October 30, 2025 • 36 mins
This week on the Real Life Runners Podcast, we’re continuing our recovery series by diving into the tools that everyone seems to be talking about — cold plunges, saunas, compression gear, massage guns, and more.
There’s a lot of hype out there, but what actually works? 🤔
In this episode, we break down the science behind these popular recovery methods — how they affect your body, when to use them, and when they might actually get in the way of your progress.
We’ll talk about:
Cold therapy — how ice baths and cold plunges can help reduce soreness and inflammation, but also why you might not want to use them after every workout.
Heat and saunas — the surprising benefits of using heat for long-term adaptation and overall recovery.
Compression tools — do those sleeves and boots really work, and how can they improve circulation and perceived recovery?
Massage and self-massage — the benefits of touch, relaxation, and nervous system regulation (and why this one might be more powerful than you think).
And of course, we’ll remind you that no tool — no matter how fancy or expensive — can replace the foundations of recovery: sleep, nutrition, and managing stress.
By the end of this episode, you’ll know how to use these recovery tools strategically to support your running, not sabotage your adaptations.
🎧 Tune in to learn how to make recovery work smarter for you, so you can run stronger, stay healthy, and keep loving the run!
02:53 Exploring Recovery Modalities
05:49 Cold Therapy: Benefits and Drawbacks
14:46 Heat Therapy: How It Works
19:57 Compression Therapy: What You Need to Know
25:29 Massage Therapy: Myths and Facts
30:12 Choosing the Right Recovery Tool
33:49 Common Recovery Mistakes
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker (00:00):
Welcome back to the Real Life Runners podcast,
(00:01):
episode number 433.
So what are you supposed to do?
Are you supposed to ice or heat?
Are you supposed to use massageor compression?
Do these things actually make adifference or are you just
spending your money on thingsthat don't really do much for
you today we're we arecontinuing our recovery series
with our third episode, andwe're gonna be digging into
(00:24):
things like.
Cold baths, saunas, cold plungescompression, and massage.
To let you know which of thesethings are actually supported by
scientific research, which ofthem might help you but not be
supported by scientific researchand which ones you might want to
just skip altogether, and we'llhelp you understand what's going
on in your body, so that you canmake the best decision that's
(00:46):
right for you.
So stay tuned.
(01:10):
What's up runners?
Welcome back to the podcast.
I am excited to continue ourrecovery series because you now
understand how importantrecovery is for your adaptation
as a runner.
In episode number one, we reallytalked about the science of
recovery and what is happeningin your body and how it's
important for you to stress thebody and then take time to
(01:33):
recover because recovery isactually where adaptation
occurs.
Recovery is when your bodybuilds back stronger during your
workouts.
During your exercise sessionsespecially, anything harder,
your harder runs, your longerruns, your strength training
sessions, you are actuallybreaking the body down and it is
during recovery that your body'sable to build back stronger and
(01:53):
adapt to your training as longas you are giving the body what
it needs and those main recoverypillars that we talked about.
Number one is sleep.
Okay?
We can never, you can never outhack a lack of sleep.
Sleep is always the number onething that you need.
All right?
The other thing we talked aboutas a big pillar is nutrition.
(02:15):
If you aren't fueling your bodyand not giving your body the
proper building blocks that itneeds, it's not going to be able
to build back that musclestronger than it was before,
which is actually what you want.
So we always have to keep thoserecovery pillars in mind.
We always have to make sure thatwe're fueling the body properly,
(02:35):
actually getting the properamount of sleep and rest.
Okay, that's number one.
That was always covered inepisode one.
Go back and listen to that ifyou haven't.
In episode two, we talked aboutthe difference between active
recovery and passive recovery,and which one's more important
for the body.
Hint.
Or spoiler alert, if you want,don't wanna go back.
they're both important.
active recovery tends to be alittle bit more important
(02:57):
sometimes than passive, butpassive recovery is also
helpful.
They're both, they both serve apurpose.
They both have a place in yourrecovery.
So you can go back and listen toepisode two.
And understand the differencebetween active and passive
recovery.
And today in episode three,we're gonna actually start to
dig into some of these differentrecovery modalities.
(03:18):
Okay?
So these recovery tools to see,which one you should be using,
because this is one of thebiggest questions I get as a
physical therapist is, should Iuse heat or should I use ice?
Should I be stretching?
Should I be.
Getting a massage, like coldplunging saunas, like there's
all these different things andlots of different marketers out
there that's trying to get yourattention and get your money for
(03:39):
all these different things.
Today, I really want you tounderstand the science behind
it.
I want you to understand what ishappening in your body when you
do these different things andwhich ones you might want to
explore versus which ones maybeyou know are a waste of your
time or money.
Okay?
So today we're gonna be coveringcold heat, compression, and
massage.
Those are gonna be the big oneswe're gonna talk about, which,
(04:02):
what, each one helps and when itmight actually, interfere with
your adaptation.
And then of course, how to makeyour choices intentionally and
not just go with whatever thetrends you're seeing on
Instagram and TikTok.
So oftentimes we runners, if weare scrolling on Instagram, we
see the pros getting into coldplunges or cold baths.
(04:23):
Cold plunges have become such ahot topic now everybody's saying
that it's going to extend yourlife and help you lose fat and
improve your recovery andimprove your nervous system and
all the things.
And so a lot of people are like,oh, they're doing it.
I should probably do it too.
And.
It's important for you tounderstand that might not be the
(04:44):
case, especially if you're awoman, okay?
your body might adaptdifferently than a man, and your
body as a recreational runnermight adapt differently than
what professionals are doingbecause professionals are
training differently than youare.
So it's important for you tounderstand, okay, based on your
training and your experience andwhat you're trying to get out of
these things, which ones youshould be using because a lot of
(05:06):
these recovery hacks maybe feelgood.
But they don't actually supportadaptation.
And in fact, some of them canactually blunt your body's
adaptation, actually decreaseyour body's adaptation to your
training, which is actuallygoing to make your training less
effective.
You're not gonna be getting asmuch of a benefit from your
training if you use theserecovery tools inappropriately.
(05:29):
So the key to all of this isreally understanding what are
you trying to recover from?
Okay.
Are you trying to recover fromsoreness or from inflammation or
from stress, or do you actuallyhave an injury that you're
trying to recover from?
Because sometimes these recoverytools can help you feel better
faster, but they might actually.
Blunt your long-term gains andyour adaptations if your misuse.
(05:54):
So you have, we have to reallystart to tease out and separate
recovery for comfort versusrecovery for actual adaptation.
So let's dig into cold therapyfirst.
cold therapy, this is going toinclude things like ice baths,
cold showers, cryotherapy,cryotherapy, that can be
(06:15):
literally putting an ice pack onsomething or there's all these
fancy cryotherapy machines now.
Like you can see these wholebody cryotherapy machines that
people love to put on Instagram.
Where they go in with theirbathing suit and they step into
this, it almost looks like aspace age, like dry ice with
like the steam like coming upand it's all sorts of fun.
But okay, what is actuallyhappening with cold therapy?
(06:37):
And right now I'm just gonnalump all of those things
together into cold therapy.
What is happeningphysiologically in the body when
we apply cold to the body?
So cold exposure causesvasoconstriction in the body.
Vasoconstriction means that yourblood vessels are tightening.
if you guys are watching me onYouTube, or seeing this video,
(06:58):
you can see how many making somehand signals, which you can't
see on the podcast.
But basically you have nice openblood vessels.
When you are exposed to cold,those blood vessels constrict.
So this helps to reduceinflammation and muscle
soreness.
It can, it also lowers nerveconduction velocity, which is
(07:18):
the speed with which your nervesignals are being sent
throughout the body, and thatwhen you decrease nerve
conduction velocity, that meansthat the signals are not going
as fast between the brain andthe body.
Both directions.
and this can decrease painperception.
Okay?
So if basically when you have apain in an area when you have
(07:39):
injury or tissue injury in anarea.
That area is communicating tothe brain that there's an injury
and that is what allows the bodyto perceive pain.
And so when you put cold on thatarea, that message is a lot
slower getting from the injuredarea to the brain, so it can
actually decrease yourperception of pain.
It's not actually.
(08:00):
Changing the tissue injuryitself, with what I'm talking
about right now.
But what it is doing is helpingto decrease your perception of
pain.
The physiologically, what it isactually doing to that tissue is
that it can reduce swelling andit temporarily dampens or
decreases metabolic activity.
All right, so basically whenthere's an injury in the body.
(08:23):
The body kind of gets alertedlike your body's, immune system
gets alerted and that it causesinflammation and inflammation.
Basically, there's all thesehelper cells, these fixer cells
that get sent to an area ofinjury.
And when I say injury, I don'tmean it doesn't have to be a big
injury.
When you are working out, whenyou are exercising and doing
(08:44):
hard things, you are creatingmicro tears and microscopic.
Tissue damage in your musclecells.
That's what's happening.
Okay?
This is part of what we do.
It's actually crazy when youthink about it, right?
But during training, you'reactually breaking your body
down.
We're causing these microterrors and this micro damage to
your tissues so that when thehelper cells come in, they come
back in and they fortify thatarea and make that area stronger
(09:06):
than it was before.
So inflammation is actually agood thing.
This is what we want.
This is what.
Helps our bodies to adapt totraining.
And so the only problem is wheninflammation gets outta control,
then it can become problematic.
But if you're putting ice on itright away, you're actually
decreasing and dampening thatinflammatory response, which is
(09:26):
your body's way of repairingitself.
So is that something that youwant to do?
So short term.
Whole therapy can reduce yoursoreness and your level of
perceived fatigue.
Okay?
Again, perception.
This isn't actually decreasingfatigue in the body.
It's decreasing your body'sperception of fatigue.
(09:47):
So this can be useful after arace.
Or in extreme types of effortswhen your immediate recovery and
comfort matter.
So things like multi-day events,people that do the dopey
challenge or the goofychallenge, where it's really
important for you to try todecrease and keep that
inflammation under control.
You're not really looking foryour body to adapt.
(10:09):
You're looking for performancein that situation versus a 20
mile run.
During marathon training, thatis something you're trying to
force adaptation onto your bodyversus if you're actually
performing.
If you're doing, say like thedopey challenge where you have a
5K followed by a 10 k, followedby a half marathon, followed by
(10:31):
a marathon, you're not reallyasking your body to adapt that
weekend.
Your goal is performance.
So using cold therapy duringthat weekend to help minimize
soreness, minimize tissuedamage, minimize inflammation so
that your body feels okay thenext day because you wanna go
out and run again, that's adifferent story.
(10:53):
Does that make sense?
I hope that makes sense toeverybody.
So what does the researchactually say?
The, some of the research showsthat there is a modest reduction
in soreness 24 to 96 hours afterexercise when you use cold
therapy.
And cold water immersion helpssubjective recovery.
So your perception of recovery,but it's a limited performance
(11:16):
benefit.
Again, that performance benefitcomes if you're doing something
Like in the moment, like if youneed to recover and feel better
in order to perform again,that's where it becomes helpful.
If you're using cold therapyafter every long run in your
marathon training cycle, thenyou could be actually blunting
your body's ability to adapt.
Okay.
(11:36):
Then that's really what thisother research, a couple other
research studies have shown.
Is that chronic use of coldtherapy after strength training
may reduce muscle hypertrophy,which is muscle growth and
mitochondrial signal signaling,which by dampening inflammation
necessary for adaptation.
Let me say that again.
Let.
(11:57):
Use chronic use of cold therapypost strength training may
reduce muscle hypertrophy, whichis muscle growth and
mitochondrial signaling bydampening inflammation necessary
for adaptation.
Because like I just said, whenyou train your body.
you're creating this microdamage in your muscle cells.
And so inflammation is whatsends in that repair crew to
(12:18):
help repair and help the bodygrow back stronger and adapt.
And so if you're constantly justputting cold on it, you're
dampening that inflammatoryresponse so your body's not able
to repair and get stronger.
Okay?
So in plain terms, ice baths maymake you feel better in the
short term, but might actuallycause you to adapt less in the
(12:39):
long term.
It's something that you candefinitely use strategically,
but not habitually.
All right.
It's great for acute sorenessafter races or after a big
training block.
If, if you've got, went througha really tough week and you are
just super sore, you might wannaget into an ice bath or take a
cold shower or use some ice onthe body.
(13:00):
if it's really, if you're reallynoticing a lot of soreness
because it might.
Prevent you from continuing yourtraining that week.
I would also stop to tell youlike, make sure you're also
getting enough sleep and makingsure you're fueling the body
enough.
Because if it's taking youlonger to adapt, then you know,
taking you longer than itshould.
Then you're either overtraining, you're asking your
body to do more than it'sprepared to do, or you're not
(13:23):
fueling your body enough orgetting enough sleep to
actually, recover from thoseefforts.
Okay.
you wanna probably avoid.
Cold therapy immediately afterstrength sessions or immediately
after hard workouts.
If the goal is muscle gain oradaptation, which that is what
the goal of training is most ofthe time, unless you're like in
a muscle competition, right?
(13:44):
if you are someone that likes totake a cold shower after your
run.
That's fine for comfort.
It's not required for recovery.
So if you just like the cold,down here in Florida, in those
really hot summer months when itis just so cold, I like to jump
in the pool, but again, my poolis 80 something degrees.
That's not exactly cold therapy,but it feels colder because of
the contrast of the sweat in theoutside air.
(14:07):
a lot of times cold plunges andcold baths we're talking like 50
degrees and below for that.
And most of the time yourshower, I guess my shower here
in Florida, I don't know aboutyou guys where you are in the
Northern states or in othercountries.
you might, your showers might beable to get colder than mine, so
it can be helpful, right?
(14:27):
It might make you feel better,but is it really doing anything
long term for you?
Probably not.
Okay, so hopefully youunderstand cold therapy, what it
does when you might wanna use itthere.
Let's move on to heat therapynow.
So when I talk about heattherapy, I'm talking about hot
baths, saunas, heating pads,anytime you're trying to
increase, the tissue temperatureof that area.
(14:49):
So what is actually happening inthe body physiologically.
He so cold causesvasoconstriction, which is
constricting of the bloodvessels.
Heat causes vasodilation, whichis a widening of the blood
vessels, so when your bloodvessels get wider, that
increases blood flow to thatarea and that improves and
increases nutrient delivery,right?
(15:11):
Because your blood is carryingoxygen and all sorts of other
nutrients to that area.
So when you improve blood flow,you're improving oxygenation of
the tissues and you're alsogetting some of those nutrients
to the muscles in order tokickstart that repair process.
That's a good thing.
Heat also helps to relax yourmuscles and helps to stimulate
(15:31):
your parasympathetic nervoussystem, which is that rest,
relax, digest, and recover andrepair mode, which is what we
want.
And it also helps to promotetissue elasticity and pain
relief.
Now, this is something that Ican tell you from my 18 years
being a physical therapist.
When I, when people come into myclinic, they want the heat, they
(15:53):
always want the heating pads.
can I have the heat and electricstem?
I've had so many patients tellme that's the only reason they
come, right?
I'm like, that's fine.
if that's what is gonna make youcome to do your exercises that
are actually helping you, I'llgive you the heat because the
heat isn't.
What is really causing you tofeel better?
The heat does make you feelbetter.
And that's one of the reasonsthat people love it because cold
(16:15):
oftentimes, like people don'tlike feeling cold.
People love the heat.
that's one of the other thingstoo, is that heat promotes
relaxation and relaxation isgood for your parasympathetic
nervous system.
It's helpful for you toactually, your body to click
over into recovery and repairmode.
Fantastic.
Heat improves circulation, itimproves relaxation.
It can support metabolicrecovery after glycogen
(16:38):
depleting workouts.
So when you're doing a hardtraining session, what you're
doing is you're really depletingyour stored glycogen.
Glycogen is, the stored form ofglucose.
It's stored in your muscles andyour liver and when you're doing
a workout, especially running,but lifting too.
But especially with running,like what you're doing is you're
depleting that stored glycogen'cause you're using it for
energy.
(16:59):
And this can also, heat can alsohelp to support your metabolic
recovery.
after those types of workouts,it can also improve sleep
quality and your perceivedwellbeing.
Heat just feels good, right?
Heat feels good, and that's agood thing.
so what is the research tellingus?
the research is showing thatpost-exercise sauna increased
(17:20):
plasma volume.
Endurance capacity, so itactually impro increased your
blood plasma volume, which isgoing to help lead to an
improvement in your endurance.
Very cool.
This is one of the reasons whyendurance athletes love to
sauna.
This is also one of the benefitsof heat training, like when you
run in the summertime.
(17:42):
We talk about how running in thesummertime is not really for
performance during the summer.
It's for performance later inthe year because it's increasing
your endurance capacity.
heat exposure post training mayimprove mitochondrial
adaptations similar to endurancetraining.
Okay, so when you're doingendurance training, you're
(18:02):
working your mitochondria.
Heat can help with thatbasically, right?
If you are doing heat exposureafter training.
and then another study in 2022showed that regular sauna use.
Was linked to lowercardiovascular risk and
inflammation markers.
So that's fantastic also, right?
It's actually helping to improveyour well heart health.
(18:23):
that's a big jump, improvingheart health, but it's lowering
your cardiovascular riskmarkers, so that's great.
So when should we be using heat?
pretty much any time.
There's only really one timethat you don't really want to
use heat, and that isimmediately after an acute
injury.
So if you fall off the sidewalkand sprain your ankle, you don't
wanna put heat on it becausethat's going to increase
(18:46):
inflammation in that area.
And your body, especially afteran acute injury like that is.
Going to be sending plenty offixer cells to that area so you
don't wanna increase, and haveexcessive inflammation in the
area.
But you can use heat betweensessions on rest days for
relaxation.
a lot of people loved you, usingheat packs just to help with
lower back pain or neck pain.
(19:06):
Shoulder pain.
It's just part of the big.
Ways that heat helps is becauseit just helps you relax.
It helps your muscles to relax,it helps your nervous system to
shift into that parasympatheticmode.
Okay?
But just make sure that if youare doing any sort of heat
exposure, especially likesaunas.
or those kinds of thing, youalways wanna make sure that
you're combining that withhydration because heat exposure
(19:29):
increases sweat loss, so youdon't wanna dehydrate yourself
in this process.
So make sure that you're,hydrating enough when you're
using heat therapy.
All right, so moving on tocompression therapy.
Compression therapy are, isgoing to be things like
compression garments, likecompression sleeves for your
legs, compression boots, there'sNormaTec boots, all these
(19:50):
different things.
so all sorts of fancy newcompression gear on the market.
Basically, whenever you're usingcompression, what's actually
happening in the body is thatyou are applying external
pressure to the body.
And that external pressure isgoing to help to enhance venous
return and lymphatic drainage.
What the heck does that mean?
(20:11):
Venous return.
So basically, blood gets pumpedout from your heart through your
arteries and goes to all ofyour.
The different parts of yourbodies through your arteries,
and then that blood returns fromthose body parts through your
veins to go back to your heart.
That's your venous system.
So there's your arterial system,which is your arteries that's
taking blood from the heart towherever it needs to go, and
(20:33):
then there's the veins or thevenous system, which takes the
blood from those areas, fromyour organs and muscles and
tissues and takes it from thereand returns it back to the heart
and the lungs.
to.
Clean it up, re oxygenate it,get rid of waste material, all
that stuff.
Okay, so that's your venoussystem.
So when you apply externalpressure to the body that helps
(20:53):
to improve your veins, the, yourveins ability to drain those
areas essentially.
Okay?
Because your veins are passive,your arteries are active.
so applying external pressurecan improve your veins and your
venous system and drainage.
All right.
when you use compressiontherapy, this also can decrease
(21:14):
your muscle oscillation, whichcan reduce perceived fatigue
again, reduce perceived fatigue,your perception of fatigue.
it does not actually, theresearch has not shown.
That it physically speeds upmuscle repair, but it can affect
your perception and yourcirculation.
(21:34):
So those two things can actuallyhelp to speed up muscle repair.
So it doesn't have a direct,even though it doesn't have a
direct effect on muscle repair,it can have an indirect effect
because of the differences inperception and circulation.
All right, so in the research,there's a, there was a
meta-analysis conducted in 2014.
(21:56):
showed small but significantbenefits in reducing soreness
and improving perceivedrecovery.
and then some other research hasshown, again, minimal direct
effect on performance, butpositive effect for comfort and
readiness.
So it's one of those things thatcompression's not going to harm
you and it could.
Create, or provide a benefit.
(22:17):
So why not use it?
That's what I like.
If you like compression, then Iwould say use it.
is it worth it for you to spend$400 on fancy compression boots?
You can answer that.
If you've got 400 bucks to justlaying around that you wanna
spend, go for it.
But it's, it's not gonna hurtyou, but.
Is it physiologically helpingyou?
That benefit is probablyminimal, but if you believe that
(22:40):
it's helping you, then great.
Like I think that weunderestimate the placebo effect
as well.
I think that it's reallyimportant to understand that
even though we might not have aphysiological benefit of some of
these things, a lot of thesethings do provide a placebo
effect.
And if a placebo effect helpsyou get better, like placebo
effects have literally beenshown to change tissue dynamics.
(23:01):
It's wild, right?
So if it helps you feel better,great.
Go for it.
As long as it's not doing anyharm or any damage.
So when would you wanna usecompression therapy?
it's good after long runs, orraces for, again, comfort or
swelling reduction.
I know that.
Kevin uses compression sleevesafter his longer runs,
(23:22):
especially like if we have along car ride home.
Again, helping with thatcirculation is good.
And it just like having thatexternal pressure.
it's like giving your muscles ahug right from the outside, like
giving them a little hug.
and it just provides that nicepressure.
It helps.
This is why weighted blanketswork also, right?
Because weighted blankets helpto downregulate the nervous
system.
(23:42):
That downregulation helps yourbody to relax, which is a good
thing.
so you can wear'em 30 to 130minutes, two to two hours post
training or longer ifcomfortable.
compression is actually reallygood.
Also, if you are someone thathas a job that puts you on your
feet all day, so like nurses ordoctors or, people that are just
(24:03):
on your feet all day.
Compression sleeves are veryhelpful, because again, of that
circulation, because it helpswith venous return and those
kinds of things, especially ifyou're a runner that's
recovering from a long run theday before and then you have to
go work a 12 hour shift.
Compression sleeves can be areally helpful to, or
compression socks as well.
you can also consider usingcompression boots, and then
(24:25):
combine those with breath workor mindfulness to make it even
more effective because.
Breath work, mindfulness, thesetypes of things.
We talked about the breath inone of our previous episodes.
Your breath is so important,it's with you all the time, and
it can help you shift fromsympathetic into parasympathetic
mode to help your body recoverbetter.
(24:46):
So pairing these tools withbreath work and with more
mindfulness techniques is goingto help amplify those results
even more.
Okie doke onto massage, massage.
When I tell people that I'm aphysical therapist, so many
times, they're like, ah, canyou, I've got this knot in my
shoulder.
Can you help rub it out?
(25:06):
Like just No, absolutely not.
just, no, that's what I say.
don't ever ask your massagetherapist friend or your
physical therapist friend to dothat for you.
Please just don't.
Okay.
And also physical therapists arenot massage therapists.
All right.
keep that in mind as well.
That's like kind of a pet peevethat we PTs have as well.
Massage is definitely a toolthat we use, and it can be an
(25:28):
effective tool that we use, butit's not everything that we do
and it doesn't actually provideas much.
Recovery benefit as you think itdoes.
So what does massage do?
Massage can help to stimulateblood and lymph flow.
It can help to reduce muscletension.
how does it do that?
basically what we're doing whenyou apply pressure, we are
(25:48):
activating the mechanicalreceptors in the body, which is
just the mechanical receptors.
So we just combine those wordsinto mechanical receptors, which
is fun.
which is Touch, basically touchreceptors.
and this helps to calm thenervous system.
Massage can, may also help toreduce cortisol and may help to
promote oxytocin release.
(26:09):
Okay.
Oxytocin is like your feel goodrelaxation hormone.
This would induce aphysiological relaxation
response.
So if massage can help, reducecortisol and promote oxytocin,
it just helps the body feel morerelaxed.
All right, so what does theresearch actually show?
The research shows that massageprovides moderate benefit for
(26:32):
perceived soreness and fatigue,but it has a limited impact on
objective markers.
Okay.
So if we actually look at.
Markers of inflammation and thechemical composition of what's
happening in your muscles.
It's, we don't see a hugedifference, but we do see like
subjective reports from patientsreceiving massage that they
(26:56):
don't feel as sore.
They feel less soreness, theyfeel less fatigued.
and so basically what a lot ofthese researchers have concluded
is that these improvements arelikely due to.
Nervous system relaxation, notmechanical waste removal.
So if you've ever told, heard,or had a massage therapist tell
you that they're flushing outthe lactic acid or they're
(27:18):
pushing these things out of yourtissues with massage, that's not
what's actually happening.
Okay?
What is actually happening isthat the touch provides a nice
calming response on your nervoussystem.
and again, this is assuming thatyou're someone that likes to be
touched, because there arepeople out there that don't.
Like it when other people touchthem, especially strangers, like
a massage therapist on a table.
(27:39):
when you're not fully clothed,that can be like a very.
Stress inducing experience forsome people.
So for those people, this is nota good idea, right?
Because one of the majorbenefits of massage is nervous
system relaxation.
So if you are tense in a massagebecause you don't like being
touched by somebody, especiallya stranger, then a massage would
not be the best tool for you atleast not.
(28:00):
Someone else's massage, right?
But there are tools like massageguns or self massage that could
be helpful for you if you'reable to relax during those types
of things.
So massage is ideal on recoverydays.
It can be helpful after longruns for relaxation and
circulation.
self massage can be veryhelpful.
Those massage percussion gunscan help to stimulate blood flow
(28:24):
and help with muscle relaxationalso.
But just understand that.
Massage is not flushing out orremoving waste products from the
body.
Massages greatest benefit ishelping to down regulate your
nervous system.
It's helping your nervous systemto calm down.
It's helping to shift you fromparas or from sympathetic into
parasympathetic mode.
(28:44):
and that's going to helpencourage full body recovery,
which is a good thing again.
I care right about the, like Iwas about to say, I was about to
say who cares how it works, ifit works.
but I do, I care how it works.
That's the really, the wholereason I'm doing this podcast.
exactly.
massage might not make youfaster directly or make you
(29:05):
recover.
Quicker directly, but it helpsyour body want to perform again,
right?
Because it, your body's morerelaxed, it can recover better.
and then it just, things in thebody work better when you're
better, when you're morerelaxed.
Okay, so going over like.
Here's all what all these thingsdo.
So then how do you choose whatyou want to use?
(29:25):
Basically, you want to figureout, what's the purpose, what do
I want to accomplish?
And then choose your recoverytool based on that.
So if your goal is to reducesoreness quickly, your best bet
is cold therapy or compression.
But just keep in mind that ifyou're using cold therapy, you
don't wanna be using this allthe time.
Use it more for short term, notlong term.
(29:47):
Don't use it on a chronic basisbecause it can blunt your
adaptation to exercise, which isthe opposite of what you
actually want.
But it's great if you need toreduce soreness quickly.
If your goal is to promotelong-term adaptation, the best
things for you are going to beheat mobility and active
recovery, because again, you'removing things throughout the
(30:07):
body.
You're helping to improvecirculation, you're helping to
support your mitochondria.
All of those are good things.
If your goal is to calm yournervous system and lower stress.
You're gonna use things likemassage heat, gentle foam
rolling, as long as you're nottensing up, right?
Because those, we talked aboutfoam rolling, like some,
sometimes when you use foamrollers, that can really make
(30:27):
your body tense up, which youobviously don't want.
so those things can help tosupport sleep and help get your
body into that parasympatheticstate where it re, where it
recovers better.
if your goal is to prepare.
For your, like a race the nextday, or a multi-day event.
Cold therapy can be helpful,compression can be helpful.
this is going to help improveyour comfort, help you reduce
(30:49):
that soreness and help tocontrol inflammation so that
you're able to perform.
and if you're looking forpost-race, relaxation, massage,
heat, stretching, those thingsare very beneficial.
Just make sure that you're alsopairing those with hydration,
sleep, and nutrition, becauseagain, sleep and nutrition, you
cannot.
Hack your way out of thosethings.
(31:09):
Alright, hopefully this washelpful.
if just to like sum some,summarize this again, and like
figure out, okay, what do Iwanna do here?
if it's after, a longer run.
You wanna always prioritize,fueling, hydration and sleep.
And then if you wannaincorporate some compression,
some foam rolling, some heat,totally fine.
(31:30):
avoid ice unless you want thatrapid relief.
Okay.
Now, the other thing that I wantto just address before we wrap
up is to help you point out thata lot of the things that I
talked about, they do have aphysiological benefit, but.
A lot of the things that wecovered today, if you noticed, I
(31:51):
talked a lot about the nervoussystem because all of the tools,
all these recovery tools that wetalked about influence your
autonomic nervous system, whichis your parasympathetic and
sympathetic nervous system.
So if you're using cold.
That actually activates yoursympathetic, but then helps you
to slide into parasympathetic,it's like a rebound effect
almost.
Heat and massage is directparasympathetic activation.
(32:15):
So it's, it helps you switchover into.
Recovery and repair modedirectly.
And then compression also cangive you your body that feedback
and help to relax the body andhelp get you into a more
parasympathetic state.
So that's really the goal of allof our recovery tools.
The goal of our recovery toolsis yes, to help our tissues
recover, but.
(32:36):
The main thing that a lot ofthese things do is help us to
control our nervous system andhelp us to shift from
sympathetic mode intoparasympathetic mode where our
body can actually do what it'ssupposed to do and recover.
So some of the common mistakesthat I often see people making,
number one is using cold therapyall the time.
If you're using cold therapyafter all your workouts, or
(32:57):
especially after your hardworkouts, this again can blunt
your adaptation to that thing.
The other thing that I often seepeople do, and I've said this
multiple times already throughthis episode.
Is using these tools and gadgetsas a substitute for the recovery
basics.
if you don't get enough sleep,if you're not fueling your body,
(33:18):
if you are not refueling yourbody after exercise, if you are
not drinking enough water, itdoesn't matter if you're using
heat or cold or massage orcompression, you're not hitting
the basic things.
Okay?
So I always want you to go backto those recovery.
1 0 1, the recovery basics thatwe covered in episode number
one, because these other thingsreally don't matter as much if
(33:41):
you're not hitting the bigrocks.
Okay.
The big rocks again, beingsleep, nutrition, hydration.
Okay.
you don't wanna overusecompression, like if you're
really, if it's really tight onthe body, that can be.
A negative thing because if thecompression is too tight, it can
actually be doing the opposite.
It could actually be restrictingblood flow in instead of
(34:02):
improving your circulation andblood flow.
So you don't want that.
and again, just, you gotta hitthe basics right, like that's
really the biggest thing here.
So I really hope that you'llenjoy this episode.
that's what I've got for youtoday.
And, I would love to hear fromyou if you enjoyed this.
If you're watching this onYouTube, please leave me a
(34:22):
comment below.
Let me know what your takeawaywas from this.
If you're listening to this onApple Podcasts or on Spotify, I
would love for you to leave acomment or a review for the
episode, for the show, to helpus reach more runners and help
more people.
And, come connect with me overon Instagram.
Over at Real Life Runners onInstagram.
And as always guys, thanks forjoining me.
(34:43):
This has been episode three ofour recovery series, all about
recovery, and overall episodenumber 433 of the Real Life
Runners Podcast.
Now get out there and run yourlife.
Welcome back to the Real Life Runners podcast,
(00:01):
episode number 433.
So what are you supposed to do?
Are you supposed to ice or heat?
Are you supposed to use massageor compression?
Do these things actually make adifference or are you just
spending your money on thingsthat don't really do much for
you today we're we arecontinuing our recovery series
with our third episode, andwe're gonna be digging into
(00:24):
things like.
Cold baths, saunas, cold plungescompression, and massage.
To let you know which of thesethings are actually supported by
scientific research, which ofthem might help you but not be
supported by scientific researchand which ones you might want to
just skip altogether, and we'llhelp you understand what's going
on in your body, so that you canmake the best decision that's
(00:46):
right for you.
So stay tuned.
(01:10):
What's up runners?
Welcome back to the podcast.
I am excited to continue ourrecovery series because you now
understand how importantrecovery is for your adaptation
as a runner.
In episode number one, we reallytalked about the science of
recovery and what is happeningin your body and how it's
important for you to stress thebody and then take time to
(01:33):
recover because recovery isactually where adaptation
occurs.
Recovery is when your bodybuilds back stronger during your
workouts.
During your exercise sessionsespecially, anything harder,
your harder runs, your longerruns, your strength training
sessions, you are actuallybreaking the body down and it is
during recovery that your body'sable to build back stronger and
(01:53):
adapt to your training as longas you are giving the body what
it needs and those main recoverypillars that we talked about.
Number one is sleep.
Okay?
We can never, you can never outhack a lack of sleep.
Sleep is always the number onething that you need.
All right?
The other thing we talked aboutas a big pillar is nutrition.
(02:15):
If you aren't fueling your bodyand not giving your body the
proper building blocks that itneeds, it's not going to be able
to build back that musclestronger than it was before,
which is actually what you want.
So we always have to keep thoserecovery pillars in mind.
We always have to make sure thatwe're fueling the body properly,
(02:35):
actually getting the properamount of sleep and rest.
Okay, that's number one.
That was always covered inepisode one.
Go back and listen to that ifyou haven't.
In episode two, we talked aboutthe difference between active
recovery and passive recovery,and which one's more important
for the body.
Hint.
Or spoiler alert, if you want,don't wanna go back.
they're both important.
active recovery tends to be alittle bit more important
(02:57):
sometimes than passive, butpassive recovery is also
helpful.
They're both, they both serve apurpose.
They both have a place in yourrecovery.
So you can go back and listen toepisode two.
And understand the differencebetween active and passive
recovery.
And today in episode three,we're gonna actually start to
dig into some of these differentrecovery modalities.
(03:18):
Okay?
So these recovery tools to see,which one you should be using,
because this is one of thebiggest questions I get as a
physical therapist is, should Iuse heat or should I use ice?
Should I be stretching?
Should I be.
Getting a massage, like coldplunging saunas, like there's
all these different things andlots of different marketers out
there that's trying to get yourattention and get your money for
(03:39):
all these different things.
Today, I really want you tounderstand the science behind
it.
I want you to understand what ishappening in your body when you
do these different things andwhich ones you might want to
explore versus which ones maybeyou know are a waste of your
time or money.
Okay?
So today we're gonna be coveringcold heat, compression, and
massage.
Those are gonna be the big oneswe're gonna talk about, which,
(04:02):
what, each one helps and when itmight actually, interfere with
your adaptation.
And then of course, how to makeyour choices intentionally and
not just go with whatever thetrends you're seeing on
Instagram and TikTok.
So oftentimes we runners, if weare scrolling on Instagram, we
see the pros getting into coldplunges or cold baths.
(04:23):
Cold plunges have become such ahot topic now everybody's saying
that it's going to extend yourlife and help you lose fat and
improve your recovery andimprove your nervous system and
all the things.
And so a lot of people are like,oh, they're doing it.
I should probably do it too.
And.
It's important for you tounderstand that might not be the
(04:44):
case, especially if you're awoman, okay?
your body might adaptdifferently than a man, and your
body as a recreational runnermight adapt differently than
what professionals are doingbecause professionals are
training differently than youare.
So it's important for you tounderstand, okay, based on your
training and your experience andwhat you're trying to get out of
these things, which ones youshould be using because a lot of
(05:06):
these recovery hacks maybe feelgood.
But they don't actually supportadaptation.
And in fact, some of them canactually blunt your body's
adaptation, actually decreaseyour body's adaptation to your
training, which is actuallygoing to make your training less
effective.
You're not gonna be getting asmuch of a benefit from your
training if you use theserecovery tools inappropriately.
(05:29):
So the key to all of this isreally understanding what are
you trying to recover from?
Okay.
Are you trying to recover fromsoreness or from inflammation or
from stress, or do you actuallyhave an injury that you're
trying to recover from?
Because sometimes these recoverytools can help you feel better
faster, but they might actually.
Blunt your long-term gains andyour adaptations if your misuse.
(05:54):
So you have, we have to reallystart to tease out and separate
recovery for comfort versusrecovery for actual adaptation.
So let's dig into cold therapyfirst.
cold therapy, this is going toinclude things like ice baths,
cold showers, cryotherapy,cryotherapy, that can be
(06:15):
literally putting an ice pack onsomething or there's all these
fancy cryotherapy machines now.
Like you can see these wholebody cryotherapy machines that
people love to put on Instagram.
Where they go in with theirbathing suit and they step into
this, it almost looks like aspace age, like dry ice with
like the steam like coming upand it's all sorts of fun.
But okay, what is actuallyhappening with cold therapy?
(06:37):
And right now I'm just gonnalump all of those things
together into cold therapy.
What is happeningphysiologically in the body when
we apply cold to the body?
So cold exposure causesvasoconstriction in the body.
Vasoconstriction means that yourblood vessels are tightening.
if you guys are watching me onYouTube, or seeing this video,
(06:58):
you can see how many making somehand signals, which you can't
see on the podcast.
But basically you have nice openblood vessels.
When you are exposed to cold,those blood vessels constrict.
So this helps to reduceinflammation and muscle
soreness.
It can, it also lowers nerveconduction velocity, which is
(07:18):
the speed with which your nervesignals are being sent
throughout the body, and thatwhen you decrease nerve
conduction velocity, that meansthat the signals are not going
as fast between the brain andthe body.
Both directions.
and this can decrease painperception.
Okay?
So if basically when you have apain in an area when you have
(07:39):
injury or tissue injury in anarea.
That area is communicating tothe brain that there's an injury
and that is what allows the bodyto perceive pain.
And so when you put cold on thatarea, that message is a lot
slower getting from the injuredarea to the brain, so it can
actually decrease yourperception of pain.
It's not actually.
(08:00):
Changing the tissue injuryitself, with what I'm talking
about right now.
But what it is doing is helpingto decrease your perception of
pain.
The physiologically, what it isactually doing to that tissue is
that it can reduce swelling andit temporarily dampens or
decreases metabolic activity.
All right, so basically whenthere's an injury in the body.
(08:23):
The body kind of gets alertedlike your body's, immune system
gets alerted and that it causesinflammation and inflammation.
Basically, there's all thesehelper cells, these fixer cells
that get sent to an area ofinjury.
And when I say injury, I don'tmean it doesn't have to be a big
injury.
When you are working out, whenyou are exercising and doing
(08:44):
hard things, you are creatingmicro tears and microscopic.
Tissue damage in your musclecells.
That's what's happening.
Okay?
This is part of what we do.
It's actually crazy when youthink about it, right?
But during training, you'reactually breaking your body
down.
We're causing these microterrors and this micro damage to
your tissues so that when thehelper cells come in, they come
back in and they fortify thatarea and make that area stronger
(09:06):
than it was before.
So inflammation is actually agood thing.
This is what we want.
This is what.
Helps our bodies to adapt totraining.
And so the only problem is wheninflammation gets outta control,
then it can become problematic.
But if you're putting ice on itright away, you're actually
decreasing and dampening thatinflammatory response, which is
(09:26):
your body's way of repairingitself.
So is that something that youwant to do?
So short term.
Whole therapy can reduce yoursoreness and your level of
perceived fatigue.
Okay?
Again, perception.
This isn't actually decreasingfatigue in the body.
It's decreasing your body'sperception of fatigue.
(09:47):
So this can be useful after arace.
Or in extreme types of effortswhen your immediate recovery and
comfort matter.
So things like multi-day events,people that do the dopey
challenge or the goofychallenge, where it's really
important for you to try todecrease and keep that
inflammation under control.
You're not really looking foryour body to adapt.
(10:09):
You're looking for performancein that situation versus a 20
mile run.
During marathon training, thatis something you're trying to
force adaptation onto your bodyversus if you're actually
performing.
If you're doing, say like thedopey challenge where you have a
5K followed by a 10 k, followedby a half marathon, followed by
(10:31):
a marathon, you're not reallyasking your body to adapt that
weekend.
Your goal is performance.
So using cold therapy duringthat weekend to help minimize
soreness, minimize tissuedamage, minimize inflammation so
that your body feels okay thenext day because you wanna go
out and run again, that's adifferent story.
(10:53):
Does that make sense?
I hope that makes sense toeverybody.
So what does the researchactually say?
The, some of the research showsthat there is a modest reduction
in soreness 24 to 96 hours afterexercise when you use cold
therapy.
And cold water immersion helpssubjective recovery.
So your perception of recovery,but it's a limited performance
(11:16):
benefit.
Again, that performance benefitcomes if you're doing something
Like in the moment, like if youneed to recover and feel better
in order to perform again,that's where it becomes helpful.
If you're using cold therapyafter every long run in your
marathon training cycle, thenyou could be actually blunting
your body's ability to adapt.
Okay.
(11:36):
Then that's really what thisother research, a couple other
research studies have shown.
Is that chronic use of coldtherapy after strength training
may reduce muscle hypertrophy,which is muscle growth and
mitochondrial signal signaling,which by dampening inflammation
necessary for adaptation.
Let me say that again.
Let.
(11:57):
Use chronic use of cold therapypost strength training may
reduce muscle hypertrophy, whichis muscle growth and
mitochondrial signaling bydampening inflammation necessary
for adaptation.
Because like I just said, whenyou train your body.
you're creating this microdamage in your muscle cells.
And so inflammation is whatsends in that repair crew to
(12:18):
help repair and help the bodygrow back stronger and adapt.
And so if you're constantly justputting cold on it, you're
dampening that inflammatoryresponse so your body's not able
to repair and get stronger.
Okay?
So in plain terms, ice baths maymake you feel better in the
short term, but might actuallycause you to adapt less in the
(12:39):
long term.
It's something that you candefinitely use strategically,
but not habitually.
All right.
It's great for acute sorenessafter races or after a big
training block.
If, if you've got, went througha really tough week and you are
just super sore, you might wannaget into an ice bath or take a
cold shower or use some ice onthe body.
(13:00):
if it's really, if you're reallynoticing a lot of soreness
because it might.
Prevent you from continuing yourtraining that week.
I would also stop to tell youlike, make sure you're also
getting enough sleep and makingsure you're fueling the body
enough.
Because if it's taking youlonger to adapt, then you know,
taking you longer than itshould.
Then you're either overtraining, you're asking your
body to do more than it'sprepared to do, or you're not
(13:23):
fueling your body enough orgetting enough sleep to
actually, recover from thoseefforts.
Okay.
you wanna probably avoid.
Cold therapy immediately afterstrength sessions or immediately
after hard workouts.
If the goal is muscle gain oradaptation, which that is what
the goal of training is most ofthe time, unless you're like in
a muscle competition, right?
(13:44):
if you are someone that likes totake a cold shower after your
run.
That's fine for comfort.
It's not required for recovery.
So if you just like the cold,down here in Florida, in those
really hot summer months when itis just so cold, I like to jump
in the pool, but again, my poolis 80 something degrees.
That's not exactly cold therapy,but it feels colder because of
the contrast of the sweat in theoutside air.
(14:07):
a lot of times cold plunges andcold baths we're talking like 50
degrees and below for that.
And most of the time yourshower, I guess my shower here
in Florida, I don't know aboutyou guys where you are in the
Northern states or in othercountries.
you might, your showers might beable to get colder than mine, so
it can be helpful, right?
(14:27):
It might make you feel better,but is it really doing anything
long term for you?
Probably not.
Okay, so hopefully youunderstand cold therapy, what it
does when you might wanna use itthere.
Let's move on to heat therapynow.
So when I talk about heattherapy, I'm talking about hot
baths, saunas, heating pads,anytime you're trying to
increase, the tissue temperatureof that area.
(14:49):
So what is actually happening inthe body physiologically.
He so cold causesvasoconstriction, which is
constricting of the bloodvessels.
Heat causes vasodilation, whichis a widening of the blood
vessels, so when your bloodvessels get wider, that
increases blood flow to thatarea and that improves and
increases nutrient delivery,right?
(15:11):
Because your blood is carryingoxygen and all sorts of other
nutrients to that area.
So when you improve blood flow,you're improving oxygenation of
the tissues and you're alsogetting some of those nutrients
to the muscles in order tokickstart that repair process.
That's a good thing.
Heat also helps to relax yourmuscles and helps to stimulate
(15:31):
your parasympathetic nervoussystem, which is that rest,
relax, digest, and recover andrepair mode, which is what we
want.
And it also helps to promotetissue elasticity and pain
relief.
Now, this is something that Ican tell you from my 18 years
being a physical therapist.
When I, when people come into myclinic, they want the heat, they
(15:53):
always want the heating pads.
can I have the heat and electricstem?
I've had so many patients tellme that's the only reason they
come, right?
I'm like, that's fine.
if that's what is gonna make youcome to do your exercises that
are actually helping you, I'llgive you the heat because the
heat isn't.
What is really causing you tofeel better?
The heat does make you feelbetter.
And that's one of the reasonsthat people love it because cold
(16:15):
oftentimes, like people don'tlike feeling cold.
People love the heat.
that's one of the other thingstoo, is that heat promotes
relaxation and relaxation isgood for your parasympathetic
nervous system.
It's helpful for you toactually, your body to click
over into recovery and repairmode.
Fantastic.
Heat improves circulation, itimproves relaxation.
It can support metabolicrecovery after glycogen
(16:38):
depleting workouts.
So when you're doing a hardtraining session, what you're
doing is you're really depletingyour stored glycogen.
Glycogen is, the stored form ofglucose.
It's stored in your muscles andyour liver and when you're doing
a workout, especially running,but lifting too.
But especially with running,like what you're doing is you're
depleting that stored glycogen'cause you're using it for
energy.
(16:59):
And this can also, heat can alsohelp to support your metabolic
recovery.
after those types of workouts,it can also improve sleep
quality and your perceivedwellbeing.
Heat just feels good, right?
Heat feels good, and that's agood thing.
so what is the research tellingus?
the research is showing thatpost-exercise sauna increased
(17:20):
plasma volume.
Endurance capacity, so itactually impro increased your
blood plasma volume, which isgoing to help lead to an
improvement in your endurance.
Very cool.
This is one of the reasons whyendurance athletes love to
sauna.
This is also one of the benefitsof heat training, like when you
run in the summertime.
(17:42):
We talk about how running in thesummertime is not really for
performance during the summer.
It's for performance later inthe year because it's increasing
your endurance capacity.
heat exposure post training mayimprove mitochondrial
adaptations similar to endurancetraining.
Okay, so when you're doingendurance training, you're
(18:02):
working your mitochondria.
Heat can help with thatbasically, right?
If you are doing heat exposureafter training.
and then another study in 2022showed that regular sauna use.
Was linked to lowercardiovascular risk and
inflammation markers.
So that's fantastic also, right?
It's actually helping to improveyour well heart health.
(18:23):
that's a big jump, improvingheart health, but it's lowering
your cardiovascular riskmarkers, so that's great.
So when should we be using heat?
pretty much any time.
There's only really one timethat you don't really want to
use heat, and that isimmediately after an acute
injury.
So if you fall off the sidewalkand sprain your ankle, you don't
wanna put heat on it becausethat's going to increase
(18:46):
inflammation in that area.
And your body, especially afteran acute injury like that is.
Going to be sending plenty offixer cells to that area so you
don't wanna increase, and haveexcessive inflammation in the
area.
But you can use heat betweensessions on rest days for
relaxation.
a lot of people loved you, usingheat packs just to help with
lower back pain or neck pain.
(19:06):
Shoulder pain.
It's just part of the big.
Ways that heat helps is becauseit just helps you relax.
It helps your muscles to relax,it helps your nervous system to
shift into that parasympatheticmode.
Okay?
But just make sure that if youare doing any sort of heat
exposure, especially likesaunas.
or those kinds of thing, youalways wanna make sure that
you're combining that withhydration because heat exposure
(19:29):
increases sweat loss, so youdon't wanna dehydrate yourself
in this process.
So make sure that you're,hydrating enough when you're
using heat therapy.
All right, so moving on tocompression therapy.
Compression therapy are, isgoing to be things like
compression garments, likecompression sleeves for your
legs, compression boots, there'sNormaTec boots, all these
(19:50):
different things.
so all sorts of fancy newcompression gear on the market.
Basically, whenever you're usingcompression, what's actually
happening in the body is thatyou are applying external
pressure to the body.
And that external pressure isgoing to help to enhance venous
return and lymphatic drainage.
What the heck does that mean?
(20:11):
Venous return.
So basically, blood gets pumpedout from your heart through your
arteries and goes to all ofyour.
The different parts of yourbodies through your arteries,
and then that blood returns fromthose body parts through your
veins to go back to your heart.
That's your venous system.
So there's your arterial system,which is your arteries that's
taking blood from the heart towherever it needs to go, and
(20:33):
then there's the veins or thevenous system, which takes the
blood from those areas, fromyour organs and muscles and
tissues and takes it from thereand returns it back to the heart
and the lungs.
to.
Clean it up, re oxygenate it,get rid of waste material, all
that stuff.
Okay, so that's your venoussystem.
So when you apply externalpressure to the body that helps
(20:53):
to improve your veins, the, yourveins ability to drain those
areas essentially.
Okay?
Because your veins are passive,your arteries are active.
so applying external pressurecan improve your veins and your
venous system and drainage.
All right.
when you use compressiontherapy, this also can decrease
(21:14):
your muscle oscillation, whichcan reduce perceived fatigue
again, reduce perceived fatigue,your perception of fatigue.
it does not actually, theresearch has not shown.
That it physically speeds upmuscle repair, but it can affect
your perception and yourcirculation.
(21:34):
So those two things can actuallyhelp to speed up muscle repair.
So it doesn't have a direct,even though it doesn't have a
direct effect on muscle repair,it can have an indirect effect
because of the differences inperception and circulation.
All right, so in the research,there's a, there was a
meta-analysis conducted in 2014.
(21:56):
showed small but significantbenefits in reducing soreness
and improving perceivedrecovery.
and then some other research hasshown, again, minimal direct
effect on performance, butpositive effect for comfort and
readiness.
So it's one of those things thatcompression's not going to harm
you and it could.
Create, or provide a benefit.
(22:17):
So why not use it?
That's what I like.
If you like compression, then Iwould say use it.
is it worth it for you to spend$400 on fancy compression boots?
You can answer that.
If you've got 400 bucks to justlaying around that you wanna
spend, go for it.
But it's, it's not gonna hurtyou, but.
Is it physiologically helpingyou?
That benefit is probablyminimal, but if you believe that
(22:40):
it's helping you, then great.
Like I think that weunderestimate the placebo effect
as well.
I think that it's reallyimportant to understand that
even though we might not have aphysiological benefit of some of
these things, a lot of thesethings do provide a placebo
effect.
And if a placebo effect helpsyou get better, like placebo
effects have literally beenshown to change tissue dynamics.
(23:01):
It's wild, right?
So if it helps you feel better,great.
Go for it.
As long as it's not doing anyharm or any damage.
So when would you wanna usecompression therapy?
it's good after long runs, orraces for, again, comfort or
swelling reduction.
I know that.
Kevin uses compression sleevesafter his longer runs,
(23:22):
especially like if we have along car ride home.
Again, helping with thatcirculation is good.
And it just like having thatexternal pressure.
it's like giving your muscles ahug right from the outside, like
giving them a little hug.
and it just provides that nicepressure.
It helps.
This is why weighted blanketswork also, right?
Because weighted blankets helpto downregulate the nervous
system.
(23:42):
That downregulation helps yourbody to relax, which is a good
thing.
so you can wear'em 30 to 130minutes, two to two hours post
training or longer ifcomfortable.
compression is actually reallygood.
Also, if you are someone thathas a job that puts you on your
feet all day, so like nurses ordoctors or, people that are just
(24:03):
on your feet all day.
Compression sleeves are veryhelpful, because again, of that
circulation, because it helpswith venous return and those
kinds of things, especially ifyou're a runner that's
recovering from a long run theday before and then you have to
go work a 12 hour shift.
Compression sleeves can be areally helpful to, or
compression socks as well.
you can also consider usingcompression boots, and then
(24:25):
combine those with breath workor mindfulness to make it even
more effective because.
Breath work, mindfulness, thesetypes of things.
We talked about the breath inone of our previous episodes.
Your breath is so important,it's with you all the time, and
it can help you shift fromsympathetic into parasympathetic
mode to help your body recoverbetter.
(24:46):
So pairing these tools withbreath work and with more
mindfulness techniques is goingto help amplify those results
even more.
Okie doke onto massage, massage.
When I tell people that I'm aphysical therapist, so many
times, they're like, ah, canyou, I've got this knot in my
shoulder.
Can you help rub it out?
(25:06):
Like just No, absolutely not.
just, no, that's what I say.
don't ever ask your massagetherapist friend or your
physical therapist friend to dothat for you.
Please just don't.
Okay.
And also physical therapists arenot massage therapists.
All right.
keep that in mind as well.
That's like kind of a pet peevethat we PTs have as well.
Massage is definitely a toolthat we use, and it can be an
(25:28):
effective tool that we use, butit's not everything that we do
and it doesn't actually provideas much.
Recovery benefit as you think itdoes.
So what does massage do?
Massage can help to stimulateblood and lymph flow.
It can help to reduce muscletension.
how does it do that?
basically what we're doing whenyou apply pressure, we are
(25:48):
activating the mechanicalreceptors in the body, which is
just the mechanical receptors.
So we just combine those wordsinto mechanical receptors, which
is fun.
which is Touch, basically touchreceptors.
and this helps to calm thenervous system.
Massage can, may also help toreduce cortisol and may help to
promote oxytocin release.
(26:09):
Okay.
Oxytocin is like your feel goodrelaxation hormone.
This would induce aphysiological relaxation
response.
So if massage can help, reducecortisol and promote oxytocin,
it just helps the body feel morerelaxed.
All right, so what does theresearch actually show?
The research shows that massageprovides moderate benefit for
(26:32):
perceived soreness and fatigue,but it has a limited impact on
objective markers.
Okay.
So if we actually look at.
Markers of inflammation and thechemical composition of what's
happening in your muscles.
It's, we don't see a hugedifference, but we do see like
subjective reports from patientsreceiving massage that they
(26:56):
don't feel as sore.
They feel less soreness, theyfeel less fatigued.
and so basically what a lot ofthese researchers have concluded
is that these improvements arelikely due to.
Nervous system relaxation, notmechanical waste removal.
So if you've ever told, heard,or had a massage therapist tell
you that they're flushing outthe lactic acid or they're
(27:18):
pushing these things out of yourtissues with massage, that's not
what's actually happening.
Okay?
What is actually happening isthat the touch provides a nice
calming response on your nervoussystem.
and again, this is assuming thatyou're someone that likes to be
touched, because there arepeople out there that don't.
Like it when other people touchthem, especially strangers, like
a massage therapist on a table.
(27:39):
when you're not fully clothed,that can be like a very.
Stress inducing experience forsome people.
So for those people, this is nota good idea, right?
Because one of the majorbenefits of massage is nervous
system relaxation.
So if you are tense in a massagebecause you don't like being
touched by somebody, especiallya stranger, then a massage would
not be the best tool for you atleast not.
(28:00):
Someone else's massage, right?
But there are tools like massageguns or self massage that could
be helpful for you if you'reable to relax during those types
of things.
So massage is ideal on recoverydays.
It can be helpful after longruns for relaxation and
circulation.
self massage can be veryhelpful.
Those massage percussion gunscan help to stimulate blood flow
(28:24):
and help with muscle relaxationalso.
But just understand that.
Massage is not flushing out orremoving waste products from the
body.
Massages greatest benefit ishelping to down regulate your
nervous system.
It's helping your nervous systemto calm down.
It's helping to shift you fromparas or from sympathetic into
parasympathetic mode.
(28:44):
and that's going to helpencourage full body recovery,
which is a good thing again.
I care right about the, like Iwas about to say, I was about to
say who cares how it works, ifit works.
but I do, I care how it works.
That's the really, the wholereason I'm doing this podcast.
exactly.
massage might not make youfaster directly or make you
(29:05):
recover.
Quicker directly, but it helpsyour body want to perform again,
right?
Because it, your body's morerelaxed, it can recover better.
and then it just, things in thebody work better when you're
better, when you're morerelaxed.
Okay, so going over like.
Here's all what all these thingsdo.
So then how do you choose whatyou want to use?
(29:25):
Basically, you want to figureout, what's the purpose, what do
I want to accomplish?
And then choose your recoverytool based on that.
So if your goal is to reducesoreness quickly, your best bet
is cold therapy or compression.
But just keep in mind that ifyou're using cold therapy, you
don't wanna be using this allthe time.
Use it more for short term, notlong term.
(29:47):
Don't use it on a chronic basisbecause it can blunt your
adaptation to exercise, which isthe opposite of what you
actually want.
But it's great if you need toreduce soreness quickly.
If your goal is to promotelong-term adaptation, the best
things for you are going to beheat mobility and active
recovery, because again, you'removing things throughout the
(30:07):
body.
You're helping to improvecirculation, you're helping to
support your mitochondria.
All of those are good things.
If your goal is to calm yournervous system and lower stress.
You're gonna use things likemassage heat, gentle foam
rolling, as long as you're nottensing up, right?
Because those, we talked aboutfoam rolling, like some,
sometimes when you use foamrollers, that can really make
(30:27):
your body tense up, which youobviously don't want.
so those things can help tosupport sleep and help get your
body into that parasympatheticstate where it re, where it
recovers better.
if your goal is to prepare.
For your, like a race the nextday, or a multi-day event.
Cold therapy can be helpful,compression can be helpful.
this is going to help improveyour comfort, help you reduce
(30:49):
that soreness and help tocontrol inflammation so that
you're able to perform.
and if you're looking forpost-race, relaxation, massage,
heat, stretching, those thingsare very beneficial.
Just make sure that you're alsopairing those with hydration,
sleep, and nutrition, becauseagain, sleep and nutrition, you
cannot.
Hack your way out of thosethings.
(31:09):
Alright, hopefully this washelpful.
if just to like sum some,summarize this again, and like
figure out, okay, what do Iwanna do here?
if it's after, a longer run.
You wanna always prioritize,fueling, hydration and sleep.
And then if you wannaincorporate some compression,
some foam rolling, some heat,totally fine.
(31:30):
avoid ice unless you want thatrapid relief.
Okay.
Now, the other thing that I wantto just address before we wrap
up is to help you point out thata lot of the things that I
talked about, they do have aphysiological benefit, but.
A lot of the things that wecovered today, if you noticed, I
(31:51):
talked a lot about the nervoussystem because all of the tools,
all these recovery tools that wetalked about influence your
autonomic nervous system, whichis your parasympathetic and
sympathetic nervous system.
So if you're using cold.
That actually activates yoursympathetic, but then helps you
to slide into parasympathetic,it's like a rebound effect
almost.
Heat and massage is directparasympathetic activation.
(32:15):
So it's, it helps you switchover into.
Recovery and repair modedirectly.
And then compression also cangive you your body that feedback
and help to relax the body andhelp get you into a more
parasympathetic state.
So that's really the goal of allof our recovery tools.
The goal of our recovery toolsis yes, to help our tissues
recover, but.
(32:36):
The main thing that a lot ofthese things do is help us to
control our nervous system andhelp us to shift from
sympathetic mode intoparasympathetic mode where our
body can actually do what it'ssupposed to do and recover.
So some of the common mistakesthat I often see people making,
number one is using cold therapyall the time.
If you're using cold therapyafter all your workouts, or
(32:57):
especially after your hardworkouts, this again can blunt
your adaptation to that thing.
The other thing that I often seepeople do, and I've said this
multiple times already throughthis episode.
Is using these tools and gadgetsas a substitute for the recovery
basics.
if you don't get enough sleep,if you're not fueling your body,
(33:18):
if you are not refueling yourbody after exercise, if you are
not drinking enough water, itdoesn't matter if you're using
heat or cold or massage orcompression, you're not hitting
the basic things.
Okay?
So I always want you to go backto those recovery.
1 0 1, the recovery basics thatwe covered in episode number
one, because these other thingsreally don't matter as much if
(33:41):
you're not hitting the bigrocks.
Okay.
The big rocks again, beingsleep, nutrition, hydration.
Okay.
you don't wanna overusecompression, like if you're
really, if it's really tight onthe body, that can be.
A negative thing because if thecompression is too tight, it can
actually be doing the opposite.
It could actually be restrictingblood flow in instead of
(34:02):
improving your circulation andblood flow.
So you don't want that.
and again, just, you gotta hitthe basics right, like that's
really the biggest thing here.
So I really hope that you'llenjoy this episode.
that's what I've got for youtoday.
And, I would love to hear fromyou if you enjoyed this.
If you're watching this onYouTube, please leave me a
(34:22):
comment below.
Let me know what your takeawaywas from this.
If you're listening to this onApple Podcasts or on Spotify, I
would love for you to leave acomment or a review for the
episode, for the show, to helpus reach more runners and help
more people.
And, come connect with me overon Instagram.
Over at Real Life Runners onInstagram.
And as always guys, thanks forjoining me.
(34:43):
This has been episode three ofour recovery series, all about
recovery, and overall episodenumber 433 of the Real Life
Runners Podcast.
Now get out there and run yourlife.
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