Worth Reading: What Makes a Great Personal Trainer? Recovery, Pronation, Bringing Up Your Weak Spots

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What makes a great trainer? The Personal Training Development Center (PTDC) has a lot of useful, informative articles for personal trainers.  Are Personal Trainers Missing the Point is a recent piece with which I agree. The key observation is this: “The ability to correctly coach exercises is slowly becoming a lost art in the training world,…

More Questions About Supplements: Athletes, Antioxidants & Recovery Methods

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“Hopefully now you understand that damage and soreness are not necessarily bad things, but instead are essential triggers for the adaptations we all seek to improve performance.” – Steve Magness, Running Times The previous post on supplements got me thinking about various articles I’ve read recently on the possible negative effect that antioxidants may have…

Recovery Strategies, Heat Acclimation Training for Cyclists, Healthy Lifestyle vs. Genetics

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We’ve got three useful articles to point out.  One deals with recovery strategies for runners, specifically why damage is a good thing.  (I imagine this information will apply to other types of athletes–cyclists, swimmers, weightlifters/bodybuilders for instance).  Another article discusses research into how training in the heat can increase cycling performance in both hot and…

Cherries Aid Marathon Recovery

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Here’s another weapon to add to your endurance training recovery arsenal: cherries.  Marathon Runners Should Pick Cherries for a Speedy Recovery comes from Science Daily and it profiles a recent study out of Northumbria University in England.  Marathoners who ran the London Marathon were split into two groups.  Twenty marathon runners drank either a tart…

Recovery & Restoration Methods for Endurance Athletes Part III: Caffeine

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“We’ve shown that caffeine reduces pain reliably, consistently during cycling, across different intensities, across different people, different characteristics.” To this point I’ve discussed nutritional strategies and cold water immersion as recovery methods for endurance athletes.  Now, the quest to relieve sore muscles, malaise and fatigue continues with a look at caffeine.  While caffeine could’ve been…

Recovery & Restoration Methods for Endurance Athletes Part II: Cold Water Immersion

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Post-workout nutrition was the focus of the last post.  Adequate intake of water, protein and simple carbohydrates is vital for repairing the body and preparing for subsequent endurance workouts.  We can add to the recovery strategy the use of cold water immersion. “Cold water immersion resulted in significantly lower muscle soreness ratings; reduced inflammatory response…

Recovery & Restoration Methods for Endurance Athletes Part I: Nutrition

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An acquaintance who’s a competitive road cyclist asked about protein consumption, particularly post-ride.  He got me thinking on a variety of issues regarding the topic of recovery and restoration for endurance athletes.  I’ll start with post-workout nutrition There are several goals here.  The first task is to rehydrate.   No matter how much you drink during a…