Eric Paskel (of XFlowsion fame) is back in town and Heather and I have started taking his class every Sunday at Your Neighborhood Studio in Culver City. It’s been a while since we’ve done XFlowsion, but I’ve been running 5k’s so I thought his class would be a good supplement to my training routine. What I didn’t realize is how much his class would kick my ass. It’s now been 2 days since class and my entire body is still sore! Heather and I walked a 7k last night to help stretch out our muscles but I really wanted to get in a 5k run today, but I’m too sore to attempt it. So today I’ve been researching muscle recovery strategies for athletes. I’ve always known that some athletes do ice baths, but I didn’t know the exact reason why they did it. So I did some research on google and found a good article from the BBC: “Why Sports Stars Love Ice Baths“. The article says that ice baths drain blood and lactic acid from the veins because the veins constrict in the cold and when you emerge from the ice bath “new” blood rushes through your veins with oxygen to help muscle cells function better. Runner’s World also has a how-to article called “The Big Chill” that explains how to take an ice bath and the benefits from it. I’ll definitely have to try one.
There are also nutrition/supplement strategies for optimum muscle recovery. I found a pretty thorough article on Washington Running Report that outlines nutrition for optimum muscle recovery. At the end of the article they endorse a product called Endurox R4 which is a combination of electrolytes, protein, glutamine and other vitaimins - nothing too exotic. I might have to check it out.