Understanding the four pillars of recovery can transform how you think about stress and adaptation. Athletes from pros through weekend warriors know the importance of using sports recovery techniques to recover faster, feel better, and train harder.
And today it’s easier than ever to find options. The technology and services once only available in elite training rooms are now available for most consumers.
However, with all the different options to choose from, it’s hard to know which one works best for recovery.
To figure that out, we need to answer some questions and we need to learn about the Pillars of Recovery.
What Is Recovery?
Talk to 10 people and there might be ten different answers.
For some, they are talking about reducing soreness, aches, and pains from training or activities.
Others want to bounce back faster from fatigue and have more energy.
Still another concept is increasing calm and reducing stress.
So if all these things are part of recovery, how can you choose what recovery methods are best?
How Do You Recover?
Here’s what you need to understand to get more benefit from your recovery strategies.
Recovery works by helping your body through its natural processes of returning to a state of internal balance.
Training, competition, injury, and life, are all stresses that add up. They can push your systems out of balance. Recovery means something to help bring you back into balance.
Returning the body to a state of equilibrium after stress requires you to address the specific type of stress you just endured.
Which Recovery Method Is Best?
There are many great recovery methods including;
- Meditation
- Assisted Stretching
- Soft tissue bodywork
- Red Light Therapy
- Pneumatic Compression
- Various types of electrical stimulation
- Float Therapy
- Cryotherapy
- And many more…
To answer what’s best, we first have to acknowledge that every method, isn’t for everyone, and not all of the time.
So, when someone asks “what kind of recovery tool is best?” the answer is, it depends.
If you don’t target the right type of stress or systems in the body, the recovery you try won’t make a difference.
It’s like adding air conditioning to a house when it is 10 degrees below zero.
Air conditioning is an effective method to cool the air. However, when that is not the problem it doesn’t matter how much science there is or how many people swear by it.
It’s the wrong solution for that problem. Recovery is often approached in the same way.
People hear about a great recovery method and hope that will help them.
But have they determined what type of stress they are experiencing and if the recovery is effective for it? You need to consider the Four Pillars of Recovery and Stress.
How Do I Choose The Right Recovery?
With all of the recovery options and hype today, it is easy to be confused by choices and under-whelmed by results.
If you choose the wrong methods or use them at the wrong time, they might not give you the outcome you want.
So, you need to have an effective framework fo stress and recovery combined with a deep knowledge of recovery methods.
The Four Pillars of Recovery
The Vive recovery methodology was developed from working with elite athletes around the globe.
For those athletes, recovery is critical to keep them at their best under enormous pressure.
Wasting time, energy, and resources on ineffective and over-hyped recovery tools doesn’t fly.
To build an effective framework, we understood that we need to start with the science of stress, recovery, and adaptation.
One of the foundations that developed was to identify that there are 4 big categories of stress. These are the Pillars of Recovery and Stress:
- Tissue
- Energy
- Mindset
- Nervous System
Tissue
This stress is physical damage to your tendons, muscles, bones, and joints. Its caused by contact, pressure, and tension in sports. It might be microscopic, but it takes a toll.
Repeated foot strikes while running, and repetitive tendon stress on a pitcher’s elbow would be examples.
It could be mechanical stress on the low back structures from poor mobility and a lack of core stability that lead to fascia densification over time.
Or maybe contusions and damage from collisions in hockey, football, or MMA.
These are the kinds of things that add up to potential or actual injury. Tissues need to heal properly on the microscopic level after sports, fitness, and activities.
Energy
This is probably the area people think of most when talking about recovery.
Putting in long hours of training, doing high-intensity MetCons, or logging long distances all stress our physiology and metabolic pathways.
They all have a large metabolic and biochemical demand on your system. These physiological systems need to be returned to normal and metabolic wastes need to be removed.
Mindset
Whether it comes from sport or life, mental and emotional stresses have an impact on both mind and body.
It may be from emotional challenges, learning new tasks, or just intense focus in your career.
Our bodies’ physical recovery mechanisms are tied to our mental state.
Mental stress and anxiety trigger particular functions of our nervous system and release stress hormones.
While these can be useful during a threat or even during training, they inhibit or even completely block natural recovery mechanisms.
Therefore, in order to achieve physical recovery, the mind must be in a state of relaxation.
Nervous System
Often overlooked, neuromuscular fatigue doesn’t necessarily make you feel tired in the way you might think.
When you stress your nervous system you don’t necessarily feel stiff, sore, or fatigued, But you might notice you lose that “snap” in your movement or spring in your step.
When you perform high power exercises like sprinting, jumping, and weightlifting, you stress the nervous system as well as your muscles. Until you recover, you won’t be able to fire them at full speed or intensity.
Make Your Plan Specific to the Pillars of Recovery
Knowing that all recovery methods aren’t the same or equal is the first step towards getting it right.
Make sure you know the specific type of sports recovery you need at different stages of training and even different days of the week to make to make your recovery process better.
At Vive, our Recovery Coaches and Specialists seek to understand your goals, training, and lifestyle. That way they can help you decide which of the Four Pillars of Recovery you need to target.
They help guide you to the right combination of recovery tools you need to help you do more of the things you love.
