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Thursday
Oct142010

Active Recovery - it's the new racing edge

DateThursday, October 14, 2010 at 03:40PM

Maximum and Explosive Strength, Resistive Strength, Endurance and Ultra-endurance-these E-stim programs are all part of a periodized approach to building the kind of strength that spills over to enhanced performance. All the while, Active Recovery addresses the ability to consistently train without feeling beat up, without the loss of a sharp edge needed to absorb quality training. At this time of year, traditional training is occupying  the vast majority of training time. Having built strength throughout the season, there comes a time when it's necessary to focus our time on training specific to the intended performance at hand, and to build to a performance peak. The time for heavy training and the fatigue that accompanies it is over.

Removing strength training completely can increase the rate of muscle degradation (catabolism) that reverses the gains made while strength training. Increased levels of sodium and chloride ions in the muscles also contributes to the breakdown of muscle fiber. Natural testosterone levels can fall. Slow twitch muscle fibers are the first to lose their force generating capabilities, and these are certainly necessary for endurance sports. Motor units ( a motor nerve cell and the tens to hundreds of muscle fibers it controls) rate of recruitment can drop. Another way to state this is that neural inhibition increases with disuse. No doubt some of these degradations are held at bay because traditional training continues during this period. It certainly would be nice to maintain as many of these adaptations as possible while "resting", backing off, from the high training volumes.

 What is emotionally difficult is backing off on any of the training that delivered a noticeable improvement. Those strength building with E-stim definitely feel and measure the improvement. How can the gains be maintained while the energies are focused on the specifics of the performance at hand? E-stim delivers options.

Certainly the Active Recovery is the most used E-stim program and it's for a good reason.  There is an advantage to using this program each training day to prepare for the next workout. The strength training programs deliver workouts that also require recovery. They can't be done daily. They require 36-48 hours of recovery to avoid overtraining. These programs aren't appropriate when there are only a few weeks of season remaining.

Active Recovery is a key component to tapering (training at a reduced load to enhance recovery) while maintaining the ability to recruit motor units at a high level. If that is accomplished, strength will be maintained. The Active Recovery program helps move blood out of the muscle's capillary beds and along with it, the waste products and toxins that must be dealt with before resuming training. The program also stimulates the production of the body's natural endorphins that ease the discomfort felt post-exercise. Those two benefits are reason enough to  use the Active Recovery program, but it does more. Motor unit recruitment can be maintained at the high levels achieved with the strength building programs.  Since the Active Recovery can and should be done after any training bout, a daily dose will keep all of the cylinders firing at peak levels. That's race ready, and one more reason to use E-stim on a daily basis to keep performing in top form. Power up.



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