High quality nutrition, sleep and getting outside for a walk in the woods. Anything else is burning $$$

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http://www.tri-monkey.co.uk

Beer. Without or with alcohol, depending on if it's during the week or on the weekend.

A snack and not moving for a while.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

Sleep. Easy to do, free, and works amazingly well. I find I don't need any fancy recovery expenses if I can consistently get 8-9 hours of sleep a night. With two young kids it's hard to do some nights, but when I can it does wonders.

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Blog: http://262toboylstonstreet.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/NateThomasTri
Coaching: https://bybtricoaching.com/ - accepting athletes for 2023

I always find these posts interesting and comical. I go out of my way to eat as well as I can and am content walking with my dogs for their exercise and my own stress relief - have done this for 20 years in the sport. Fact is, since I started using a massage gun regularly over the last 6 months I’ve felt better and move better than I did in the 5-10 years prior.

To the OP, a massage gun has been huge for me - I thought my days of moving without some sort of niggle were done, the hypervolt changed that.

a comfortable bed.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

If you’re not burning $$$, are you actually a triathlete? /pink

I get enough sleep. Walk my dogs 3 times a day albeit short walks. If time abs money was no object I would get a massage from a pro 3-4 days a week. I ordered an addaday massage gun which was less expensive. I’ll see how it feels and if I consistently use one.

Definitely a must. What type of bed do you have? We had a sleep number for a long time with the frame that adjusts up and down but it broke too many times. We got a tuft and needle bed in a box and have been happy with that although wife prefers a super soft bed.

Foam Roller
Air Relax Pneumatic Compression Boots
Compex Sport elite Stimulator

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

I believe this is the only answer to this thread. The human species used this as the fundamental recovery tool since we existed, so may as well roll with the flow and use that proven process.

I agree - too many athletes that I coach want to know what the recovery secrets are. The low hanging fruit in ALL cases is sleep (duration, quality, hygiene, etc). The badge of honor of only getting 4-6 hours of sleep is pretty dumb IMO. For me personally, I can't workout (at least a higher intensity, or quality workout) past 8:00-8:30pm - if I do, I stare at my ceiling for hours on end. Then it turns into a vicious cycle in order to get up the next AM for the early morning swim, bike, or run. Curious if anyone else has that issue?

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IG: NCGregory8778

Interesting in that it seems I could have been the OP. I have those very same things and feel the same way. Like you I also walk the dog, eat very well and sleep 8-9 per night. It seems we're always looking for the solution when I think the combo is the cure. That said, thanks to the poster as to the massage gun, as I also have one on the way. 40 years of triathlon takes it's toll, but good training plans also help. Good luck.

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Kiwami Racing Team

The message gun has been the best purchase I have ever made for a recovery tool just behind my California king mattress.

no idea. its a soft one, because my wife prefers a really soft bed.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

I'm not sure it is measurably improving my recovery but I have a Theragun Mini massager that sure makes me feel better. If it breaks, I'll have a new one on order the next day.

Other than the massage gun, learning to listen to the cues of fatigue and adjusting accordingly has been incredibly helpful for me in terms of both progress and quality of life.

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I have deceptive speed.........I'm slower than I look!

It depends on the activity. For general recovery, there are no 'tools' additionally required. Appropriate nutrition/hydration with extra protein for harder workouts in the vulnerable period immediately afterward is a given *(I usually aim for 30 gm 30-60 min afterwards)...and I will sometimes take a longer and warmer shower and stretch after shorter/faster efforts but this also doesn't fit in the toolbox. And enough rest, including sleep, prior to the next workout is also a given.


I do have 2 portable massage guns. Works quite well on the legs. I use them often. Also have a massage chair and one for the floor which I can work the PF out along with a tennis ball while watching TV. No recovery boots. DW (the wife) swears by her foam roller, but I hate it. I'd rather have her walk on my back to crack it and a nice bath works to loosen the muscles.

My favorite tool to hasten recovery is ice. I have ice packs loaded in the freezer and need them for my old knees/shins/ankles etc. Works well on tired, overworked muscles too. Also will do a modified 'ice bath' with really cold water from the shower-(legs down only*) for super long efforts. This has always helped recover from those wicked long trainer rides and I've done them after each of these: the mega Pretzel, uber Pretzel, PRL full and lots of Norseman races on Zwift.



I'll be doing it again tomorrow evening after our Basecamp ride...and again after v-Everesting next month...

A double ipa and well balance meal and a gummy for some nice sleep.

My compression boots. I really need to start using my massage gun more though.

I mean they are very easy to get in if setup. If you put things away and fold neatly everytime I could see how this is a barrier to entry. Regardless they are all good tools and indispensable imho.

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R8Recovery roller, high density foam roller, and naps

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

100% beer a couple of colds relaxes you after a long day ,helps to rehydrate

It’s not a big barrier for sure. I have them in an ottoman next to my bed. I just get home. Eat something. Shower and nap. If I was smarter I would just set them up pre-workout.

people like to talk trash on recovery tools, but i'll happily buck their sentiment and say that expensive recovery tools are in no way useless and a waste of money. you cant measure their effects and put it on a spreadsheet. that doesnt mean they dont work.

i love my recovery boots. half my life i live at home, half my life i live at a remote work location (im extremely fortunate that i can train essentially the same at work or home). the half that im home and have my recovery boots i can tell a difference in the fatigue level in my legs versus when im at work. so much so that im saving my pennies for another set of boots for work.

hypervolt, really love it for certain points i have nagging trouble with. again, its not magic, but i can tell a difference when im using it versus not.

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

1. Sleep- 70%

2. Good nutrition- 25%

3. Everything else- 5% (foam roll, yoga, stretch, etc.)


I'm not always the most disciplined of getting enough sleep, but man what a difference it makes when you consistently get 8+ hours. WFH has been enlightening how much more intensity and TSS I can tolerate with having an additional 30-60 mins sleep per night. In late 2020, I ran a big half marathon PR (1:23) on a slow course, a month after taking a 2 weeks break and doing basically just Z2 leading in. I was really disciplined about sleeping 8+ hours leading in and felt the most fresh and ready to go the week leading into that half that I ever have.

Nutrition matters too, but not nearly as much IMO. My nutrition definitely went way in the drain for 2 weeks around Christmas this year, and I definitely felt more sluggish in my sessions at that time. A week after the new year, I was back to normal and HR was down ~5bpm at the same effort.

Well said. Sure, all you need is proper food and appropriate sleep and you’ll function. Have yet to meet anyone that’s using additional recovery tools that wasn’t already doing that stuff and are now feeling the same - they feel better. Psychological or physiological? Who knows, or better yet, who cares - the additional stuff works.

I like the Norma-Tech boots (and hip attachment) but I hate taking the time to actually sit that long and use them. I use them when I can and I sure think they help a little bit.

In all honesty, after hard rides and hard runs, I think a cold (or even just cool) bath is about the best thing I've ever done. It cools the legs, really refreshes things, I think it reduces my recovery INFINITELY. I'm fortunate enough to have a swim spa at home also and even with that being a little warmer than a "cool bath", it still does wonders.

I also get a ton of massage work, and use the Thera-Gun when I remember to use the damn thing

The most effective and cheapest? Get yourself a cold bath for 20 minutes, it's the best thing ever

Moji Curve Pro roller. Great on quads, hamstrings and calves. The individual rollers let you get into small knots.


https://gomoji.com/...ducts/moji-curve-pro

Exactly the same. Need to be done with the afternoon/evening workout by 6 (ideally, though not always possible) in order not to toss and turn. Hands down quality sleep does amazing things. Way better than any device.

Agree with sleep being #1. My new girlfriend, Norma Tec is my fav late night activity. An hour a night...every night.

I'd change it to:

1. Sleep- 51%

2. Meeting kcal and macro needs - 48%

3. Everything else- <1% (foam roll, yoga, stretch, massage, chiro, PT, etc.)

Not exaggerating re: 1%. Truly.

In fact, there have been inverse correlations found between time spent using recovery modalities and performance of athletes, in pretty tightly controlled elite athlete settings. Unpublished USOC data which I reviewed in graduate school... and which I no longer have access to. And of course it's possible that injured folks skewed data conclusions in favor of not using these other modalities. But, I don't think that was the case and was pretty well-convinced that the athletes who steered well clear of focusing ANY energy at all on the little things, and poured all their energy into the big 3 (training, sleep, fueling), performed the best, pretty convincingly.

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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📱 Check out our app → Saturday: Pro Fuel & Hydration, a performance nutrition coach in your pocket.
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I'd bet that comparing elites with regular folks just doesn't work too well. And those studies must not include those who broke down from injury. Any athlete not able to continue with training due to inadequate recovery of any kind will be taking serious steps backwards. In that study, inverse correlation means that those who rested too much didn't progress in terms of performance. What a shocking conclusion!

It is always about the appropriate balance of stress and rest. Our 'debate' is what is optimal rest.

There certainly is a great deal of variability in what training load athletes can handle and much depends on their genetics. Recovery for MOP athletes in general has a much broader range of needs, IMO. And I'm not even going to mention the, ahem, 'older athlete' which I've become.

That 1% recovery aids which includes 'everything else' becomes a much bigger number in that circumstance.

I hope you'll grant me more assumed intellect than that implied by the bolded text above! hahahaha! I can assure you I wouldn't take time to explain such a an intuitive phenomenon, but I can see why you might think that was a conclusion worth mocking for it's obviousness if my initial comments led you to believe that was my conclusion. I apologize for being unclear.

Clarifying point:
The correlation being drawn was not between sleep, and/or nutrition, and/or training, and performance outcomes. The inverse correlation was between amount of time spent using auxiliary recovery modalities (like massage, PT, foam rolling, ice bathing, heating, stim, you name it, but NOT sleep/nutrition) and competitive performances.

Athlete ages ranged from 16-42, if I remember right.

I argue that recovery for MOP athletes have a much narrower range of needs than for elite athletes. Fatigue management and fueling is virtually everything. Elites are much more likely to push tissues to the brink of recoverability even with optimal sleep and nutrition, than MOP'ers, with all due respect to MOP athletes like myself.

I would estimate that importance of massage & PT only very very slightly increases for population in the 40-65y/o range and that fatigue management through sleep, nutrition, and intelligently applied age-appropriate progressive overload in training are still vastly more important. I have no data to support this claim.

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
📱 Check out our app → Saturday: Pro Fuel & Hydration, a performance nutrition coach in your pocket.
Join us on YouTube → Saturday Morning | Ride & Run Faster and our growing Saturday User Hub

My n=1 is that I havent noticed any performance difference on a subsequent workout after rolling, foam roller, or a nice warm bath. Sometimes I’ll do those things just because they feel nice and relaxing, and I’ll get a better sleep. But I’m not convinced that they actually do anything to directly aid recovery.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Dr H-it was for others edification, not for me. Clarity is always better.

Jason
Fwiw, My n=1 is that my best races and Pr bike performances have routinely come post call on sleep deprived nights after ‘other’ recovery was utilized.

Therapeutic benefits aside, AvE doesn’t think much of the theragun...

Compression gear: calf sleeves and quad sleeves (cheap, and really help reduce soreness). My CEP calf sleeves were $30 new, and the quad sleeves were $7.50 used on eBay; so dirt cheap as recovery aides go.

Theragun would be a runner up. Got one as a gift over the holidays, and really have found it helpful. It's biggest advantage is that it doesn't require "work" to use (unlike a foam roller), so it's easy to do your legs while crashing on the couch or bed.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Haha I saw that today. He’s so great

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the world's still turning? >>>>>>> the world's still turning

In the order of most likely to least likely to happen, Endurox R4 recovery drink, compression boots, nap.

I don’t know that I’ve noticed much performance difference either. And when I was using recovery boots more frequently I would often use them post workout then nap after use. So it’s just as likely nap helped. But mostly it’s just to make things feel good and get better sleep.

40% sleep
40% nutrition
10% stretching/yoga/foam rolling
5% active recovery aka not sitting around
5% mental breaks

the other thing that just came to mind is an adequate warmdown, particularly after a harder session. I've seen more than a few instances, here and elsewhere, where someone has said that they aren't really a big fan of a long warmdown, but IME if I get a decent warmdown (usually longer than prescribed in the actual workout) then I generally feel like I could do the same workout again half an hour later. (I doubt I could actually hit the same numbers, but that's how I feel).

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly