womens sports and aching legs recovery

Running Recovery for Women

Recovery after the run is something that everyone goes through-and it is this that can cause more discomfort than the run itself-it is basically every runner for themselves because recovery is an individual thing

'Michael's methods of massage and blister care helped me to stay mobile throughout the race and to recover quickly afterwards. His techniques are safe and gentle.

Unlike some treatments, which put the runners and walkers at risk of muscle tears or infection, Michael's techniques are gentle, safe, reassuring, and highly effective. They enhance comfort and flexibility, build confidence, and promote success.

This booklet will help others to learn and practice Michael's methods. It is recommended reading for everyone who walks and runs and who wants to go further, go faster, or just to enjoy life more!!'

SANDRA BROWN 1996 Ladies 1000 Mile World Record Holder 1999 Ladies 100 mile Race walking World Record Holder

Sandra is not a runner she is a walker but runner or walker at the finish of a run the problems are the same-how to recover from is as quickly and safely as possible

Some figures to consider

in 2005 there were 382,000 marathon finishers in the USA
in 2007 there were 407,000 marathon finishers

These are the ones within the cutoff point

These are just the finishers-the number of starters would be much higher

source: www.marathonguide.com

Broken down into smaller event figures

2007 New York Marathon 38,557
2006 New York Marathon 37,557
2005 New York Marathon 36,856
at this marathon there were 6300 in under 3 hours and 14,633 in the cutoff point of 7 hours

2004 New York Marathon 36,562
1996 Boston Marathon 35,868

Source www.aims-association.org

Many athletes are missing out on even basic recovery care

Assuming only the first 5,000 runners was to make the recovery area it still leaves many thousands of finishers not looked after

The mental and physical state of the 7 hour cutoff time and over people can only be guessed at-being on the road for so long these people would be heading into ultra marathon problems

Many of these latter finishers were probably women because most of them run slower times than men

Getting work done in the after run recovery area

Depending on the marathon and the organisers there may be personell in the recovery area other than the first aid people who may be assisting with after run recovery-unfortunately unless you are in the first hundred or so to finish, you may not get to see them-and if you do there could be other problems associated with after run work

While there are many people working in recovery areas who know what they are doing there are also those who have more enthusiasm than experience and it is all in the luck of the draw as to which one you get

I found a site on the net for a major event, they were asking for people to volunteer their time to work in the massage tent-they did not need experience as they would have a couple of weeks training in massage before the start date

I am not disputing the need for this because organizers are expected to supply some recovery services and it is difficult to have enough trained people to come forward with their expertise and this is all they can do

If of course you are in the last 30,000 then you will not have the problem of waiting in long lines in the recovery area at the end of the marathon getting cold and hoping for spot on the massage table-all the recovery staff will have gone home

Some events do not have any coverage at all

I recently attended an international long distance event where there were hundreds of runners-other than the recovery people such as myself who were taken by a team from their country, the organizers did not have one therapist to help the rest when they got into trouble-they could not find any to volunteer their services

I am sure that there are other events both big and small where there are simply not enough recovery people on hand to give assistance to those who need it

Some people will recover faster than others, some will have assistance, others will have their own recovery systems-but the majority of entrants will go home and suffer alone

Their methods of recovery would vary from being 'passive' and waiting for the body to recover naturally with all its inconveniences or it can be 'active' and trying to increase the speed of recovery by relaxing the muscles and increasing circulation

Most women runners are 'weekend warriors' they are not professionals with support teams behind them; they still have to earn a living and have family responsibilities-this can be difficult if your occupation involves moving around and generally working and you are tight, stiff, and very sore

How do I deal with recovery?


I deal with the problem of recovery by working with the muscles-the results of working this way can be seen on the graph above where half way through the six day event, distances started to increase rather than decline as could usually be expected in a multi-day event

This is my working conditions at a run-I had no equipment except for the clothes I stood up in-the airline had mislaid it all-I worked and slept for 24 hours on the chair near the plastic bottles

I was looking after 20 runners at the time-to do this was only possible because I was working with the muscles

For women runners who are not fast enough to make it to the recovery area and who need help working with the muscles offers the following advantages

• No disrobing

• No oil used

• Non invasive

• User friendly

• Easy to learn

It works on the principle that the less the bodies own natural recovery processes are interfered with by invasive forces the faster will be the recovery for the runner

The recovery can be enhanced not retarded by following the following rules

• Simplicity

• Predictability

• Consistency

This is applied using

The latest in non-technical, non-invasive 'cutting edge' solutions to fatigued legs relief-

the World Run Recovery System

I am the Muscle Recovery Specialist as part of it and expected to be on the road for a fair part of the distance. www.worldrun.org

In Australia it is very difficult to get sponsors unless you already have a big name as a star-for support crew who do cannot supply glamor it is impossible.

There are not enough funds to cover my time away so I am making my many years of knowledge available to the public.

Buying a manual form me will defray my costs of being involved in the world run project, and at the same time let the runner share the experience of a recovery similar to that of the world runners at a very affordable price.

$20.00 a manual

Win Win!
Turn Your home into a Micro-Recovery Center by working with the muscles not on them with-Do It Yourself recovery

With your support I get to on the World Run and you gets the very same recovery system I will be using on World Run 2!

Immediate Post Event Recovery

Immediate post event recovery is important for runners because it is best to get the muscles while they are in the 'window of opportunity' of still being warm and pliable after running

They will be sore and fatigued and it is at this critical stage that doing any invasive work on them may cause them more harm by interfering with the bodies own recovery processes which start as soon as the muscles stop being stressed from running

Unless there has been an injury from an outside source such as impact or bio-mechanical cause (the running shoes, surface, blisters) to increase muscle stress, they are not injured in the conventional sense

Muscle soreness is caused by micro-fiber tears in the muscles which is repaired by the body so conventional methods of recovery are not appropriate at this time and it can be ineffective anyway

*Some recent research has shown that massage done in under 2 hours after the finish of an event does not help with recovery and after my personal early experiences

Some References

Michael's methods of massage and blister care helped me to stay mobile throughout the race and to recover quickly afterwards. His techniques are safe and gentle.
Unlike some treatments, which put the runners and walkers at risk of muscle tears or infection, Michael's techniques are gentle, safe, reassuring, and highly effective. They enhance comfort and flexibility, build confidence, and promote success.

This booklet will help others to learn and practice Michael's methods. It is recommended reading for everyone who walks and runs and who wants to go further, go faster, or just to enjoy life more!!'

SANDRA BROWN 1996 Ladies 1000 Mile World Record Holder

1999 Ladies 100 mile Race walking World Record Holder
"I know that your massage kept a number of competitors in the event. The cold weather of Saturday afternoon and night certainly got to many of the walkers and your prompt action had them back in the race after a short stop.
In years past, that would have ended up as a non-finish. A number of walkers were able to keep going for the full 24 hours on the basis of your expert help."

Tim Ericson Secretary Australian Centurions Club

'I have known Michael Gillan for many years and have always got quick relief for my aches and pains from the stretching he performs'.
CLIFF YOUNG-75-80 24 Hour World Record Holder (150.07 kilometers)

A word from Jesper Olsen World Runner about Light Manual Muscle Relaxation
"If I hadn't had the qualified help from the excellent masseur Michael Gillan, taking several thousands of km out of my legs, I could spare myself the effort!"

"My crew for the current stages, Michael Gillan, has proven to have other talents than the quite taxing job of taking care of all the requirements of a really tired ultra runner!
He has since years back been working on a new approach to stretching and muscle-rebuilding for ultra runners. I have the last two days tried his careful stretch and massage, and a bit to my surprise the muscles are beginning to feel like before the start back in Greenwich, London!!

Usually I doesn't take massage as the legs of an ultra runner will often be quite sore during the long time events (and especially in an multi-year event like this...), and getting a massage can at times cause more injury and cramping up than good. For example my last massage was some 12 000km ago when I ran the 12-hour competition in Finland. And so far that has been the only one.

But Gillan came with best recommendations from my main contact in Australia, Phil Essam, who besides being vice president in the Australian Ultra runners Association has heaps of good knowledge to share. And this new kind of mild massage for ultra runners is definitely one of the good tips! There should be a fair chance that I actually get fresh enough to do some decent running at the 6 Day Race that I have coming up in Colac from the 21.November. I quite look forward to that, even though I can't expect to make a top class result :-)"

He won!

756.2 kilometers (Jesper holds the record for the longest run in history over 26000 kilometers and the first person to run around the world

Below is a widget of a charity run by a very special lady runner who is raising money for guide dogs-she deserves all you support so please go over there and read what she has to say

http://runnerinsight.com/2009/04/22/new-project-and-news/#comment-907

Immediate Post Event Recovery After Running

Womens Recovery Article

Womens Marathon-Self Service Recovery

My main theory as to why the slower recovery times which translated into less distance was that the time it took to get the competitors off the track, get their clothers off, onto the table, apply the oil, do the massage and stretching, take the oil off, get thir running gear back on and onto the track could take about an hour to an hour and half

(Anyone who has run a hundred kilometers or so would understand that the muscles are in a very sore and painful state, and when this is done on a daily basis, it triples the pain and injury rate-they would also understand why a massage can take up to an hour and a half)

By the time they had been lying down for that lenght of time, the muscles had tightened and stiffness was a big problem on restarting

References and citations

PubMed

Manual massage and recovery of muscle function following exercise: a literature review.

PMID: 9007768 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

The mechanisms of massage and effects on performance, muscle recovery and injury prevention.

PMID: 15730338 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

http://www.webmd.com/content/Article/92/101950.htm

SOURCES: Hinds, T. Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise, August 2004; vol 36: pp 1308-1313.

email mgillan@hotmail.com

Modelling in the manual by Nicholas (16)

Photographs by Jessica (7)

Warning

Do not self diagnose-before having any treatment at all on legs it is strongly recommended that any underlying cause of them is investigated by medical professionals-the first stop is to the doctor