“Endurance, resilience and recovery” – thoughts from Graham Anderson at the Australian Open tennis 2017

Some thoughts from Graham – and some from Rafael Nadal – at the Australian Open Tennis in Melbourne ahead of the Men’s Final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Graham is there providing Sports Physiotherapy for the men in this Grand Slam Championships – as he does for several months every year on ATP World Tour events – men’s professional tennis.

Final Day:

“Its been great seeing all these 5 set matches here in Australia. These guys put themselves through a lot!

Nadal was quoted as saying “these kind of matches destroy your body, but that’s tennis and that’s special”

So if its just a 3 set match or even a single set with friends that leaves you hurting and in pain, maybe you should look at your resilience training, your endurance training and recovery. These are strategies that we focus on at Balance Performance.

Recovery may be the most overlooked aspect of sport and exercise. Improvements in fitness occur during the recovery period between your exercise sessions and not during the exercise itself. But if the stress you experience is greater than the time taken to recover from it, you will NOT recover adequately before the next workout, and your ability to adapt to/improve in subsequent workouts declines.

So what you do during the rest of the day(s) when you are not exercising is equally important as the exercise itself. The faster and more complete your recovery the more you will get out of your individual training sessions and the training programme as a whole will be more productive.

  • Refuel
    • refueling nutrient depleted muscles (absorbed more quickly from fluids than solid foods)
    • repairing cellular damage ( to repair muscle 20-30g of complete protein is often recommended)
    • carbohydrate and glycogen replacement ( ideally within first 30-60minutes). See our dietician Sophie to understand what this means practically to you as an individual with unique requirements and food preferences to maximize the rate of glycogen synthesis.
  • Rehydrate
    • Water is vital for many chemical reactions, including production of energy
    • Sweat during exercise loses body water that can affect cellular processes
    • Blood volume decreases, thickens creating a lower stroke volume, cardiac output and ultimately a decreased oxygen delivery.
    • The best rehydration fluids contain sodium, stimulating kidneys to retain water
    • Always check the colour of your urine, with a light colour indicating adequate hydration.
  • Inflammation
    • Muscle damage and inflammation are experienced as a consequence of hard exercise. This can lead to muscle soreness. Cold water or ice baths decrease the level of creatine kinase in the blood (an indirect indicator of muscle damage)
  • Rest after hard exercise means REST!
    • When you reduce the amount of training or exercise your body has a chance to recover, adapt  and compensate to allow/tolerate higher intensity and training loads. This is supercompensation above and beyond what you could previously tolerate
    • How much you rest depends on prior exercise load, level of fatigue, experience, acceptance, age etc
    • A balance in haemolysis and erythropoiesis ( degradation and production of red blood cells) is assisted by rest

So next time you play or train hard think on the above: do not assume that because the “Nadals” of this world only take a single days rest that it will be enough for you too. For more help speak to our team of dietician, sports physotherapists/osteopaths, and conditioning trainers at Balance Performance. Together we can implement these strategies to encourage your optimal recovery.”

Graham will be back next week but just because he’s the one at this particular World Class sporting event don’t believe he’s the only one to see. We have a team of sports physiotherapists and osteopaths with experience working with sports men, women and children at an elite/pro level as well as with recreational level. They completely understand the similarities and the differences between the two.

Call us on 02076272308 to book a session or ask a question about:

  • physiotherapy
  • osteopathy
  • podiatry
  • Running analysis
  • soft tissue therapy
  • massage
  • personal fitness training
  • sports strength and conditioning
  • dietician
  • women’s health and men’s health services
  • Kettlebells and general fitness classes
  • Pilates classes
  • Yoga
  • children’s Vojta therapy
  • neurological rehabilitation
  • AlterG anti-gravity treadmill

 

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