Recovery in Cycling

13 Methods for The Best Recovery in Cycling

1.1 Relax

 

Sound easy but most of the time it’s not at all. Family life, kids, wife, husband, job, boss, broken car. Everything can cause stress in your life which is not good for your recovery. Every day try to find half an hour or hour for yourself, maybe just read a good book, visit your favorite coffee shop or just do things that make you relaxed. Enjoy your hobby or find a passion that will let you “forget” about the whole world. It is a very good technic which allows you to fully relax and let stress out.

1.2 Diet

 

You are what you eat! Correct meals, especially post-workout meals can significantly decrease your recovery time. Here you can find more about nutrition tips and healthy recipes for athletes. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a simple snack is what we call fuel for your muscles and whole body. That is what gives you energy during every day’s activities and especially cycling workouts. Even the best-trained athlete is not able to do training without the right fuel, always pay attention to what you eat and try to improve your diet. Check our nutrition plans.

1.3 Supplements

 

Similar to diet, supplements can help you with keeping your muscles filled with “good stuff”. If you workout more than 10h a week and you are not able to consume all necessary elements of the diet, you should be using supplements so your body can stay healthy and full of energy.

1.4 Foam roller (2-3 times a week)

 

The foam roller should be used after every workout, it helps with relaxing your muscles and improving recovery. Great selection of foam rollers on Amazon.

1.5 Massage ball ( 2-3 times a week)

 

Another type of self-massage is a massage ball which is very small and easy to use. Thanks to the small size you can be very precise and massage the exact point of pain in your muscles. You can buy it on Amazon for $9.99

1.6 Massage (once a week, once per month)

 

Average prices for a massage are around $60 per 1-hour session, strongly recommended it, it is a great way to relax your whole body. Try to include one session during a recovery week.

1.7 Stretching (after every workout, 2 full sessions twice a week)

 

Another free method to help you with recovering after a hard workout. Do at least 15 min of stretching after every workout to relax muscles and get back your flexibility. Try to do 2 bigger stretching sessions per week (45 minutes) to increase your flexibility.

1.8 Recovery week (60-70% of TSS of the previous week)

 

The most common structure of training plans is recovery week every 3 or 4 weeks. It is very important to do recovery week when you need it, track your “numbers” and power to heart rate relation. Read more about aerobic decoupling, it is a very good method to track your fatigue on a weekly basis.

1.9 Recovery workout

 

Every week of your training plan should include one ride like this one below. “Active recovery” speeds up your recovery thanks to increasing your blood flow, but remember that the recovery ride has to be very easy all the time!

 

1.10 Compression socks

 

There is a lot of discussion around compression sucks if they really help or not. They are banned by UCI during racing, which could tell us that they help. From the psychological point of view if you feel better by wearing them, do it but not longer than an hour or two.

1.11 Cold baths, ice massage

 

Not everyone likes it, but cold baths can help you with increased blood flow in your legs and speed up recovery. If the cold bath is too much for you get Cryo Cup for just $7.99 so you can massage specific parts.

1.12 Normatec recovery

 

An advanced recovery tool used by professional athletes, Normatec.

1.13 PowerDot

 

This device definitely catches my attention, very small you can easily pack it into your bag and control it with your phone. That is what the producer is saying about the product:

“PowerDot® is the world’s smartest muscle recovery & performance tool. The Smart Muscle Stimulator connects via Bluetooth® to an intuitive mobile app that controls 10+ muscle stimulation programs designed to help you:

1.14 Extra: Recovery Smoothies

 

Smoothies are part of the diet, very easy to prepare can contain the most important ingredients, and are easy to “apply”. Check our 102 healthy smoothie recipes blog post to find the best smoothies to boost your energy!