Recovery strategies to implement when training/life stressors are accumulating and you're experiencing fatigue.
Stressors come in all forms, from general life stressors to the stress you experience when training, fatigue can build up quickly (both mentally and physically – they’re intertwined).
If you’re recovering effectively from all of the stress (and accompanying fatigue) you’re exposed to, then you get a positive outcome. If you’re not effectively recovering however, you can run yourself into the ground and negate many of the health and fitness benefits that you’re working towards.
So, since effective recovery is such a crucial part of seeing results (and functioning well on a day-to-day basis), what are some good ways to speed up your recovery when the stressors are accumulating and the accompanying fatigue is creeping up on you?
With new gadgets and recovery modalities popping up, you may think, for example, that booking yourself in for a few cryotherapy sessions is going to be the best way to quickly recover.
It’s not as exciting as the cryotherapy chamber, but focusing primarily on the simple health- and fitness-promoting behaviours that I regularly discuss is going to be the most effective strategy for a speedy recovery (and feeling your most energetic/best).
These include areas like:
Doing your best with those and want something more specific?
What’s the best thing you can implement when you’ve already built up lots of fatigue and really need help recovering?
It probably sounds obvious, but there’s a similar theme among many of the effective recovery modalities, and that’s their ability to help you relax.
A systematic review looked at a number of post-exercise recovery tools including active recovery, stretching, electro-stimulation, contrast water therapy, immersion, cryotherapy, hyperbaric therapy, compression garments, and massage. Despite the availability of all of these interesting and cool tools, massage ended up being the most effective for fatigue and muscle soreness. (1)
Why would this be the best for reducing fatigue? The subjects had a decrease in the levels of cortisol in their body (a stress hormone) and an increase in the release of beta-endorphins (involved in pain managements and stress relief and having ‘morphine-like’ effects). (1) (2)
So, it helped the subjects relax, and it felt good.
That’s a powerful recovery modality, as a shift towards a ‘parasympathetic state’ (rest and digest) and a positive change in your emotional state are key parts for physical and mental recovery.
Another important piece that helps with this recovery is mental detachment.
This is your sense of being away from the demands of your training, work or other stressor and not thinking about it. It helps restore your physical and mental ‘resources’ and is beneficial for your quality of *sleep! (*The best recovery modality). (3)
This could be some kind of meditation (like my favourite, ‘yoga nidra’) or something as simple as interacting with nature. Both have research on their recovery-enhancing effects.
Even just listening to some relaxing music has good effects on recovering from fatigue! (4)
Finding an activity that helps you relax, shifts you into a more positive emotional state and/or enables you to mentally detach from stressors is going to be a powerful recovery tool – you don’t need to fork out money for the well-marketed/expensive options.
But what about some kind of supplement you take when you’re going through a very stressful period, the fatigue is high, and you need something to help you deal with all of it and recover until you can make it over the hump?
This is where adaptogens may be helpful.
Adaptogens have been used by many different cultural groups throughout history. They’ve been used in traditional healing systems like Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda, and even by the USSR where they were used and studied to assist with the stressful conditions of space missions, sailors aboard ships and submarines, as well as pilots and sportsmen. (5)
What are they?
They are compounds/substances extracted from plants that essentially help you to adapt to, and tolerate, the stresses you’re exposed to.
How do they work?
These compounds trigger a number of pathways in your body that help you become more resilient to stress. They also help your body regulate your energy production processes and keep your body ‘in balance’ due to their effects on your stress hormones (stress hormones influence many of your important bodily processes!) . (5)
So how can they help?
They have been shown to have possible benefits for many stress-induced disorders like chronic fatigue, depression, anxiety, sleep issues, autoimmune diseases and chronic inflammation, colds/flus, cancer, heart disease etc. (5)
But what I want to focus on is their benefit for stress-induced fatigue and mental/physical performance.
Two examples of adaptogenic plants that are helpful here:
1. Panax and Siberian Ginseng:
Some of the benefits associated with the intake of these two types of ginseng include increased cognitive and memory functions (mental performance), improved sleep and fatigue, improving blood glucose levels and inflammation. There’s evidence that it can support your physical activity, weight reduction, mental health and fatigue. (6)
2. Rhodiola Rosea:
Traditionally Rhodiola Rosea was used for increasing physical endurance, influencing fatigue, depression and problems of the nervous system. It works on a number of hormones (eg. reducing levels of stress hormones) which may help improve recovery after training. (6)
“The inclusion of panax ginseng in the diet of athletes would help increase the body’s physical resilience and help the body recover between workouts.” (6)
Are they safe?
Neither of those plant adaptogens are associated with any serious side effects, and you can also have some confidence knowing that they’ve been tried and tested by billions of people over a very long time period. (5) (6)
There isn’t a huge number of very solid studies, but there is still a lot pointing to their usefulness in medicine, for handling and adapting to stressors better and improving areas like mental and physical performance!
How would you use them?
I wouldn’t use them all of the time as I think there is benefit to letting your body do its thing more often that not. But during very stressful periods, when life and training stressors are piling up and you’re accumulating fatigue, they could be a helpful aid. It may be effective in helping you recover as opposed to getting run into the ground. They may also be useful for certain illnesses and immune challenges, but that’s probably something to discuss with a doctor and nutritionist.
From strength training to work commitments, stress accumulates and a large amount of fatigue can develop. Being able to recover efficiently is crucial for successful health- and fitness-outcomes (as well as day-to-day performance) so incorporating and understanding strategies that help this recovery process is going to be very worthwhile. General health and fitness behaviours like good sleep, a nutrient-dense diet, positive emotions, smart training etc. should be the primary focus, but having an activity that relaxes you, makes you feel good, and can help you mentally detach is also helpful. Adaptogenic plants may also have their time and place!
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