Optimising Weight Lifting: Recovery, Flexibility and Mobility

Does flexibility and mobility play a part in performance? Absolutely!

I know it can be time consuming and boring, but stretching, foam rolling and mobilizing before and after your training session and on your rest day/s is extremely important.

Training causes misalignment of our muscle fibres which go from a tidy parallel layout to a tangled mess, filled with lactic acid and other toxins. This is what causes knots, trigger points and muscle ache.

Stretching, foam rolling and mobilizing helps lengthen the fibres, realign them back into their optimal parallel state and flush out the toxins, allowing recovery and promoting muscle health and therefore optimal sports performance.

There are different kinds of stretching and mobility programs with different approaches;

1.     Static stretching

2.     Dynamic stretching

The benefit of these depends solely on what type of lifting you do. If you do single plane ‘body building’ style lifting static stretching is suitable. If you do ‘Cross Fit’ style lifting you definitely need to get dynamic stretching into your program. Trigger point work and muscle release techniques using balls and foam rollers are important for all lifters. This is where you can get your physiotherapist to help you find the ‘tight spots’ and work through them using manual techniques such as active release and acupuncture. Keeping your muscle correctly in sync and at adequate length is so important!

Alongside your training program you may want to consider supplementation. Feeding and nourishing your muscles with correct nutrients through diet and supplementation helps to reduce toxicity and heighten muscle health. Here are a few supplements I recommend you add into your supplement box:

1.     Protein shake post training (I use LA Whey Gold)

2.     Fish oils daily to reduce inflammation in the body and promote muscle repair

3.     311 BCAA with training and also before bed (also from LA Muscle)

4.     LA glutamine to aid protein metabolism by decreasing muscle breakdown and aiding recovery

The list is endless, but those are some great ones to get started with. For 15% discount on your online order of supplements use my code JZT15 on www.lamuscle.com

For any queries about stretching or supplementation email me at info@function360.co.uk