Sports Recovery; Not the Legal Kind, but the Physiological (Workouts have their limits !)

athletic competition. Because I think I have got a pretty good grasp of my own body’s ability to recover, you will not see this Triathlon Trial Lawyer taking part in running races longer than a marathon, Iron Man triathlons and other “ultra endurance” events. Even if I could finish, it would take me weeks to recover.

A recent New York Times article examined this interesting topic. In “Personal Best: Workouts Have Their Limits, Recognized or Not,” Gina Kolata looked at some of the extreme sports training regimens. The following excerpts are worthwhile:

“People think a good workout is, ‘I am in a pile of sweat and puking,’ ” said William Kraemer, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Connecticut. But if that happens, he said, “it means you went much too quickly, and your body just can’t meet its demands.” It’s not so easy to strike the right balance between exertion and rest, researchers say. Do too little, and the results may be disappointing. Experienced athletes know that the only way to improve is to push yourself. Lift weights that are heavier than those you’ve tried before. Run or cycle at a fast pace on some days, but focus on increasing your distance on others. Work out enough that you may not fully recover between sessions.

You should feel tired, said John Raglin, a sports psychologist at Indiana University. But if you do too much with too little rest, your performance gets worse, not better. “Serious athletes recognize these issues — whether they respond to them or not is another matter,” Dr. Raglin said. “A lot of recreational athletes really have no idea.” When they train harder yet stop improving, even backslide, “they become alarmed and try to increase their training,” Dr. Raglin said. He sees it over and over: An athlete will get into a training schedule and become very dogmatic, never taking a day off. “The importance of recovery is a big topic in exercise science,” Dr. Raglin said. “It hasn’t filtered down to the serious recreational athlete.”

Muscles need to recover after they are stressed with heavy weights, Dr. Kraemer noted. Researchers have long known that the way to build strength is what they call periodization: Rest days and easier days and weeks are interspersed with periods when the weights are increased. In endurance sports, muscles experience a different kind of stress, said Dr. Bengt Saltin, director of the Copenhagen Muscle Research Center at the University of Copenhagen. But the problem with intense exertion day after day is very similar. Intense endurance exercise depletes muscles of their energy supply, glycogen. Muscles store enough glycogen only for an hour and a half to two hours of activity, Dr. Saltin said.

It takes a day for trained endurance athletes to replenish glycogen. Athletes with less training have less of the enzyme that restores glycogen — glycogen synthetase. It can take up to two days for them to restore this muscle fuel. In addition, connective tissue in muscles can be damaged and needs time to recover. In a study of runners in an annual local race that is a bit longer than two marathons, Dr. Saltin and his colleagues found that the athletes’ muscles lost their elasticity as their connective tissues weakened. Running got harder and harder, so much so that the energy required for a set pace at the end of the race was 50 percent higher than it had been at the start.

Dr. Raglin said even the experts, researchers like himself who study overtraining, had trouble defining the symptoms. Psychological changes are the most consistent signs of a problem, he said. In the early stages of overtraining, athletes constantly feel tired; by the end stage, they may be nagged by depression. Recreational athletes must be attuned to their fatigue, Dr. Raglin said. If it persists for several days, they should take a day off or simply do a lot less during workouts. A diary or notes on how they feel can help.

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