Crack the Code to Unleash Performance and Optimize Rehab
Your heart beat races, a bead of sweat runs your neck as the chill of each individual hair stands on end from rush of excitement in finding a new line, setting a PR in the gym, or the chance of getting on the podium. It doesn’t matter our age, we all have a competitive edge that drives us. Some will be Olympic hopefuls while the rest of us athletically fight the sands of time to be as good once as we ever were. No matter where you stand on that spectrum here are a few ways to crack the code to unleash long term performance and optimize rehab.
I am Dr. James Werner and I have a passion for human performance. In my athletic prime I participated in USA Hockey National Select Festivals and competed at Nationals before playing at the Jr A level. After injuries cut my playing career short I turned to Strength and Conditioning where I had the opportunity to work with National Championship winning NCAA D1 Programs before furthering my education and becoming the Director of Sports Medicine at Crash Conditioning, a hockey specific training facility where I assessed, treated, and trained future and current NHL’ers. In that time I have created a system combining therapy and performance training to achieve quicker and lasting results helping these athletes spend on the ice and not in the training room.
The first secret to unleashing performance is having a support team to help you set realistic and attainable goals. The most successful teams I’ve been a part of consist of the athlete, strength coach, a medical provider with a sports background (DC, PT, MD, etc), and the sport coach. Together this team builds a program around the athletic qualities needed to improve sport performance. This program takes into consideration athlete’s biochemistry, neuromuscular and biomechanical systems as well as psychology will play a role in their development. Simply this means the training is set up into blocks of high physical stress to develop the muscular strength and power required for sport performance. As competition nears the programs transitions to speed and skill development to give you an unfair advantage on game day by decrease the risk of overuse injury and burnout. As you can see this easily takes a hard turn to science and complexity which is why it takes a team.
Realistically not everyone has constant access to a robust team but having someone you can consult with when you hit a road block can go a long way. Now fortunately access to things like apple watches, Morpheus, Fitbit, Whoop bands, and Aura rings is easier and more affordable than ever, giving you a virtual team member. When this health information used correctly along with developing body awareness you hack into the second secret for long term sustainable performance and health. Whether you have access to technology or not it is key to understand what stress and recovery are.
1) Stress/strain: this is a measure of how much of a toll the day took on you. These stressors can be anything from physical work, emotional/psychological stress, environmental exposure (extreme heat, cold or air quality), diet, lack of sleep, injury, etc. that move the body away from its comfort zone of homeostasis.
2) Recovery: This is the antidote to stress, it’s your ability to refill the tank from the previous days exertion aka restore homeostasis. Recovery methods can range from various manual therapies (chiropractic, physical therapy, acupuncture, massage), taking naps, saunas, hot or cold tubs, clean diet, deload week(s) in training, or recovery workouts.
Ultimately we need stress to develop stronger muscles, tendons, ligaments and to develop new skills, but if we are under stress for too long we develop excessive inflammation which leads to things like over use injuries, burn out, and poor performance. Inflammation has these affects by acting like furnace in the sense that more inflammation there is the hotter the furnace burns using up more of the bodies stored and consumed vitamins, nutrients and minerals limiting the body’s ability to repair, recover, and absorb the benefits of training. This is why monitoring recovery over the training cycle is vital. Here are 3 ways to monitor your own recovery.
1) Resting Heart Rate (RHR) is a measure of cardiovascular fitness and is to be taken in the morning when you wake up or a time you feel you’re calmest measuring the number of times your heart beats in a minute. As your cardiovascular fitness improves so does the functional capacity of your heart, the size of the vascular (blood vessel) network, as well as number and function of mitochondria (power plant of the cell). This means you become more efficient at supplying your body with energy which lowers your heart rate as well as improving your ability to recovery between reps as well as day to day. Over the course of training your RHR should decrease.
2) Sleep is your body’s greatest antioxidant. During sleep is when your body is able to mop up and remove waste as well as repair any muscle, tendon, ligament, nerves, etc. There are many factors that can influence the amount of sleep we get but understand that sleep is a priority when performance is the ultimate goal. Lack of sleep has shown decreases in aerobic output, increase injury rates, reduce immune function, and increase hunger with less self-control.
3) Knots and Trigger Points in muscles can be found when you do things like foam rolling or using a Thera gun. If you notice your muscles are more sensitive than normal it is because trigger points and knots are a protective compensation for overused and inhibited (not firing properly) muscles. Protection is the kryptonite of performance. When knots and trigger points are left untreated they lead to kinetic chain compensations in attempts to find new ways to stabilize and produce power to make up for the overused and inhibited muscles. Ultimately this has the most bang for your buck in the worst way as it increases the chance of injury and limits performance. To eliminate knots and trigger points consult your sports therapist (chiropractor, physical therapist, acupuncturist, etc) or strength coach to address the underlying cause.
From the weekend warrior in beer leagues to the professionals competing in world cups, it’s not just the competition but winning and performance that drives us. Don’t let your performance or rehab be handcuffed by not paying attention to the warning signs. Use the tools at your disposal and find a team that you can call on when before you plateau. To get your own Recovery Checklist contact Dr. James Werner at info@drjameswerner.com or click HERE to experience the new standard in Sports Performance Therapy.