06 Jul Physiotherapy Tips for Better Recovery After Heavy Lifting
As an ex-powerlifter I understand that lifting heavy places significant strain on your muscles, joints, and connective tissue, so recovery is crucial to maintain progress and avoid injuries. Physiotherapy can play a key role in ensuring that recovery after intense lifting is both effective and efficient. Here’s how you can recover better with the help of physiotherapy:
1. Active Recovery vs. Passive Recovery
Active recovery involves low-intensity exercises that help increase blood flow to muscles, promoting healing and reducing soreness. Rest is important (Li et al. (2024), Sports Med Open)
Passive recovery is important too, where your body gets sufficient rest. Health professionals and coaches may recommend rest days and soft tissue massage to help manage muscle soreness and stiffness
2. Soft Tissue Work
Foam rolling and massage guns are good alternatives for self-management techniques to help temporarily reduce muscle soreness and tightness after heavy lifting. Some say that the use of massage guns are helpful however, the evidence is still lacking (Davis et al. (2020), BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine)
Deep tissue massage can focus on specific areas that are tight or sore after heavy lifting. This helps relax the muscles and improve flexibility, which is important for preventing injury in future training sessions.
3. Stretching and Mobility Drills
After heavy lifting, you may feel stiff especially through the hips, shoulders and lower back. Targeted stretching and mobility drills can help maintain range of motion and improve the quality of movement for future training sessions.
4. Active Rehabilitation
Heavy and repetitive lifting can occasionally expose movement limitations and strength deficits that may contribute to pain or overload injuries.
Rehabilitation may also include reviewing lifting technique, training load, and exercise selection to help reduce symptoms and improve long-term performance.
5. Ice and Heat Therapy
Post-exercise soreness, known as Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), may be alleviated through the application of ice or heat. These strategies can help with short term pain relief and comfort however, are not a substitute with proper habits such as sleep, nutrition and load management.
6. Nutritional Support
Physiotherapists can work in collaboration with nutritionists to help guide you on post-workout nutrition for muscle recovery. Adequate protein intake is essential for muscle repair, while hydration and electrolyte balance are key to maintaining muscle function and preventing cramps.
7. Sleep and Rest
Sleep is one of the most important parts of recovery, yet is overlooked. Poor sleep can result in slower recovery, reducing training performance and increased risk of overinjury. (Doherty et al. (2021), Nutrients)
Discussions about training volumes can be beneficial as athletes can be overly keen on hitting their numbers however, it is important to reflect and identify whether we are over-training or not.
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If you’re worried about your recovery or want to share your powerlifting journey, at Sun Chiropractic we’re here to address your concerns and get you training harder AND smarter.
Written by: Victor Lo (Physiotherapist)
References:
Li S, Kempe M, Brink M, Lemmink K. Effectiveness of Recovery Strategies After Training and Competition in Endurance Athletes: An Umbrella Review. Sports Med Open. 2024 May 16;10(1):55. doi: 10.1186/s40798-024-00724-6. PMID: 38753045; PMCID: PMC11098991.
https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/6/1/e000614
Doherty R, Madigan SM, Nevill A, Warrington G, Ellis JG. The Sleep and Recovery Practices of Athletes. Nutrients. 2021 Apr 17;13(4):1330. doi: 10.3390/nu13041330. PMID: 33920560; PMCID: PMC8072992.