Recovery isn’t just what happens when you stop running — it’s where the real progress happens. In this week’s episode, we’re diving into the science behind active and passive recovery so you can understand how each plays a vital role in helping you become a stronger, more resilient runner.
I’ll break down what’s actually happening inside your body during recovery and why alternating between rest and movement matters.
You’ll learn:
🏃♀️ The difference between active and passive recovery — and when to use each
💡 How gentle activities like walking, easy cycling, or mobility work can boost blood flow, calm your nervous system, and speed up tissue repair
🧘♀️ Why stretching and foam rolling aren’t magic fixes — but can still play an important part when used the right way
🗓️ How to fit recovery strategically into your week so you can train smarter, feel better, and keep improving without burning out
Because recovery isn’t just about doing less — it’s about doing the right things to support your body, mind, and long-term running goals.
Ready to make recovery one of your strongest training tools? Let’s dive in.
If you want more support creating a recovery routine that actually fits your life, check out our 30-Day Running Reset — it’s designed to help you rebuild the foundation of your running through smart training, balanced recovery, and mindful movement.
00:37 Active vs Passive Recovery
03:07 Understanding Active Recovery
03:47 Benefits of Active Recovery
07:26 Passive Recovery Explained
10:52 Stretching: Myths and Facts
12:16 Dynamic vs Static Stretching
18:31 Importance of Mobility Work
21:13 Foam Rolling: Benefits and Techniques
29:12 Summary and Practical Tips
Join the 30 Day Running Reset and get a plan that will help you build a strong and injury-proof body by combining running and strength training in a way that actually works for runners like you.
Gain access to my new secret podcast, Unbreakable: The Runner's Guide To Injury-Proofing Your Body After 40. Click here: https://www.realliferunners.com/secret
Join the Team! --> https://www.realliferunners.com/team
Thanks for Listening!!
Be sure to hit FOLLOW on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player
Leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one!
Come find us on Instagram and say hi!
Don't forget: The information on this website is not intended to treat or diagnose any medical condition or to provide medical advice. It is intended for general education in the areas of health and wellness. All information contained in this site is intended to be educational in nature. Nothing should be considered medical advice for your specific situation.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker (00:00):
Welcome back to the Real Life Runners podcast,
episode number 432.
Today we are continuing ourseries on recovery and the
science of recovery and howrecovery is so important for you
to actually gain the benefits ofyour training.
So if you missed last week, goback and catch last week.
We went over a lot of the basicsof recovery to help you
(00:21):
understand the science behindwhy recovery is so important and
hitting like those majorcornerstones like sleep and
fueling and hydration that willhelp you to recover better and
gain more benefits from yourworkouts.
Today we're gonna be beingdigging into.
Active versus passive recoveryand talking about things like
stretching and foam rollingbecause when I talk to a lot of
(00:43):
runners, especially runners thatare injured or that are
experiencing a lot of aches orpains, one of the things they
often say is, I know I just needto stretch more.
So today I'm gonna talk aboutthe science behind that and why
stretching might not be theanswer.
So stay tuned.
(01:19):
What's up runners?
Welcome back to the show today.
It's a solo Angie episode andI'm excited to be talking to you
all about active versus passiverecovery.
Like I mentioned in the intro,there's so many runners that I
talk to that think they justneed to stretch more.
They think that stretching willhelp them to feel better and
prevent injury, but that is nottrue.
(01:40):
Spoiler alert that's not,definitely not the full picture.
So today I really wanna go overhelping you understand the
scientific effects of.
Popular recovery methods, what'ssupported by science, what
simply feels good becausethere's nothing wrong with that
either.
if you enjoy doing something andit feels good, keep doing it.
I'm not gonna tell you not to doit.
(02:02):
My goal is to help youunderstand what is backed by
science and.
So that you can use more thingsmore intentionally and you can
decide where you want to spendyour time.
Because as a real life runner,you are limited on time.
I know you're busy with lots ofdifferent things, and so if you
can gain more benefits doing onething versus another, I want you
(02:23):
to know that and then you canmake the best choice for you.
So let's talk about this alittle bit and why recovery
matters.
Okay.
Like we mentioned last week.
Recovery is something that isabsolutely essential for your
training because recovery is afull body activity.
It's a systemic activity.
(02:43):
There are those three systemsthat we talked about, your
muscular system, your hormonehormonal system, and your neural
system that all need to recoverafter exercise.
So we have to look at all threeof those things when it comes to
evaluating these different toolsthat we have.
So the main difference that wewanna talk about today is active
(03:05):
versus passive recovery.
So what the heck is thedifference if.
Active recovery is a lowintensity movement that
maintains your circulation andstimulates the parasympathetic
nervous system.
So this is something like goingfor an easy walk, going for an
easy bike ride, doing somemobility work, some restorative
yoga.
It's basically just moving thebody in a very gentle,
(03:29):
controlled way, and activerecovery is so beneficial.
This has been studied in a lotof different research studies
out there.
And.
There.
They all basically point toactive recovery is good for the
body, and there's variousmechanisms here.
One of the reasons that activerecovery is good for you is
(03:50):
because it increases your bloodflow to that area.
Now, as we've mentioned.
During your workouts, especiallyduring your harder training
sessions, you are breaking thebody down and it is during
recovery that your body'sactually building back stronger
than it was before.
Assuming that you are giving itthe right tools and the right
building blocks that it needs tobuild that muscle and those
tissues back stronger.
(04:12):
The way that those nutrients andthings are delivered to that
area that needs repair isthrough the blood.
So when you increase blood flowto the area, that is a good
thing that helps to acceleratethe removal of the metabolic
byproducts that are createdduring exercise.
Because when you're breakingdown tissue, there are
byproducts that are formed, andso when you increase the blood
(04:36):
flow to that area, it can flushout that area.
You wanna get rid of some ofthose metabolic.
Byproducts.
And then it also helps to bringin those repair cells, right?
Like it brings, more oxygen tothat area.
It brings in the proteins andthe amino acids, and all the
things that your muscles andyour tissues need to repair.
So increased blood flow is avery good thing.
(04:57):
That's definitely what we wantto promote during recovery.
Like I mentioned, we also, whenyou increase blood flow, that
brings more oxygen and nutrientsto that muscle tissue, so it's
also helping to improve that.
The third thing that it does isit helps to keep the nervous
system engaged in a low stressstate.
(05:17):
So when you're doing activerecovery, basically we talked
about this last week, I believeyour nervous system has two main
states.
There's your sympathetic nervoussystem, which is your fight or
flight mode that is activatedduring exercise, especially
during high intensity exercise.
And there's yourparasympathetic, which is your
rest and digest, or like I liketo call it rest, digest, and
(05:38):
repair mode.
And that's the state that wewant our body to get into during
recovery.
And so when we use activerecovery, when we're doing these
low.
Low level, gentle movements.
things like walking, easy,biking.
We're promoting all of thesethings and our body is in a very
(05:58):
low stress state.
We're not a, it's, we're notgoing hard enough that we are
jumping into sympathetic mode.
We are keeping ourparasympathetic state activated
and just keeping our nervoussystem nice and relaxed.
So that's really what we wannaknow when it comes to active
recovery.
So when I say active recovery,I'm not talking about, a 20 mile
(06:19):
moderate to hard bike ride.
That's another training session.
But if you're going out on anice, easy, relaxed bike ride,
fantastic.
as long as you feel relaxed andyou feel like this is an easy
thing for you, that is a goodthing.
You, it's really important foryou to go by how you feel.
And one of the things that Ialways like to point to with
this is yoga.
So for me, I love using yoga asactive recovery.
(06:43):
I enjoy yoga.
I like the mind body connectionof it.
I like flowing through thesedifferent positions.
Kevin will tell you that he'snot a big fan of yoga because
yoga's a harder thing for him todo because he does have some
more muscle length restrictions.
He's not as flexible as I am,and so for him.
Doing yoga is a more high stresstype of activity, so it's the
(07:06):
same exact activity.
We're both doing yoga, but forme, it puts my body in a very
relaxed, low stress state.
Whereas Kevin, it puts him in ahigher stress state.
So it's your, it's the way thatyour body responds to that
thing.
Okay, so that's active recovery.
It's very movement based, gentlecontrolled, intentional
movement.
(07:26):
Passive recovery, on the otherhand, are things that are done
to the body rather than by thebody.
So that's like a good way tothink about it.
So things that you're doing tothe body, like foam rolling,
massage compression.
Ice baths.
Okay.
Those types of things.
Or just taking a full rest day,that would be passive recovery.
So it's like the things thatyou're doing to the body or just
(07:49):
not doing at all.
So these things can also be veryeffective, depending on which
ones we're talking about here,because these also help to
regulate your nervous system andhelp you to get into that
parasympathetic mode.
Which again, that's what wewant.
It also, they can also help torece reduce perceived tension or
discomfort.
(08:09):
However, they have less directimpact on tissue repair when you
compare it to active recovery.
Okay?
So yes, your tissues arerepairing themselves in this
state, but.
Research shows us that activerecovery has a more direct
impact and leads to more tissuerepair, faster tissue repair
(08:32):
when compared to passiverecovery.
So both of these things havevalue.
active recovery and passiverecovery are both very good.
The key is to match the methodto your goal and to your timing
within your training cycle.
Okay.
So I like to use both and weencourage.
All of our athletes to take arest day, at least once a week.
(08:53):
It depends on who they are andwhat else is going on in their
life and what they're trainingfor and their level of
experience and all sorts ofdifferent things.
But we do encourage a full restday.
Now, with that being said, afull rest day can include and
we.
Encourage them to do some activerecovery on that rest day, so it
doesn't mean you're just sittingon the couch watching TV all day
(09:15):
long, going out for a nice walk,going for an easy bike ride.
These like very, again, gentle,intentional movements.
Are very good for the body, andespecially if you are a woman
over 40 that is going throughperimenopause or maybe you're
already into menopause becauseof the hormonal changes.
There's a lot of, as we loseestrogen and progesterone,
(09:35):
there's a lot of tissue changesthat can happen in the body as
well.
And a lot of women find thattaking a full passive recovery
day where they really don't doanything can actually make them
even more sore.
So a lot of women over 40 findthat.
That intentional active recoveryis actually better for their
body and helps them to recovermore quickly than just total
(09:57):
rest.
Okay?
So you have to do what's rightfor you.
if it's like the day after yourfirst marathon and your body's
just wrecked and you're feelingsuper sore, taking a nap and
just laying in bed all day mightbe a great choice for you.
However, it might also be a goodchoice for you to just go out on
a walk.
It doesn't have to be an hourlong walk.
It doesn't have to be a speedwalk.
(10:17):
It could be like a, just a nicerelaxed 15 to 20 minute walk.
And that again, helps to improvethat blood flow, helps to flush
out some of those byproducts,helps to bring, nutrients and
oxygen to the area to help yourbody start to kickstart that
repair process.
All good things.
Okay, so benefits to both activeand passive recovery.
Hopefully you understand thedifference now.
(10:38):
So what I wanna talk about noware some of the big th three of
the big things that a lot ofrunners do.
Okay?
These are typically when I speakto runners and talk about
recovery and those kinds ofthings.
These are some of the big onesthat people often go to.
So the first one I wanna talkabout is stretching because, so
again, I know I've said thismultiple times already, but so
(10:59):
many runners think, oh, I justneed to stretch more.
And that may or may not be truebecause stretching, the way that
most people think aboutstretching is static stretching.
And static stretching is holdinga position.
It's like putting your body intoa position and holding that
position for 30 plus seconds,right?
Over 30 seconds.
(11:19):
And this has a.
Limited effectiveness,especially in the research
studies.
Okay, it's, we're gonna go intothis in a second, but that's
basically what static stretchingis, and I think that's what most
people think of when they thinkabout stretching.
So there are two types ofstretching, okay?
The first one is staticstretching, which is what most
(11:40):
people think about, where youjust, you get into that position
and you just hold it for 30seconds or 60 seconds or
whatever it might be.
The second one is dynamicstretching.
And dynamic stretching ismovement based.
So this is more like activemobility types of things.
So things like leg swings, hipcircles, it can be like lunging,
(12:00):
getting into a position, thencoming out of a position.
Runner's lunge is one of myfavorite ways to dynamically
stretch.
there's so many good stretches,but basically dynamic
stretching.
Includes movement.
So you gently move yourself intoa position and then you gently
move yourself out.
You don't hold a position for anextended period of time, so
which one's better to use?
(12:21):
Which one do we really wannafocus on?
Dynamic stretching has beenshown in multiple research
studies to be the most ideal wayto stretch for most people.
And this is the type ofstretching that you want to do
before your run because it helpsto prepare your body for.
Whatever you're about to do,okay, so say you're about to
(12:43):
run, it helps prepare your bodyfor running.
Say you're about to do astrength session.
It helps to prepare your bodyfor strength training, and you
want your dynamic stretchingbefore your workout to match
what you're going to do.
So if you are about to go out ona run, you wanna make sure that
your dynamic stretching includesthe muscles and the.
Movements that you are going todo in running.
(13:04):
So you wanna definitely makesure that you are doing like
some forward backward motions,right?
Because your legs are gonna bemoving forward and backward over
and over again.
So things like leg swings hereare very helpful.
doing things like lunges orsquat just to open up the hips.
These are all very helpful typesof things.
If you're gonna be doing astretching or a strength
training session, you want yourwarmup to also include some of
(13:26):
the things I just mentioned andsome of the.
Mimic some of the movements thatyou're going to be doing during
your strength session.
So say you've got squats on.
Your plan for that day, doingsome simple body weight squats
to help yourself warm up, ishelping to prime your body for
the upcoming activity.
So that would be a great thing.
So before you just jump underthe barbell and put, plates on
(13:49):
each side and start doing yoursquats, just doing some body
weight squats or doing some bosquats with just the bar before
you put any plates on.
Also, a really good thing'causeyou're just, again, priming your
body for movement.
And there's, like I said.
Active dynamic stretching hasbeen shown.
It can be called either, it canbe called active stretching or
dynamic stretching.
(14:10):
it's been shown to improve yourpower and your coordination
without impairing strength.
Okay.
That's a really important thingbecause static stretching or
passive stretching.
Has been shown to do theopposite.
it has been shown that it can inimpair your strength or your
power and your coordination ifyou use it before a workout.
So static stretching, like Imentioned, is holding that
(14:32):
position.
this can be useful.
It, we don't wanna do thisbefore a run.
Okay.
I'm just gonna go ahead and Jumpout there and say that.
So before a run, before aworkout, you want to only focus
on dynamic stretching.
So moving into a position andthen moving out of it static
stretching you do not wanna dobefore a run.
Because like I said, it has beenshown that to, it does have the
(14:52):
possibility that it could impairyour performance, however.
Passive stretching or staticstretching can be youth useful
after your run or after yourworkout or outside of training
if you are limited in yourflexibility.
Okay, so a lot of people, likenot everyone needs to stretch.
(15:13):
Not everyone needs to performstatic stretching.
And there's a lot of people outthere that tell you, oh,
everybody needs to stretch.
maybe not.
Because if you have an adequateamount of flexibility to do the
things that you wanna do in yourlife, you really don't need to
do much static stretching.
Dynamic stretching, yes,absolutely.
We should all be doing dynamicstretching.
We should all be doing mobilitywork.
(15:34):
Okay.
But static stretching, whereyou're actually just holding
that position for 30 to 60seconds hasn't been shown to be
that effective.
The way, there was one studythat showed that in order to
actually increase the length ofthe muscle tissue, which is what
you're trying to do when you'resta when you're stretching,
right?
When you're stretching, you'reactually trying to lengthen the
muscle tissue in order to get asignificant difference in
(15:56):
significant change in the lengthof that muscle tissue.
You actually have to hold thestretch for two to five minutes,
and you have to do that at leastfive times per week, and you
have to do that for 10 to 12weeks before you actually see a
difference in the length of yourmuscle tissue.
And most people aren't doingthat.
Okay.
If that's you, if you feel likeyou're, you actually have a
(16:19):
muscle length limitation andflexibility is a good idea for
you, then that's basically whatyou have to do.
You have to hold these stretchesfor a long time.
It can increase your long-termflexibility if you do it often,
but like one stretching sectionis not really going to do much
for you.
Okay?
Static stretching needs to bedone.
If your goal is to increasemuscle length and increase
(16:40):
flexibility, that has to bedone.
Pretty much every day, five toseven days per week for a an
extended period of time for youto actually see a difference
Now.
The other thing that they,research has shown is that it
had a limited effect on musclesoreness or on recovery rate.
so if you're using it becauseyou think, oh, if I stretch
after my session, I'll be lesssore tomorrow.
(17:02):
Research is showing that's notreally the case.
However, just because researchshows that doesn't mean that it
might not be true for you.
So again.
N of one study of one U are themost important variable here
because the research can showone thing, but research,
remember, is conducted on agroup of people and they
(17:23):
basically take the summary ofthose people and say, this is
what worked for the most people,or This is what had a
significant effect on the mostpeople and.
There are always outliers.
There are always people thatmaybe it didn't do, like maybe
the overall study is showingthat this intervention like
stretching was effective or noteffective, but there's one
(17:45):
person or a couple people thatit was super effective for or
not effective at all for, right?
So the most important person inthis equation is you.
Okay?
Keep that in mind, just becausescience or research doesn't
support the thing, if you find abenefit to doing the stretching,
if you feel better after doingstretching, then do it.
(18:05):
Just don't do it before yourrun.
Don't do it before your workout,because like I said, that does
have the potential to impairyour performance.
so if you want to stretch andyou like stretching and you like
the way it feels, just do itafterwards.
Okay?
But if you're not currentlystretching, you definitely need
to be.
Incorporating more dynamicstretching and dynamic mobility
in your warmups before exercise,and then that dynamic stretching
(18:28):
is also beneficial afterexercise as well.
Okay, so that kind of leads meinto this idea of mobility work
Now, mobility work, to me is themost overlooked recovery tool
that we have.
I think that all runners need tobe doing some form of mobility
work.
The.
(18:48):
Amount of mobility work and thedegree of the mobility work is
different for everybody.
Everyone should be incorporatingsome sort of mobility work into
their week.
So mobility work is basicallywhat I just talked about with
like dynamic stretching.
It's controlled intentionalmovement through your available
range, and it also incre, itincludes stability.
(19:09):
Okay.
So basically what mobility workis it's blending all these
things.
It's blending flexibility andstrength and neural control.
So it's your body's ability tocontrol itself during.
Your available or throughoutyour available range of motion.
Okay, so mobility work is sogood for the body.
It helps improve jointlubrication.
(19:31):
It helps to improve your motorcontrol and your movement
efficiency.
It enhances recovery by helpingyou to maintain quality movement
patterns and also helps topromote blood flow to that area
like we talked about.
And it can also help yournervous system reset because
when you're doing mobility workoften, and yoga is a good
example of mobility work.
You don't have to do yogaspecifically, but.
(19:54):
One of the benefits of yoga, andone of the things I would
encourage anyone to do whenthey're doing mobility work is
to integrate your breath andyour awareness, like your body
awareness.
You're not just like trying toget through this movement, so
you're thinking about.
The movement, and you're movingvery intentionally through these
ranges.
And when you combine the breathwith that, it becomes even more
(20:17):
powerful because your breathhelps to regulate your nervous
system.
And then your nervous systemwill help to regulate your
tissue tightness or your body'sperceived level of tightness in
the body.
You can really help your bodyrelax and jump into
parasympathetic recovery mode.
By using mobility work,especially with the breath.
Okay.
(20:38):
So I am a huge proponent ofmobility work.
I think that everybody should bedoing this, Definitely as like a
warmup.
It's great.
It's fantastic as a cool downafter exercise.
And you can do these just forfive or 10 minutes on your easy
days or on your recovery days orbefore bed.
Mobility work.
Before bed, especially if you'reintegrating the breath is so
(20:59):
beneficial and can actually helppeople to sleep better.
It can actually help to improvethe quality and the quantity of
your sleep.
So there's a lot of people thatfind that some gentle mobility
work right before bed is verybeneficial for the body.
And the last thing I wanna talkabout today is foam rolling.
So foam rolling is one of thosethings that runners either love
(21:20):
to do or hate to do.
It's like a lover haterelationship.
There's some people that are inthe middle, but I would say
there's a lot of people, on oneof the two ends.
And I want you to understandwhat is going on during foam
rolling so you can decidewhether or not you wanna use
this.
When we look at the sciencethere, there has been multiple
meta-analyses.
(21:40):
There's, so there's tons ofresearch studies, and then a
meta-analysis that kind of, sowhat that means is a
meta-analysis is a researchstudy that essentially looks at
lots of other research studiesand summarizes them.
So it takes, 20 different.
research studies about foamrolling and breaks down and puts
(22:03):
it all together to figure out,okay, what is the overall data
saying?
Not just what is the data fromthis one specific research study
saying, but what is all the datasaying?
And when we look at lots ofdifferent studies that have been
done on foam rolling.
Some of the things that we seeare that it can reduce muscle
soreness, specifically doms,delayed onset muscle soreness.
(22:26):
it can be, it can significantlyreduce that.
In some people, it can improvetemporary range of motion
without decreasing strength.
'cause this is important becausethere are some interventions out
there that will improve yourrange of motion, but.
They do so at the expense ofdecreasing strength within that
range.
(22:47):
So what they have shown, or whatsome studies have found is that
foam rolling can improvetemporary range of motion
without decreasing strength.
And so there are some benefitshere, right?
So there's some benefits to foamrolling if you wanna be less
sore.
some other studies show that ithelps to improve blood flow to
that area.
That is one of the mechanismsthat actually works.
(23:09):
but.
It's important that youunderstand what's going on.
I guess it is and isn'timportant, right?
Because if it works.
Does it really matter what'shappening?
But there are some people thatthink that when you foam roll,
you're actually getting in andbreaking up adhesions in the
fascia or in the muscle, andthat's not actually what's
happening.
So there's a couple things thatare actually physiologically
(23:31):
happening with foam.
Number one is that you'reincreasing the blood flow to the
muscle.
There has been mult multiplestudies that show that foam
rolling increases blood flow tothe area that you're foam
rolling, and when you increaseblood flow, just like we talked
about with dynamic stretchingand active recovery and those
things, that's going to do lotsof good things.
Increasing blood flow to an areais going to help.
(23:53):
To flush out any of themetabolic byproducts that might
still be there.
It's gonna help improveoxygenation to the tissue.
It's gonna help bring nutrientsand the repair crew in.
So all of those are good things.
So just increasing blood flow toan area that is sore or tight is
a good thing.
Okay.
So if it's not actually breakingup the adhesions or loosening
(24:13):
the fascia, what is actuallyhappening?
what it's actually doing is.
Producing a nervous systemresponse.
So it's not actually physicallychanging the tissue composition
or the tissue alignment, butwhat it's doing is it's reducing
your body's perception oftightness.
So that's a nervous systemresponse.
(24:34):
So the way that your bodyperceives tightness can be
changed.
And When you have an area oftissue that is tight, especially
if it's like a quote unquoteknot right?
Like we talk about knots in thetissue, that's an area where
there is muscle or tissue orthings that are you can feel
knots in the body, right?
(24:54):
Like you can feel them whenyou're actually palpating the
body.
But that's an area where thosemuscles and those tissues have
tightened up.
It's like a tightening responsethat is a nervous system
response.
And so the foam roll willbasically help your body change
its perception of tightness andhelp the nervous system, the
nerves, and the tissues toessentially just relax.
(25:16):
Okay?
So you're not actually breakingup adhesions, but you are
helping the tissue to relax.
And that's a good thing, right?
So foam rolling can beeffective.
So when should we use it?
If you wanna choose, if youwanna use some foam rolling.
It is best to use it aftertraining or on recovery days.
you can use it before, likethere ha, there was some studies
(25:37):
that showed that using it beforea workout again increases blood
flow and can help warm thosetissues up.
But it's, it's up to you whatkind of feels good for you
again.
That's one of those things thatwe always go back to that study
of one, that study of you.
Does it feel good?
Does it feel, help you feellooser?
Does it help you feel morerelaxed?
(25:58):
If so, that's a good thing.
You can use it before exercise,but it's probably more effective
if you use it afterwards or onrecovery days.
Okay, so when you do foamrolling, how are you gonna do
this?
Number one, you wanna do itslowly.
Okay.
So you're gonna try to move atabout one to two inches per
second and do about 30 to 60seconds per region.
I, at most, maybe a couple ofminutes.
(26:19):
And then you move on to the nextsection.
If you are doing it for anextended period of time, I don't
think it's going to necessarilyhurt you, but it's just going to
not be very effective.
It's going to lose itseffectiveness, and so
essentially you're just wastingyour time.
You want to use a moderatepressure, you want to definitely
avoid excessive pain because ifyou find one of those spots, and
(26:41):
if you've ever rolled your ITband, you probably know what I'm
talking about.
Which by the way, don't everroll your IT band.
It's really, there's really nopoint.
it's definitely not beneficialon the IT band itself.
because the IT band is purelyfascial.
There's not actual muscle tissuethere, but.
You know how painful somesometimes this can be, right?
And so when you.
(27:03):
Have a high level of pain.
When you're doing something,what, what often happens, your
body tightens up, right?
Like you, you like wince andyou're, you crunch up and your
body tightens, and that's theopposite of what we're trying to
do here.
Foam rolling is trying to helpthe nervous system relax and try
to increase parasympathetic.
(27:23):
But if you find that spot oflike intense pain you're in,
tighten you like your bodytightens up, which is actually
increasing your sympathetictone, it's doing the opposite.
So instead of focusing on likesmashing the tissue, focus on
breathing and relaxation.
So oftentimes what I'll havepeople do when they foam roll,
I'll have'em go nice and slow,loosen up that tissue, and then
(27:45):
we can do something called anactive release technique, which.
Can be effective.
again, different research shows,different things on this, but a
lot of people find relief withthis and I'm of the belief that
even if there's not a ton ofscientific research to back
something up, it can still be auseful tool for some people.
So what I'll have people do isif they are foam rolling and
(28:08):
they find an area of tightness.
To just stop the foam rollerthere for a couple of seconds
and just breathe, take some deepbreaths and try to let the
tissue just relax in that spot.
If the pain is too much and youcan't loosen up, like you can't,
breathe into it and relax, it'sagain, you're tightening up and
producing the opposite result ofwhat you want.
(28:30):
So if you can take a couple deepbreaths and start to let that
tissue relax a little bit.
So let's say you're foam rollingyour quads, right?
So that means your face down,the foam roller is on the front
of your thigh, and you find thatspot.
I have people bend the knee andstraighten the knee.
So you're flossing the tissueover that compressed area, which
(28:50):
again, can lead to a reducedperception of tightness and can
allow the tissue to relax.
And people find that to be a lotof people can find it to be a
very effective way to relax thetissue.
When you are able to sync yourfoam rolling with, again,
breathing to help activate thatparasympathetic system, it's
going to be even more effective.
(29:12):
Okay, so to summarize the thingsthat we've talked about already,
things that you absolutelyshould be doing.
Number one, active recovery.
All right, so on an easy day,doing an easy walk, easy bike
riding.
The day after our hard session.
It's very simple.
It's very effective.
Move your body, okay?
That helps to improvecirculation.
It helps to activate yourparasympathetic nervous system,
(29:32):
and there's good, strongevidence for this.
Okay?
The other thing you should bedoing is dynamic stretching or
mobility.
This is, again, active recovery.
It helps with your readiness,with your coordination, joint
health, movement quality.
It is best during a warmup or.
A cool down or just a dailyshort practice, right?
You can use dynamic stretchingand mobility any time of day.
(29:55):
You can do before, after just,before bed when you wake up in
the morning to get the bodymoving.
There is strong evidence thatthis is very good for your body.
It enhances performance, itintegrates the mind to body
connection, all good things.
Okay?
I believe people should be doingdynamic stretching and mobility
every single day if possible.
Okay.
What about static stretching?
(30:16):
That's passive recovery.
It's good if you need toincrease your flexibility, if
you want to increase the lengthof your muscle.
And if you want to do staticstretching, you should do so
after your workout at the end.
or in the evening.
There is some moderate evidencethat this can be effective, but
it's not going to enhance yourrecovery that much.
(30:36):
All right, and then foamrolling, of course, also is a
passive form of recovery.
It can help to reduce soreness.
It can help to improve yourrange of motion.
It's best used after a workoutor on a rest day.
And the way that really works isthrough the nervous system
modulation.
It helps to decrease yournervous system tone.
Okay, so that's really what wewanna go for.
(30:57):
So if you're thinking about,okay, how do I actually
incorporate these things into myweek after an easy run, it's
gonna be a great idea for you todo five minutes of gentle
mobility or even some foamrolling just to help maintain
your tissue quality, help torelax your nervous system and
get you into recovery mode aftera hard run or a long run.
(31:17):
Going back to last week'sepisode, you wanna prioriti
prioritize your nutrition andhydration first.
Okay?
Make sure you get that in.
And then if you wanna add somelight foam rolling or some
lighter stretching later in theday, totally fine.
on your rest days, you can makeit a full rest day, but you
could also do some low intensityactive recovery like walking,
yoga, swimming.
That would just help improveyour circulation and improve
(31:39):
your body's, ability to recover.
And then.
In the evening before you go tobed, great, ID great time to do
some, again, mobility work tohelp calm your body down.
If you wanna add in some foamrolling or some stretching at
that time, you can do so aswell.
So what I hope you're takingaway from this is that it's not
just.
a mechanical thing that's goingon in your body, right?
(31:59):
Recovery is not just aboutrepairing the micro tears in the
tissues.
There's a huge neurologicalcomponent to this.
And when we are doing like avery gentle, controlled,
rhythmic movement that signalsto your brain and to your
nervous system that you aresafe, and that allows your body
to shift from that.
(32:20):
Sympathetic fight or flight modeinto parasympathetic rest and
restore mode.
So any recovery tool that you'reusing that's going to help lower
your muscle tone and slow yourbreathing down and get you more
mindful and just allow somegentle movement is going to help
you shift from sympathetic intoparasympathetic.
And so your intention and yourcontrol and your thought behind
(32:43):
it is very important.
Now, that doesn't mean that youhave to be.
Hyper-focused on every singlelittle movement.
Like you can just go through theflow and go through some
routines sometimes.
But when you add the awareness,when you add the breath, when
you are more intentional, thatis going to make it more
effective.
Alright?
So do not skip your recovery.
That is like the overalltakeaway from this whole series.
(33:06):
You need recovery.
And today, I hope from thisepisode you understand that
active recovery is what we wannaprioritize more than passive
recovery.
Passive recovery is totallyfine, but active recovery helps
to move the blood, helps torelax your nervous system.
Passive recovery also helps tocalm your nervous system.
Both matter, right?
So we wanna make sure that weare incorporating both in our
(33:29):
weekly routine.
I hope you understand that it'snot just about stretching,
because stretching is not goingto erase your soreness.
It's actually not going toimprove your performance
necessarily, but it can supportyour flexibility and it can help
with relaxation if you enjoy it.
mobility is something that youdefinitely need to be doing.
Every day if possible, even justfive minutes of mobility every
(33:50):
day is hugely beneficial.
If you can't do it every day,don't sweat it, right?
Try to get it in a couple timesa week and understanding that,
there's lots of different toolsat your disposal, but the most
important thing is you usingthese things intentionally and
seeing how they work for you.
Because even if the science saysthat it's great and you hate it
(34:10):
and it's torture for you to useit, it's not actually helping
you recover, right?
It's more stressful for you andthat's not the goal of recovery.
Recovery should not be addingmore stress to your system.
It should be helping you tobring your system out of stress
mode in into.
Relaxed and recovery mode sothat you can actually gain the
benefits of all your workouts.
(34:30):
Alright, you guys, so that'swhat I have for you today.
If you want, actually I'm gonnago ahead and, make a little
shameless plug here for one ofour programs because if you are
someone that's okay, Iunderstand all of this, but
like, how do I actually put itinto motion?
What do I actually do?
You've mentioned a couple ofthings, but.
Can I just follow along with theprogram?
The answer is yes.
I have created a 30 day runningreset that walks you through all
(34:54):
sorts of things, but itdefinitely gives you mobility
work.
It helps you understand yourrunning better.
It helps you understand strengthtraining.
it helps you integrate strengthand mobility in a way that is
going to support your running.
And we also talk a lot about thethings that we talk about in
this podcast series, withrecovery and giving you.
An action item each day to focuson.
(35:15):
So for example, one day we'llfocus on, Getting more sleep,
right?
And we talk about better ways toget more sleep.
And I'll give you like aspecific thing so it's not just
go to bed earlier.
It's, I'll give you like aspecific action item that you
can do to help yourself getbetter sleep, fall asleep
sooner, stay asleep longer.
and that's just one example.
there's nutritional things inthe program.
(35:37):
So we address the four mainpillars that we go over in real
life runners, which is, themental game, your mindset, the
strength and mobility.
Nutrition and nervous systemregulation.
Okay?
So it includes all four of thosemain pillars in that 30 day
program.
It's a great way to just resetyour running, reset your nervous
system, and start getting morebenefits from your workouts.
(35:58):
So if you wanna check that out,head over to real life
runners.com forward slash reset,and you can get all the info
there.
And as always, thanks forjoining us.
If you found this episodehelpful, please write us a
review on Apple Podcasts or onSpotify.
Share the episode with a friend,take a screenshot and share it
on social media so that we canhelp more runners to feel better
and get the results that theywant from their running.
(36:20):
As always, thanks for joiningus.
This has been The Real LifeRunners podcast, episode number
432.
Now, get out there and run yourlife.
Welcome back to the Real Life Runners podcast,
episode number 432.
Today we are continuing ourseries on recovery and the
science of recovery and howrecovery is so important for you
to actually gain the benefits ofyour training.
So if you missed last week, goback and catch last week.
We went over a lot of the basicsof recovery to help you
(00:21):
understand the science behindwhy recovery is so important and
hitting like those majorcornerstones like sleep and
fueling and hydration that willhelp you to recover better and
gain more benefits from yourworkouts.
Today we're gonna be beingdigging into.
Active versus passive recoveryand talking about things like
stretching and foam rollingbecause when I talk to a lot of
(00:43):
runners, especially runners thatare injured or that are
experiencing a lot of aches orpains, one of the things they
often say is, I know I just needto stretch more.
So today I'm gonna talk aboutthe science behind that and why
stretching might not be theanswer.
So stay tuned.
(01:19):
What's up runners?
Welcome back to the show today.
It's a solo Angie episode andI'm excited to be talking to you
all about active versus passiverecovery.
Like I mentioned in the intro,there's so many runners that I
talk to that think they justneed to stretch more.
They think that stretching willhelp them to feel better and
prevent injury, but that is nottrue.
(01:40):
Spoiler alert that's not,definitely not the full picture.
So today I really wanna go overhelping you understand the
scientific effects of.
Popular recovery methods, what'ssupported by science, what
simply feels good becausethere's nothing wrong with that
either.
if you enjoy doing something andit feels good, keep doing it.
I'm not gonna tell you not to doit.
(02:02):
My goal is to help youunderstand what is backed by
science and.
So that you can use more thingsmore intentionally and you can
decide where you want to spendyour time.
Because as a real life runner,you are limited on time.
I know you're busy with lots ofdifferent things, and so if you
can gain more benefits doing onething versus another, I want you
(02:23):
to know that and then you canmake the best choice for you.
So let's talk about this alittle bit and why recovery
matters.
Okay.
Like we mentioned last week.
Recovery is something that isabsolutely essential for your
training because recovery is afull body activity.
It's a systemic activity.
(02:43):
There are those three systemsthat we talked about, your
muscular system, your hormonehormonal system, and your neural
system that all need to recoverafter exercise.
So we have to look at all threeof those things when it comes to
evaluating these different toolsthat we have.
So the main difference that wewanna talk about today is active
(03:05):
versus passive recovery.
So what the heck is thedifference if.
Active recovery is a lowintensity movement that
maintains your circulation andstimulates the parasympathetic
nervous system.
So this is something like goingfor an easy walk, going for an
easy bike ride, doing somemobility work, some restorative
yoga.
It's basically just moving thebody in a very gentle,
(03:29):
controlled way, and activerecovery is so beneficial.
This has been studied in a lotof different research studies
out there.
And.
There.
They all basically point toactive recovery is good for the
body, and there's variousmechanisms here.
One of the reasons that activerecovery is good for you is
(03:50):
because it increases your bloodflow to that area.
Now, as we've mentioned.
During your workouts, especiallyduring your harder training
sessions, you are breaking thebody down and it is during
recovery that your body'sactually building back stronger
than it was before.
Assuming that you are giving itthe right tools and the right
building blocks that it needs tobuild that muscle and those
tissues back stronger.
(04:12):
The way that those nutrients andthings are delivered to that
area that needs repair isthrough the blood.
So when you increase blood flowto the area, that is a good
thing that helps to acceleratethe removal of the metabolic
byproducts that are createdduring exercise.
Because when you're breakingdown tissue, there are
byproducts that are formed, andso when you increase the blood
(04:36):
flow to that area, it can flushout that area.
You wanna get rid of some ofthose metabolic.
Byproducts.
And then it also helps to bringin those repair cells, right?
Like it brings, more oxygen tothat area.
It brings in the proteins andthe amino acids, and all the
things that your muscles andyour tissues need to repair.
So increased blood flow is avery good thing.
(04:57):
That's definitely what we wantto promote during recovery.
Like I mentioned, we also, whenyou increase blood flow, that
brings more oxygen and nutrientsto that muscle tissue, so it's
also helping to improve that.
The third thing that it does isit helps to keep the nervous
system engaged in a low stressstate.
(05:17):
So when you're doing activerecovery, basically we talked
about this last week, I believeyour nervous system has two main
states.
There's your sympathetic nervoussystem, which is your fight or
flight mode that is activatedduring exercise, especially
during high intensity exercise.
And there's yourparasympathetic, which is your
rest and digest, or like I liketo call it rest, digest, and
(05:38):
repair mode.
And that's the state that wewant our body to get into during
recovery.
And so when we use activerecovery, when we're doing these
low.
Low level, gentle movements.
things like walking, easy,biking.
We're promoting all of thesethings and our body is in a very
(05:58):
low stress state.
We're not a, it's, we're notgoing hard enough that we are
jumping into sympathetic mode.
We are keeping ourparasympathetic state activated
and just keeping our nervoussystem nice and relaxed.
So that's really what we wannaknow when it comes to active
recovery.
So when I say active recovery,I'm not talking about, a 20 mile
(06:19):
moderate to hard bike ride.
That's another training session.
But if you're going out on anice, easy, relaxed bike ride,
fantastic.
as long as you feel relaxed andyou feel like this is an easy
thing for you, that is a goodthing.
You, it's really important foryou to go by how you feel.
And one of the things that Ialways like to point to with
this is yoga.
So for me, I love using yoga asactive recovery.
(06:43):
I enjoy yoga.
I like the mind body connectionof it.
I like flowing through thesedifferent positions.
Kevin will tell you that he'snot a big fan of yoga because
yoga's a harder thing for him todo because he does have some
more muscle length restrictions.
He's not as flexible as I am,and so for him.
Doing yoga is a more high stresstype of activity, so it's the
(07:06):
same exact activity.
We're both doing yoga, but forme, it puts my body in a very
relaxed, low stress state.
Whereas Kevin, it puts him in ahigher stress state.
So it's your, it's the way thatyour body responds to that
thing.
Okay, so that's active recovery.
It's very movement based, gentlecontrolled, intentional
movement.
(07:26):
Passive recovery, on the otherhand, are things that are done
to the body rather than by thebody.
So that's like a good way tothink about it.
So things that you're doing tothe body, like foam rolling,
massage compression.
Ice baths.
Okay.
Those types of things.
Or just taking a full rest day,that would be passive recovery.
So it's like the things thatyou're doing to the body or just
(07:49):
not doing at all.
So these things can also be veryeffective, depending on which
ones we're talking about here,because these also help to
regulate your nervous system andhelp you to get into that
parasympathetic mode.
Which again, that's what wewant.
It also, they can also help torece reduce perceived tension or
discomfort.
(08:09):
However, they have less directimpact on tissue repair when you
compare it to active recovery.
Okay?
So yes, your tissues arerepairing themselves in this
state, but.
Research shows us that activerecovery has a more direct
impact and leads to more tissuerepair, faster tissue repair
(08:32):
when compared to passiverecovery.
So both of these things havevalue.
active recovery and passiverecovery are both very good.
The key is to match the methodto your goal and to your timing
within your training cycle.
Okay.
So I like to use both and weencourage.
All of our athletes to take arest day, at least once a week.
(08:53):
It depends on who they are andwhat else is going on in their
life and what they're trainingfor and their level of
experience and all sorts ofdifferent things.
But we do encourage a full restday.
Now, with that being said, afull rest day can include and
we.
Encourage them to do some activerecovery on that rest day, so it
doesn't mean you're just sittingon the couch watching TV all day
(09:15):
long, going out for a nice walk,going for an easy bike ride.
These like very, again, gentle,intentional movements.
Are very good for the body, andespecially if you are a woman
over 40 that is going throughperimenopause or maybe you're
already into menopause becauseof the hormonal changes.
There's a lot of, as we loseestrogen and progesterone,
(09:35):
there's a lot of tissue changesthat can happen in the body as
well.
And a lot of women find thattaking a full passive recovery
day where they really don't doanything can actually make them
even more sore.
So a lot of women over 40 findthat.
That intentional active recoveryis actually better for their
body and helps them to recovermore quickly than just total
(09:57):
rest.
Okay?
So you have to do what's rightfor you.
if it's like the day after yourfirst marathon and your body's
just wrecked and you're feelingsuper sore, taking a nap and
just laying in bed all day mightbe a great choice for you.
However, it might also be a goodchoice for you to just go out on
a walk.
It doesn't have to be an hourlong walk.
It doesn't have to be a speedwalk.
(10:17):
It could be like a, just a nicerelaxed 15 to 20 minute walk.
And that again, helps to improvethat blood flow, helps to flush
out some of those byproducts,helps to bring, nutrients and
oxygen to the area to help yourbody start to kickstart that
repair process.
All good things.
Okay, so benefits to both activeand passive recovery.
Hopefully you understand thedifference now.
(10:38):
So what I wanna talk about noware some of the big th three of
the big things that a lot ofrunners do.
Okay?
These are typically when I speakto runners and talk about
recovery and those kinds ofthings.
These are some of the big onesthat people often go to.
So the first one I wanna talkabout is stretching because, so
again, I know I've said thismultiple times already, but so
(10:59):
many runners think, oh, I justneed to stretch more.
And that may or may not be truebecause stretching, the way that
most people think aboutstretching is static stretching.
And static stretching is holdinga position.
It's like putting your body intoa position and holding that
position for 30 plus seconds,right?
Over 30 seconds.
(11:19):
And this has a.
Limited effectiveness,especially in the research
studies.
Okay, it's, we're gonna go intothis in a second, but that's
basically what static stretchingis, and I think that's what most
people think of when they thinkabout stretching.
So there are two types ofstretching, okay?
The first one is staticstretching, which is what most
(11:40):
people think about, where youjust, you get into that position
and you just hold it for 30seconds or 60 seconds or
whatever it might be.
The second one is dynamicstretching.
And dynamic stretching ismovement based.
So this is more like activemobility types of things.
So things like leg swings, hipcircles, it can be like lunging,
(12:00):
getting into a position, thencoming out of a position.
Runner's lunge is one of myfavorite ways to dynamically
stretch.
there's so many good stretches,but basically dynamic
stretching.
Includes movement.
So you gently move yourself intoa position and then you gently
move yourself out.
You don't hold a position for anextended period of time, so
which one's better to use?
(12:21):
Which one do we really wannafocus on?
Dynamic stretching has beenshown in multiple research
studies to be the most ideal wayto stretch for most people.
And this is the type ofstretching that you want to do
before your run because it helpsto prepare your body for.
Whatever you're about to do,okay, so say you're about to
(12:43):
run, it helps prepare your bodyfor running.
Say you're about to do astrength session.
It helps to prepare your bodyfor strength training, and you
want your dynamic stretchingbefore your workout to match
what you're going to do.
So if you are about to go out ona run, you wanna make sure that
your dynamic stretching includesthe muscles and the.
Movements that you are going todo in running.
(13:04):
So you wanna definitely makesure that you are doing like
some forward backward motions,right?
Because your legs are gonna bemoving forward and backward over
and over again.
So things like leg swings hereare very helpful.
doing things like lunges orsquat just to open up the hips.
These are all very helpful typesof things.
If you're gonna be doing astretching or a strength
training session, you want yourwarmup to also include some of
(13:26):
the things I just mentioned andsome of the.
Mimic some of the movements thatyou're going to be doing during
your strength session.
So say you've got squats on.
Your plan for that day, doingsome simple body weight squats
to help yourself warm up, ishelping to prime your body for
the upcoming activity.
So that would be a great thing.
So before you just jump underthe barbell and put, plates on
(13:49):
each side and start doing yoursquats, just doing some body
weight squats or doing some bosquats with just the bar before
you put any plates on.
Also, a really good thing'causeyou're just, again, priming your
body for movement.
And there's, like I said.
Active dynamic stretching hasbeen shown.
It can be called either, it canbe called active stretching or
dynamic stretching.
(14:10):
it's been shown to improve yourpower and your coordination
without impairing strength.
Okay.
That's a really important thingbecause static stretching or
passive stretching.
Has been shown to do theopposite.
it has been shown that it can inimpair your strength or your
power and your coordination ifyou use it before a workout.
So static stretching, like Imentioned, is holding that
(14:32):
position.
this can be useful.
It, we don't wanna do thisbefore a run.
Okay.
I'm just gonna go ahead and Jumpout there and say that.
So before a run, before aworkout, you want to only focus
on dynamic stretching.
So moving into a position andthen moving out of it static
stretching you do not wanna dobefore a run.
Because like I said, it has beenshown that to, it does have the
(14:52):
possibility that it could impairyour performance, however.
Passive stretching or staticstretching can be youth useful
after your run or after yourworkout or outside of training
if you are limited in yourflexibility.
Okay, so a lot of people, likenot everyone needs to stretch.
(15:13):
Not everyone needs to performstatic stretching.
And there's a lot of people outthere that tell you, oh,
everybody needs to stretch.
maybe not.
Because if you have an adequateamount of flexibility to do the
things that you wanna do in yourlife, you really don't need to
do much static stretching.
Dynamic stretching, yes,absolutely.
We should all be doing dynamicstretching.
We should all be doing mobilitywork.
(15:34):
Okay.
But static stretching, whereyou're actually just holding
that position for 30 to 60seconds hasn't been shown to be
that effective.
The way, there was one studythat showed that in order to
actually increase the length ofthe muscle tissue, which is what
you're trying to do when you'resta when you're stretching,
right?
When you're stretching, you'reactually trying to lengthen the
muscle tissue in order to get asignificant difference in
(15:56):
significant change in the lengthof that muscle tissue.
You actually have to hold thestretch for two to five minutes,
and you have to do that at leastfive times per week, and you
have to do that for 10 to 12weeks before you actually see a
difference in the length of yourmuscle tissue.
And most people aren't doingthat.
Okay.
If that's you, if you feel likeyou're, you actually have a
(16:19):
muscle length limitation andflexibility is a good idea for
you, then that's basically whatyou have to do.
You have to hold these stretchesfor a long time.
It can increase your long-termflexibility if you do it often,
but like one stretching sectionis not really going to do much
for you.
Okay?
Static stretching needs to bedone.
If your goal is to increasemuscle length and increase
(16:40):
flexibility, that has to bedone.
Pretty much every day, five toseven days per week for a an
extended period of time for youto actually see a difference
Now.
The other thing that they,research has shown is that it
had a limited effect on musclesoreness or on recovery rate.
so if you're using it becauseyou think, oh, if I stretch
after my session, I'll be lesssore tomorrow.
(17:02):
Research is showing that's notreally the case.
However, just because researchshows that doesn't mean that it
might not be true for you.
So again.
N of one study of one U are themost important variable here
because the research can showone thing, but research,
remember, is conducted on agroup of people and they
(17:23):
basically take the summary ofthose people and say, this is
what worked for the most people,or This is what had a
significant effect on the mostpeople and.
There are always outliers.
There are always people thatmaybe it didn't do, like maybe
the overall study is showingthat this intervention like
stretching was effective or noteffective, but there's one
(17:45):
person or a couple people thatit was super effective for or
not effective at all for, right?
So the most important person inthis equation is you.
Okay?
Keep that in mind, just becausescience or research doesn't
support the thing, if you find abenefit to doing the stretching,
if you feel better after doingstretching, then do it.
(18:05):
Just don't do it before yourrun.
Don't do it before your workout,because like I said, that does
have the potential to impairyour performance.
so if you want to stretch andyou like stretching and you like
the way it feels, just do itafterwards.
Okay?
But if you're not currentlystretching, you definitely need
to be.
Incorporating more dynamicstretching and dynamic mobility
in your warmups before exercise,and then that dynamic stretching
(18:28):
is also beneficial afterexercise as well.
Okay, so that kind of leads meinto this idea of mobility work
Now, mobility work, to me is themost overlooked recovery tool
that we have.
I think that all runners need tobe doing some form of mobility
work.
The.
(18:48):
Amount of mobility work and thedegree of the mobility work is
different for everybody.
Everyone should be incorporatingsome sort of mobility work into
their week.
So mobility work is basicallywhat I just talked about with
like dynamic stretching.
It's controlled intentionalmovement through your available
range, and it also incre, itincludes stability.
(19:09):
Okay.
So basically what mobility workis it's blending all these
things.
It's blending flexibility andstrength and neural control.
So it's your body's ability tocontrol itself during.
Your available or throughoutyour available range of motion.
Okay, so mobility work is sogood for the body.
It helps improve jointlubrication.
(19:31):
It helps to improve your motorcontrol and your movement
efficiency.
It enhances recovery by helpingyou to maintain quality movement
patterns and also helps topromote blood flow to that area
like we talked about.
And it can also help yournervous system reset because
when you're doing mobility workoften, and yoga is a good
example of mobility work.
You don't have to do yogaspecifically, but.
(19:54):
One of the benefits of yoga, andone of the things I would
encourage anyone to do whenthey're doing mobility work is
to integrate your breath andyour awareness, like your body
awareness.
You're not just like trying toget through this movement, so
you're thinking about.
The movement, and you're movingvery intentionally through these
ranges.
And when you combine the breathwith that, it becomes even more
(20:17):
powerful because your breathhelps to regulate your nervous
system.
And then your nervous systemwill help to regulate your
tissue tightness or your body'sperceived level of tightness in
the body.
You can really help your bodyrelax and jump into
parasympathetic recovery mode.
By using mobility work,especially with the breath.
Okay.
(20:38):
So I am a huge proponent ofmobility work.
I think that everybody should bedoing this, Definitely as like a
warmup.
It's great.
It's fantastic as a cool downafter exercise.
And you can do these just forfive or 10 minutes on your easy
days or on your recovery days orbefore bed.
Mobility work.
Before bed, especially if you'reintegrating the breath is so
(20:59):
beneficial and can actually helppeople to sleep better.
It can actually help to improvethe quality and the quantity of
your sleep.
So there's a lot of people thatfind that some gentle mobility
work right before bed is verybeneficial for the body.
And the last thing I wanna talkabout today is foam rolling.
So foam rolling is one of thosethings that runners either love
(21:20):
to do or hate to do.
It's like a lover haterelationship.
There's some people that are inthe middle, but I would say
there's a lot of people, on oneof the two ends.
And I want you to understandwhat is going on during foam
rolling so you can decidewhether or not you wanna use
this.
When we look at the sciencethere, there has been multiple
meta-analyses.
(21:40):
There's, so there's tons ofresearch studies, and then a
meta-analysis that kind of, sowhat that means is a
meta-analysis is a researchstudy that essentially looks at
lots of other research studiesand summarizes them.
So it takes, 20 different.
research studies about foamrolling and breaks down and puts
(22:03):
it all together to figure out,okay, what is the overall data
saying?
Not just what is the data fromthis one specific research study
saying, but what is all the datasaying?
And when we look at lots ofdifferent studies that have been
done on foam rolling.
Some of the things that we seeare that it can reduce muscle
soreness, specifically doms,delayed onset muscle soreness.
(22:26):
it can be, it can significantlyreduce that.
In some people, it can improvetemporary range of motion
without decreasing strength.
'cause this is important becausethere are some interventions out
there that will improve yourrange of motion, but.
They do so at the expense ofdecreasing strength within that
range.
(22:47):
So what they have shown, or whatsome studies have found is that
foam rolling can improvetemporary range of motion
without decreasing strength.
And so there are some benefitshere, right?
So there's some benefits to foamrolling if you wanna be less
sore.
some other studies show that ithelps to improve blood flow to
that area.
That is one of the mechanismsthat actually works.
(23:09):
but.
It's important that youunderstand what's going on.
I guess it is and isn'timportant, right?
Because if it works.
Does it really matter what'shappening?
But there are some people thatthink that when you foam roll,
you're actually getting in andbreaking up adhesions in the
fascia or in the muscle, andthat's not actually what's
happening.
So there's a couple things thatare actually physiologically
(23:31):
happening with foam.
Number one is that you'reincreasing the blood flow to the
muscle.
There has been mult multiplestudies that show that foam
rolling increases blood flow tothe area that you're foam
rolling, and when you increaseblood flow, just like we talked
about with dynamic stretchingand active recovery and those
things, that's going to do lotsof good things.
Increasing blood flow to an areais going to help.
(23:53):
To flush out any of themetabolic byproducts that might
still be there.
It's gonna help improveoxygenation to the tissue.
It's gonna help bring nutrientsand the repair crew in.
So all of those are good things.
So just increasing blood flow toan area that is sore or tight is
a good thing.
Okay.
So if it's not actually breakingup the adhesions or loosening
(24:13):
the fascia, what is actuallyhappening?
what it's actually doing is.
Producing a nervous systemresponse.
So it's not actually physicallychanging the tissue composition
or the tissue alignment, butwhat it's doing is it's reducing
your body's perception oftightness.
So that's a nervous systemresponse.
(24:34):
So the way that your bodyperceives tightness can be
changed.
And When you have an area oftissue that is tight, especially
if it's like a quote unquoteknot right?
Like we talk about knots in thetissue, that's an area where
there is muscle or tissue orthings that are you can feel
knots in the body, right?
(24:54):
Like you can feel them whenyou're actually palpating the
body.
But that's an area where thosemuscles and those tissues have
tightened up.
It's like a tightening responsethat is a nervous system
response.
And so the foam roll willbasically help your body change
its perception of tightness andhelp the nervous system, the
nerves, and the tissues toessentially just relax.
(25:16):
Okay?
So you're not actually breakingup adhesions, but you are
helping the tissue to relax.
And that's a good thing, right?
So foam rolling can beeffective.
So when should we use it?
If you wanna choose, if youwanna use some foam rolling.
It is best to use it aftertraining or on recovery days.
you can use it before, likethere ha, there was some studies
(25:37):
that showed that using it beforea workout again increases blood
flow and can help warm thosetissues up.
But it's, it's up to you whatkind of feels good for you
again.
That's one of those things thatwe always go back to that study
of one, that study of you.
Does it feel good?
Does it feel, help you feellooser?
Does it help you feel morerelaxed?
(25:58):
If so, that's a good thing.
You can use it before exercise,but it's probably more effective
if you use it afterwards or onrecovery days.
Okay, so when you do foamrolling, how are you gonna do
this?
Number one, you wanna do itslowly.
Okay.
So you're gonna try to move atabout one to two inches per
second and do about 30 to 60seconds per region.
I, at most, maybe a couple ofminutes.
(26:19):
And then you move on to the nextsection.
If you are doing it for anextended period of time, I don't
think it's going to necessarilyhurt you, but it's just going to
not be very effective.
It's going to lose itseffectiveness, and so
essentially you're just wastingyour time.
You want to use a moderatepressure, you want to definitely
avoid excessive pain because ifyou find one of those spots, and
(26:41):
if you've ever rolled your ITband, you probably know what I'm
talking about.
Which by the way, don't everroll your IT band.
It's really, there's really nopoint.
it's definitely not beneficialon the IT band itself.
because the IT band is purelyfascial.
There's not actual muscle tissuethere, but.
You know how painful somesometimes this can be, right?
And so when you.
(27:03):
Have a high level of pain.
When you're doing something,what, what often happens, your
body tightens up, right?
Like you, you like wince andyou're, you crunch up and your
body tightens, and that's theopposite of what we're trying to
do here.
Foam rolling is trying to helpthe nervous system relax and try
to increase parasympathetic.
(27:23):
But if you find that spot oflike intense pain you're in,
tighten you like your bodytightens up, which is actually
increasing your sympathetictone, it's doing the opposite.
So instead of focusing on likesmashing the tissue, focus on
breathing and relaxation.
So oftentimes what I'll havepeople do when they foam roll,
I'll have'em go nice and slow,loosen up that tissue, and then
(27:45):
we can do something called anactive release technique, which.
Can be effective.
again, different research shows,different things on this, but a
lot of people find relief withthis and I'm of the belief that
even if there's not a ton ofscientific research to back
something up, it can still be auseful tool for some people.
So what I'll have people do isif they are foam rolling and
(28:08):
they find an area of tightness.
To just stop the foam rollerthere for a couple of seconds
and just breathe, take some deepbreaths and try to let the
tissue just relax in that spot.
If the pain is too much and youcan't loosen up, like you can't,
breathe into it and relax, it'sagain, you're tightening up and
producing the opposite result ofwhat you want.
(28:30):
So if you can take a couple deepbreaths and start to let that
tissue relax a little bit.
So let's say you're foam rollingyour quads, right?
So that means your face down,the foam roller is on the front
of your thigh, and you find thatspot.
I have people bend the knee andstraighten the knee.
So you're flossing the tissueover that compressed area, which
(28:50):
again, can lead to a reducedperception of tightness and can
allow the tissue to relax.
And people find that to be a lotof people can find it to be a
very effective way to relax thetissue.
When you are able to sync yourfoam rolling with, again,
breathing to help activate thatparasympathetic system, it's
going to be even more effective.
(29:12):
Okay, so to summarize the thingsthat we've talked about already,
things that you absolutelyshould be doing.
Number one, active recovery.
All right, so on an easy day,doing an easy walk, easy bike
riding.
The day after our hard session.
It's very simple.
It's very effective.
Move your body, okay?
That helps to improvecirculation.
It helps to activate yourparasympathetic nervous system,
(29:32):
and there's good, strongevidence for this.
Okay?
The other thing you should bedoing is dynamic stretching or
mobility.
This is, again, active recovery.
It helps with your readiness,with your coordination, joint
health, movement quality.
It is best during a warmup or.
A cool down or just a dailyshort practice, right?
You can use dynamic stretchingand mobility any time of day.
(29:55):
You can do before, after just,before bed when you wake up in
the morning to get the bodymoving.
There is strong evidence thatthis is very good for your body.
It enhances performance, itintegrates the mind to body
connection, all good things.
Okay?
I believe people should be doingdynamic stretching and mobility
every single day if possible.
Okay.
What about static stretching?
(30:16):
That's passive recovery.
It's good if you need toincrease your flexibility, if
you want to increase the lengthof your muscle.
And if you want to do staticstretching, you should do so
after your workout at the end.
or in the evening.
There is some moderate evidencethat this can be effective, but
it's not going to enhance yourrecovery that much.
(30:36):
All right, and then foamrolling, of course, also is a
passive form of recovery.
It can help to reduce soreness.
It can help to improve yourrange of motion.
It's best used after a workoutor on a rest day.
And the way that really works isthrough the nervous system
modulation.
It helps to decrease yournervous system tone.
Okay, so that's really what wewanna go for.
(30:57):
So if you're thinking about,okay, how do I actually
incorporate these things into myweek after an easy run, it's
gonna be a great idea for you todo five minutes of gentle
mobility or even some foamrolling just to help maintain
your tissue quality, help torelax your nervous system and
get you into recovery mode aftera hard run or a long run.
(31:17):
Going back to last week'sepisode, you wanna prioriti
prioritize your nutrition andhydration first.
Okay?
Make sure you get that in.
And then if you wanna add somelight foam rolling or some
lighter stretching later in theday, totally fine.
on your rest days, you can makeit a full rest day, but you
could also do some low intensityactive recovery like walking,
yoga, swimming.
That would just help improveyour circulation and improve
(31:39):
your body's, ability to recover.
And then.
In the evening before you go tobed, great, ID great time to do
some, again, mobility work tohelp calm your body down.
If you wanna add in some foamrolling or some stretching at
that time, you can do so aswell.
So what I hope you're takingaway from this is that it's not
just.
a mechanical thing that's goingon in your body, right?
(31:59):
Recovery is not just aboutrepairing the micro tears in the
tissues.
There's a huge neurologicalcomponent to this.
And when we are doing like avery gentle, controlled,
rhythmic movement that signalsto your brain and to your
nervous system that you aresafe, and that allows your body
to shift from that.
(32:20):
Sympathetic fight or flight modeinto parasympathetic rest and
restore mode.
So any recovery tool that you'reusing that's going to help lower
your muscle tone and slow yourbreathing down and get you more
mindful and just allow somegentle movement is going to help
you shift from sympathetic intoparasympathetic.
And so your intention and yourcontrol and your thought behind
(32:43):
it is very important.
Now, that doesn't mean that youhave to be.
Hyper-focused on every singlelittle movement.
Like you can just go through theflow and go through some
routines sometimes.
But when you add the awareness,when you add the breath, when
you are more intentional, thatis going to make it more
effective.
Alright?
So do not skip your recovery.
That is like the overalltakeaway from this whole series.
(33:06):
You need recovery.
And today, I hope from thisepisode you understand that
active recovery is what we wannaprioritize more than passive
recovery.
Passive recovery is totallyfine, but active recovery helps
to move the blood, helps torelax your nervous system.
Passive recovery also helps tocalm your nervous system.
Both matter, right?
So we wanna make sure that weare incorporating both in our
(33:29):
weekly routine.
I hope you understand that it'snot just about stretching,
because stretching is not goingto erase your soreness.
It's actually not going toimprove your performance
necessarily, but it can supportyour flexibility and it can help
with relaxation if you enjoy it.
mobility is something that youdefinitely need to be doing.
Every day if possible, even justfive minutes of mobility every
(33:50):
day is hugely beneficial.
If you can't do it every day,don't sweat it, right?
Try to get it in a couple timesa week and understanding that,
there's lots of different toolsat your disposal, but the most
important thing is you usingthese things intentionally and
seeing how they work for you.
Because even if the science saysthat it's great and you hate it
(34:10):
and it's torture for you to useit, it's not actually helping
you recover, right?
It's more stressful for you andthat's not the goal of recovery.
Recovery should not be addingmore stress to your system.
It should be helping you tobring your system out of stress
mode in into.
Relaxed and recovery mode sothat you can actually gain the
benefits of all your workouts.
(34:30):
Alright, you guys, so that'swhat I have for you today.
If you want, actually I'm gonnago ahead and, make a little
shameless plug here for one ofour programs because if you are
someone that's okay, Iunderstand all of this, but
like, how do I actually put itinto motion?
What do I actually do?
You've mentioned a couple ofthings, but.
Can I just follow along with theprogram?
The answer is yes.
I have created a 30 day runningreset that walks you through all
(34:54):
sorts of things, but itdefinitely gives you mobility
work.
It helps you understand yourrunning better.
It helps you understand strengthtraining.
it helps you integrate strengthand mobility in a way that is
going to support your running.
And we also talk a lot about thethings that we talk about in
this podcast series, withrecovery and giving you.
An action item each day to focuson.
(35:15):
So for example, one day we'llfocus on, Getting more sleep,
right?
And we talk about better ways toget more sleep.
And I'll give you like aspecific thing so it's not just
go to bed earlier.
It's, I'll give you like aspecific action item that you
can do to help yourself getbetter sleep, fall asleep
sooner, stay asleep longer.
and that's just one example.
there's nutritional things inthe program.
(35:37):
So we address the four mainpillars that we go over in real
life runners, which is, themental game, your mindset, the
strength and mobility.
Nutrition and nervous systemregulation.
Okay?
So it includes all four of thosemain pillars in that 30 day
program.
It's a great way to just resetyour running, reset your nervous
system, and start getting morebenefits from your workouts.
(35:58):
So if you wanna check that out,head over to real life
runners.com forward slash reset,and you can get all the info
there.
And as always, thanks forjoining us.
If you found this episodehelpful, please write us a
review on Apple Podcasts or onSpotify.
Share the episode with a friend,take a screenshot and share it
on social media so that we canhelp more runners to feel better
and get the results that theywant from their running.
(36:20):
As always, thanks for joiningus.
This has been The Real LifeRunners podcast, episode number
432.
Now, get out there and run yourlife.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Male Room with Dr. Jesse Mills
As Director of The Men’s Clinic at UCLA, Dr. Jesse Mills has spent his career helping men understand their bodies, their hormones, and their health. Now he’s bringing that expertise to The Male Room — a podcast where data-driven medicine meets common sense. Each episode separates fact from hype, science from snake oil, and gives men the tools to live longer, stronger, and happier lives. With candor, humor, and real-world experience from the exam room and the operating room, Dr. Mills breaks down the latest health headlines, dissects trends, and explains what actually works — and what doesn’t. Smart, straightforward, and entertaining, The Male Room is the show that helps men take charge of their health without the jargon.