Running Muscle Recovery Tips for Athletes and Recreational Runners Alike
Running is a great activity. Whether you run for the exhilaration of the exercise or you are a competitive athlete, you most likely already know about the benefits of running for your health and fitness.
What runners don’t typically know, however, are the best ways to recover from this incredibly taxing activity. Running recovery tips for athletes and recreational runners are very similar. There are plenty of old, outdated guidelines for running recovery that are confusing many runners today, especially those who want to minimize the amount of time they have to wait between runs.
Best Practices for Running Recovery
For many runners, tight and swollen muscles are a serious problem that can prevent them from running as often as they wish. Traditional wisdom holds that ice and lots of rest are among the best running recovery tips for athletes and recreational runners. However, scientific research into the impact of icing on the body has shown that icing is actually not as effective as one might think, and it can even be harmful to the recovery process.
Dr. Gabe Mirkin, who created the commonly-repeated acronym, RICE, to represent the traditional rest, ice, compression, and elevation treatment method for athletic injuries, concluded recently that ice is not an effective way to treat muscles that are strained due to athletic performance. Dr. Mirkin’s new recommendation is based on a summary of over 20 different scientific articles published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine, which found almost no evidence showing that ice or cold treatments helped with athletic recovery when used in combination with compression.
For runners, this means that -recovering those aching ankles and tendons using ice might be a waste of time. In fact, some research shows that using ice might even delay the muscle healing process, making recovery time between runs even longer. Instead of using these older methods of muscle recovery, there are some modern techniques that are recommended by numerous scientists and exercise professionals to help runners recover more quickly.
Modern Techniques for Running Recovery
Runners who are looking to recover as quickly as possible should look into the best methods of compression for them, as this treatment helps stimulate the healing process in the affected areas. Stretching and range of motion exercises can also be helpful.
Another excellent way for runners to help minimize their downtime between runs is by using a muscle recovery device like the Marc Pro and Marc Pro Plus. These recovery tools work by creating a gentle muscle contraction that sets off a series of reactions in the body making it easier for the body to move waste out of the afflicted area and move nutrients in.
Because of all the muscles, tendons and ligaments that are worked while running, the Marc Pro or Marc Pro Plus can be the perfect tool to help you recover faster. By following modern running recovery tools, you can spend more time partaking in runs that will help you improve your fitness and be more competitive in your chosen athletic field.