Rest, Recovery, and Rehabilitation

So you found this thing called fitness, and you are devoting all of your time to the process. You are making sure to come to the box in time to get signed in, and warm-up the body in preparation for today's WOD.  You see today's workout is one that is in your wheelhouse and you are in the right mindset to set a PR. 

Then, you feel it!  It might not have been your day after all. 

Rest...

If I don't need no stinkin' rest describes you in the last example then you may need to rethink your mindset .  I have heard random things around MCF when it comes to rest and they sound a little something like "you won't ever grow if you take rest days, or rest days are for people who (fill in the blanks). 

Rest days are important!  In the section on recovery, we will talk about some of the things that you can do on your rest day. Rest is imperative to allow for the opportunity to recoup from the stress of the workouts and life.  It allows time for the muscles to repair, inflammation to reduce, and ligaments, and tendons to relax. This allows you to come back stronger and better when heading back into the box for another WOD. 

Work/rest cycles are different for every individual, but they do need to be factored into every athlete's training schedule.  Some of the most common options would be a 3 on 1 off rotation, 5 on 2 off, or 1 on 1 off. 

Recovery...

When we say take a rest day, we don't mean to simply go into your living room and watch television, although there are times in which that may sound like fun.  Rest days are considered recovery days.  To help in this area, MCF is partnering with Amber Day of Benchmark Physical Therapy to discuss the difference between active and passive recovery methods. 

Active Recovery
"The first three letters say it all - act".  The concept is to decrease the overall load from your typical WODs at MCF.  This might include a hike, a walk, paddle boarding, kayaking, a bike ride, or coming to MCF to get in some foam rolling.  Active recovery keeps you moving, and provides a vast amount of benefits.  Some of those benefits are preventing injury, maintaining heart rates between workouts, reducing  lactic acid build-up to limit muscle soreness, and improving mood to avoid crashing after higher intensity workouts. 

Passive Recovery
This form of recovery requires little to no effort, and usually entails the aid of a trained/skilled professional such as a physical therapist, or massage therapist.  Some examples of passive recovery would include soft tissue massage, myofascial release, joint mobilization, passive stretching, dry needling, cupping, and other modalities such as electrical stimulation and cryotherapy. 

• To help our athletes, many of these techniques are now being provided at Mossy Creek Fitness.  Amber Day, PT, DPT, with Benchmark Physical Therapy, can help you with your passive recovery days with modalities such as
  • Dry Needling - Involves insertion of small gauged needles into various regions of the muscle(s) that may be responsible for pain/mobility restrictions. 
    
  • Cupping - Involved the placement of suction cups onto various body regions to promote blood flow, improve mobility and reduce pain.
    
  • ASTYM(TM) - tool assisted soft tissue massage that has proved to regenerate soft tissue dysfunction and resorb scarred tissue, which may be responsible for mobility restrictions. 
    

Passive recovery should be used as part of a total perspective and not the only recovery technique.  Active and Passive recovery techniques should be integrated to the wellness continuum to ensure your body recovers from your fitness journey. 

Rehabilitation...

So your journey has resulted in an injury, and this set you back.  Now is when we look at  rehabilitation versus recovery.  Rehabilitation is an an active process in which we work together with a skilled physical therapist in an effort to get you back on track in the quickest, yet most effective manner possible.

Rehabilitation can include any of the passive treatments that are listed above, the difference, is that the process begins with the development of an individualized treatment plan to meet your bio mechanical faults.    A long way of saying we will get you back on track! 

Maybe you need to ask your self a couple of questions to see if this is where you stand right now.

• Do you have a nagging pain that prevents you from performing certain movements?
• Have you taken time off from the gym altogether?

If you answered YES to either of these,
it may be time to schedule time with Amber!

During your evaluation, an assessment will be conducted to determine what your limitations might be during your rehabilitation period.  This assessment will determine the most appropriate course of treatment that will include an exercise plan to keep you active during this time.  This may simply be a modification of your current activity, a home exercise progression plan, manual therapies, and corrective actions.  All to ensure that you are able to safely and effectively transition back to what you love doing most.  Whether it is Crossfit, BX, or just doing the things of daily life. 

Amber Day, PT, DPT, with Benchmark Physical Therapy, offers a variety of services for those athletes looking to recover with a wellness visit, or after an injury to rehabilitate.  Depending upon the services necessary, there are cash options available, as well as a variety of insurance plans taken. 

Benchmark Physical Therapy offers services at their Mossy Creek Fitness location on Tuesday from 4p-7p and at their Jefferson City location on Broadway Boulevard from 8a-5p Monday through Friday.

Contact Amber at aday@benchmarkpt.com or by calling (865)471-6890