Three Pillars of Recovery for Olympic Weightlifters
ILately we’ve been putting out a lot of polls on our Instagram page. This lets us touch base with our community and gives us a chance to check in and see how we’re doing. It also gives us a chance to find out what types of content you want to see. Recently we asked what folks wanted to see in our training log blog.
One of the answers was “What are your recommendations on recovery?”
Let me preface this by saying that there are many articles out there talking through the scientific details of recovery. There’s a pyramid of priorities out there.
I’m going to tailor this a bit to the individual and their situation. This is an article for the recreationally competitive weightlifter. Not the elite, targeting the Olympics and lifting full time. This person has a full time office job, volunteers 6 hours per week, came from CrossFit into weightlifting and will be training 4-5 times per week. Sessions are ~3 hours long. They’re concerned that time will get tight with their schedule and their goal is to stay injury free and qualify for 2023 USAW Nationals.
As far as your priorities go you should focus on the following to optimize your recovery:
Sleep - Everyone has likely heard the old “you should shoot for 8-9 hours of sleep per night” adage at some point in their lives. Getting the proper amount of quality sleep will optimize your recovery between sessions. This means uninterrupted, quiet, lights out, no texting in the middle of the night, sleep. How can you improve the quality of your sleep? Try to stop using your phone an hour before bed and read a book instead. Buy blackout curtains to block out the light in the room. Use a noise maker or a white noise app. Keep your bedroom a tad on the chillier side. Supplement with things like magnesium l-threonate or theanine.
Depending on when you need to wake up you may need to head to bed a little earlier to get this much sleep. Are you currently staying up until midnight watching Netflix and waking up at 6am? Try heading to bed 15 minutes earlier every few days. Before you know it you’ll be falling asleep at 10pm and waking up at 6am. Small changes over time can make a big impact. It’s all part of the recovery game. There are tons of variables to this - like If you have young children. Getting quality sleep will become increasingly more difficult to do with young kids. Try to get them into a routine before bed and create a sustainable schedule for you to get the most amount of quality sleep possible. Make getting 8-9 hours of quality sleep the focus of your recovery.
Nutrition - At a high level: Eat the proper amount and mix of quality food. The proper amount of protein for most is .7g - 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight. Carbs and fats vary by the individual, their training phase and goals, and whether they’re trying to move up or down a weight class. For those not currently tracking food you may want to simply start tracking what you’re eating now for a few weeks. Build the habit of tracking and then you can make dietary adjustments. For myself as a 225lb male, I eat 225g worth of protein, around 250g carbs and 100g fat per day when trying to maintain weight. I’ll eat more carbs following a high volume workout and less on days when I’m not training. Some folks find it difficult to get enough protein in. If you’re one of those people, you can supplement with whey protein shakes around your workout and casein protein shakes before bed. Optimum Nutrition has some solid flavors for both.
What should you eat? Fuel your body with meats, fruits, veggies, etc. Don’t fuel your body with Cheetos, beer and gas station burritos. If you’re serious about your training and recovery you may consider cutting out alcohol entirely. Keep it to a minimum at the least as it inhibits recovery.
A few ways to set yourself up for success from the nutrition side of things include meal prepping and tracking your meals. I pack up the next day’s meals the night prior in 4 cup Pyrex containers. This is an easy way to stay on track with eating as you’re preparing the correct measured quantities of food ahead of time. Tracking your eating could be as simple as writing down your macros for each meal. It’ll help ensure you don’t over or under eat. Some food items that are easy to prepare ahead of time and eat throughout the week: ground beef, chicken, rice, steamed or raw veggies. Good grab and go foods: nuts, fruits, protein bars (in moderation).
For those looking for in depth, ongoing nutrition planning for a weightlifter, check out RP (Renaissance Periodization) or WAG (Working Against Gravity). Both have fantastic services to help you optimize your nutrition and your performance.
Managing Stress - Stress to the body (what happens when you train) can be best recovered from by way of sleep. However, this section is going to focus on the non-sleep tactics for recovery. You can also be proactive by properly warming up and spending some time doing yoga/stretching after or between sessions. This helps with both physical and mental stress.
Warm ups: get the blood flowing. I like to warm up with some of the movements I’m going to be doing that day. Going to snatch? Try
2 rounds of:
10 air squats
10 PVC pass thoughts
10 snatch grip push press + OHS
5 snatch balance
You need to do what makes your body feel ready to go. For me I warm up for maybe 10 minutes before I grab the bar. I’ve also seen folks warm up for 45 minutes before grabbing a bar. Which one is right? I suppose the answer is whichever one gets your body ready to lift and fits the time you have available. If your warmup time exceeds your actual training session you could do for a “less is more” adjustment to your warmup.
What I do for a warmup (keep in mind I’m normally crunched for time. My sessions have to be done in under 1 hour warm up to shoes off) is usually:
Casual 1000m ride on the air bike
Arm circles / general shakeout
2 rounds of
5 inch worms
10 air squats
10 kossack squats each side
2 rounds of
10 PVC pass through
10 snatch grip press + OHS
10 good mornings
Stretching/Yoga: Yoga can be a fantastic way to get moving around while also reducing your overall stress. There’s a reason you’re supposed to take a deep breath when you’re angry - it calms you down. Think of yoga as just a bunch of deep breaths mixed with some moving around. Lower your stress and work on your mobility. For someone with a time crunch you can search “Yoga + <Whatever hurts or is tight>” on YouTube. Then find a session that fits the time you have available and voila - a great win for recovery. For example: here’s a link to a Yoga routine for someone with a tight back. The key here is going to be consistency. Better to do 10 minutes of yoga 7 days straight than 70 minutes of yoga for one day a week. I’ve always been the type of person that works better doing short sessions and just committing to them daily. Helps me stay on track.
What are some stretches for some common aches and pains for weightlifters? I’d recommend coupling any of these movements with deep breathing.
Tight lower back? Try the sphinx pose
Tight hips? Try the pigeon pose or the child's pose
Tight shoulders? Try the eagle pose
Tight traps? Try the Seated Shoulder Pull Stretch
I spent a bit more time on the warm up and cool down section as those are a little more subjective to what works for each person. Sleep and nutrition are more objective facts.
You have the ability to focus your efforts on a finite number of priorities. If you’ve still got the time you can layer in other recovery modalities like massage, contrast baths, Epsom salt baths, float tanks, etc. But in terms of priorities, focus on the big hitters: sleep, nutrition and stress management.
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