulate at a more rapid rate because of a an increase contribution from anaerobic metabolism.

Make sure to watch the video to determine the most appropriate way to determine your threshold so that you can train in the right heart rate range. If you’re using the Polar RS100 or another heart rate monitor, you will want to set the heart rate limits to within your threshold range so that it will give you audio feedback when you’re outside the correct range.

Managing the Training Process

In this third week, it is normal to expect to see a bit higher level of fatigue, especially with the addition of the threshold method. If you’re using heart rate variability to monitor your training, then you should expect to see at least a moderate weekly HRV load.

If you don’t, then you should increase the volume. If you’re seeing a high weekly load at any point, then you should decrease the volume. By this point, it’s also perfectly normal to see increases in HRV on the day following training as the body works to recover autonomic balance.

Finding the right balance between load and recovery is absolutely essential to maximizing results. Make sure to follow the guidelines in the workout .pdf and manage the volume and intensity accordingly using BioForce HRV and whatever other metrics you may be using to measure fatigue and recovery.

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What Is General Conditioning

In simple terms, general conditioning refers the development of the central components of energy production and expenditure that are not exercise and task specific. This means that activities that are not biomechanically or metabolically similar to the competitive sport and related skills can be used to develop this area of conditioning.

On the far end of the general to specific conditioning spectrum, this is where unrelated activities are used to build general “work capacity” and what most people would refer to as “cross training.”

The most general training methods and exercises should be utilized early in the off-season, which also serves as a break from the often repetitive nature of most competitive seasons. The exact exercises, means and methods used during the period of general conditioning should depend on the nature of the sport itself.

Specific Conditioning

On the other side of the general to specific spectrum is the use of the skills, drills and techniques of the competitive sport itself. In MMA, this would be sparring, pad work, bag work, technical drilling etc. In soccer or football, this would be scrimmage, 7v7, small-side games, etc.

The most important component of a solid yearly training program is that it progresses over time from more general conditioning methods and exercises towards most specific ones. There should be a gradual and progressive shift towards the use of the competitive sport itself, as well as the individual skills, as the primary training means.

This helps avoid the overuse injuries associated with using the same exercises and movements year round, and also builds the right foundation for achieving peak performance at the right time.

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