6 things you can do to boost your training recovery today – as the England squad prepares for the World Cup semi-finals

Photos of the England football squad stretching and cooling off in the pool at their World Cup training base in Kansas City have been circulating on social media and have offered a glimpse into how the team is prioritising recovery ahead of their semi-final against Argentina.

Recovery has become an increasingly important focus in the fitness world, with strategies once reserved for elite athletes now being embraced by everyday people. From ice baths to massage guns, recovery tools and techniques have surged in popularity over the past few years.

We spoke to experts to uncover some of the main benefits of making recovery part of your training routine. They also shared six helpful tips on how you can boost your training recovery today.

Helps boost performance

“I always say that recovery isn’t the opposite of training, it’s just part of the complete picture,” says Francesca Bagshaw, performance physiologist at Nuffield Health MIHP.

“Performance massively comes down to the training element, but also to recovery. So, if we’re not prioritising recovery, as well as training, we’re not going to be able to perform at our best.

“This is true at highest level of performance, right down to a recreational level.”

Helps with muscle repair and growth

“With training, you’re putting your body through a stimulus that leads to muscle micro damage, cardiovascular strain and mental fatigue, and if we’re not able to properly recover and adapt to that micro damage and get stronger and fitter, mental fatigue and muscle soreness will be higher in the next training session or game,” explains Bagshaw.

Nutrition plays a big role in the recovery and muscle repair process, too.

“For footballers, the recovery process pretty much starts from when they walk off the pitch. They need to be considering high glycogen, high-carbohydrate snacks and high levels of protein,” says Bagshaw.

“Within a couple of hours, they will need a balanced meal with high carbohydrates, high proteins and a little bit of mixed veg in there that will have antioxidants, vitamins and minerals that will continue that recovery process so the muscles have everything they need to begin that muscle repair.”

Sleep is also crucial for this.

“You need good quality deep sleep and plenty of REM cycles to help the body and muscles recover from an accumulated load,” says Bagshaw.

Helps prevent injury

The main risk of neglecting recovery is that this increases the risk of injury.

“Fatigue reduces your capacity to tolerate load and can reduce your margin for error and coordination, so injuries can happen when you’re doing too much,” says Dr Sam Botchey, consultant in musculoskeletal, sport, and exercise medicine at HCA UK at The Shard and The Sports Biologics Clinic.

“Bone-stress injuries happen when you overload the bone without allowing it to recover and tendon injuries similarly happen when you’re loading the tendon in the wrong way over a long period of time and get an overuse injury in the tendon.

“Furthermore, muscle injuries often feel like they suddenly happen, but often the level of fatigue that occurred beforehand without it recovering gives the muscle a susceptibility to being torn in that region.

“Similarly, twisting and joint injuries happen when you lose that coordination because of the mental and physical fatigue of the structures around the area.”

Helps support energy production

“Exercise uses up your body’s available energy stores, and recovery provides time for those raw materials to come back,” says Botchey.

This happens with glycogen, for example.

“During high-intensity exercise, particularly with repeated sprints or changing direction, we use a lot of glycogen and you can have a fantastic engine, but if you haven’t refilled the tank, you can’t expect the same performance,” explains Botchey.

Sleep, nutrition and hydration all play an important part in replenishing this fuel.

“Hydration, for example, increases your whole blood volume and your cardiovascular function is affected by the massive fluid losses that you have when you exercise,” says Botchey. “If you’re dehydrated, the body has to work a lot harder to deliver all of these oxygen and nutrients to the muscles.

“So, recovery is technically not about creating energy, but is more about allowing the systems that support that energy production and performance to function efficiently.”

Aids mental recovery

One of the most important factors of recovery is mental recovery.

“Mental fatigue is when we are under recovered and our concentration, reacting time, and decision making can all be affected,” says Botchey.

“So, if you’re doing an exercise that needs rapid decision-making or coordination or strength, if you’re mentally depleted you’re going to be unable to perform as well. You’re also going to perceive it as harder because you’re mentally fatigued.

“This is why relaxation is just as important as all of the other modalities.”

Here are six things you can do today to boost your recovery…

1. Prioritise sleep

“Aim for a consistent sleep and wake time,” advises Botchey. “Most adults need between seven to nine hours of sleep per night.”

Don’t overcomplicate it.

“Make your bedroom dark and reduce stimulation before bed,” recommends Botchey.

2. Refuel after training

“When you finish a hard session, remember to eat protein for the repairing processes and carbohydrates to replace the energy stores,” says Botchey.

3. Rehydrate properly

“Replace the fluid that you’ve lost after prolonged or particularly sweaty exercise,” advises Botchey.

“You can think about electrolytes, but most of us get enough salt and electrolytes within our food because of the Western diet. However, if you’re training very hard you may want to consider them.”

The colour of your urine can also be a useful telltale sign.

“Look at your urine colour and pay attention to how much you sweat,” recommends Botchey. “If your urine is really dark, you’re definitely need to get more fluid in.”

4. Stop making every session so hard

“One of the biggest mistakes I see in people that get injured is that they think a workout only counts if they are completely exhausted afterwards, but that’s just not true,” says Botchey.

“Sometimes you need to lower the intensity or have a recovery day. Remember that hard training needs to be earned by adequate recovery.”

5. Listen to your body

“Everyone has bad days, but try to listen to the trends in your body,” advises Botchey. “Pay attention to things like persistent soreness, poor sleep, irritability, loss of motivation and decreasing performance. These are all signs that suggest you could be under recovered or are overtraining.”

6. Don’t think about adds ons until you have mastered the basics

“If you don’t get the basics right, there’s no point in buying all these expensive things like massage guns and outdoor ice plunges because they won’t be effective if that baseline of recovery, sleep and nutrition isn’t there,” says Bagshaw.

“It’s a bit like getting yourself a Ferrari and then putting supermarket fuel in it. It’s not going to be effective, and it’s not going to run as well. You need to make sure you do those basics well before you consider other recovery modalities.”