Recovery Basics for the Collegiate Athlete
Recovery and the Collegiate Club Gymnast
By Dane Lee, MS, LMT
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The two pillars that nearly all of recovery is built upon are sleep and nutrition(1). It can be thought of as providing the body with the resources necessary to rebuild and repair itself (nutrition) and the opportunity to do the rebuilding and repairing (sleep). Obviously, there are numerous other factors involved in the overall recovery process. This doesn’t mean to diminish all of the other work that an athlete needs to be doing to keep themselves feeling and moving optimally. However, all of the mobility and strength work in the world will come up short when not given these two factors in sufficient and consistent quantities.
What are the two areas that are notoriously deficit for collegiate students? Sleep and nutrition. I’m going to go over just a couple of suggestions that a student can do to help with sleep quality. If you read this and realize that you’re already doing these things, that’s fantastic. There are plenty of other suggestions that we’re going to talk about in the future. For now though, we’re going to start with the basics.
1. Consistent bedtime and wake-up times.
One of the best things we can do for our sleep is to have a consistent schedule. In fact, it is easier for our body to maintain a less than ideal sleep schedule consistently than it is to bounce around throughout the week. The idea of sleeping in on weekends to catch-up on missed sleep feels good at the moment, but will throw off my body’s sleep schedule for several days. This is part of what can make Monday mornings feel even harder and more unbearable. As difficult as it may be, trying to have the same time (within 30 minutes give or take) that you go to bed and wake-up each day is incredibly helpful. It gives the body a chance to adjust and adapt. This adaptation allows your body to go through numerous physiological fluctuations throughout the day on a regular schedule which provide us with energy, focus, and emotional stability.
This can be incredibly difficult for college students and athletes. The changing class schedule each semester, as well work schedules, practice schedules, as well as projects and assignments mean that keeping a consistent schedule is quite a challenge. I would recommend not trying to make the adjustment all at once. Give yourself 2-3 weeks to slowly find a time frame and rhythm that works for you and your weekly responsibilities. It is easy for changes like this to feel like obligations that we “have to do” instead of healthy choices that we “want to do for ourselves.” When that happens it can feel stressful and burdensome.
2. Noise and Light
Two of the biggest disruptions to our sleep are noise and light. It doesn’t take much of either to cause a decrease in sleep quality. Often, an individual will have a decrease in how much deep sleep they get throughout the night because of even small amounts of light in their room. (2) This is another instance of our bodies being able to adapt incredibly well. We will certainly be able to fall asleep and, over time, we even get used to having light in the room (a nightlight, streetlight shining in the window, or falling asleep and leaving a tv or computer screen on). However, being able to sleep and getting quality deep sleep are two very different things.
The same goes for noise. I often encourage my clients that start tracking their sleep using a sleep monitor of their choice. They are surprised to see how often they “wake up” during the night without actually remembering. These moments throughout the night can be caused by noise which startles us enough to pull the body out of deep sleep, even if we don’t remember it the next day. The accumulation of waking moments greatly impacts the overall quality of sleep.
The two easiest things that a college student can do are earplugs and a dark room. Earplugs are one of the cheapest recovery tools you’ll ever buy. It can take some time to get comfortable having ear plugs in while sleeping. Again, give yourself a chance to adapt to this novel stimuli over the course of a few weeks. There are some earplugs that are designed specifically for sleeping that are sometimes found to be more comfortable. There are also far more expensive versions that are electronic and use noise-cancellation to reduce noise even further. If you simply cannot sleep with earplugs of any kind, then an external noise source can often help. While not as effective at blocking noise, white noise is still an easy and affordable option. There are numerous apps that will play white noise throughout the night. Another basic option is to have a small fan running while you sleep. The important part is not what you choose, but instead that you are making an effort to improve the quality of your sleeping environment.
The major difference between reducing noise versus light, however, is that it can be much more difficult to reduce noise. We don’t have control over the actions of our roommates or neighbors in the middle of the night. Many apartments are near major sources of traffic and the noise of vehicles going by through the night can interrupt sleep frequently. [At one point in college, I lived across the street from a gas station. The amount of noise from traffic increased dramatically on the weekends when the local wannabe drag racers brought out their suped up imports and decided to rev their engines outside my window for hours on end.]
By comparison, to darken a room doesn’t require nearly as much effort. Turning off screens, covering small light sources, and maybe even going so far as to buy darkening curtains make a significant difference with little investment. But the same advice applies to both of these suggestions: give yourself time to adjust to it and slowly figure out how it’s going to work best for you.
Taking care of yourself and improving your recovery is a similar task to training a new skill. It takes time and practice to learn how to do it and refine the process. Then at some point it begins to feel like second-nature as the new habits are formed.
f you have any questions about implementing strategies such as what I’ve mentioned here, feel free to write to us at healthcare@naigc.org and let us know!
References:
1. https://www.tandfonline.com
2. https://www.sleepfoundation.org