Themarathon is the most fascinating competition for any runner, and in recent years it has reached a high level of popularity due to the large number of participants and events around the world. It represents for so many a goal dreamed of and sought sometimes for years. It definitely requires sacrifice and a lot of effort to complete. It is considered the queen distance and anyone who runs dreams of completing one. Who knows how many times you’ve thought about doing it and how much information you’ve researched to understand what it takes to be able to finish it with satisfaction.
Recovery after a marathon
But perhaps you’ve never wondered what you need to do instead the week following a marathon to aid recovery processes. Recovery is for many amateur athletes a great unknown, and sometimes the rest day is experienced so poorly that it is even considered a nightmare. Too often, recovery is measured only as the muscle soreness one feels in the days following a race or strenuous workout. But the reality is quite different. First of all, you need to help restore hydration and energy stores consumed in the race. Try to get a few more hours of sleep than usual to aid muscle recovery and rebuilding processes. You must then also very carefully evaluate the fatigue produced on the tendon part and especially on the cardiovascular system that has been forced into high exertion for many hours. This is important because the level of inflammation of some tendons is not always easy to perceive can lead you to underestimate the risk. Heart fatigue is even more complicated to assess. A few hours after the competition everything seems to be back to normal, but it is not. Post-marathon recovery also serves to give your circulatory system time to overcome the state of stress and fatigue to which you have subjected it.
What do you need to do to recover as quickly as possible?
So what should you do to recover full post-marathon athletic function as soon as possible while respecting your body’s needs and timing? Is it better to stay still altogether or is it better to choose active recovery using low-intensity workouts? In this case, is it better to start running again or is it preferable to use different disciplines?
Regardless of your performance level running a marathon puts a strain on your body’s balance in the days following the race. This happens all the time. Don’t think that running a marathon under pace as training or accompanying a friend is a walk in health. The energy required to complete a marathon is always and in any case very high. The earliest symptoms of muscle damage are soreness, swelling, and a noticeable reduced range of motion that can even go as far as difficulty walking. These immediate problems are always a limiting factor in athletes’ return to regular training. For this very reason, for both professionals and amateurs, optimizing post-marathon recovery time is critical. After initial studies in the 1980s, it had been concluded that absolute rest was the best choice. This is because running, even at low intensity, generates eccentric muscle contractions that produce additional fatigue. To avoid this risk, activities that do not produce ground impact such as swimming and cycling were used in the days following the marathon. These are two disciplines that are particularly suitable because they promote a return to activity without creating micro trauma in the muscles.
The clinical study
To explore this issue, the researchers selected a group of runners who were to run a marathon. The protagonists in this research were subjected to different types of tests both in the days before and after the event. The purpose was to measure two aspects: first, the muscle damage produced by competition, as measured by blood tests; and second, the level of muscle function as measured by physical tests. In the days following the race, the athletes underwent three different strategies: absolute recovery, active recovery with running workouts, and active recovery with alternative discipline without eccentric and traumatic muscle contraction (such as elliptical or cycling). Active recovery was in each case to be carried out at low intensity while keeping the cardiac effort below the aerobic threshold.
Results have shown that an active recovery strategy is preferable to absolute rest. Mild training allows blood and thus oxygen to flow within damaged muscle tissues promoting restoration of muscle function. On which activity to choose, no particular differences were found: running seems to allow faster specific recovery than cross training (use of other disciplines). However, there are other aspects you need to take into consideration. First, the timing. When is it appropriate to start running again? It depends on the actual muscle damage, which you, however, are unable to measure. There is an increase from two to four days required for recovery before starting again. What is the risk you can take? After running a marathon a compromised ability to run in a technically correct manner could exacerbate injury risks. To be safe then, my advice is to restart two days after the marathon using an easy session of an alternative sport such as swimming, exercise bike, elliptical, cycling, etc. And maintain it for the first week. Instead, from the following week you can gradually reintegrate running with short, low-intensity sessions interspersed with recovery days. The sure recipe almost always does not exist. You need a good sensitivity to understand the level of fatigue you have reached and a good endowment of patience to allow your entire organism (muscles, tendons, cardiovascular system, etc.) time to restore full function. Therefore, my suggestion is to practice targeted cross training in the first few days and then move through a gradual process to resume running with low-volume, low-intensity and full recovery days.
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