recovery

Considerations for recovery of young athletes

Sleep: the human body and mind need sleep. We need considerable amounts of sleep especially as youngsters and young athletes. Lack of sleep is why we wake up cranky in the morning. Its one reason thousands of people wake up feeling ill on a daily basis. Lack of sleep leads to wasting of muscle tissue, increasing fatty deposits, stomach upsets, sleeping disorder due to habit forming, inability for proper thought processing and sensory observation, hallucinations and insanity.

Early to bed, early to rise may not make you wealthy but it will go along ways towards keeping one healthy. Human beings are designed to slow down and rest at nightfall and get up and move at sunrise. Don’t believe me, go camping without any technological convenience. See how early you wake up and how good you’ll feel resting and sleeping when you’re designed to.

Young athletes should try going to bed as early as they can make themselves. Try not to stay up late watching the late shows, playing video games, texting, etc. etc.

Eating: young athletes, so long as they are active and not overweight (rare amongst active youngsters, youth should be lean and if they are not then something is wrong in their environment.) should be shovelling down food. WARNING: McDonalds, burger king, Wendy's, subways,KFC, bakeries, candy bars and cereal are not food! The kids need calories to supply energy levels, and nutrients for their quickly growing bodies. Their bodies are breaking down through execise just like an adults and they need food to keep up with this process and keep ahead of it. Also, because they are growing, their hormonal output is out of control, they need calories to keep the vast chemical furnace of their maturing bodies keeping up with its natural output. Kids should not diet. They should eat healthy but unrestricted, or unrestricted but healthy. I’m always seeing fat kids at McDonalds, I seldom see fat kids eating fruit.

Water: human beings need water, most of the planet is water, most animal life forms are predominately water, adult, healthy human beings are about %60 water. Fruit juice, powerade, coffee, milk, milkshakes, cordials are not water. They’re sugar drinks. You need WATER. Drink more water and you’ll find you don’t require so much “sport replacement” drinks (sugar water).

You should be sipping water all day. Keep yourself hydrated and you don’t need to rehydrate so desperately.

The beach: I say the beach because its so usefull, but any outdoor place where you can relax (without mobile phones and laptops) will help you recover.

Here’s how you can use the great outdoors to help you recover from sport and training

Summer time beach: the beach acts like a great out door contrast bathing environment. Spend a couple of hours during the weekend at the beach. Warm up in the sand, cool off in the water. Warm up– cool down. Easy contrast bathing. The heat from the sand relaxes the muscle and drains tension, the tidal action of the ocean acts as a passive massage and pulls toxins from the body. The water floats the body and relieves it from the forces of gravity.

In the winter time, if you have too, dress warm (hot) then go polar bearing?. You’ll then discover the wow factor of outdoor recovery.

If there’s no beach but you are able to find some quiet park or woodland/wilderness area the air and atmosphere can do more for your ability to relax than you possible realize. The trick is to allow yourself to relax. Clean air, quiet, 2 things becoming more and more rare today. Seek them out .