How to Train Harder Without Burning Out: A Cyclist’s Recovery Toolkit

Want to train harder without burning out?

It happens to every cyclist.

You’re training, crushing miles, and riding harder than ever before. You should be seeing huge gains right?

But something is holding you back.

Overtraining

All that hard work goes straight out the window if you don’t properly fuel your body during recovery. Push too hard for too long and you’ll end up injured for months.

No athlete wants that. Luckily, there are tools you can use to recover quicker and train harder than you ever have before.

Here’s everything you need to know about cycling recovery.

What’s inside:

• Why Recovery Matters More Than You Think
• The Science Behind Faster Recovery
• 5 Recovery Tools That Actually Work
• How To Build Your Personal Recovery Plan

Why Recovery Matters More Than You Think

Let’s talk about cycling performance…

While most people think training is what makes you faster.

The truth is recovery is what allows you to train. When you exercise you cause tiny tears in your muscle fibers. When you rest these tears repair and become stronger…

Unless you skip recovery.

Your body breaks down daily through training. If you don’t allow for recovery you’re not getting any stronger.

Recovery is essential. Here are a couple hard facts:

Less than optimal recovery from overtraining syndrome takes cyclists upwards of six weeks to recover. That’s right. Half of your season could be spent recovering if you’re not careful.

But wait…

Insufficient recovery doesn’t just impact your legs. Overtraining syndrome negatively affects your sleep schedule, mood, and even your immune system. You become tired and run-down making you susceptible to all kinds of illnesses and injury.

The harder you train with poor recovery the deeper your hole of overtraining you dig yourself into.

The Science Behind Faster Recovery

Muscles need oxygen to repair…

If you guys learned anything from science class it should be that cells require oxygen to function. The more oxygen your tissues receive, the faster they will heal.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a scientifically proven way to flood your body with more oxygen.

The hyperbaric chamber benefits are undeniable and used by some of the worlds top athletes.

HBOT allows your body to absorb more oxygen than what air alone can provide. By sitting in a chamber that’s pressurized higher than sea level you breathe oxygen that’s been concentrated. This oxygen will saturate your blood plasma and force it deep into damaged tissue.

Let’s break that down for cyclists

Your muscles recover faster. You’re able to return to training quicker. And spend less time on the couch watching Netflix wondering when your legs will feel normal again.

A study on trained cyclists saw improvements in recovery markers after a heavy interval session when using mild hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Multiple physiological measurements were taken from the athletes and they showed significant improvement over athletes that weren’t exposed to HBOT.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. Pretty damn cool if you ask me.

5 Recovery Tools That Actually Work

Time to put the science behind us and focus on the practical application. These are the tools you can use to recover better as a cyclist. Not every method will be ideal for you. Pick and choose what works with your budget and lifestyle.

1. Sleep

We’ll start with the low hanging fruit.

Sleep is when most of your recovery takes place. Growth hormone is released during your deepest sleep cycles. This hormone is what triggers muscle repair and tissue recovery.

If you aren’t sleeping enough you’re losing out on half of the recovery benefits.

Get 7-9 hours a night. Make sure your room is dark and cool. Don’t look at screens right before bed. These small improvements can lead to big gains.

2. Nutrition

Your body can’t rebuild what you don’t give it.

Protein helps with tissue repair. Carbs help to refill your glycogen stores. Healthy fats help reduce inflammation. Take away any of these nutrients and your body can’t perform at it’s best.

Eat whole foods as often as possible. Try to eat a little something after you ride. Your body is primed to recover and replenish itself in the 30 minutes after you get off the bike.

3. Active Recovery Rides

Did you know taking a complete rest from training doesn’t always help your recovery?

Easy rides help stimulate blood flow to fatigued muscles. Giving them more oxygen and nutrients. While clearing out some of the metabolic waste that builds up during training.

These rides should be extremely easy. You should be able to hold a conversation the entire time. Properly utilized an easy spin can do more good than taking a full rest day.

4. Compression + Massage

Both of these tools allow your body to better recover through improving circulation.

Compression boots essentially massage your legs for you. By inflating and deflating at set intervals your legs bounce around in the boots. Helping to push blood through your legs and lymphatic fluids through tired tissues.

Massage and foam rolling work on a similar principle. By applying direct pressure you’re helping to increase circulation and flush out your muscles.

5. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

Want to take recovery to the next level?

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy allows your body to absorb far more oxygen then what regular air can provide. By sitting in a pressurized chamber and breathing 100% oxygen your body is forced to push more oxygen into your blood plasma.

Your blood plasma then pushes that oxygen deep into your muscles and injured tissues.

Research shows HBOT can increase oxygenation of your skeletal muscles. This helps to stimulate ATP production and clear out metabolic waste that contributes to muscle fatigue. Well-known athletes that use HBOT report feeling quicker recovery times between training sessions and less muscle soreness.

How To Build Your Personal Recovery Plan

As you can see there’s a lot of options when it comes to recovering as a cyclist.

One recovery plan will not fit all athletes.

Your plan should be based off of your training volume, age, and how you respond to training stress. Here’s a quick guide to figuring out what recovery tools will work best for you.

Focus on your foundations. Sleep and nutrition should be your first priority. These are free and if you dial these two aspects of your life you’ll see huge improvements.

Track your body. Look for signs that you’re not recovering enough. Are you constantly tired? Does your heart rate remain elevated in the mornings? These can be signs that you need to focus more attention on recovery

Don’t over complicate things. Start with one new recovery tool and assess how you feel. Add more tools as you see necessary based on your training.

Plan recoverys just like you plan workouts. Take recovery days, plan easy weeks, and schedule active recovery sessions. These are just as important as your long weeks and interval sessions.

Wrapping Things Up

Hope you enjoyed this guide on cycling recovery.

Remember training hard is only half the battle. Recovering even harder is what will allow you to continue pushing your body.

Quick review:

• Sleep and nutrition are your foundations. Build around them.
• Use active recovery to promote circulation.
• There are plenty of advanced recovery methods like HBOT.
• Track your progress. Are you feeling better? What can you improve on?
• Schedule recovery into your weekly training plans.

You don’t want to avoid hard training. You simply want to recover from hard training. Get that balance right and you’ll be riding faster than ever before without burning out.