Active Recovery

Active Recovery


Active Recovery might be the one of the most important practices of high-octane athletes and is, in my opinion, an underrated pillar of good wellness practice.

Following strenuous workouts or periods where you’ve placed serious demands on your body, a common thought is to take a day of complete rest—where you do nothing. This can actually cause greater muscle fatigue in the long term by preventing maximum blood flow to those areas. The ideal method is Active Recovery. When we work out, we are breaking down our muscle fibers, and they grow bigger to compensate as we recover. This is where strength and endurance gains come from! In order to recover, however, our muscles need rest and a good supply of electrolytes, amino acids, and oxygen. While sleep, days of inactivity, and great nutrition can provide these, their delivery is aided by Active Recovery. Active Recovery is often defined as a period of low intensity workout following a day of strenuous muscle use in order to ensure those same muscles are a primary target of blood circulation—the delivery method for those electrolytes, amino acids, and oxygen they need—but a more loose definition can make the concept much more flexible.

I prefer to think of Active Recovery as activities that help deepen breathing and lengthen and relax muscular fibers as well as targeting blood flow to muscles that have seen strenuous use. These activities are not limited to a slow session running, on the rowing machine, on the bike, or in the pool. Stretching, using a muscle roller, yoga, a session in the sauna or a jacuzzi, an epsom salt bath, a massage, or meditating all contribute to a great active recovery routine. You can build a day that fits what works best for you! Furthermore, if we think of our regular work day as something that is taxing on our bodies and minds, Active Recovery and Self-Care can become synonymous. A day filled with these activities—or just regular integration of one or two of them every day—is a great way to establish an Active Recovery/Self-Care Routine.

I use meditation and my athletics as an active recovery from all of the teaching and music making that I do and walks outside, stretching, my muscle roller, yoga, and hot showers as my active recovery from my athletics. The demands on my face muscles as a brasswind musician, however, also require Active Recovery. For this there is nothing better than low register playing (below the staff). Again, the goal is to slow breath and increase blood flow—in this case to our lips. A few of my favorites for low register Euphonium playing include the Blazhevich 70 studies for tuba (played at pitch), Smooth Air Movement from “The Brass Gym,“ H.L. Clarke Technical Studies #2 played down an octave, and any tunes that are easy to sing/play by ear down 1 and 2 octaves. While the Blazhevich creates a bit of a unique case, all of the others are perfectly suited for every instrument in the brasswind family. I take special care to play a little of all of these on the day after I put in a really long practice session or sessions as well as on many of my days off.

Another dimension to Active Recovery focuses on the short term right after hard use of our body. Most folks are familiar with its pre-workout counterpart the Warm Up. While warming up is a great dimension of long term Active Recovery through injury prevention, I wanted to focus on Warming Down. This is more or less Active Recovery on a granular level. Just as we ease ourselves into states of heightened muscular exertion, so must we ease ourselves out of it in order to allow our bodies to recover as effectively as possible. A bit of a walk after a long workout, some low register playing just before you put your horn away, and a regular bedtime routine are all great ways to warm down. In this way, Active Recovery becomes an every day practice.

What do you use as Active Recovery?