Recovery Corner with Maurice Allen - Recovery Madness

This month was a great but a bit of a nightmare. I’m finally healthy after being out 18 months due to a hand and wrist injury. Being healthy means I’m back competing, and back to competing means I’m not home much. I was only at my house 1/3 of the month so my access to my Super Novo massage chair was limited. Even with limited access I still had to find ways to recover so I could preform and feel at my best. As you all know we tend to let ourselves go when we travel and don’t stick to a routine when we aren’t in our own space. I decided to look into the things that I many not have paid attention to before and habits that I have on the road that were causing me problems. 

Common Physical Recovery Issues While Travelling

The first thing I noticed was the bed, your bed at home allows you to get a great nights sleep. When you are sleeping in a hotel for a few nights your sleep may suffer because of the quality of the bed. The bed may be too firm or too soft, the height of the bed off the floor may be different, the comforter may not have the thickness you like or too thick and lastly the pillows just don’t allow you to get comfortable. I’ve learned to stay in certain hotel brands because of the consistency of the bed compared to my personal bed, this was one of the biggest helps. I also carry a small pillow which serves as a help in two ways. It first helps me on the plane keep my head level and stable so my body isn’t thrown of from sitting at an angle for hours on a plane. Secondly it gives me that consistency at night which allows me to fall asleep fast and sleep more efficiently.

The next thing I noticed that is important is to stretch for 20 minutes when I wake up and before I go to bed on the road. When I’m at home I allow the Super Novo to prep my body for the day and I also use it for decompression in the evenings. Stretching will never give you what the chair can do for you but it similar to placing a bandage on the situation, you just need something to hold you over. I normally do 10 different stretch positions for 2 minutes each in a total body series. If you have problem areas you definitely want to focus on those areas more to provide relief. If you want to step it up a little you can incorporate a roller into your series which will give you a little more pressure. 

The last thing was hydration. Notice I didn’t say diet or anything referring to solid food intake. I purposely stayed away from that because your eating habits are what they are and traditionally don’t change on the road much but you hydration does change. For me I noticed I was only drinking 1/4 of the water on the road that I would drink at home. With my muscles not being hydrated properly, how could I ever expect them to perform at the level I desired? I also paid more attention to the type of water I was drinking while on the road. Making sure I take a trip to the local grocery store to get the brands that I normally drink when I’m home. Consistency is always the key, too many variables can throw you way off and mess up your rhythm. So now I have a much better system to ensure that I hydrate so that my body in the best possible condition to perform.