Walk – Don’t you dare laugh! Long walks can be one of the best tools in combating soreness after a difficult workout or competition. By getting your blood flowing to sore joints you are actually working to repair them faster than if you were to lie around the house in the supine position, munching on potato skins. Enjoying a 1-2h walk can help eliminate lactic acid and, if it’s sunny out, get us some of the vital Vitamin D we need for helping us to absorb calcium.

Elliptical – It’s not always sunny out and sometimes we are in too much pain to hit the concrete. One of the best ways to get a low-stress workout is the elliptical trainer at your local gym. The elliptical allows for athletes to mentally relax while still achieving their goals for active recovery. Some people enjoy reading a magazine while pumping out reps with their legs and arms – a great all-body workout that doesn’t

Lift – Feeling a slight muscle strain might be the last thing your body wants to encounter, but like the exercises before, it can be enjoyable and get blood flowing to the muscles you want to recover. Elite athletes have been known to get in tough lifts the day after competition to ensure that their body responds to adversity by repairing itself quickly. Even the weekend warrior wants more from their exercise regime and can understand the impulse to maximize output.

Maybe the biggest benefit of active recovery is psychological. You’ve just released tons of endorphins in competition and taking a break can sometimes lead to gloomy feelings of guilt. By recognizing your body’s need to replace those endorphins, you are keeping a healthy mind alongside a healthy body. And let’s face it: You can always find time to crash on your couch!

Athletes have been practicing carbo loading since the late 1960s. But what’s the big deal with carbo loading? What the heck is it? Why do it? Is it really worth the effort?

The short answer is that carbo loading enhances endurance performance by increasing the amount of glycogen in the body. More glycogen (Carbohydrates) stored in the muscles and livers equates to more energy at an athlete’s disposal.

The benefit? You’ll last longer in an extended endurance event!

In practice the body normally has enough Glycogen for events up to 90 minutes in duration. But if you are doing an extended event like a Marathon, there are some obvious benefits to extra glycogen stores.

So how does one carbo load? There are various carbo loading practices, which have changed over time with new Scientific findings. These are elaborated on at great length in an article I discovered the other day titled The evolving art of carbo-loading.

A Swedish physiologist named Gunvar Ahlborg was the first to introduce some scientific basis to the fact that the muscles and liver are able to store above-normal amounts of glycogen when high levels of carbohydrate consumption are preceded by severe glycogen depletion.

The stress of severe glycogen depletion triggers an adaptive response by which the body reduces the amount of dietary carbohydrate that it converts to fat and increases the amount of carbohydrate that it stores in the liver and muscles as glycogen -a phenomenon Ahlborg referred to as glycogen supercompensation.

From his findings he developed The Ahlborg method:

Perform an exhaustive workout one week before a long race (90 minutes-plus).

Consume a very low-carb diet (10%) for the next 3-4 days while training lightly.

Consume a very high-carb diet (90%) the next 3-4 days while continuing to train lightly.

Endurance athletes around the globe began to use Ahlborg’s carbo-loading plan prior to events anticipated to last 90 minutes or longer.

While it worked, it had its share of drawbacks. Many athletes weren’t keen on performing an exhaustive workout just a week before a big race. Also maintaining a 10 percent carbohydrate diet for three or four days carried some nasty consequences including lethargy, cravings, irritability, lack of concentration and increased susceptibility to illness.

Fortunately research later offered an alternative method that increased glycogen storage without first depleting it.

The no-depletion method came onto the scene:

Perform a long workout (but not an exhaustive workout) one week before race day.

Eat normally (55-60% carbohydrate) until three days before a longer race.

Eat a high-carb diet (70%) the final three days before racing while training very lightly.

The method was more pleasant to athletes and carried fewer of the risks associated with the Ahlborg method. Athletes were no longer required to perform a long depleting workout a week before a big race!

However, in 2002, however another method was devised by scientists at the University of Western Australia. This was perhaps the easiest method of all to follow as it only involved one day of preperation:

During the pre-race week, eat normally while training lightly until the day before a longer race.

On the morning of the day before the race, perform a very brief, very high-intensity workout. (In testing this consisted of two and a half minutes at 130 percent of VO2max (about one-mile race pace) followed by a 30-second sprint).

Consume 12 g of carbs per lb. of body weight over the next 24 hours.

The result? A 90-percent increase in muscle glycogen storage!

The method works best if preceded by a proper taper – several days of reduced training with the purpose of rendering your body rested, regenerated and race-ready.

So when should you use Carbo Loading?

Carbo-loading in general has been shown to enhance race performance only when athletes consume little or no carbohydrate during the race itself. If you do use a sports drink or sports gels to fuel your race effort – as you should – prior carbo-loading probably will have no effect. But it doesn’t hurt to do it anyway, as insurance.

Article Link:

• The evolving art of carbo-loading