The title of this fit tip says it all; which is the better way to recover immediately following an effort - hands on head or hands on knees? Listen to find out which method is better and why based on a recent study.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland and this is Fitness Disrupted. Bit tip,
should you recover with your hands on your knees or
your hands on your head? Now, just about everyone has
(00:24):
had experience with this. I don't care if you played
competitive sports or just back to jim class. How many
of us can remember our coaches, our gym teachers saying,
as most did, don't bend over at the end of
a sprint or a tough workout or tough jym session.
(00:45):
You know, if you're a football player, soccer player, whatever
the sport was, whatever you were doing at the time,
you did a hard bout of exercise, and oftentimes the
coach or the teacher told you to put your hands
on your head. Why because that was going to open
up your lungs. We're told to keep walking with your
hands on your head. Right. Well, now there's studies, and
(01:06):
not surprisingly, that's not what the research shows, all right,
So again the argument that was oftentimes made was your
hands on your head open up your lungs, while bending
over in essence closed them off. Well, here's the study.
It's being thrown about all over even social media mc
(01:28):
hammer's tweeting about this does that happen? But the study
effects of two different recovery postures during high intensity interval training.
This was in the Translational Journal of the A. C.
S M. American College of Sports Medicine, February two thousand nineteen.
(01:48):
Very simple purpose of the study was to examine the
effects of two different recovery postures hands on your head
h H and hands on your knees h K as
a form of immediate recovery from high intensity interval training.
So you're doing that sprint. When you're done, what do
you do? Right? So they recruited twenty four female Division
(02:09):
two soccer players between the ages of eighteen and twenty two.
Those were the participants in the study. The subjects and
the testing was very simple. Each session consisted of a
five minute warm up on a treadmill at a running
speed that was at se of their heart rate max
at zero grade. Then they did four intervals of their
(02:31):
heart rate max. So they are up there, they're pushing
it for four minutes with three minute passive recovery intervals
in between runs. And when they were recovering they were
assuming either the h H, hands on head or h
K postures during that recovery time and throughout that recovery,
each subject had a nose clip and a two way
(02:51):
breathing mouthpiece valve interfaced with a metal ball cart. So
they are measuring their recovery rates essentially, and it cut
to the chase because it's bit tip. What did they find?
The opposite of what you've been told by your coach
is most likely. Hands on head posture places the diaphragm
in a sub optimal position, decreasing its mechanical efficiency. Raising
(03:13):
the arms causes a passive stretch of the thoracic wall,
and the abdominal muscles are in an over lengthened position,
which may place them in a less effective position for breathing. Okay,
with your hands on your knees, your lungs are allowed
to be filled with more air, not less. And here's
(03:38):
where we finish up. The body is a really smart machine.
The body is that your gym teacher might not have
been so. In other words, I talked about running. You
want to get good at running, run, You want to
get good at biking bike. The more miles you put in,
the better you're gonna get at the body does not
want to waste energy, and the body wants to recover
(03:59):
as quickly as possible on its own, so you do
what comes naturally. So it's no surprise that you sprint
through that hundred yard dash and field day in fifth
grade and you bend over to recover, because that's where
your body goes naturally. So listen to your body and
listen to the science. Now that's one study, pretty darn
(04:19):
good one, though, So take the study, take what feels
right naturally, and way the two and again listen to
your body. All right. Perfect fit tip for Friday. Thank
you for listening. This is a short fit tip. We
have the longer shows as well, but what a perfect
(04:41):
topic or a short little episode of Fitness Disrupted. I
am Tom Holland. Thank you for listening. Please rate the
show if you haven't already, subscribe to the show and
you can follow me, ask questions comments, Tom h fit
for in Intagram and Twitter Fitness Disrupted dot com. You
(05:03):
can email me through the site there or more about
the show, And once again, thank you. This show is
all about science and common sense and helping you be
the very best you. I am Tom Holland. This is
fitness Disrupted Believe in Yourself Fitness Disrupted is a production
(05:27):
of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland and this is Fitness Disrupted. Bit tip,
should you recover with your hands on your knees or
your hands on your head? Now, just about everyone has
(00:24):
had experience with this. I don't care if you played
competitive sports or just back to jim class. How many
of us can remember our coaches, our gym teachers saying,
as most did, don't bend over at the end of
a sprint or a tough workout or tough jym session.
(00:45):
You know, if you're a football player, soccer player, whatever
the sport was, whatever you were doing at the time,
you did a hard bout of exercise, and oftentimes the
coach or the teacher told you to put your hands
on your head. Why because that was going to open
up your lungs. We're told to keep walking with your
hands on your head. Right. Well, now there's studies, and
(01:06):
not surprisingly, that's not what the research shows, all right,
So again the argument that was oftentimes made was your
hands on your head open up your lungs, while bending
over in essence closed them off. Well, here's the study.
It's being thrown about all over even social media mc
(01:28):
hammer's tweeting about this does that happen? But the study
effects of two different recovery postures during high intensity interval training.
This was in the Translational Journal of the A. C.
S M. American College of Sports Medicine, February two thousand nineteen.
(01:48):
Very simple purpose of the study was to examine the
effects of two different recovery postures hands on your head
h H and hands on your knees h K as
a form of immediate recovery from high intensity interval training.
So you're doing that sprint. When you're done, what do
you do? Right? So they recruited twenty four female Division
(02:09):
two soccer players between the ages of eighteen and twenty two.
Those were the participants in the study. The subjects and
the testing was very simple. Each session consisted of a
five minute warm up on a treadmill at a running
speed that was at se of their heart rate max
at zero grade. Then they did four intervals of their
(02:31):
heart rate max. So they are up there, they're pushing
it for four minutes with three minute passive recovery intervals
in between runs. And when they were recovering they were
assuming either the h H, hands on head or h
K postures during that recovery time and throughout that recovery,
each subject had a nose clip and a two way
(02:51):
breathing mouthpiece valve interfaced with a metal ball cart. So
they are measuring their recovery rates essentially, and it cut
to the chase because it's bit tip. What did they find?
The opposite of what you've been told by your coach
is most likely. Hands on head posture places the diaphragm
in a sub optimal position, decreasing its mechanical efficiency. Raising
(03:13):
the arms causes a passive stretch of the thoracic wall,
and the abdominal muscles are in an over lengthened position,
which may place them in a less effective position for breathing. Okay,
with your hands on your knees, your lungs are allowed
to be filled with more air, not less. And here's
(03:38):
where we finish up. The body is a really smart machine.
The body is that your gym teacher might not have
been so. In other words, I talked about running. You
want to get good at running, run, You want to
get good at biking bike. The more miles you put in,
the better you're gonna get at the body does not
want to waste energy, and the body wants to recover
(03:59):
as quickly as possible on its own, so you do
what comes naturally. So it's no surprise that you sprint
through that hundred yard dash and field day in fifth
grade and you bend over to recover, because that's where
your body goes naturally. So listen to your body and
listen to the science. Now that's one study, pretty darn
(04:19):
good one, though, So take the study, take what feels
right naturally, and way the two and again listen to
your body. All right. Perfect fit tip for Friday. Thank
you for listening. This is a short fit tip. We
have the longer shows as well, but what a perfect
(04:41):
topic or a short little episode of Fitness Disrupted. I
am Tom Holland. Thank you for listening. Please rate the
show if you haven't already, subscribe to the show and
you can follow me, ask questions comments, Tom h fit
for in Intagram and Twitter Fitness Disrupted dot com. You
(05:03):
can email me through the site there or more about
the show, And once again, thank you. This show is
all about science and common sense and helping you be
the very best you. I am Tom Holland. This is
fitness Disrupted Believe in Yourself Fitness Disrupted is a production
(05:27):
of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
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