Softball Tips - Recovery and Regeneration Tips

• Take a few weeks off at the end of a season. It’s important to give your body a couple of weeks off at the end of the season. If you don’t, you’ll pay the price later. This transition period is also the best time to heal any nagging injuries.

• Take time off when needed. The human body undergoes significant changes each day: fluctuating moods, varying levels of hydration, and powerful hormonal shifts. We often feel those effects in our workouts and practices – you know those days when you feel lethargic and no energy. These days are normal; your body is telling you it’s time to take it easy or rest. Listen to your body and whenever you feel tired and have no energy, it’s perfectly acceptable to shorten up your workout or give yourself a day off to replenish and start over the next day especially considering that at that time the body is not receptive to training and exercising would be detrimental to your long-term progress.

• Active rest is dynamic recovery. Active rest is an integral part of every successful athlete. To help your body recover faster, try to take an easy walk, a light jog, a calming bike ride or a relaxed swim. Anywhere between 5 to 30 minutes will be helpful. Moderate exercise has a great healing power and accelerates the recovery process.

• Treat yourself to a massage. You can go for a relaxing and stress-relieving massage or a sport massage which involve more aggressive deep-tissue work. A massage will enhance your recovery by promoting the removal of metabolites, decreasing muscle soreness, decreasing muscle fatigue, and increasing metabolism.

• Apply ice is to be used after every training session and every game. It should be applied in regions that have been submitted to hard work (i.e. arms, shoulders, legs, knees, etc.) or might have suffered light traumas. It is suggested to use cold therapy for about 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the desired tissue depth.

• Use hot-cold therapy or contrast baths. Contrasts bath may help eliminating the toxins within the body (“flushing” theory) in addition to treating localized muscle spasm and providing pain relief. The theory is that contrast baths induce a pumping action within the muscle. Alternating vasoconstriction and vasodilatation penetrates muscle tissue to a superficial depth. The key is to immerse a specific body part or the whole body alternatively in hot and cold water for periods of 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Continue the procedure for a total duration of 10-15 minutes.

• Manage your stress. Some stress is excellent but too much stress is highly detrimental. When you are stressed, the body released a hormone – cortisol – that will hinder the recovery process. Too much stress is often associated with lethargic period, lack of results in training and in competition and mild depression.

• Breathe through your nose. Catch any top softball player right before the start of an important game and you will see three things: a total relaxed focus; a calm, loose body; and deep breathing in through the nose and out of the mouth. A simple way to deal with stress in one swift motion is breathing through your nose. Deep breathing is what elite athletes use to control pre-event tension, and this simple, effortless, highly effective skill will work for you in most stressful situations.