Post Tournament Recovery

mycena · **Post Tournament Recovery -** 02-02-2007, 03:30 PM

Does anyone have any special tips for recovering from an especially hard work out or tournament? When you play 5+ days a week any little bit helps!

nmsvbteam · 02-02-2007, 03:51 PM

Eat a lot, drink a lot. You want to have your calories within 20 minutes of competing your workouts and a major meal no longer than 2 hours after. Lots of water, high quality carbs and proteins. Glutamine helps as a workout supplement, as does antioxidants with vitamin E. Really, it is all minimal though. Your body needs rest and if it doesn't get it you risk running overtraining, where you can become cranky, performance levels drop, you can get sick, etc. One more thing that I have found to help, aside from active stretching before a workout and static after is using foam rollers to separate out the fascia, also helps the body to begin to release lactic acid a bit more quickly.

kvb · 02-02-2007, 09:05 PM

Rest

Ah, a massage

A hot bath or hot tub

And believe it or not, cardio. If I go for a mild couple mile jog or do some stepping for some reason it helps...I don't mean the same day, but 12 to 24 or 36 hours later, to help get the lactic acid out.

And lotsa water is good! Those things can make you dehydrated.

This will also sound nuts but I prefer to play 2 2's tournaments in a row - women's on Sat. and coed on Sun. I swear I'm less sore after it, but dunno why. If I only do one day, I'm as stiff as a board for the next day or two. (PS-it only hurts in the beginning when you're trying to warm up on the second day/Sun. morning - lol!)

nmsvbteam · 02-03-2007, 12:13 AM

Oh, almost forgot. I have a friend in Ireland that specialize in sports massage and treatment. Their athletes swear by the horse tank: Fill a tub up with water and ice just above freezing and sit in it for up to 10 minutes within 45 minutes of competing. He says guys can play a whole soccer match or run a marathon and they feel great after getting out and are recovery time is greatly reduced. At least it makes everything else seem not so bad...

set10 · 02-03-2007, 01:31 AM

swim!!! zero impact and great muscle movement to work out the lactic acid.
not just laps but use floaties and "run" in the deep end

cheetah · 02-03-2007, 02:22 PM

Soak in a tub of epson salts for soreness.

Also GNC makes this supplement called DOMS ease...it's supposed to decrease soreness after an especially hard workout.

I took DOMS ease, along with glutamine, with me on our volleyball vacation, where we were working out, playing tournaments and doing drills in the sand for about 9-10 hours a day....it seemed to really help me. I also made sure I drank plenty of water, gatorade, and ate lots of protein for muscle recovery.

Air Diney · 02-03-2007, 07:17 PM

Good thing your best friend is gettin' a HOT TUB on Feb. 22nd!! That's right, kids- party at my house!!!! WOOT WOOT!

coachmanzi · 02-04-2007, 04:19 PM

uh, usually I'll have about 128 oz's of gatorade for potassium, sodium and liquid that I lost. Then I'll have a couple bananas, fruit, protein etc, to get the carbs back and eliminate the soreness and cramping. After the food and drink I start the beer and jager. Following the alcohol, i call over a texas 10 and she rubs me down right.

hey jonesy, wanna do it?

set10 · 02-04-2007, 06:19 PM

usually i like to refuel and rest, but after yesterday's tournament I went to the hospital, got great news that I won't be playing vb for the rest of the season and drank my saddness away to the tune of roughly 15-20 Bud Diesel.

Why are ankles so DUMBBBB

jflo · 02-05-2007, 12:48 AM

Quote:

usually i like to refuel and rest, but after yesterday's tournament I went to the hospital, got great news that I won't be playing vb for the rest of the season and drank my saddness away to the tune of roughly 15-20 Bud Diesel.

Why are ankles so DUMBBBB

That sucks set10.

As far as helping recovery after a tournament, I don't have much experience as I just played in my first tournament ever yesterday. We started at 4:00pm and got done around 11:00pm. We ended up playing 13 games from start to finish. I drank .......... probably 3 and a 1/2 liters of water (I think 7 bottled waters that were .5 liter each) and I had 2 or 3 bananas. What's surprising is that I'm just about the same soreness as I am the day after my weekly league play. I thought I wouldn't be able to walk today!!

Good luck.....

jflo