How to Prescribe Recovery Strategies for Athletes

Recovery is getting a lot more attention than it used to. Athletes now have more recovery tools available than ever, from ice baths and contrast therapy to compression boots, massage guns and wearables, it’s challenging to know which ones are actually worth using, and when.

The right strategy depends on the athlete, the type of training they’ve done, where they are in the season and what you’re actually trying to achieve. In her Sleep, Recovery and Performance Masterclass, Dr Shona Halson shares how to develop a recovery plan that works best for your athletes. This blog highlights a few tips from the Masterclass.

If you want to know exactly how a recovery expert develops recovery plans for her athletes, watch Dr Shona Halson’s full Masterclass here.

Start with the basics

It’s tempting for athletes to get caught up in the next shiny, new and (usually) expensive trend, but it’s important they’re hitting the basics – which also happen to be the cheapest recovery options!

The foundations include: sleep, rest and mental recovery as well as nutrition and hydration. Only once these foundations are in place does it make sense to layer in additional strategies such as water immersion, massage or foam rolling.

It’s a useful conversation to have in clinic. An athlete sleeping five hours a night but asking whether they should buy compression boots probably doesn’t have a recovery problem, they have a priorities problem.

Consider the goal

Another useful shift is thinking about why a particular recovery strategy might work.

Different interventions target different recovery mechanisms. Some primarily influence physiological responses such as blood flow, swelling or core temperature. Others target neurological factors including pain perception and muscle tension. Massage and mobility-based interventions may have greater biomechanical effects by influencing tissue stiffness or range of motion. Many strategies also have psychological benefits by improving mood, relaxation and perceived recovery.

That matters because two athletes can finish the same session needing completely different things. A marathon runner completing a long aerobic session has different recovery needs to a rugby player after repeated collisions, or a sprinter following maximal strength work.

Program recovery like you do training

One of the simplest take-home messages is that recovery should be prescribed with the same thought as exercise.

Before recommending any intervention, consider:

• What phase of training is the athlete in?
• Is the priority recovery or long-term adaptation?
• What type of training created the stress?
• What is the athlete actually recovering from?
• What practical constraints exist, including time, facilities and environment?

The answers to those questions should support recovery decisions. See Shona explain further in this clip from her Masterclass:

What about ice baths and heating therapies?

Social media often presents it as a yes-or-no question: either everyone should be doing ice baths or nobody should.

For endurance training, the evidence is generally positive. In one study of cyclists completing a period of high-intensity training, the group who completed ice baths three times per week improved their performance more than the control group.

Resistance training is where things become more complicated. Some research suggests regular cold water immersion after resistance training may reduce strength gains. However, it’s important to consider who those studies were conducted in; very few involved elite athletes. Interestingly, when looking at research in trained athletes, those negative effects largely disappear. However, in most of these studies athletes weren’t using cold water immersion immediately after resistance training sessions, so this is something to keep in mind.

What does it all mean? Rather than asking whether ice baths are good or bad, think about when they’re being used. They appear to have a place following endurance training and during periods where the priority is recovering for the next performance. Following resistance training aimed at building strength or muscle, it may be worth being a little more cautious until we have stronger evidence. And as with anything, we should be taking athlete preference into account as well.

Shona highlights that we still don’t know much about heating therapies (e.g. saunas), and they may not always be considered recovery strategies in the same way. She explains this further in the clip from her Masterclass:

Wrapping up

Recovery shouldn’t be treated as something athletes simply do after every session. Like training itself, it should be planned and tailored to the athlete.

As with any aspect of performance, context matters. If we start treating recovery with the same thought and planning as we do training, we’re much more likely to make a meaningful difference.

Want to learn exactly how to do this? Watch Shona’s full Masterclass here.