Recovery is vital in any walk of life, it allows us to recuperate, relax and prepare for the next challenge.
This is especially true in the lifestyle of an athlete (whatever level you’re at!).
For a training programme to be successful, it is vital that the recovery periods are planned correctly. Rest and recovery allow our bodies to heal from the demands of the previous workout and prepare the body adequately for the next session.
With the help and expertise of physiologists and sports professionals, your Hydropool has been designed to optimise your recovery, ensuring you are fully prepared for your next workout.
In this post, Nottinghamshire based Sports And Exercise Science Consultant, George Evans discusses:
1 - Muscle Pain
Post exercise muscle soreness is something experienced by anyone who exercises regularly.
You’ve lifted a new personal best, ran your fastest 5K yet, and achieved a long-term exercise goal: your reward? Aches, pains, and lack of movement.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Your Hydropool could allow you to reflect on your achievements in a warm pool; relaxed and pain free.
A growing body of research points to the fact that our Thermoreceptors, the nerve cells responsible for detecting changes in temperature, are located in parts of the body as nociceptive impulses - the nerve cells that enable us to experience pain. As a result, the heat experienced from warm water can override the feeling of pain you feel after exercise.
By stepping into a Hydropool heated up to a temperature of up to 40 degrees, you can reduce or even alleviate post exercise pain.
2 - Muscle Recovery
As well as reducing the immediate muscle pain experienced by athletes after a workout, your Hydropool can also aid with the immediate commencement of the post exercise muscle recovery process. This optimally prepares your body for your next work out, as well as reducing your risk of delayed on set muscle soreness.
During physical activity, your muscles are vigorously worked, causing microtears to begin to develop within them. This sounds quite dramatic but it’s necessary for increasing muscle strength.
To help this, it is important to provide your muscles with the adequate recourse needed to begin and complete the recovery process.
Once again, this is where your Hydropool can prove an extremely effective provider of your post exercise needs.
Research shows that post exercise use of a Hydropool can be an extremely effective method of aiding post exercise muscle recovery. When in a warm environment, like the heated water of your Hydropool, your body’s core temperature begins to increase. In response, blood circulation also increases. But how does this aid your muscular recovery after a session?
As blood circulation increases, a more blood flows into the fatigued muscles, supplying them with the oxygen and key nutrients required for the recovery process.
3 - Joint Pain
Like muscle pain, joint pain is a common by product of an intense exercise session.
After an exercise session, it’s not uncommon to feel stiff or in pain when trying to move. This is because the muscles and tendons within the joints have begun to seize up as a result of the physical activity.
Again, research shows that use of a Hydropool can help mitigate this issue. Just as your muscles require an increased blood supply after exercise to aid with their recovery, the same is true for the soft tissue that surrounds our joints.
With the use of a warm Hydropool, you are able to ensure that an adequate supply of oxygen and key nutrients reaches the damaged soft tissue, allowing it to fully recover from the previous exercise session.
The use of a Hydropool is also an effective way of improving joint mobility after an intense session. When in warm water the muscles and tendons that surround our joints are able to relax, allowing the possibility for an increased range of motion and flexibility. This in turn reduces the amount of stiffness you will experience in the hours after your sessions.
Your Hydropool is also highly beneficial for post session stretching, the combination of reduced bodyweight load and increased range of motion allows you to stretch after a session without the risk of injury occurring.
4 - Unloading Phases
Unloading is a vital component of any sports training programme.
Unloading refers to a period of time (normally a few days up to a week) where an athlete will reduce the ‘load’ (weight or resistance) placed on the muscles during exercise sessions. Continuously training at higher loads can be extremely dangerous, commonly leading to long term muscular injuries.
For any athlete, it is important to maintain your fitness levels during an unloading period in order to avoid a regression in their current state. However, finding a balance between fitness maintenance and prevention of injuries can be difficult.
This is where the use of a Hydropool could be extremely beneficial for your training programme. When submerged in water from the neck down, the bodyweight load placed on the muscles reduces by up to 90% allowing you to complete both cardio-vascular and resistance based sessions without over exerting their muscles, therefore significantly reducing your risk of injury.
Find out more about our range by visiting Hydropool Midlands’ huge indoor showroom, the number one place to visit for Hot Tubs & Swim Spas in the midlands. We are proud retailers & installers of Hydropool hot tubs and swim spas for Nottingham, Derby, Leicester and Birmingham.
You’ll find us just off Junction 25 of the M1, a few miles from Nottingham and walking distance from the Toton Lane NET Nottingham Tram Park and Ride station.
Or call 0800 144 8827.
Hydropools reduce muscle pain
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17978833/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6479732/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6121522/ - heat can numb pain
Muscle recovery
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4049052/
joint pain
https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/treatments/therapies/hydrotherapy/
unloading
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7056478/
general sources (Discuss all points)
https://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/treatments-therapies/hydrotherapy