How to supplement your endurance training
David Goggin's once said, "We can’t control all the variables in our lives. It’s about what we do with opportunities revoked or presented to us that determine how a story ends." This rings true to the point I want to discuss with you all today. We can not control all of the variables in our life. But, what we do have control of is the opportunities' we can create by doing what is necessary to our training by supplementing it with other detail oriented work. What we do in the extra time is only going to supplement our training that much more.
So, what do I mean by supplementing your workouts with some detail oriented work? Simply working out 24/7 or endurance training 24/7 is going to lead to over use injuries and tight muscles and tendons. So, we need to be doing the detail oriented work to not only stay healthy but keep the joints and ligaments strong and able to withstand that stress of training.
Mobility Work
Mobility work is one of those little details that a majority of the population hates to do, yet is one if not the most important item on this list. Mobility work, works on your ligament and tendons, the small muscles. While mobility work can be tedious it is important to the health of our muscular system to do mobility exercises 2-3 times a week. Some of my favorite mobility exercises are:
Band passthroughs - Shoulder
Seated V Stretch both legs - Hip Flexors
Seated V Stretch single leg - Hamstring
Calf Stretch - Calf
Child Pose - Back
90-90s - Legs
Stretching
Stretching has gotten a bad wrap by some over the years by stating it can cause over use injuries. I am telling you stretching is vital to loosening up the body as well and making sure the ligaments, tendons, and muscles stay flexible. When we stretch we allow our muscle fiber to be taken through there full range and back to recover. This process creates a little elasticity in our muscle fibers allowing them to take the impact of exercise and have better recovery times. So, taking 20 mins to an hour out of your day to stretch, even during watching TV or making dinner will make a massive improvement on your muscular health.
Nutrition
Who have always heard that 80% of weight loss is your nutrition, while most of this is true if you are not putting in quality work in the gym or on the road it wont matter how perfect your diet is. But, nutrition is key to muscle growth, recovery times, and weight loss/gain. With nutrition there is a multitude of different diets and ways of eating to follow. I always suggest do what works best for you. Try something for a month if you do not see results or feel different switch it up, until you find something that works with your body and your schedule. In regards to how much you should eat I recommend a TDEE calculator. That this number it provides and subtract 500 calories for weight lose and 200-300 for a clean bulk without putting on too much fat.
Heat/Cold Compress
Heat and cold compress are a way I have personally been using to draw flood flow into the sore muscles to help repair them. Typically you have been hearing of people using saunas and ice baths, while these are effective ways not everyone has the money to purchase both of the items for use. But, there is some more budget alternatives that can provide a similar affect for a fraction of the cost to benefit your recovery period:
Ice Packs
Cold Water Circulator
Heating Pads
Warming leg massagers
Soft Tissue work
I am going to e honest here, soft tissue work is one of, if not the best thing you can do for recovery for your muscles, ligaments, and tendons but the one that hurts the most. If you are someone like me who has neglected deep stretching and soft tissue work for a while then your muscles and ligaments are going to be tight and when you roll them out it is going to hurt at first. Using items such as: Lacrosse balls, foam rollers, or Thera guns can be used to work on the soft tissue work. I recommend while your sitting around watching tv or right after a workout for 20-30 minutes to work on the soft tissue work and your body will thank you later.
In conclusion, you will be shocked in how many different ways you can supplement your training. Whether it is from recovery to working on mobility, getting that extra work in will help you in the long run gain stronger muscles, but also become faster and stronger. Follow the journey on Youtube and Instagram at BeginnertoIronman.