mrchristian

Some questions about post-ride recovery techniques...

Did a couple of searches, but came up short. I have been experimenting with ice baths lately and found that they are mind numbingly painful. I'm still going to keep at them (right now i'm not rocking much ice, just cold water which seems to be good enough) but I was interested in other recovery techniques as well. I have heard that elevating your feet is good, but can't find any information about this or reasoning behind it. I have a couple of questions:

How long should I sit in the ice bath?
How long should I elevate my feet?
Any other techniques that I can try?

waterrockets 

Chocolate milk, stretching, and sleep. And don't over-train! The next day, an easy mountain bike ride with some 10-year-olds.

merlinextraligh

1) If your sitting in an ice bath, you're way too dedicated.

2) the proffered reason for putting your legs up is to drain waste products out. don't know whether that's good science, but it does seem to help. I can tell you the opposite, sitting at a desk all day, makes your legs feel bad.

3) Massage/ self massage.

4) recovery rides.

5) Beer.

GuitarWizard

I've found that elevating my legs for 25-30 minutes seems to be sufficient, along with stretching....

Elevating as in, laying flat on the ground with my legs against a wall at like a 45 degree angle or something. Well above my head.

RT

Stretch, large Papa Murphy's pizza, chocolate milk, and an hour or two of Star Trek Voyager, CSI or Match Game.

condiment

I drink plenty of water, eat a banana, and make sure to get good sleep. Unless it's DOMS or overtraining related, soreness should subside within 24 hours.

Doctor Who

Forget all that miserable icewater stuff. Go for a long walk to a bar or restaurant on the outskirts of your neighborhood, have a drink, coffee or light meal, and then walk home. You move the legs, get the blood blowing, and you burn about the same amount of calories you would have if you'd taken the bike for a short recovery spin.

I'll do that any day after a long block of training and the day after, I'm usually back on top of my game.

Namenda

Wow, I thought I was the only person on Earth that actually liked that show.

wanders

I try to keep the self massage to a minimum.

curiouskid55

Warm down then low resistance-high cadence spin on a stationary trainer. About 20 minutes.

steaktaco

The stick. Srsly.

akaio

^-- Just what the doctor ordered.

Either that or doping with testosterone JK

But no really, others have had some good advice. Besides eating some food and moving the legs a little I like to elevate my legs and massage them a little. Supposed to help drain them, though I dont know how much I of the I believe, it does however feel good regardless.

botto 

bingo.


btw - to the OP. you need to alternate between ice cold, and warm water for that to work properly.

H82GOSLW

.....or Grey Goose on the rocks. Seriously, who takes ice baths? I've lifted weights for years and always had a good meal, a hot shower and some light movement/stretching after workouts and still recover relatively quick(although not as quickly as when I was in my 20s).

Naterider

Epsom salt baths deliver magnesium sulfate to your body to speed up recovery.

logdrum

How about love and/or sex?

chzman

HGH works wonders... just ask Roger Clemens

fix

I love the ice bath.

Of course, my (very original) nickname on the team is Iceman.

Draw your own conclusions from that.

botto 

are you of scandinavian origins? distant and removed? have a pale, somewhat bluish complexion?

FatguyRacer

Both are working fine for me. Not to mention almost 2 straight weeks of riding rollers everyday has really done wonders. I thought i'd be tired, but im not. The key is to not over do the time on the rollers and not hammer every day. I have 4 easy days, 2 hard days and 1 long endurance day.

gurana

So many possible conclusions to draw from such a statement.

fix

But somehow, you picked the right one!

Tri-FatBoy

Bingo! Long walk, some stretching also work.

SSP

L-Glutamine seems to really help my legs recover after a hard ride (i.e., hill repeats, group training ride, longer intervals, or races).

I've found that 5 grams of L-Glutamine, taken shortly after the ride in my recovery drink, helps a lot.

gurana