ACT FAST TO AID RECOVERY
THE BODY is inflamed, damaged and fatigued at the full-time whistle, writes nutritionist James Morehen. This places the body in a highly sensitive state in the first three to four hours after a match. The following day too.
Recent research from ex-Gloucester captain James Hudson’s PhD shows how resting metabolic rate changes in the days after a match. In the study he assessed 22 Premiership players’ resting metabolic rates daily during the week of a competitive fixture.
Hudson found a significant increase in metabolism the morning after a match and three days after a match, compared with the day before the match (match day minus one). How many players
“How many players under consume key nutrients
on a recovery day?”
underconsume key nutrients on a recovery day because they are under the impression it’s a rest day?
Instead of calling it a rest day, it should be deemed a ‘recovery day’. The body is working overtime to repair the damage of a brutal game. This requires extra calories and, vitally, key macronutrient carbohydrates and proteins.
Simply put, you cannot finish an 80-minute collision game and then take on poor nutrition in the acute windows after the match – most certainly within the 24 to 72 hours post-match. So you have to be prepared to eat well as soon as possible after your match finishes.
Sticking with the theme of recovery, performance coach John Noonan, who has worked with Yorkshire Carnegie, gives us three recovery exercises to use in the gym (opposite page). Catch him on his website NoonanPerformance.com or on social media via his Instagram handle @John_M_Noonan.