e quite often see our fast bowlers breaking down in lengthy bowling spells or fail to repeat the performance in the second spell due to body stiffness, fatigue and exhaustion.

We have also noticed our men’s hockey team going down consistently in third and fourth quarters during the well contested games. Usually there are two reasons for such dwindling performances.

Either the athletes are physically unfit or they need load management, proper rest and recovery after tough practice sessions and games. Rest and recovery is sometimes misunderstood by athletes and coaches who consider rest as fun time with family and friends.

Rest is an important element of physiological and psychological recovery. What is done or to be done during rest and recovery has become a topic of intense interest in relation to what interventions may enhance recovery beyond pure rest, from nutritional supplements to various other therapeutics. In the due course of this article we will learn the difference between complete rest and active rest.

We shall also have an overview of the recovery process, try to understand the importance of sleep in recovery, examine the popular recovery technologies, the nutritional supplements being used and medical interventions which play an important role in recovery.

The most common during training is a complete day rest. The need for a complete day of rest has been underestimated in its importance. Typically, a full day of rest is where one only does appropriate stretching and uses a recovery intervention but avoids external stressors, from heat to vigorous activities, that limit the repair and recovery processes of cells, tissues and organs. Over the past ten years, the use of complete rest has been combined with various recovery interventions that can enhance the normal recovery processes. A rest day is thus typically placed within a 7-day training and competition cycle. Remember that athletes are remodeling organisms. Rest, nutrition, and sleep are important parts of recovery and help in remodeling of the body’s structures and psychological functions.

The team management should therefore exercise strict curfew hours for athletes participating in tough competitions. Unfortunately, enforcement of discipline by the management is viewed negatively by our athletes who prefer late night outings and hang outs with friends during important international engagements. Active rest is different from complete rest as it takes many different forms and durations to allow the body to gain both physical and psychological recovery. Active rest usually takes place in the form of light sports and fun exercises that are organised by team management to relax the players.

One should be mindful of the fact that active rest can become counterproductive if the activities are not chosen with care. These activities can cause injuries. For example, the wrestlers who play basketball can sprain an ankle, or jam a finger. Thus, the activities used for active recovery need to be carefully considered.

The coaches and trainers need to understand that the science of athletic recovery has progressed significantly, emphasising the multifunctional nature of recovery and the importance of personalised strategies tailored to individual needs. Many practitioners are now striking a balance between training and recovery, using advanced tools such as heat rate variability (HRV), force plate assessment, workout log monitoring, and biochemical markers. These assessments guide personalised recovery strategies, allowing for targeted, evidence-based interventions that support both immediate performance goals and long-term athletic development.

Professional athletes should demand the enforcement of these recovery tools from foreign and local coaches, who charge millions of rupees from federations and boards and yet have little knowledge about these modern interventions.

Sleep is another vital component of recovery for athletes. Top sport performance depends on quick reactions and brain function at high speeds of movement. The effect of sleep loss and the difficulty of making it up in a day or two was reported in a classic study from the division of neuropsychiatry at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Investigators demonstrated that the body could adapt and recover quickly from sleep loss, but brain function is compromised in its ability to respond and takes much longer to recover from accumulated sleep loss. One can easily observe the sleep loss function amongst the cricketers, who despite enough skill fail to make correct decisions while executing a shot, or accepting a sharp catch, due to insufficient sleep. Research has also proved that 7 hours of sleep during the night is not enough for a professional athlete, and our athletes are getting far less sleep due to various reasons.

The modern day athletes and their development teams are now using different technologies and programmes to enhance the recovery process in athletes. Sometimes the cost of these new recovery intervention technologies exceeds the already shrunk budgets of player development programmes. The player development team must make prudent decisions about which innovations to invest in, how the players will be educated regarding their use, and what unit will implement and manage the technology.

Recovery technologies like dry and wet float, cryotherapy, bone stimulators, cupping, cryo-compression, hydro baths, photo-bio-modulation, pneumatic compression and compression garments are now in practice besides various massages, stretching, yoga and foam rollers. Let’s take a brief look into these technologies. The player development team must make a prudent decision about which innovation to invest in keeping in view the requirements of the game, extent of fatigue a player feels and the budget available. One of the most common and essential phases of training and recovery is stretching.

It focuses on movement ranges of motion and affects muscle and connective tissues. Static proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) and dynamic stretching are used to improve flexibility and help break up damaged lesions in recovery and it is the hallmark of treatment in physical therapy and athletic training. In the late 1970s, massage became the most popular recovery method. There are many types of massage including deep nerve massage, Swedish, deep tissue, reflexology and Shiatsu.

The important point to keep in mind is that only those massages should be used before participation in competition that enhance blood flow to the required body tissues, whereas post competition massages should be helpful in relaxing the athlete, and help him prepare for the next round of competition. A popular type of massage is foam rolling. It’s a kind of self- massage that has gained popularity over the past two decades. Foam rolling is also known as self-myofascial relax technique, Essentially, it is thought to help prevent muscle adhesions, help blood flow and reduce inflammation and soreness in muscles and joints.

Besides the ketogenic diet which has wide benefits for aerobic endurance, hydration plays a very important role in optimising the performance of athletes. I have noticed that our athletes are particularly ignorant of the concept of pre-hydration, and forget to irrigate themselves sufficiently before the start of competition. The players and coaches should also know about the role of nutritional supplements in the light of guidelines issued by WADA. The most effective supplements for athletes are protein supplements, creatine, vitamin D, omega 3, L carnitine, beta alanine, enough hydration and electrolyte drinks. In our conditions where such drinks and protein smoothies may be out of reach for athletes, simple lime water with a pinch of salt can do miracles.

A wide variety of sports medicine interventions also play a key role in the recovery process of fatigued athletes. These interventions include cryotherapy of cold water immersion, thermotherapy where heat pack and warm water is used to increase tissue temperature. Phonophoresis through sound energy and Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) are also in use to target specific tissues in the body of fatigued athletes.

Flotation therapies have also gained popularity in promoting relaxation and reducing stress amongst professional athletes worldwide. Wet and dry float are the concepts through which athletes attain sympathetic and parasympathetic balance and promote deep relaxation and recovery by eliminating all external stimuli.

The most common float therapy is wet float. Ideally, the wet float is accomplished in a tank where the environment is soundproof and dark to remove all stimuli. The tank or room must be big enough for the individual so that one’s body parts do not touch the walls of tanks while floating. High saline water content is used, allowing one to float with head above the water line effortlessly. This exercise quickly leads to a euphoric state of relaxation.Dry float has also gained popularity because one has to lie on a dry membrane filled with warm water that is then lowered into a twin sized bed. Thus one can float without getting wet.

There is no lid, so one does not feel encapsulated, as in some wet tank. Last but not the least is mediation and mindfulness. Various mediation types are used to reduce stress and help the athlete's mental and physical recovery. Athletes are greatly benefited through imagery, relaxation, music and self- talk.A physically fit and relaxed athlete is always more focused to give his or her 100 percent. It is therefore the prime responsibility of the athletic development team (coaches, trainers, physios, etc.) to ensure proper load management of the players during training and competitions.

Overstretching a player during injuries or fatigue has devastating effects on an athlete's career. Thus great care must be exercised by the athlete development teams to preserve the precious assets by understanding the concepts of rest and recovery in the best interest of the athlete.

sdfsports@gmail.com26 Sept 2024