First XV Performance
  • Home
  • Get Started
  • About Us
    • Contact
    • FAQ
  • Products & Services
    • Semi-Private
    • Strength Camp
    • Simple Moves to Stronger
  • Testimonials
  • Blog

9/5/2018

A Recovery Workout Without the Expensive Stuff

0 Comments

Read Now
 
Recovery, it’s a word tossed around for, and from athletes a bunch. There is millions and millions of dollars spent on “the best” recovery methods and devices, some of which are about as useful as a DVD rewinder. For me there’s a couple of easy steps that should probably come before any of those. Number 1 is to get some damn sleep, I won’t get too deep into that topic here, because I wrote about it not too long ago. Number 2 is to get some movement in, yes rest is important, but to get some sort of light, focused movement in is going to be 100 times better than just sitting around. Everything just continues to tighten up the more you bum around.
 
Those that have followed me for longer than a hot minute know I play club rugby for fun, yes I am a little twisted, we all are after all. Any way, we played a match the last Saturday in August. Naturally, when you smash your body into someone else, you come away pretty beat up and sore. The following Sunday and Monday I went through a little movement to loosen up and feel ready for the week.
 
Well what did I do?
 
Here it is;
 
Foam Rolling/SMR
 
This isn’t going to solve all issues and this is no longer the mind blowing solution for everything that it was once thought to be, but it’s still good. Most of us can’t afford a massage to help get out some of that stiffness, so this is the option we need to lean on, and it’s still pretty good. I did a little work with the foam roller and some with the Accumobility balls from our friends up at Accumobility. Enjoy some of my facial expressions here and apologies for the brevity of a few of the segments of video.
 
-Calf/Achilles complex: Just find the sweet spot between the two of them and attack some of those knots, this was especially uncomfortable for me because my calf has been tightening up a great deal during matches recently.
 
-Hip rotators: Keep the focus of your rolling towards the middle to outer part of your glute, your tailbone doesn’t need to be rolled out, trust me.
 
-T-spine: Focus the rolling here on the back of your rib cage, if you find a spot go a little slower over it. Move the arms around to get the scaps to move and open up other nooks and such.
 
-Quads/Hip Flexor/TFL: I typically do this with my leg bent to help push some of the muscle belly close to the surface so I can give it some extra TLC.
 
-Adductors: Pardon the crudeness, but this usually looks like a monkey humping a football. Fellas, don’t roll too far up, you’ll figure out why. I usually give the VMO, small muscle on the inside of your knee, a little special attention when doing this.
 
-Feet: Those of you that are flat footed, join the crew. I like using the accumobility balls because they stay in place and really allow me to focus on particular areas of discomfort.
 
-Forearms: You’re all going to make the joke so just make and it move on. A focus of rugby is binding on your teammate’s or opponent’s jersey, requires a ton of gripping with the hands. This provides a little relief from all that the following days.
 
-Pec minor: There aren’t too many people that I know that couldn’t use a little soft tissue on their pec minor. I find this more effective than rolling around on lacrosse ball.
​

​Activation and Mobility
 
Now it’s time to gradually get moving. I do the following before I go through my light movements. I try to do these in some semblance of flow so I’m not constantly getting up and down. It’s not super important to do it in this order, it just makes it easier.
 
-Bridges x10
-Dead Bugs x5/side (Sick of these yet?)
-Floor Slides x10
-Hip Flexor Mobility x5/side
-1/2 Kneeling Adductor Mobility x10/side
-Quadruped T-Spine Mobility x5/side (Bench T-Spine Extension could work here too)   
-Wall ankle mobility x10/side (rugby boots aren’t always the most comfortable things)
-World Greatest Stretch x3-5/side (cue snap, crackle and pop)
 

Light Movement (Workout)

 
I’ll do 2-3 sets of 4 movements to shake the rest of the tightness and discomfort loose. Below is an example of what I would do.
 
Light Goblet Squats x8-10
Easy Inverted Rows x10
1-leg RDLS, LIGHT x8-10/side
½ Kneeling 1-Arm Overhead Press x6-8/side (and guess what? Yeah, keep it light)
 

A routine like this after a really intense training session or some sort of competition will help you recover a bit faster, so you can get right back after it for the next thing on the docket.
 
That’s all for today kids, remember, some movement beats the crap out of sitting around on your backside, even after a tough competition. Go out there and get after it!

Share

0 Comments
Details

    Author

    Jarrod Dyke, CSCS

    Archives

    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    July 2021
    June 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016

    Pre-FirstXV blog posts

    Categories

    All
    Fitness
    Food

    RSS Feed

© COPYRIGHT 2017. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • Get Started
  • About Us
    • Contact
    • FAQ
  • Products & Services
    • Semi-Private
    • Strength Camp
    • Simple Moves to Stronger
  • Testimonials
  • Blog