If you read my blog posts, you know I am really big on recovery.  Recovery from workouts, athletic contests, a long day, whatever it may be, you need to recover from it.  I’m starting to get to the point where I feel your method of recovery is almost more important than your workout.

Last week, I spent time putting my body through different recovery methodologies that I’ve heard about.  I will talk about these three, two I had never done before.

Now understand these recovery methods are a lot like working out.  You have to start doing them on a consistent basis to feel the full effect.  You can’t lift a weight for one training session and be strong.  You can’t do these recovery methods and feel like a new person after one session.

Cryotherapy

This past track season, I was promoting ice baths to my athletes.  It was a way to promote recovery by hoping to reduce inflammation that was caused by the meets.  This cryotherapy does that and then some.

You stand in this big chamber wearing socks, slippers, mittens, and your underwear.  Cold air is then pumped into the tank where the temperature will drop anywhere from -160 to -220 degrees fahrenheit.  You’re in there for 3 mins max and then you’re done.  

My body temperature went down to 67 degrees.  They would like to see it down in the mid-40’s I believe.  This means I could probably go colder for my next visit.

Athletes like Lebron James, Usain Bolt, and Cristiano Ronaldo reportedly use cryotherapy.

I know I have butchered some of the description and will probably butcher the next part as to my understanding why this is beneficial.

With the rapid drop in temperature, your body thinks it is going to freeze.  It takes all the blood to the core to try and keep it warm.  Once you are done with the session, the brain realizes this and wants to send blood back out to the body quickly.  

The parts that are most fatigued will get the most attention first.  Thus, you have fresh blood going to those parts trying to help you heal and recover.

I definitely felt like I had done something, but I will need to do more sessions to really feel the benefits in my opinion.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber

You lie in what looks like a giant bag.  It is comfortable though.  They put an oxygen mask on you so you are breathing through that. 

You then breathe air that is 95% oxygen in a pressurized chamber.  Liken it to sitting at the bottom of a 20 foot pool.  To get to that type of pressure, your ears do some popping.  My nose was a little congested prior so I felt some pressure in my sinuses.  

Once they set this thing up, the bag inflates and you have plenty of room to move around if you need to.  The pressure in my sinus went away.

With the pressure and the oxygen, it has your blood cells carry way more oxygen than they normally carry.  With all that oxygen, it can help heal your body better.  Any areas that are slow to recover, this will help. 

It has been shown to really help heal your brain.  Think concussions and/or post traumatic stress disorder.  People who have these issues, recover faster and are able to focus, think, concentrate a lot better.

You are in there about an hour and a half maybe a little longer.  I just napped the entire time.  It was a little weird getting out of the chamber.  I wasn’t light headed or woozy, just felt different in a good way.  Wish I could explain it better.

For both of these recovery methodologies, I went to Restore in Dublin, OH.  I hope to talk with them more and establish a relationship for my athletes to have an awesome avenue for recovery.

RPR (Reflexive Performance Reset)

RPR helps address your nervous system and make sure it is firing properly.  If it isn’t, it doesn’t matter how strong your muscles are, they won’t do what they are supposed to be doing.

I practice RPR, but sometimes you need to go to someone to really perform it well on your own body.  I went to Dr. Tyrel Detweiler who owns Hybrid Performance and Wellness.  Tyrel was my instructor that taught me RPR and has been taking my training to the next level by helping me keep my body on track.

If you have an athlete who is an offensive lineman.  Tyrel also does lineman technical training.  Reach out to him if you want to learn better technique and what it takes to be a lineman at a high level.

I will continue to do my due diligence when it comes to recovery and keep you posted on how my progress goes.