In Recovery. How personal preferences are back in vogue.
The changing face of recovery in sport is bringing new challenges for clubs.
When I first started working in football, getting athletes to engage with any form of recovery practice was a challenge. The team I worked for still had a communal bath in the changing room which was filled each match with hot soapy water. There was not an ice bath in sight. Days off were, well just that, a day off. There was no requirement or suggestion it should be spent, at least in part, engaging in active recovery or, dare I say, meditation and journaling. When pilates was introduced as a form of active recovery the response of the squad was nothing short of mutinous. Football and sport more generally however has evolved. Athletes actively seek out new and novel ways to enhance their recovery and optimise performance.
The changing practises of athletes are reflected in the broader population. Recovery is no longer the bastion of sport. A whole industry has been built around services and interventions that help us be the best versions of ourselves. There has been growth in the number and variety of supplements as well as a better understanding of what a healthy diet looks like. Sports drinks, once a staple in almost every changing room, have been replaced with electrolyte drinks which help to rehydrate without the high sugar content. Recovery centres offer cold water immersion, infra-red saunas, and access to hyperbaric chambers (rooms with a high oxygen) whilst we all seek ways to improve our sleep score using apps and herbal products. One such business was highlighted in a recent podcast with Mark Bouris and Michael Hooper (the former Australian Rugby Union captain), see video below and link here to their website https://www.rcvri.co/en-au/.
The range of options purported to enhance recovery have grown faster than the research that supports their use. In a paper published in 2021, 80 sport scientists from around the world were interviewed regarding interventions they used in football (Soccer). I have linked that article here https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ijspp/16/12/article-p1804.xml which was written and published by friends and colleagues. There was no mention of hyperbaric chambers, infra-red saunas or cryotherapy largely perhaps because the research in these areas was still in its infancy and, perhaps, unable to show a measurable benefit. This is not to say they don’t work, more that the research has been unable to capture their benefits using traditional studies and the statistical models they employ. Anecdotally, however, the perception of athletes is that they work.
This leaves clubs in a quandary. The lack of recovery practises employed thirty years ago was because athletes felt what they were doing was working. If performance could be maintained after a day off spent at the bar (pub), why change? Athletes felt good and played well. In the absence of objective data to the contrary, clubs found it hard to change their mindset. Clubs face the same problem now, but in reverse. Athletes are more likely to engage in a range of recovery practises, many of which your club will not be able to offer and for which there is a limited evidence base. Some may involve supplements which, without the necessary batch testing, carry a risk of returning a positive result for banned substances. Others will require athletes to break rank with their teammates to pursue individual strategies away from the main training base.
Clubs have to adapt to this new landscape. ‘Recovery days’ will no longer be spent at the training base. Rather, athletes will be empowered to seek out interventions that work best for them and which, according to their personal wearable software, delivers the best recovery outcome. For some this will be active recovery, for others cold water immersion, hyperbaric chambers or a tailored dietary intervention. No club can offer all of these modalities under one roof. Some athletes will have access to recovery options at home which are unavailable at their club. Think home gyms, saunas, cold plunge, game ready, hyperbaric chambers.
As they say, everything comes back into fashion if you wait long enough. The same is true in recovery. As was the case thirty years ago, personal choice is back in vogue and clubs will have to find a way to let go of the desire to dictate what athletes do to optimise performance.