Recovery Management.

Hi everyone

Sory its taken me so ling to post again, the season has been very busy, we have lots of teams to look after and the also lots of travelling. This job gets more busy and more professional everyday. This reminds me of when I was playing rugby at club level and thereafter at provincial. It was so different then. The tecnhnolgy was qiuite outdated compared to now. Here is a short article for you on recovery management.

Recovery Management.

The amount of rugby that is played by the top players these days allows very little time for proper off season conditioning work.

10 months of competitive rugby allows for a maximum of 3 weeks recovering and resting up, over Christmas and New Year, until a 6-week pre-season period starts. This period is also used to rehabilitate injuries and prepare the player for contact and the pre-season friendlies.
Thus the modern day fitness coach or trainer should actually be referred to as a “recovery manager”.

Performances are largely dependent on the ability of the player and the team as a whole to recover:

• from strenuous training session in time for the next session
• from physical games in time for the next training session or game
• from small injuries and niggles in time for the next training session or game
• from serious injuries as quickly as possible

The coach obviously wants to select the strongest possible team each week. Thus the pressure on the medical team and players is high to speed up the recovery process.

I thought I would share with you some of the strategies we employ to try and speed up recovery from strenuous exercise, such as a rugby match or hard training session.

Recovery Management Strategies

Pool     - players do a 20-30 min pool session after each game

• During heavy weeks training an additional swimming session is done (Camps Bay beach for example)
• This includes mobilization of the muscles and stretching
• The cold water and the pressure of the water on the muscles all assist in recover

Ice    

• Ice packs are placed on most injuries to prevent excessive swelling
• Standing in ice baths after heavy training sessions and games

Dietary intervention

• Supplementation products
• Vitamin and mineral tablets
• Re-hydration drinks (protein & carbohydrate)
• Post match meal

Stretching

• Before and after training
• Additional Individual & group stretching sessions

Body weight recording (drop in weight is a sign of over training/fatigue)

• Weight is recorded every Monday morning
• Weight is recorded before and after games (to monitor fluid replacement

Himms (conducted by the SSISA) & Polar Overtraining Test done weekly on the players

• Standardized Recovery tests done according to heart rate response to exercise and rest

Sleep

• Lack of sleep increases fatigue
• Difficulty sleeping is a sign of overtraining/fatigue

Weekly schedule structuring

• Plan the weeks training carefully to ensure adequate rest between session
• Plan when to do fitness, when to scrum when to do contact sessions etc.

Training Session structuring

• Plan each individual training session carefully to ensure maximum effectiveness as well as sufficient rest

Manage rest days/periods

• Ensure players receive the necessary physiotherapy on rest days
• Encourage players to rest (limit golf, surfing etc)

Rehabilitation

• Place good rehab programs in place to ensure players recover fully from injuries and niggles
• Follow up and continue to do maintenance rehab work on all players with previous injuries

Lifestyle management

• Encourage and promote a healthy lifestyle
• No smoking, excessive drinking, proper dietary habits
• Life outside of rugby (business, studies etc)

These are some of the strategies that I concentrate on to ensure that the players recover properly during the long session. Mental fatigue is often just as exhausting as the physical fatigue.

I trust that this was interesting reading for you.

Greg Hechter