RECOVERY – what a fascinating topic and one of the most investigated topics in our sporting world. Once upon a time recovery was mostly about what you didn’t do – basically having a day away from training was considered your recovery strategy. Now we’ve got google and social media on our side, and as a result we’ve got what seems like an unlimited amount of recovery gadgets and strategies we can use. Together with Load Management and Tendinopathy Management, Recovery has become one of the most investigated and researched topics in the physio world. And the new information we are finding out has as much relevance to athletes as it does to people recovering from any tissue damage, injury or even surgical intervention.
There are so many aspects of recovery to discuss and the obvious ones are the modalities that everyone uses, and are obviously so familiar with and have used over decades.
It seems so many people, once their training session has finished, are still solely worried about how they’re going to recover, grabbing their ice packs, jumping in cold water baths, using foam rollers, compression gear etc, but what is so fascinating now is it’s not just about HOW we recover and WHAT modalities we use, but just as much, and perhaps more importantly about WHEN we should be recovering.
So it really excites us to welcome Dr Shona Halson to the PPR Podcast, someone who has been touted as the ‘world’s leading expert on athlete recovery’, a topic that is massive for all athletes – from recreational to elite, and all in between.
As a bit of background, Dr Halson was the head Recovery Physiologist at the Australian Institute of Sport for almost 16yrs, Director of the AUS Olympic Committee Recovery Centre at the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Olympic Games.
Dr Halson is currently a Professor at the Australian Catholic University in the school of Behavioural and Health Sciences, as well as an Associate Editor for the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance; she also provides consultancy services to the Australian Open Tennis Tournament and Nike as part of both the Nike Performance Council and Nike Sports Research Advisory Group. Dr Halson also consults to a number of international professional sporting teams and Defence organisations.
Dr Halson’s research focuses heavily on recovery science and strategies, in particular over recent times the topics of fatigue and sleep, and she has over 130 scientific papers and research projects, and many book chapters to her name.
So there’s no-one better to educate us on what the “Recovery Science” is telling us, and how we must change our traditional thoughts around recovery in order to ensure we achieve optimal athletic and sporting performance.
