Post game recovery. Post-Game Recovery: Essential Strategies for Optimal Performance and Injury Prevention

How does post-game recovery impact athletic performance. What are the most effective techniques for post-game recovery. Why is active recovery crucial after intense physical activity. How can proper recovery routines prevent injuries and soreness. What role does nutrition play in post-game recovery.

The Crucial Role of Post-Game Recovery in Athletic Performance

Post-game recovery is a vital component of any athlete’s regimen, including sports officials who often experience similar physical demands as players. While the importance of pre-game warm-ups is widely recognized, the significance of post-game recovery is frequently overlooked. A well-designed recovery routine can accelerate the body’s healing processes, reduce the risk of injuries, and enhance overall performance.

Why is post-game recovery so important? After intense physical activity, the body needs time to repair muscle tissue, replenish energy stores, and eliminate metabolic waste products. Without proper recovery, athletes may experience prolonged muscle soreness, fatigue, and decreased performance in subsequent games or training sessions.

Benefits of Effective Post-Game Recovery

• Reduced muscle soreness and fatigue
• Faster recovery between games or training sessions
• Improved overall performance
• Decreased risk of overuse injuries
• Enhanced muscle and tissue repair

Active Recovery: The Key to Optimal Post-Game Restoration

One of the most critical aspects of post-game recovery is active recovery. Contrary to popular belief, complete rest immediately after intense physical activity is not the most effective way to recover. Instead, engaging in light, low-impact activities can help accelerate the recovery process and reduce muscle soreness.

How does active recovery work? By maintaining blood flow to the muscles, active recovery helps remove metabolic waste products and deliver oxygen and nutrients to recovering tissues. This process can significantly reduce muscle stiffness and soreness in the days following intense physical activity.

Effective Active Recovery Techniques

1. Light jogging or brisk walking
2. Swimming or water aerobics
3. Cycling at a low resistance
4. Dynamic stretching routines
5. Yoga or gentle mobility exercises

For optimal results, aim to perform active recovery for at least 10-15 minutes immediately after the game. A light jog around the field or court can be an excellent way to start your post-game recovery routine.

Stretching and Foam Rolling: Essential Components of Post-Game Care

Stretching and foam rolling are two powerful tools for post-game recovery that can help alleviate muscle tension, improve flexibility, and reduce the risk of injury. Both techniques work synergistically to promote muscle relaxation and enhance overall recovery.

How do stretching and foam rolling benefit recovery? Stretching helps improve flexibility and range of motion, while foam rolling can break up adhesions in the fascia (connective tissue surrounding muscles) and promote blood flow to recovering tissues. Together, these techniques can significantly reduce muscle soreness and stiffness.

Effective Post-Game Stretching and Foam Rolling Routine

• Perform dynamic stretches for major muscle groups (5-10 minutes)
• Use a foam roller to target areas of tension, especially in the legs and back (5-10 minutes)
• Focus on problem areas such as hips and hamstrings
• Apply gentle pressure and roll slowly over each muscle group
• Hold on tender spots for 20-30 seconds to release tension

Remember to listen to your body and avoid applying too much pressure, especially on areas of acute pain or injury. Consistency is key – incorporating stretching and foam rolling into your regular post-game routine can lead to significant improvements in recovery and overall performance.

Cold Therapy: Harnessing the Power of Ice for Recovery

Cold therapy, also known as cryotherapy, is a popular recovery technique used by many athletes to reduce inflammation and alleviate muscle soreness. This method can be particularly effective after intense physical activity, such as officiating a long, high-intensity game.

How does cold therapy aid in recovery? When applied to the body, cold temperatures cause blood vessels to constrict, reducing blood flow to the treated area. This process can help reduce inflammation and minimize pain. As the body warms up again, increased blood flow to the area brings fresh oxygen and nutrients to aid in the recovery process.

Cold Therapy Techniques for Post-Game Recovery

1. Ice baths (10-14 minutes at 54-57°F)
2. Localized ice pack application (15-20 minutes per area)
3. Cold showers or contrast showers
4. Cryotherapy chambers (where available)

While ice baths can be highly effective, they may not be practical or comfortable for everyone. Alternatively, applying ice packs to specific areas of soreness or using contrast water therapy can provide similar benefits.

Contrast Water Therapy: Alternating Hot and Cold for Enhanced Recovery

Contrast water therapy (CWT) is an increasingly popular recovery technique that involves alternating between hot and cold water immersion. This method can provide a range of benefits for post-game recovery, including reduced muscle soreness and improved circulation.

How does contrast water therapy work? The alternating temperatures cause blood vessels to dilate and constrict repeatedly, creating a pumping effect that can help flush out metabolic waste products and reduce inflammation. This process can also stimulate the lymphatic system, further aiding in the removal of waste products from the body.

Implementing Contrast Water Therapy at Home

• Start with 1 minute in cold water (45-59°F)
• Switch to 1 minute in warm water (96-113°F)
• Repeat the cycle 3-5 times
• End with cold water to reduce inflammation
• Adjust duration and temperature based on personal comfort and tolerance

Contrast water therapy can be easily implemented at home using a shower with adjustable temperature settings or by alternating between hot and cold baths. As with any recovery technique, listen to your body and adjust the protocol as needed.

Nutrition for Post-Game Recovery: Fueling Your Body for Optimal Healing

Proper nutrition plays a crucial role in post-game recovery, providing the body with the necessary nutrients to repair tissue damage, replenish energy stores, and support overall recovery. Consuming the right foods and fluids after intense physical activity can significantly impact the speed and effectiveness of recovery.

What should you eat after a game for optimal recovery? Focus on consuming a combination of carbohydrates to replenish glycogen stores, protein to support muscle repair, and fluids to rehydrate the body. Timing is also important – aim to consume a recovery meal or snack within 30-60 minutes after the game.

Key Nutrients for Post-Game Recovery

1. Carbohydrates: Restore glycogen stores (e.g., whole grains, fruits)
2. Protein: Support muscle repair (e.g., lean meats, fish, dairy, legumes)
3. Antioxidants: Reduce inflammation (e.g., berries, leafy greens)
4. Electrolytes: Replace those lost through sweat (e.g., sports drinks, coconut water)
5. Omega-3 fatty acids: Support joint health (e.g., fatty fish, walnuts, flaxseeds)

Remember to hydrate adequately after the game, aiming to replace 150% of the fluid lost through sweat. This can be calculated by weighing yourself before and after the game and consuming 1.5 times the weight lost in fluids.

Sleep and Rest: The Ultimate Recovery Tools

While active recovery techniques are essential, the importance of quality sleep and rest in the post-game recovery process cannot be overstated. Sleep is when the body performs much of its repair and regeneration work, making it crucial for optimal recovery and performance.

How much sleep do athletes need for optimal recovery? While individual needs may vary, most athletes benefit from 7-9 hours of sleep per night. After particularly intense games or training sessions, additional rest or short naps (20-30 minutes) during the day can further support recovery.

Strategies for Improving Sleep Quality

• Maintain a consistent sleep schedule
• Create a relaxing bedtime routine
• Ensure a cool, dark, and quiet sleep environment
• Limit exposure to blue light from electronic devices before bed
• Avoid caffeine and heavy meals close to bedtime

By prioritizing sleep and incorporating it into your post-game recovery routine, you can significantly enhance your body’s ability to repair and regenerate, leading to improved performance and reduced risk of injury.

Mental Recovery: The Often Overlooked Aspect of Post-Game Care

While physical recovery is crucial, mental recovery after a game is equally important, especially for sports officials who face high-pressure situations and must maintain focus throughout long periods. Mental fatigue can be just as detrimental to performance as physical fatigue, making mental recovery techniques an essential component of a comprehensive post-game routine.

How can you promote mental recovery after a game? Engage in activities that help you relax and decompress, such as meditation, deep breathing exercises, or light reading. It’s also important to reflect on your performance constructively, focusing on areas for improvement without dwelling on mistakes.

Effective Mental Recovery Techniques

1. Mindfulness meditation
2. Progressive muscle relaxation
3. Visualization exercises
4. Journaling or performance reflection
5. Engaging in hobbies or activities unrelated to your sport

Remember that mental recovery is highly individual. Experiment with different techniques to find what works best for you, and don’t hesitate to seek support from mental health professionals or sports psychologists if needed.

Implementing a Comprehensive Post-Game Recovery Routine

Creating an effective post-game recovery routine involves combining various techniques to address both physical and mental aspects of recovery. By integrating active recovery, stretching, cold therapy, proper nutrition, quality sleep, and mental recovery strategies, you can optimize your body’s ability to recover and prepare for future performances.

How can you create a personalized post-game recovery routine? Start by incorporating elements from each of the key areas discussed, and then adjust based on your individual needs and preferences. Remember that consistency is key – the most effective recovery routine is one that you can stick to regularly.

Sample Post-Game Recovery Routine

• 10-15 minutes of light jogging or active recovery exercises
• 5-10 minutes of dynamic stretching and foam rolling
• 10-15 minutes of cold therapy (ice bath or localized ice application)
• Consumption of a balanced recovery meal or snack
• 20-30 minute power nap (if appropriate)
• 10-15 minutes of mindfulness meditation or relaxation techniques
• Ensure 7-9 hours of quality sleep

By implementing a comprehensive post-game recovery routine, you can significantly enhance your body’s ability to recover, reduce the risk of injury, and improve overall performance. Remember to listen to your body and adjust your routine as needed to ensure optimal results.

The Importance of Post-Game Recovery

You’ve been told time and again to have an on-point warm up routine before every game. Makes sense, right? You want to be properly tuned up to get ready for the demands of the game. But, what a lot of officials don’t know is that it’s equally important to give your body a chance to truly wind down after you’ve pushed it to its limits.

Depending on your sport, you may run around just as much as the players in your game do, so it’s crucial that you treat your body as well as the greats would. (5) With the right one in place, a great post-game routine will help your body recover even faster than if you didn’t have one. That alone is reason enough to do it!

Whether you want to improve your post-game routine, or if you don’t have one at all and aren’t sure where to start, here are some tips to get you thinking about crafting your perfect post-game session.

Don’t be a bump-on-a-log after the game

Active recovery after your game is imperative.

The worst thing you can do is stop moving. Yes, your game may last up to three hours. There probably were very few breaks in between. You’re tired, I understand – but you were built for this!

You’ve (hopefully) trained for this. If treated right, your body is capable of enduring strain and pressure that will only make it stronger, especially if you give it the best chance to recover properly. It will improve under pressure. Don’t let that scare you off from (safely) cooling downwith the right movement.

If you’ve ever woken up the day after a game stiff and sore, know that having an active post-game routine will help lessen and possibly even prevent that from happening. In the way that dynamic stretching is one of the best things you can do in a warm up, staying dynamic with your post-game routine can help with recovery and restoration of your muscles. 2

What can you do? Hit the field and run around it at least twice. You don’t have to take off in a full antelope-like sprint, nor should you be casually trotting. Simply jogging is enough. (3) By moving at a reasonable rate, you’re reducing muscle fatigue (aka: less soreness potential the next day).

Stretch, stretch again and roll

Maintaining flexibility is important for your in-game performance, but stretching and using a foam roller after your game is a very effective method to relieve some of your muscle tension, especially if you felt you were tightening-up during the game (4). You will need to release any built-up tension in your joints as well, so combining stretching with about 5-10 minutes of foam rolling will have your muscles singing their way to better results 6 and relaxation.

Not sure where to start? Many complain of sore hips and hamstrings (6), so focus on gentle rolling with not too much pressure on the backs of your legs and the sides of your hips. A little goes a very long way, so just a few minutes is all it takes to release any tension in these trouble-zones and also help prevent further soreness from building up over the next 24 hours.

Chill out

If the sound of getting doused in cold water is attractive after a game, you’re not alone. It’s natural to want to cool your body down after a lot of activity, but there’s actually science behind utilizing ice baths in your post-game (7) routine.

It works for the same reason putting an ice pack on a bump injury works – you want to reduce inflammation at the injury zone and, minimize pain.

Though opinions vary about how long someone should undergo “cold water immersion therapy” or “ cryotherapy” , the general consensus seems to be that putting yourself in an ice bath between 10-14 minutes at 54F-57F degrees is more than enough to treat and relieve soreness. 7

The first few minutes are the most difficult, but once you get used to it, you’ll find relief coming to sore or stiff areas.

However, if you don’t want to sit in an ice bath, then “Contrast Water Therapy” is another very viable option.

Contrast Water Therapy is essentially alternating between immersing yourself in cold water and warm water. (8) And it has been shown to have tremendous restorative properties as it helps your body slough away metabolic waste from your exercise.

When you put cold water on your body, your blood vessels constrict and then re-enlarge when you warm up again. This process alone helps your body push out the metabolic waste through your lymphatic system (9) .

How to do “CWT” at home? Try to stay in cold water (45F-59F degreest) for at least 1 minute and then switch to warm water (96F-113F degrees) for the same amount of time. 8 If you’re able, repeat this process a couple times. Just stay attuned to how you’re feeling. You can increase or decrease the length of this therapeutic time depending on whether it makes you feel better or if you’ve had enough.

References

1. O’Connor, Anahad. “The Workout: A Ref Keeps Up With March Madness.” The New York Times.
27 Mar, 2014.

2. Bird, S.P. “Sleep, Recovery, and Athletic Performance: A Brief Review and Recommendations. ”
Strength and Conditioning Journal. Oct 2013.

3. Devlin, J, et al. “Blood Lactate Clearance After Maximal Exercise Depends on Active Recovery Intensity.”

Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness. Jun 2014.

4. Torres, Rui., et al. “Effects of Single Bout Versus Repeated Bouts Stretching on Muscle Recovery
Following Eccentric Exercise.” Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. Nov 2013.

5. Fox, Kit. “The Running Resume of a World Cup Soccer Referee.”

Runner’s World. 15 June 2018.

6. Mohr, A.R, et al. “Effects of Foam Rolling and Static Stretching on Passive Hip-Flexion Range of Motion.”

Human Kinetics Journals, 2014.

7. Elias, G., et al. “Cold Water Immersion Is The Most Effective For Recovery of Repeat Sprint Ability and Reducing Fatigue Post an Australian Football Game.”

Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. 2010.

8. Bieuzen, Francois., et al. “Contrast Water Therapy and Exercise Induced Muscle Damage: A systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. ”

Public Library of Science. 23 Apr, 2013.

9. The Lymph System, U.S National Library of Medicine, MedlinePlus

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The Importance of Post-Game Recovery Strategies for Soccer Players –

Imagine running a distance of 8-12 miles at a moderate to high intensity in 90 minutes, while playing a game where even a single play could be the difference between winning and losing for your team. This is the level of exercise and athletic ability required of soccer players. So it is no surprise that this aerobic and anaerobic workload places a high demand on a player’s musculoskeletal, cardiac, and central nervous systems. For this reason, recovery is extremely important for a player following a soccer match so that performance can be maximized in future matches, risk of injury is reduced, and the overall accumulative fatigue experienced throughout a soccer season can be managed.

Physical therapists at HSS work closely with athletic training staff to address the immediate needs of a player after a match, including:

• Managing musculoskeletal injuries, like strains, sprains and contusions;
• Using icing and compression techniques to reduce pain and swelling, and encourage muscle recovery;
• Using joint mobilization techniques and manual and massage therapy to restore full range of motion before a player returns to high-level training.
• Provide rehab and exercise programs for athletes to promote recovery from injury, returning them not just to their previous level of function, but stronger as well.

Recovery starts as soon as the game is over. While there is great emphasis on warming up before a game, we often neglect the cool down after the game. A series of static stretches can be done as a team and should focus on the quadriceps, hips, hamstrings, and calves. After the immediate recovery, you can consider an active recovery later that day or the next day. These activities can include aquatic exercise, light aerobic exercise, regenerative yoga, or other low-impact activities to increase circulation and decrease muscle soreness. The body needs some assistance to promote recovery. These areas typically focus on three main categories: hydration, nutrition, and rest.

Hydration: It is important to ensure that players adequately replenish fluid and electrolytes that were depleted during a match. Although the amount of fluids required for recovery varies from player to player, it is vital that each individual re-hydrates back to their baseline level following training sessions and matches.

Nutrition: Proper nutrition allows glycogen that is depleted during a soccer match to be restored. High quality carbohydrates and protein are important immediately after a game to help rebuild and repair muscle damage. For high effort matches that require quick recovery, aim for a snack or small meal with easy-to-digest carbohydrates and a moderate amount of protein within 30 to 60 minutes, such as a smoothie, sandwich, yogurt and fruit, or chocolate milk.  Continue to eat well-balanced meals throughout the rest of the day.

Rest: Although players may have difficulty unwinding after the intensity and thrill of a soccer match, a good night’s sleep is essential for the body to recover and for muscle rebuilding and regeneration to occur.

While these core recovery techniques are essential to a player following a match, it is also extremely important for trainers and athletic staff to understand that each player is different and so is his or her optimal recovery strategy. The player, medical staffs, and coaching staffs must all work together to maximize recovery, maintain high-level performance, and reduce the risk of injury.

Updated March 25, 2020

The Best Post-Game Foods For Athletes and When to Eat Them

You just played the game of your life. After working out and training for weeks and weeks, you left it all on the field, exhausting every ounce of your energy to try and win the game.

But your work doesn’t stop there.

Post-game recovery and nutrition can be just as important as your pre-game preparation, especially if you want to have the energy to get back out on the field again. Your body needs the right nutrients to power you through the next practice, next game, next drill, or your next workout.

“Recovery nutrition is probably the topic athletes ask me about most,” says Ryan Turner, R.D., C.S.S.D., C.D.N., a sports dietitian at New York University and Top Balance Nutrition in New York City. “I see many athletes working out and doing a great disservice to themselves by not optimizing their nutrition after they play and after they train.”

So what should you eat and drink after the big game—and when?

“Your muscles are like a sponge once a workout or game is finished,” Turner says. “They’re ready to soak up carbohydrates to refuel your body and protein to repair your lean muscle. Rehydrating is just as important as eating, so water needs to be part of anyone’s recovery plan too.”

Here is a guide to some of the best food and drink options for athletes after the big game to help recovery and the best times to consume them.

Right After the Game

“Eating within 30-60 minutes after your workout or game will support optimal recovery,” Turner says. “If you’re eating a meal within this time, there isn’t a need for any powder, pill, bars or shakes. One of my best recommendations is Mexican food. Eating a burrito or burrito bowl provides complex carbs to refuel your muscles and protein to rebuild your muscles. But I recommend minimizing the higher-fat add-ons like guacamole, sour cream, and cheese—high-fat foods will slow the recovery process.”

Meal Options

Burrito or Burrito Bowl: Made with rice, beans, vegetables, and protein—Turner recommends chicken breast, sirloin, or tofu.

Sandwich: Made with a protein (chicken breast, sirloin, or tofu) and lettuce/tomato.

Best Post–Workout Snack Options

If you don’t have the time to get a meal after the game because of a long commute or other obligations, don’t worry, there are other options too. “You can always reach for a snack that contains carbohydrates and protein,” Turner says. “These are easy options—there’s no excuse to miss your recovery foods.”

– Pretzel chips with hummus
– Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich
– Dried edamame with a piece of fruit
– Low-fat greek yogurt with honey
– Tuna with saltines
– Chocolate milk

Alternate Post-Workout Snack Options

When there are those times when real food or a substantial snack is not practical, here are more options Turner recommends for a quick and easy recovery:

– Whey protein shake with a banana
– Clif Builder’s Bar
– RxBar

For Hydration Right After the Game

“To round out the recovery for right after the game, you need to be rehydrating with water,” Turner says. “Everyone’s amount for optimal re-hydration varies, but generally, 16 oz for every pound lost is ideal for athletes. It’s possible to lose 2-3 pounds of sweat during intense games and practice sessions. Try weighing yourself once before and once after to figure out your sweat rate. There is a place for sports drinks at this time with intense exercise over 60 minutes—they are formulated for optimal hydration. With that said, your foods will provide electrolytes like sodium and potassium.”

1.5–2 Hours After the Game

“At this point, if you were able to get a meal in earlier, then it’s time for a snack,” Turner says. “But if you were only able to work in a snack, it’s time for your meal. Opt for a carbohydrate-rich dish with a quality protein source for help your recovery move along smoothly.”

Best Meal Options for 1.5–2 Hours After the Game

– Grain bowl with salmon
– Chicken burrito (hold the sour cream and cheese)
– Salmon and tuna sushi rolls (easy on the spicy mayo) with edamame
– Turkey burger with a side bean salad
– Prepared salad with double protein and a liberal addition of beans and corn (choose an olive oil based dressing)

“If it helps, visualize an ‘athlete’s plate’ of 1/2 whole grain starch, 1/4 lean protein, 1/4 vegetable and fruit,” Turner says.

Pro Tip: “At this point you should have had the water necessary to be rehydrated,” Turner says. “If you’ve lost three pounds of sweat during the workout, 1.5 liters of water (16 oz per pound) can be challenging. Just take rehydration slow and time it out and that should normalize your body.”’

3–4 Hours After the Game and Meals Later On

“Eating every 3-4 hours is a good practice for anyone to optimize metabolism, maintain energy, and control food cravings,” Turner says. “For an active person, for an athlete, this is necessary. At this point you’ve worked hard to refuel your body with carbohydrates—it will be important to keep it as a component of your meals but doesn’t need to be the largest focus. At this point in the day, you should keep thinking about the ‘athlete’s plate’ for food with half vegetables or fruit, a quarter of lean protein, and a quarter of whole grain starch.”

Best Meal Options for 3–4 Hours After the Game

– Stir fry with fresh vegetable and slices of sirloin over brown rice (Note: One to two cups of rice respective of body size will be ideal)
– Red or green Thai curry with jasmine rice (Note: To-go rice containers hold about two cups – if you’re a smaller athlete, keep to half the amount. Larger athletes can opt for the full offering.)
– Chicken fajitas with whole wheat tortillas
– Turkey chili topped with avocado and low-fat greek yogurt.

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Post game recovery for baseball players & competitive athletes

The bottom line is you want to know how to get through a baseball season feeling good, throwing hard, and injury-free… right?

We’re going to dive into the do’s and don’ts of post game recovery. ****Link to resource list is at the bottom****

#1 Worst approach to post game recovery

Many studies have shown that, when compared to other alternatives, passive recovery is by far the big loser.

Because blood circulation and muscle activation are critical for the healing process, sitting around is the worst thing you can do for your body immediately after intense exercise.

Unknown

• Topical icing (ice packs)

Icing is still very popular with MLB players.

The scientific literature is very undecided. Some show mild benefits, some show no benefit, some show it actually delays healing (We’re going to tackle this controversy in another email).

Washington Redskins offensive tackle Jon Jansen, left, and center Casey Rabach, soak in an ice bath following football training camp in Ashburn, Va., Monday, July 30, 2007. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Good

• Cold tub or Cold Water Immersion Therapy (CWI)
• Contrast immersion therapy

Ask just about any pro athlete who uses these therapies and they’ll tell you without a doubt it makes them feel better.

Study results don’t always agree, but overall evidence that shows CWI has most noticeable effect on DOMS (soreness) and also helps with the recovery of muscle power.

It’s worth noting that some the credit for effectiveness goes to hydrostatic pressure (as opposed to temperature effects on the body).

Better

Wearing compression garments after intense exercise decreases DOMS and improves muscular strength, power and decreased blood markers of muscle injury.

Personally, I’m a huge believer in using compression garments for recovery. I sleep in my 2XU compression leggings every night. And they make an arm compression sleeve too.

The most well-documented benefit of active recovery is the alleviation of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).

But active recovery goes way beyond alleviating soreness. A major 2015 study showed the active recovery group recovered faster and performed better in every category when compared against a Cold Water Immersion group.

This is probably because 3 of the 4 main components in muscle recovery & repair are completely dependent on muscle movement.

***WARNING*** It’s important to point out that active recovery that is done improperly or is too intense is actually counter-productive and worse than doing nothing at all.

Between 4 and 15 minutes light cardio (such as a stationary bike or light jog) at no more than a 25% effort level is recommended.

Best

The best trainers use a smart combination of recovery aids for the best results.

From Yankees trainer Lee Tressel – “A typical routine for our guys would be coming out of the game and completing some light cardio followed by light shoulder exercises and light stretching, then at that point the pitcher would either ice or not ice.

Either way the most important thing comes next which is to rehydrate and get some form of recovery nutrition in the body which could be a sports drink, protein shake or other recovery formula.

Letting the body rest and recover, getting the proper nutrition with meals and getting good sleep would be the other factors the pitcher needs to focus on throughout the rest of the day.”

• Electrical muscle stimulation devices (EMS)

Muscle stim devices have an impressive body of scientific evidence on their side.

Basically, EMS uses the principles of active recovery while eliminating many of the constraints and drawbacks. The results have been pretty amazing.

The particular one I have used and trust is the Marc Pro, which is currently being used by 27 of the 30 Major League teams (and we have a discount code for you to use ?).  If you want to learn more about it, I suggest the following:

And if you decide you need a Marc Pro for your facility or at home, use this code to get 5% off:  pbirecover

Hope this helps. Stay healthy!

Doug & Sarah Bernier

P.S. Click here to see all the sources used in this post

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***IMPORTANT*** Questions about personal health should always be referred to a physician or other health care professional. Nothing in this post should be used as medical advice.

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Soccer recovery: Bounce back faster after games

A soccer game can take a lot out of you. When the final whistle blows, you are tired and sore, as expected. But there are things you can do to bounce back quickly from games.

If you do them, you will have plenty of energy and less leftover muscle soreness by the time you practice again. If you don’t do them, you might stay sluggish and tender a lot longer.

Nutrition tips

Nutrition is an important part of recovery. Nutritional recovery has three components:

1. Rehydrate
During games, you sweat, and when you sweat, you lose two important substances that your body needs: water and selected minerals called electrolytes (the stuff that makes sweat taste salty).

After games, you need to put these substances back into your body, in a little greater amounts than what you lost, sooner rather than later. Until you rehydrate, your body will have a hard time keeping cool and you may be prone to cramps and other problems.

Drinking water is just a start because it does not contain electrolytes. You’re better off drinking a sports drink that has both water and electrolytes. Try to drink at least 12 ounces of sports drink in the first half-hour after the game ends. If it’s a hot day, you may need to drink even more.

The goal is to drink 1.5 pints for every pound of weight lost over the next 24 hours, before the next workout. Your urine should be no darker than diluted lemonade.

2. Re-energize
You also burn a lot of energy fuel during games. The main energy fuel used in high-intensity sports like soccer is carbohydrate, which is stored in your muscles, liver, and blood. The human body cannot story very much carbohydrate. In a hard game, you can easily burn most of the carbohydrate fuels in your body.

It’s important to quickly replace this carbohydrate. Until you do, you will not have much energy. Most sports drinks contain carbohydrates, so a convenient way to put energy back into your body is to get it from the same place you get your water and electrolytes.

You can also get carbohydrate from foods like fruits, breads, starches and certain vegetables. Muscles refill with carbohydrate the fastest immediately after exercise. Don’t wait even as little as two hours after exercise to start, as the rate of refilling becomes slower.

3. Rebuild
Your muscles are mostly made of proteins. During games, some muscle protein can be damaged; this is a main reason your legs feel sore and weak after games. The good news is that your body is able to build new muscle proteins at two to three times the normal rate after hard exercise. All you need to do is supply the building blocks — protein — to do the job in the first couple hours after the game is over.

Most sports drinks do not contain protein, but some of the new ones are adding it. Using a sport drink with protein is a good way to go because of the convenience. You can get the water, electrolytes, carbohydrate, and protein you need for recovery all from one source.

You can also get protein from foods like meat and cheese, but these foods also tend to be high in fat. When you eat a lot of fat after hard exercise, or even too much protein, it takes longer for the nutrients to get through your system to your muscles. This slows down the whole recovery process.

So a sport drink that contains protein is a better choice for post-game nutrition. It contains everything your body needs to bounce back fast, and without anything unneeded to get in the way.

Get a head start on recovery

Using a sport drink with protein during games is also a good idea for two reasons. First, it will delay fatigue so you can play harder, longer. In one experiment, athletes who drank a sports drink with protein were able to exercise 24% longer than athletes who drank a regular sports drink with no protein.

Second, the protein in the drink will reduce the amount of muscle protein breakdown that happens during the game, so there is less rebuilding to be done afterward.

Other tips

While your muscles are still warm after a game, stretch your muscles. This will keep your blood flowing, helping to deliver nutrients to your muscles and to clear away built-up wastes. You can start drinking your sports drink while you stretch. Later in the day, you can massage your legs using your thumbs, and this will also help with blood flow.

After you play a game, try not to do anything too strenuous for the rest of the day. Your body requires rest in order to rehydrate, re-energize, and rebuild the muscles. At the very least, be sure to get plenty of sleep that night. During sleep, your body releases hormones that help your muscles rebuild.

The recovery checklist

After every game:

better recovery between soccer games

Part of being a fit soccer player is being prepared to perform at 100 percent. Making sure you take care of recovery will ensure your hard work does not go to waste. For faster recovery between soccer games, you need a solid recovery plan. 

A recovery plan means you will be able to train harder, maintain peak performance longer and prevent injury. Don’t fall into a common trap, recovery is not only rest. Recovery is the work you do after you play to prepare yourself for your next challenge. When done right, it gives your body the edge to perform better, for longer. 

Great recovery equals optimal performance potential. That means you can be your best when you are ready to compete.  There are different types of recovery for athletes and here’s a checklist with some of the key strategies to use between games.

Soccer Recovery Checklist

• REFUEL
• FLUSH
• RESET
• MOBILIZE
• SOAK
• RELAX
• SLEEP

Refuel:

Recovery begins as soon as your workout ends. Start with a recovery shake within 15-20 minutes to replenish your energy stores. A good shake will have carbohydrates and rebuild your damaged tissue with protein.

Don’t make a mistake and skip the carbs. Soccer players expend a lot of energy during a game covering the field. You need to refill your energy stores with carbs for the next game.

Flush:

If you just go and sit down on the field, or in the car on the way home you are hurting yourself. You haven’t given your muscles a chance to move fresh blood and pump out the waste products.

Spend 7 – 10 minutes with a light jog after the game or practice. By working at a low intensity you will clear metabolic waste accumulated in your muscles.  

Reset:

When you get home, spend 5-10 minutes focusing on resetting your muscle tissue. This can include foam rolling and trigger point work on target areas and massage. The front of the thighs and calf muscles, along with the bottom of your foot are good targets. 

Mobilize:

After you reset the muscle tissue, you have to mobilize it so it stays supple and recovers quickly. Techniques can include active isolated stretching, yoga or band stretching. Make sure to focus on the lower leg and hip flexors. They are areas that get stressed by the kicking and sprinting during a soccer game. 

Soak:

Sitting immersed in water can do some great things for recovery. The most common question for immersion is hot or cold? The answer depends on the timing of your next bout of training.  

If you’re not training again until the next day, go hot (hot tub, Epsom salt bath). If you’re training again within the same day, go cold (ice tub, 10-12 minutes).

Relax:

One of the most important parts of recovery is the ability to shut down. It’s easy to get fired up, but the best soccer athletes can power down just as quickly. Meditation, deep breathing and massage are all techniques to help bring you back down, and let your body do its work rebuilding.

RELATED: Meditation to optimize your life and performance 

In a tournament setting, with multiple games in a day, spending even 3-5 minutes to calm your mind can help your body recover faster.

Sleep:

Sleep is the most powerful recovery method for humans. It helps both your body and mind. Getting 8-10 hours of quality sleep improves sports performance. Make sure you turn off your phone and electronic devices early, shut out light, and get a good night’s sleep. 

RELATED: 4 Reasons You’re Not Sleeping Better

DAY AFTER GAME RECOVERY WORKOUTS – WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

There are a lot of different perspectives on how to approach day-after-game workouts.  These workouts are difficult to organize because there are many questions that have to be answered before making programming decisions.  All programming considerations should come down to basically four big questions…

1. How well are the players recovering?
2. How is the overall team health?
3. Do any athletes need personalized training?
4. What are we preparing for next?

HOW WELL ARE THE PLAYERS RECOVERING?

It is a good idea to gauge how sluggish athletes are each day and to see if there are any patterns.  Sometimes players and teams have bad practices and games because they have not recovered from the proceeding days or weeks.  When I was a high school player I still remember being tired on a Wednesday practice during the first week of the playoffs.  We had played a very good opponent (Cincinnati St. Xavier HS) in week 10 and I never recovered.  We ended up playing poorly, losing that playoff game, and I still wonder if my teammates were feeling as tired as I was.

Most high school athletes (this was true for me also) struggle with recovery because of improper nutrition, inadequate hydration, and a lack of sleep.  Most athletes do not have an overuse problem but really have an under-recovery problem.  Even though we can only do so much about these problems, we can adjust practice and training sessions to somewhat mitigate their recovery.  

In terms of recovering from games, my philosophy is now drastically different than when I first started coaching.  Previously, I organized our Saturday schedule around the coaches more than around the players.  We would have the players arrive early to watch film first and then workout afterwards.  The reason why I did this was because I wanted to get the previous night’s game finished completely before we moved onto game-planning.  That led to the decision to have the kids watch film first and then workout.  I have done a complete 180 on this now.  I do not care as much about the coaches’ schedules as the athletes’ schedules.  I want the players to be able to sleep in, eat breakfast, and have some time before they train.  

I am not sure about your athletes but I can understand why players are tired and do not want to train hard on Saturday mornings.  When we start their workouts, they are about 11 hours from when they finished the game.  That is not even close to enough time to recover from a hard game and then turn around and do a hard workout.

Our games currently end around 10 pm (we throw the ball about 45 times a game and try to run as many plays as possible) so our players do not get home and in bed until midnight.  They go get food and see their friends and it takes them some time to decompress.  I do not want the athletes to feel like they have to run home and go straight to bed.  Even if we told them to do this they still would not.  If we have them get to school on Saturdays around 8 am (which I used to do) instead of 9 am, then they will not get the minimum of 8 hours of sleep that we want.  In terms of the coaches, they get their previous game film graded and then start working on the next opponent.  When the kids get done with their workout around 10 am, the coaches stop what they are doing and watch the film with the players.  Those extra hours of sleep add up when you have to win 16 games to win the Ohio State Championship and when the season starts on August 1st and ends the first week of December.

 Some processes that can help reduce recovery time are…

• Static stretch after the game.  I know that the logistics of this is hard and most coaches do not want to do it but it will allow Saturday workouts to be at a higher intensity.  All of the coaches that I have ever worked with have not let me stretch the players after the game but there are some programs that do.  One of the teams that I trained lost the state championship and the team that beat us stretched after winning the state championship.  That was salt in the wound for me.  If you play on Saturday and have Sunday off, I would definitely stretch the kids after the game because they will not think about taking care of their bodies until Monday.
• If the players look sluggish during the week, it might be a good idea to decrease practice intensity or shorten practice.  With high school athletes, I think it is better to shorten practice while keeping the same intensity to keep a high level of concentration.
• After practice ice baths will help to decrease recovery time.  When NFL and NCAA teams had two-a-days, they would have their athletes get into ice baths immediately after the first practice to begin the recovery for the second practice.  This is a good idea because decreasing body temperature is a key component to endurance and recovery and the following podcast goes into this in detail: Supercharge Exercise Performance & Recovery With Cooling

HOW IS THE OVERALL TEAM HEALTH?

There is a reactive and a proactive component to this conversation. The reactive component is that Saturday programming should not be the same every week.  If you just played a very hard game against a very physical opponent, players are going to struggle through a Saturday workout.  If your athletes only played a half against a bad team, the Saturday workout should be much harder.  A simple way to think about it is make the total sum of Friday’s and Saturday’s energy output and intensity to be the same each weekend.  A hard game should lead to an easier workout and an easier game should lead to a harder workout.  A game might be so hard that the Saturday workout should just be Yoga, Foam Rolling, and/or a pool workout.  I have done this in the past after games where we were very beat up.

There is also a proactive component to this.  USA Track & Field recommends that athletes should take a four day weekend of complete rest every four to six weeks.  We obviously cannot take a 4 day weekend but the point is well taken.  To try to get an extended weekend, you can cancel workouts on a weekend when you play an easy opponent.  The Friday game will be easy, and then the remainder of the weekend can be all rest.  The other good thing about this is the Friday night film against a terrible opponent is usually not very helpful for the coaches or the players.  On weekends like that, I would recommend that you stretch the players after the game because if you do not, they will go the entire weekend without stretching.

In terms of the playoffs and if you are going to make a mistake, make sure that your players are too fresh.  Nobody has won playoff games with well-conditioned but tired legs.  The goal is to get to the starting line with healthy athletes that can go hard the entire game.  The hard part about this is trying to balance how much practice your team needs to be prepared at the same time limiting practice to be fresh for a tough game.  This is where theory meets practicality and this falls under the art of coaching more than the science of coaching.

DO ANY ATHLETES NEED PERSONALIZED TRAINING?

After a very hard game, athletes are going to have different needs.  If you played a Wing-T team, the defensive linemen are going to feel much different than when playing a Spread passing team.  Your wide receivers will feel much different if you ran the ball 80% of the time versus passing the ball 80% of the time.

Another consideration is that some athletes have nagging injuries and others do not.  This is where your athletic trainer needs to be involved.  To keep the kids healthy, the coaches and trainers have to communicate.  The best trainers I have worked with have the workouts posted on their wall and they know everything that is going on at workouts.  I come in on Saturday and they would have a spreadsheet of the athlete, their issues, and their thoughts on what should be modified.  We would have a five minute conversation where we would discuss each kid and my thoughts on how we could also modify each player’s workout.  I would leave the training room and everyone would be on the same page.  When athletes know that their coaches and trainers are working together it is impossible for them to get out of things and they know that everyone is trying to help them.  I have always thought that we should constantly figure out ways for kids to get into stuff instead of out of stuff. 

To illustrate how important personalizing is, I need to discuss one of my biggest coaching regrets.  I had a player named Luis who played a hybrid fullback position for us.  Luis was a very good football player who was essential to us getting to the state championship game.  In the state semi-finals, we ran “Inside Zone Kick” a lot and Luis had to kick out a defensive end who went to Michigan State.  Luis did his job because our tailback had 45 carries for 250 yards.  After that game, we did a terrible job of getting Luis ready for the State Championship.  We treated him like any other player and he practiced full go the whole week.  We should have limited his reps and maybe even given him a day off because he never recovered physically.  Because of that he struggled in the State Championship because he was battered.  It was our fault that he did not recover and we ended up losing when our opponent scored with 90 seconds left.  That’s a rough way to lose a State Championship.

WHAT ARE WE PREPARING FOR NEXT?

Some coaches plan their week to go from Monday through Saturday.  Personally I like to think that the schedule goes from Saturday through Friday.  The reason why I think this way is because Saturday starts the process of beating the next opponent and the whole point of Saturday’s workout is to get the players ready for Monday’s practice.  If the players come to Monday’s practice still beat up and not ready to practice full-go, the rest of the week is going to have to change to accommodate the lengthened recovery process.

Who the next opponent is and what part of the season we are in will also help make these decisions for us.  If the next opponent will be easy, then “training through” that game and Saturday is a good idea.  If we are getting ready for a playoff game, then the workout will be a little lighter because we will have to be 100% every game.  In the Ohio playoffs, we can lose at any time so we have to be completely ready every week.

I like to make Saturday workout decisions more out of science than emotions.  I am not a fan of making workouts harder because we lost or making them easier because we won.  Winning is the reward and losing is the consequence.  For me, if the kids are beat up then they are beat up and they are not more beat up or less beat up because we won or lost.  I know that there are times that coaches have to make a point but that should be the exception instead of the rule.

PROGRAMMING

The following is a breakdown of my current one-hour Saturday morning workout.  My goal is to make them sweat a lot and to get their bodies feeling good again.

Warm-Up & Static Stretching (15 minutes)

I have had teams that want to jog first, then static stretch, and then go into their dynamic warm-up.  They feel like they are too stiff to try to do anything athletic and want to static stretch first.  I have had other teams that want to do the dynamic warm-up and then static stretch.  The constants are that we will get the body temperature up, get the nervous system firing, and static stretch.

Conditioning (5 minutes)

The goal of this period is to sweat and to prepare to lift weights.  The goal is not to try to kill the kids and see how far they can push themselves.  I have used the following types of conditioning in the past:

Fartlek Runs

These runs consist of up-tempo periods and jogging periods.  We usually do 45 second jog periods, 15 second sprint periods, and repeat for five minutes.  Even doing five minutes of this will make well-conditioned athletes tire quickly.

1-1 Ratio Runs

In this conditioning activity, athletes run 100 yards in 15-20 seconds.  Lineman will hit around 20 seconds and everyone else will hit somewhere between 15-20 seconds.  It is called a 1-1 Ratio Run because the athletes will get 20 seconds rest before they go again.  We run anywhere from 6-10 of them and it is determined by the energy output from the night before.

Weight Lifting (20 minutes)

I do not think that it helps athletes to have a heavy lifting session on Saturdays.  It is really hard to lift heavy weights 11 hours after playing a game.  Not only is the body tired but the nervous system will be taxed to a point where the motor neurons will not fire their motor units correctly. That all being said, I like to do one of two types of lifting.  One is a heavier functional lift where they are still lifting somewhat heavy and going through some multi-joint exercises without maxing out.

The other potential option is a “3 Way Fitness Lift”.  In this workout, the players are broken up in groups of three. They will do each exercise for a particular amount of time and then they will switch to the next exercise.  This is basically a continuous movement lifting session that would fall into the High-intensity-interval-training (HIIT) category.

Lower Body Stretching (10-15 minutes)

Here are some potential options for stretching the lower body:

PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation) Stretching Routine 

In this routine, an athlete will stretch for about 10 seconds, resist for about 5 seconds, and then stretch for another 15 seconds.  The second stretching session should be longer than the first and the resistance portion will trick the nervous system to allow the athlete to stretch further on the second stretching portion.  This stretching routine will not only make the athletes more flexible but also will make them feel like their legs are lighter.  Do not use this routine before a game but it is a great routine for after a game.  Remind your athletes that this is not a wrestling match to show how strong they are.

Bikram Yoga 30 Minute Workout

When you hear people talking about doing “Hot Yoga”, they are usually doing Bikram Yoga at an elevated temperature.  This is a great routine to build coordination, balance, and flexibility.  Your players will initially be terrible at it but they will get better over time. 

 Upper Body Stretches (5 minutes)

In football, shoulder injuries are one of the common problems we have.  Even if they are not injured, athletes constantly complain about them hurting or that they have limited range of motion.  Here are a couple stretches that can be done on Saturdays and these are the same stretches that quarterbacks and baseball players should be doing regularly.  Some of the following stretches are programmed to open up the ulnar nerve and to stimulate blood flow while others are used for flexibility and decompression.

Coaching Points:

• Push the elbow against something so the elbow travels backward.  They can use a pole, fence, or wall.
• If they do not have something to help push the elbow back, have them push their chest forward and pinch their shoulder blades.
• They can do both sides at the same time. 
• If the athlete looks up, it will work even better.
• If athletes have a pinched nerve, their pinkie finger will go numb.

Coaching Points:

• The hand should be at hip height and the wrist should be at a 90 degree angle. 
•  If they have something to put their fingers on (pole, wall, fence), it will work better
• For the picture above, turn the left shoulder to put more pressure through the right shoulder.
• They can do both sides at the same time.
• If they have a pinched nerve, their middle finger will go numb.

Coaching Points:

• This stretch can be done in a variety of positions.  The positioning of the chest and how bent the knees are will determine which part of the back is isolated.
• Tell the athletes to move around slowly until they find a “trouble spot”.  When they find those spots they should stay there for a little while until moving on to find the next spot.

Coaching Points:

• The upper arm should make a 90 degree angle with the body
• The elbow should be at a 90 degree angle
• Lean the top shoulder backward while pushing the wrist towards the ground

Coaching Points:

–       Try to get the fingers turned all the way backward

–       Lean the hips backward to increase the stretch

SUMMARY

Here are some quick questions to be answered to program your day-after-game workouts:

–       How physical was the game?

–       How much did the players actually play?

–       Do we need to be fresh for our next opponent?

–       Does the workout need to focus more on athletic gains or recovery?

–       How much should we condition?

–       How much strength training can the players handle?

–       Who needs their workout modified?

If you are interested in learning more you can go to the resources page on my website (https://exceleratead.com/training-theory) to find my FREE and moderately priced CoachTube Courses, Coaches Choice Videos, and a variety of other training articles and resources.  My contact information is on my website so please feel free to email me with any questions.

90,000 How to recover from a workout. Tips to listen to

How to recover from a workout. Tips to listen to

During the annual Moscow marathon, Match TV publishes a text that tells everything about recovery after exercise.

Who says

Anna Chakvetadze, US Open semi-finalist; knows how to play two tennis matches less than 24 hours apart.

Valentin Savitsky, coach of the Kazakhstan national track cycling team, ex-record holder of Russia in the 200 m gita (sprint distance in cycling, – “Match TV”) and the owner of the highest world achievement in keirin (type of races, where after several laps with the same speed is followed by the final sprint – “Match TV”) on the last 200 m.

Vasily Volkov, sports physiologist, physical training coach of professional boxers Grigory Drozd and Dmitry Kudryashov.

What is recovery in professional sports?

Volkov: In professional sports, recovery from stress is an integral part of an athlete’s training. It is not without reason that in the main textbook for coaches, in The Theory and Methods of Physical Culture, the minimum structural unit of planning the training process is a microcycle – load + recovery.

Vasily Volkov (left)

(Vasily Volkov – left)

The concept of recovery is complex: firstly, recovery is urgent and delayed, and secondly, the performance of an athlete is provided by many different physiological systems and structures, and each of them requires a certain time and conditions for recovery – this phenomenon is known as the heterochronism of recovery processes.

Chakvetadze: You may have less than a day between two tennis matches, so time should be used very effectively. First, in principle, the preparation that you conducted before the season is important. If you are basically in bad shape, the body will not be able to withstand the stress when you need to play several matches for several days in a row. Usually, if there is a day or less between matches, my routine looks like this: right after the game you do a little cool down, light jogging for 3-5 minutes. Then stretching is obligatory.Then you eat and go to a massage or to a physiotherapist. If not enough – an ice bath will help.

Savitsky: On multi-day cycling after long stages of up to 250 km, riders can spin the exercise bike for another 10-15 minutes immediately after the race. For many, this looks amazing.

Volkov: A professional athlete has a break of only a few hours between two training sessions or stages of competition. Here we can talk about urgent recovery. For example, after high-intensity work, it makes sense to “heal the muscles” through light aerobic exercise, which can help to eliminate the products of cellular metabolism and thereby accelerate the recovery of working capacity.This is why, for example, exercise bikes are installed in the locker rooms of professional hockey clubs.

The use of portable electromyostimulants (impact on muscles with the help of electrical impulses sent by a special device – “Match TV”) and other physiotherapy techniques is also becoming popular. This procedure also promotes muscle recovery by increasing peripheral blood flow. Here we are talking about trying to bring the state of the muscles as close as possible to their final state within a short period of time.

Savitsky: I would suggest oxygen capsules, the so-called HBO method (hyperbaric oxygenation). You lie in the capsule for 30-40 minutes, and oxygen is supplied there with increased concentration and increased pressure. You can just lie down and relax, but when the procedure ends, you feel as if you slept for 5-8 hours. It is a good remedy for immediate recovery for an agitated nervous system after a competition. To restore the endocrine system, a cryosauna is well suited.

Valentin Savitsky

(Valentin Savitsky)

Volkov: If an athlete trains or competes for several days in a row, his performance also inevitably decreases, but for other reasons, and here aerobic hitch and physiotherapy cannot be avoided.Here we can talk about a kind of delayed, prolonged recovery, by which we already mean the restoration of energy, plastic and neuroendocrine resources. Sleep, balanced nutrition and, if possible, abstinence from exhausting loads come to the fore in this context of restoration of working capacity.

What should an amateur do?

Volkov: For a person who trains at an amateur level, it is important to correctly build their training, and only then think about optimizing the recovery processes.

Here we are talking, first of all, about the choice of loads adequate to the functional state, mode of life and tasks of the student. You should not try to copy the training plans of professionals, whose number of workouts reaches 16-18 per week. As a general recommendation, for the prevention of overtraining, it is possible to advise amateurs to listen to their body more often – if the desire to exercise has disappeared, performance has decreased, sleep has deteriorated – all this can be a signal that the body needs rest.The lover needs to train for pleasure.

Savitsky: It seems to me that people who train for themselves, and even more so do not always do it systematically, should take 48, or even 72 hours between workouts. So many, because usually people who train for themselves do not go to the gym often, but if they do, they try to work as much as possible “for all the money.” This kind of workout takes a lot of energy, so it is very important that the rest is such that would allow you to fully recover.And it is necessary to restore energy, endocrine, nervous system and muscles.

Why do you need to sleep a lot?

Savitsky: At a young age, recovery processes go very quickly, so many begin to neglect them. Unfortunately, this forms the wrong habits and can greatly interfere with the athlete in the future, after 10 years. When I just started, I elementarily neglected the amount of sleep, but in fact, everything starts with it. Sleep and proper nutrition are, in principle, the most basic.

Volkov: You don’t need to sleep much, but enough. Sleep is truly the best restorer. In professional sports, when we carry out daily monitoring of an athlete’s readiness for planned loads, if an athlete does not get enough sleep, this is immediately evident from physiological indicators that go beyond the norm. So now “lack of sleep” is not only subjective sensations, but also objective indicators.

Savitsky: The optimal sleep time is considered to be 8-9 hours, and the time for sleep is from 22 to 7 in the morning, but here we must understand that an athlete and an ordinary trainee still exist in some kind of environment that can make their own adjustments.But in general, sleep is such a thing that cannot be overdone. If you exercise and have the time and desire to sleep, you need to sleep.

Anna Chakvetadze

(Anna Chakvetadze)

Chakvetadze: If the match ends in the evening, the nervous system remains agitated for a long time and it can be difficult to fall asleep, despite fatigue. And here you have to decide on the time for the rise. For example, in any case, I tried not to miss the first meal, so I did not allow myself to sleep for a very long time and tried to have breakfast before 11 in the morning so that the body received a source of energy.At the same time, if the tournament schedule allowed, one could then sleep some more time, but be sure to have breakfast and warm up.

What does nutrition have to do with recovery?

Savitsky: My second childhood mistake in every sense was the attitude to nutrition. I ate a lot of unnecessary things as a novice athlete: spicy, fatty, sugary foods – all of which hinder your performance from workout to workout.

Volkov: As we have already noted, the concept of restoration is complex.You can try to distinguish the following, so-called, recovery components: restoration of energy resources, restoration of plastic resources and restoration of resources of the neuroendocrine system and musculoskeletal system. So the first two components are directly related to nutrition. It is impossible to talk about a high level of performance without getting enough carbohydrates and proteins with food.

Chakvetadze: People often ask why tennis players eat bananas during matches.Here you need to understand that the game can last more than two hours and the body does not have enough energy reserves. Banana contains sugar, which raises insulin and gives you a feeling of a burst of energy, and at the same time it is easily digested, does not burden the stomach. A little less often, but there are examples when tennis players eat dates, I think someone even used honey, but the main thing here is not to overdo it. Even with high loads, you can get extra pounds if you get carried away with sweets.

Savitsky: There is a lot of controversy about nutrition in the first hour after training.Much depends on the type of training and the goal, the type of the athlete’s constitution. But a few general rules can be deduced. Firstly, in any case, it is better to eat in the first hour after exercise. Even if a person burns fat, you need to restore energy metabolism for the body. Muscles after training are in a catabolic (destructive) phase, we need to switch them to anabolic in order to get a good hormonal response.

(Valentin Savitsky)

Secondly, it is better to use both carbohydrates and proteins.It is clear that there can be a 60-kilogram person and a light jogging workout, or maybe a 120-kilogram athlete and work with heavy weights in the gym, but if you try to give some kind of universal advice, I would recommend combining simple (20%) and complex (30%) carbohydrates and easily digestible protein (50%), for example, three to four egg whites and a serving of oatmeal with a little honey or jam, or take the same porridge and add a gainer.

What are the most effective procedures?

Savitsky: There is a saying that recovery begins immediately with the end of a training session, and it is absolutely fair.There are two options: stretching and light cardio. If time permits, you can combine them. Often they confuse cardiosis and full-fledged carido. In fact, the heart rate should be at a very low heart rate, on average up to 130. And after that, it is ideal to stretch all muscle groups. This will make them more elastic and start the synthesis of hormones. Stretching is mistakenly underestimated by many.

Chakvetadze: An ice bath helps a lot, many people practice it. Literally for a few seconds you immerse yourself, and then immediately into the warmth.But I must say that this does not always work: there is an individual intolerance to cold, there are times when our immunity is not in the best condition and it is very easy to catch a cold. Here you have to experience everything on your own experience. In Australia, where you usually play at high temperatures, after such a bath, the body quickly returns to the real world. A simpler version of this is a contrast shower. There is also a good way – ice massage, when we apply an ice compress to those parts of the body that have received the greatest stress, but as a rule these are the legs, and again for a short time.

Volkov: If we talk about physiotherapy procedures in the context of optimizing recovery processes, then, of course, one of the most effective and at the same time available is a bath or sauna. The effect of temperature stress on the body causes a certain play of anabolic hormones in the blood, thereby accelerating tissue metabolism and promoting recovery processes. If you add cold water to the thermal effect, for example, pour cold water after a steam room, then all the positive physiological effects will increase.But, we must not forget that such procedures, although they carry a healing effect, are a powerful stress for the body, therefore, in order not to provoke negative consequences, the temperature effect should be strictly dosed and its intensity should be increased gradually.

(Vasily Volkov – right)

Savitsky: It may sound funny, but even washing yourself on time after the competition is very important, cyclists even practice such a procedure as rubbing with alcohol after races or training sessions.The faster you wash, the faster the recovery processes will go, the pores open, the body begins to breathe.

And with a bath, there are two options that I would suggest. Or a not very hot bath, 60-70 degrees, combined with a light massage. Or a contrasting bath, when you go into a hot (up to 100 degrees) bath for 3-5 minutes, and immediately after you plunge into the pool, or stand with your feet in an ice plunge pool, where the water is no higher than 10 degrees, and you also repeat this several times.

Isn’t something more effective than the bathhouse invented?

Savitsky: Some types of recovery work better for some athletes, but not as effective for others.From my own experience, I can say that compression garments work very well, especially if you’ve had a workout with increased lactate secretion.

For the legs, there is also such a thing as lymphatic drainage stockings. Although it is quite difficult for me to imagine how an ordinary person will give himself such a load that, in addition to all of the above, he will need lymphatic drainage stockings.

Volkov: The choice of one or another restoration measure depends on the object that needs restoration.And, if a person has spent several exhausting workouts, no bath will restore him until he replenishes his energy reserves. If a person has received sensory and psychoemotional overload, then carbohydrate loading will do little to help him recover – sleep is needed here. That is, the choice and effectiveness of a particular restoration procedure always depends on the specific task – what exactly needs to be restored.

(Vasily Volkov)

If we talk about recovery after heavy strength exercises, the performance of which is associated with the appearance of so-called delayed muscle pains, then here, as a restorer, we can recommend light aerobic work of a cyclic nature in the same region that needs recovery.This load does not carry a destructive component, but at the same time it can increase blood supply and metabolism in the muscles, which should contribute to recovery.

If we touch upon such a topic as recovery from injuries or forced physical inactivity, then here the undisputed leader is strength exercises. Due to their powerful anabolic effect, these exercises can also be used in certain cases for recovery.

Can you eat well, sleep well and still be underreported?

Savitsky: Underrecovery is even appropriate for a certain amount of training, and for some it is even indicated.But when training before a competition, underrecovery is unacceptable. Before the competition, it is necessary to maximize the restoration of hormonal levels, emotional levels, muscles and the nervous system.

Volkov: Yes, you can. One of the most difficult problems in planning the training process is the problem of overtraining prevention. With regular, heavy loads, an athlete may experience a so-called “adaptation breakdown”, that is, the athlete will no longer adequately respond to training stimuli, his performance will decrease, the desire to train will disappear, the risk of colds and infectious diseases will increase.Behind this negative state is the depletion of the resources of the neuroendocrine system, in other words, the body no longer has the strength to deal with constant stress, in our case with physical overload. In this case, neither a bath nor food will help – a decrease, or even a complete cancellation of physical activity for some time is necessary, until the state of the neuroendocrine system returns to normal.

(Anna Chakvetadze)

Chakvetadze: Many people underestimate emotional recovery.I can’t consider myself a master here, on the contrary, after the game, I could come back to the courts and start watching tennis, worrying, getting nervous. But in general, it is best to be distracted, so I tried to watch TV shows or read something light and fun at the same time. From what I remember the most, it was probably Akunin, whom I regularly took with me to competitions.

Photo: facebook.com/valentin.savitskiy; globallookpress.com; facebook.com/volkov.vasily;

90,000 Post-Workout Recovery: How to Recover Fast?

For a quick recovery, you need to follow simple rules for the daily regimen and diet, as well as use additional funds that will help restore strength and desire to exercise.

Post-workout recovery

Muscle pain, apathy, loss of motivation are not an indicator of your weakness. This is only evidence that the body did not have time to recover from the previous load. After a workout, it is important to give the body a break from exertion and recover for the next session. The better your recovery, the more likely you are to turn everything you have gained through hard training into great results.For a quick recovery, you need to follow simple rules for the daily regimen and diet, as well as use additional funds that will help restore strength and desire to exercise.

So what helps you recover quickly after exercise?

1. Meals throughout the day

How fast your body recovers depends on how you eat. The diet should be balanced, i.e. proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, trace elements and water must be present in the correct proportions and contain enough calories.

What you can eat before training

Can’t find a snack to your liking? Try one of these quick meals.

• 180 m orange juice + ½ spoon protein powder
• Greek yogurt + 1 glass of berries
• Blend: 1 cup high fiber cereals, 2 tablespoons dried fruit, 2 tablespoons nuts
• ½ Nutrition Bar
• ½ turkey sandwich on whole grain bread + fruit
• ½ peanut butter and jam sandwich
• Small cup of cereal with milk and ½ banana

2.Post Workout Nutrition

The body spends energy on physical exercises, which must be restored at the end of the session. Take a serving of protein right after your workout to protect your muscles from damage and help your body recover. An hour later, you need to take a portion of carbohydrates and replenish glycogen stores. Don’t forget to drink during and after your workout!

Post-Workout Food – Sample Menu

Not sure what to eat after a tough workout? Try one of these ways to recover quickly:

• ¾ cup cottage cheese with fruit
• 600 ml skim milk
• Fruit Smoothie with Protein
• 1 sourdough muffin + 2 hard boiled eggs + tomato slice
• 1 cup chopped turkey on salad with whole wheat bread
• 120 g canned tuna + whole wheat pita
• Greek yoghurt with fruit + honey

3.Dream

Getting enough sleep is key to post-workout recovery. In a dream, there is an intensive recovery of the body in general and muscles in particular. The required duration of sleep depends on the individual characteristics of the organism and averages 8 hours. Lack of sleep can lead to an increase in the time it takes for the body to recover, problems with concentration, and poor health.

4. Warm up and cool down

You should never skip a warm-up – during this time, you prepare not only muscles and joints, but also the nervous and cardiovascular systems for training.The subsequent workout will not shock the body, and the concentration of lactic acid (lactate) in the blood and muscles will decrease. Cooling down helps the muscles tired from the load to get rid of accumulated hydrogen ions and utilize lactic acid, so the athlete feels much better after training: the muscles will not be so stiff and heavy, the risk of injury will be reduced, fatigue will be much less, and the mood will be better. Stretching exercises are great as a cool-down.

5.Massage

Massage is the best way to quickly regenerate after exercise. Massage enhances blood circulation in muscles and internal organs, relaxes overstrained and relieves pain in damaged muscles, improves muscle regeneration and recovery processes, enhances lymph flow, activates metabolic processes and eliminates congestion in tissues, and improves joint mobility.

6. Bath

A warm bath increases circulation and metabolic processes in the body and relaxes muscles.It is worth taking a bath no later than 2-3 hours after training, preferably before bedtime. A cold bath is less commonly used for recovery, usually to relieve muscle pain. The blood drains from the vessels, reducing the tension in the muscles, and rushes back after the procedure, helping to flush out the decay products from the body. It is recommended to drink hot tea and cover yourself with a blanket after a cool bath.

7. Bath and Sauna

Russian bath and Turkish sauna are one of the most ancient ways to get rid of fatigue.The body temperature rises, the heart rate and respiration rate increase, the flow of arterial blood into the body tissues increases, and decay products are excreted. All this contributes to the early recovery of the body after physical exertion.

8. Contrast shower

A contrast shower has a positive effect on blood vessels, ligaments, connective tissue. Different temperatures cause alternating vasoconstriction and dilation, resulting in improved blood supply to organs and tissues and metabolism.In addition, a contrast shower increases vitality and makes it easier to wake up in the morning.

Which of these methods to use is up to you. You can combine these methods. use suitable ones as needed. Remember, the main indicator that the body has recovered after exertion is a strong desire to return to training as soon as possible!

Programs in THE BASE for effective recovery

• YOGA STRETCH

90,000 Recovering footballers after a match: 9 ways

By Roman Novikov Read 5 min Views 24.1 to. Published 04.04.2020

Recovery is one of the most important things in football. Correct recovery measures help a football player avoid serious injury and consistently perform well. In this article, we will tell you what factors are involved in the recovery of footballers. Using this knowledge, you will be able to recover from matches much faster.

Why is football recovery needed?

A footballer’s career does not last very long, on average from 13 to 17 years.Permanent damage and injury will shorten this period. The number of injuries directly depends on the recovery process.

If a player is not serious about recovery, then in the future, injuries will surely overtake him. And you yourself have heard many times how injuries can ruin the careers of football players.

To avoid serious injury and stay in good shape at all times, you need to be professional in your recovery. In the following, we will discuss the nine elements of recovery in football.

See also: TOP-7 most common injuries in football.

Recovery in football: 9 components

Stretching after training (cool down)

Cool down is necessary so that the muscles can more smoothly transition from an active state to a resting state. Cooling down after a workout will help you avoid unpleasant muscle soreness the next day and help restore breathing and blood circulation.

How to cool down?

After heavy loads, you need to make a short run in a circle, gradually reducing the running speed, and then go to a step.After that, several muscle stretching exercises are done.

Exercises for cooling down

Everyone determines the time of the cool down independently, but it should last at least 10 minutes. Ignoring a hitch can negatively impact recovery.

Ice bath

An ice bath is used by almost all football clubs as a remedy. After heavy exertion, football players feel muscle pain. A cold bath helps relieve muscle tension and also prevents muscle fiber breakage.

Bath time – from 1 to 5 minutes.

Recovery with the help of an ice bath

It is clear that not everyone has the opportunity to dive into a barrel of ice after training. A regular cold water bath is perfect for recovery.

On our site there is an article dedicated to the daily routine of a football player. What does the correct daily routine for a football player include and why is it so important to follow it? You will find the answers in the article!

Pure drinking water

A football player needs to constantly maintain water balance in his body.After training, you need to replenish the water reserves that have left the body during training.

English midfielder Danny Drinkwater drinks water

A football player needs to drink more than 2 liters of water every day. Drink water often and in small portions. Drink without waiting for the feeling of thirst. As soon as you feel thirsty, it means that you are late.

Warm salt bath

If you do not like taking an ice bath, you can alternatively use a warm sea salt bath.The salt is able to penetrate the skin and relieve muscle pain.

Massage

Massage after training or a match will relax your muscles and improve blood circulation. By improving blood circulation, the muscles come into tone faster.

Effective training and proper recovery work together to deliver excellent results. In one of the articles, we analyzed various exercises for football players. Recommended reading!

Proper nutrition

Nutrition is one of the most important components of recovery.After a match or training session, you need to replenish the lost energy. Within 45 minutes after finishing your workout, you need to eat food rich in protein and carbohydrates.

A football player must limit himself from junk food and alcohol.

We have discussed the issue of a football player’s nutrition in a separate article.

Bath

Bath is an excellent remedy for recovery after football matches. But here, as in everything, one must observe the measure.The temperature in the bath should not exceed 90 degrees.

Do not sit in the bath for a long time. Whenever you start to feel uncomfortable, get out right away. No need to endure. The procedure time is different for everyone. Someone needs two minutes, someone is ready to sit for five.

Sleep

Healthy sleep is one of the best recovery tools in football. Sleep should be between 7 and 9 hours for effective recovery.

Active rest

It is believed that with active rest the body recovers faster than with passive rest.The fact is that in the process of active rest, blood flows to the muscles, which allows them to recover faster.

Outdoor walks, cycling, swimming in the pool are perfect for outdoor activities.

Biking in the park as a way to recover

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed what rebuilding footballers involves. Of course, it is not always possible to afford such procedures as massage and sauna.But getting to bed on time, eating right, and drinking plenty of water isn’t all that difficult.

If the article was useful to you, share it on social networks. There are dedicated buttons for this below.

I wish you every success on and off the pitch. The most important thing is injury-free!

Recover deleted files and folders in OneDrive

If you accidentally deleted a file or folder in OneDrive, you can recover it later from the OneDrive Recycle Bin.

For information on restoring a SharePoint or folder, seein this SharePoint recycle bin. For information on restoring SharePoint backed up to OneDrive, see OneDrive.

Tip: As a Microsoft 365 subscriber, you can even restore your entire OneDrive if something goes wrong.

Go to the OneDrive web site and sign in with your Microsoft account or your school or school account.

1. In the Navigation Pane, select Recycle Bin .

2. Select the files or folders you want to restore by pointing to each item and clicking on the displayed circle and clicking the button Restore .

   Tip: If you are using a personal OneDrive account, you can select Restore All Items to restore all items in the Trash. This option is not available in your school or school OneDrive.Files deleted from Personal Vault appear in the Recycle Bin only if Personal Vault is unlocked before checking the Recycle Bin. You can use the command Show Items in Personal Vault in Recycle Bin to unlock Personal Vault and view those items.

   Notes:

   • If you are signed in to OneDrive with your Microsoft account, items in the Trash are automatically deleted 30 days after they were inserted.

   • For work and school accounts, items in the recycle bin are automatically deleted after 93 days unless the administrator has changed the setting. See more information about the retention period for deleted items for these accounts.

Recovering deleted files or folders from a computer

If you’ve deleted files or folders from OneDrive, check to see if the files are there in the Trash (Windows) or Trash (Mac).

Note: Internet-only deleted files () do not appear in the computer’s recycle bin or recycle bin.

• To restore files from the Recycle Bin in Windows, open the Recycle Bin, select the files or folders you want to recover, right-click them and select Repair . The file or folder will be restored to its original folder.

• To recover files from the Recycle Bin on your Mac, open the Recycle Bin, select the files or folders you want to recover, right-click them, and select Revert. The file or folder will be restored to its original folder.

Additional information

Additional information

Fortnite Crash and Technical Issues – Support

Before proceeding with any of the steps below, take a look at our Trello board for gaming issues and learn more about them.This board is regularly updated by our community managers for the most significant known issues with Battle Royale, Creative, Save the World, and Mobile. If the problem you are experiencing is listed on our board, then you just need to wait for us to release an update with a fix. If there is no problem on our board that you encountered, follow these steps.

Troubleshooting PC or Mac

Make sure your system meets the requirements to run Fortnite

To enjoy Fortnite, make sure your computer meets the minimum requirements to run the game.This article provides the system requirements for Fortnite and how to make sure your device meets those requirements.

Checking game files

Checking game files makes sure that all files are in place and not damaged. If the files are missing or damaged, they will be re-downloaded through the Epic Games Launcher.

1. Open the Epic Games Launcher.
2. Go to library .
3. Click on the three dots next to Fortnite.
4. Click on Check .

Run the Epic Games Launcher as Administrator

By running the program as an Administrator, you can bypass some standard user activity restrictions on your computer.

1. Right-click the Epic Games Launcher shortcut.
2. Select Run as administrator .
3. Launch Fortnite.

Update your graphics card drivers

Driver updates are regularly released by the graphics card manufacturers to fix bugs and improve performance. We highly recommend that you install the latest driver for your graphics card for the best Fortnite experience. You can find the latest drivers by going to the video card manufacturer’s website at these links:

Disable Background Applications

Sometimes applications running in the background cause crashes or degrade performance when playing Fortnite.Follow the tips in this article to make sure apps running in the background are turned off.

Restoring Visual C ++ Redistributable Packages

To play Fortnite, you need the Visual C ++ Redistributable Packages. Make sure they are installed and not damaged.

1. Download all Visual C ++ Redistributable Packages from this link.
2. Don’t forget to download both x64 and x86 versions.
3. When the download is complete, run the files and select “Restore” .
   Note: If there is no Repair option, follow the on-screen instructions for a typical installation.
4. Once the files are restored, restart your computer.
5. Restart Fortnite.

Configure Compatibility Mode

Configuring Compatibility Mode can help troubleshoot Fortnite.

1. Go to the Fortnite binaries folder (default: C: \ Program Files \ Epic Games \ Fortnite \ FortniteGame \ Binaries \ Win64 \)
2. Find the file FortniteClient-Win64-Shipping.exe .
3. Right-click on it and then select Properties .
4. Click on the Compatibility tab .
5. Check box “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” .
6. Make sure Windows 8 is selected.
7. Check box “Disable full screen optimization” .
8. Click Apply .
9. Press OK .
10. Restart Fortnite.

Use DirectX 11;

If you are using DirectX 12 and are having problems playing Fortnite, try switching to DirectX 11.

1. Open Epic Games Launcher .
2. Select Settings .
3. Scroll down and expand the subsection of Fortnite .
4. Check the box “Additional command line parameters” .
5. Enter d3d11 and then restart Fortnite.

Troubleshoot disconnected connections

Epic Games server status

Check the Epic Games server status on the related page to ensure all systems are working. If your issue is caused by a system shutdown or crash, you won’t be able to connect to Fortnite until the system is restored.

Set your matchmaking region to automatic.

When you select matchmaking in automatic mode , you will be connected to servers with minimal network latency.

1. Launch Fortnite .
2. Select Battle Royale .
3. Click on the menu icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
4. Select Settings .
5. Click on the gear icon.
6. Set matchmaking region to automatic .

Packet loss

Packet loss means that data packets sent from your computer to our servers and vice versa do not reach their destination.The following is a command line parameter that can fix the packet loss problem:

1. Open Epic Games Launcher .
2. Select Settings .
3. Scroll down and expand the subsection of Fortnite .
4. Check the box “Additional command line parameters” .
5. In a blank field, type -limitclientticks to limit the frequency of network communications.

If packet loss continues, contact your ISP for further assistance.

Troubleshoot Fortnite Console

If you’re on a console, check out our standard troubleshooting steps here.

If you continue to experience problems playing on your console, we recommend that you contact your console manufacturer for further assistance.

Login error message

If you receive this message when trying to start playing Fortnite, your system is not loading fast enough.

This happens when the system does not meet the minimum requirements to play Fortnite. The minimum requirements can be found here.

Troubleshoot consoles and mobile devices

Note: Apple has blocked access to Fortnite on iOS devices. The game can currently be downloaded to Android devices using the Epic Games app from the Samsung Galaxy Store or epicgames.com. Fortnite is currently not available on Google Play.Find out more.

Can’t enter username on Nintendo Switch

If you can’t enter your username when you create an Epic Games account on Nintendo Switch, try entering it using touch on the console, or docking the console and using a controller.

Reinstall Fortnite

Consoles and mobile devices are closed systems, which means that there are not many ways to solve problems that arise on them. The most common way to fix the problem is to reinstall Fortnite.Here are instructions on how to uninstall the app on Android.

Android

1. Press and hold the Fortnite icon.
2. Select “Remove” .
3. Go to the Google Play Store or Epic Games website to download the installer and reinstall Fortnite.

Tips for reinstalling Fortnite on a console can be found on the console manufacturer’s website:

Still having difficulties?

If you are still having difficulty playing Fortnite, we will be happy to help you.Click on the “Contact Us” button to send your request, and be sure to accompany your request with the following information and files that will help us in solving your problem.

• List of corrective actions that you have already taken. This is important because this way we will not advise you to do what you have already done.
• Screenshot of the error (if applicable).
• Your Fortnite Error Log Files. The details are in this article: there you will find all the information you need.
• Your DxDiag. Details in this article with a detailed description of the process.

Games developed in Russia will help recover from a stroke – Science

A computer toy monitors the activity of the brain during imaginary movements during a game action, which facilitates the training and rehabilitation of people with impaired motor functions as a result of a stroke. The press release of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU), which was received by the editorial board of “Cherdak”, tells about the project.

Violation of the blood supply to the brain leads to a stroke and the appearance of foci of damage to the nervous tissue. As a rule, they affect only certain areas in a particular hemisphere. Therefore, motor functions impaired, for example, on the right side of the body, may remain normal on the left. And with a favorable development of events, the plasticity of the brain will allow the whole hemisphere to take over the performance of the lost functions. This process is greatly stimulated by exercises, and not necessarily real ones.

Movement performed mentally excites much of the same neural patterns as the real one. This allows you to speed up the recovery of patients after a stroke without physically overloading them using gaming technologies. This approach is being developed by scientists from St. Petersburg SPbPU together with the innovative startup iBrain.

With the help of a wireless electroencephalograph (EEG), the activity of various parts of the motor cortex is detected during certain body movements. This data is used to train a system with elements of artificial intelligence, which then interprets the patient’s EEG while playing, without making any real movements.Walking around the virtual garden, the patient picks virtual fruits and, being carried away, additionally trains neural patterns necessary to restore body motility.

According to the developers, the system can be used at home, and the rehabilitation period takes about two months. In the near future, it will be supplemented by another version of the game, with shooting at virtual targets, and subsequently the set of games will be expanded – so that everyone can find a version to their liking and quickly restore the brain functions damaged by a stroke.

Games for training, stimulation and restoration of attention and concentration

CogniFit CogniFit helps you activate, stimulate and restore the brain functions involved in our ability to perceive and process information. Strengthening this important cognitive skill can help us concentrate better and stay focused for longer periods of time, increase productivity and multitasking ability, and reduce distraction. How do I start exercising with these attention and concentration games? It’s very simple, you just need to register.

This program of attention stimulation and rehabilitation consists of various online games. You can train using any computer or mobile device. All components of the task program are various exercises aimed at improving and strengthening the necessary cognitive functions associated with attention.The CogniFit program for improving brain performance is based on the cognitive reserve and the brain’s capacity for neural plasticity.

The difficulty level of the games and attention exercises from CogniFit automatically adapts to the needs of the user as you train. This scientific resource was designed to continually measure the brain’s ability to pay attention. The patented CogniFit technology systematically adjusts the difficulty and type of tasks and exercises, altering the cognitive demands of smart games according to the unique characteristics of each user.

All CogniFit Cognitive Stimulation and Rehabilitation programs are designed so that children, adolescents, adults, older people can activate and strengthen their mental abilities and compare their cognitive state with their peers in everything world .