Six Quick Recovery Tricks to Get You Back On the Bike

Posted by tan xiao yan on

Becoming a better rider isn’t just about what you do on the bike. Everybody’s heard it said that recovery is as important as training. If you start your next ride when you’re not completely recovered, your body is at a disadvantage and you’ll be more tired and gain less from each workout. Looking at what you can optimize the adaptation process while you’re off the bike. But, recovery isn’t just about sitting on the couch with your legs up. It’s also about not going hard all the time and using days off wisely. Tricks like low-intensity rides and massage allow your muscles to benefit from all the work you’ve put in. Here’s how to maximize every minute you spend in and out of the saddle, making you recover quickly from cycling.

Rest Up
Rather than riding hard continually until you feel exhausted and then having to take a few days off, it’s best to have planned rest days. In a comprehensive training plan, rest usually doesn’t mean to do nothing. fact, many coaches prefer low-effort workouts to total rest on off or easy days to get the blood circulating and reduce inflammation so you’re primed for your next ride. Meanwhile, a rest day could mean a two-hour easy ride on flat roads.

Another form of active rest is to cool down after the ride at the end of a long or hard effort. Easing up on the pedals enhances blood flow to help flush your legs of lactic acid (a waste product of exercise) and fuel your depleted muscles. Studies have shown that when cyclists do a 15-minute cooldown spin at their 30% VO2 max after a hard effort, they are able to perform almost as well 24 hours later on an identical strenuous workout.

sleep and take a nap Recovery

Sleep More
Sleep is super important. It’s a recovery tool that pro teams take seriously,­ and for good reason: When you sleep, your body produces hormones that are critical to recovery. Research has shown that getting just two fewer hours of sleep than normal can slow your reaction time. If you can’t get the requisite eight hours or so at night, try to fit in a daytime nap. Ideally, ride after a hard training session. It will aid recovery. A 20- to 30-minute nap boosts the release of growth hormone, which helps muscles rebuild as well as give you more energy for the remainder of the day.

Get a Massage
The Massage is an important component of recovery. It also reduces adhesions, or knots, that make movement less efficient and more painful. In a study on cyclists who got a massage on only one leg, biopsies showed greater muscle regeneration in the treated leg. Like a lot of this stuff, it’s important not just for the body, but for the head, too. If you’re getting a massage and stretching as well as using compression tights, for example, you know you’re preparing well for your event, and that’s a psychological bonus

You can buy a foam roller at most sporting-goods stores and use it after a ride or anytime in between. Rest your leg muscles and glutes on the cylinder and roll slowly back and forth, pausing and pressing into the sorest spots for 30 to 45 seconds. For hard-to-reach areas such as shoulder blades and other parts of your back, lean against a tennis ball on the wall.

Massage Recovery

Eating and Drinking
Eating and drinking during is the most important thing in a long ride. You might supply a banana or an energy bar per hour, meanwhile drinking about 500ml water per hour. Proper nutrition is paramount when you are training and racing hard day to day and week to week. From pre, during, to post workout intake, all have repercussions on how the body handles training/racing. Cyclists should make sure their bodies are getting the appropriate nutrients in every meal, at all times of the day. Maintaining hydration throughout the day by drinking roughly 2.5 liters for females and 3-3.5 liters for males is also important. Meanwhile, after a race or workout, you have 30 – 45 minutes where your “glycogen window” is open and you should consume a recovery snack that’s 3:1 – 5:1 CHO to Protein. So Make sure that you are well-hydrated and well-nourished all through the ride.

I suggest a nice sandwich, with a good protein you like (chicken is an excellent choice) and something spicy you like on a good hearty bread, something with lots of fiber. And a beer, of course, ideally an ale, not a lager (which eliminates most American-style piss-beers), and have your loved one rub your feet and calves. Then ride another 40 miles tomorrow. And the day after. Repeat.

food, nutrition recovery

Elevation Distances
If you bike at a moderate pace of 14 miles per hour, you can finish a 40-mile ride in the morning. If you need to recover from that, you should train more until 40 miles feels comfortable. Sometime you will get shoulder pain from being in the same position, or butt pain from the saddle, or hand pain from holding the handlebar. These go away fairly easily. So depending on the number of times you do those rides, you'll discover that you will not need more than 20 hours of recovery time once your body gets used to it!

cycling recovery distance

Wear Compression Tights
While runners and triathletes have embraced compression garments with enthusiasm, it’s less common to see cyclists donning them. But it does help accelerate recovery by allowing faster cell repair. So cyclists can choose to wear compression tights which can help to reduce swelling, fatigue, and muscle soreness after intense exercise. If nothing else, slip on some compression socks. The soleus (calf muscle) is called your second heart because it shepherds blood back to your chest. Compression socks accelerate that process, which in turn improves blood oxygen levels and subsequent recovery.

ride bike cycling

The importance of rest should never be underestimated because in the rest time your body gets stronger. The time spent off the bike recovering is as vital to a cyclist as the time spent in training. If you miss the timing to repair muscle damage, you can be left with more than just aching legs. Both proper rest and recovery are just as much a part of the process of getting stronger, faster and fitter as riding. Before you ride harder, use these recovery tricks to improve the quality of your training and racing, as well as of your body.