Forums >General Running>Recovery Question
Member Since 2008
For recovery, what works best for you? After a long run, an ice bath or a warm bath with Epsom salts? What do the experts say?
Pretty sure the experts can't make up their minds. I think putting legs in water is the main thing. If you can move around in the water aka pool, I personally find that really therapeutic. Alternating hot and cold or one or the other is good for the legs too. That's all I got.
None of the above. Maybe a little stretching immediately post-run, eat a good balance of carbs & protein, drink a lot of water, rest, maybe take a walk later in the day. Do a short, slow recovery run the next day.
Dave
This statement applies to most things you'd ask here.
Regarding temperature - what is always in my head is that cold is good for the joints, heat is good for the muscles. Either or both probably need some healing. You might experiment and see what works best for you.
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Active recovery is best for me. Walking is good.
If it's a race, walking around for 15-20 minutes post race and a short recovery run (no watch) the next day.
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your question is what works best for us for recover after a long run.
I rarely if ever have to recover after the long run. I always have to recover after intervals, and usually after a tempo run.
That said, i don't use either hot or cold water bath.
About the only thing that makes any difference for me in terms of recovery has to do with diet and making sure i replenish carbs and protein following the workout, along with a little warm down and stretching over the next day. Foam roller for the worst cases. Hydrating is so critical, it goes without saying.
I find ice baths help immediately after a race or really long run. Especially after marathons it tends to help quite a bit. Then hot later on maybe next day or two depending. There's a lot of mixed info out there but ice baths do tend to help for me at least. Stretching and foam rolling and all that helps too.
cold reduces inflammation. that's why you see elites in an ice bath after races, to reduce inflammation so they can recover faster. It goes to reason that after very hard efforts that cold is the way to go. However, the Long Run isn't supposed to be a hard effort.
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What does sport jester think?
5k - 17:53 (4/19) 10k - 37:53 (11/18) Half - 1:23:18 (4/19) Full - 2:50:43 (4/19)
I thought ice was no longer considered a good idea as it actually slows recovery. Of course, this goes back to the idea of experts not being able to make up their minds...
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5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
not bad for mile 25
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I agree the question is how come you are so sore after a long run?
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This is the debate that is becoming more mainstream. The argument against ice is that inflammation post run or activity is a key to recovery and adaptation. Some of the sports doc I work with are implementing active recovery, heat, electrical stimulation over ice. The trainers at the professional sports team in my town are still old school, ice baths etc. Those icing are doing it for shorter prriods of time. My wife had a knee replacement and they recommended a max of 10 min for pain and inflammation control after rehab. I am pretty convinced 5-10 min is enough if you truely are icing an area.
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This is probably heresy, but the body will do its own recovery if you let it.
It's good to mix periods of fairly easy movement with periods of rest with legs elevated.