And rest… Recovery after exercise and why it’s important

Recovery is an essential part of any exercise routine. It has a big impact on your fitness gains and it’s essential to muscle and tissue repair. Whether you’re a regular gym bunny or new to limbering up, here’s how to rest up post-workout, and get the most out of your muscles:

1. Replace lost fluids

You lose a lot of water and important electrolytes, such as sodium and potassium, when you exercise, especially when you work up a sweat. Sweat keeps us cool but your body temperature will rise if you don’t replenish lost fluids. You also need to stay hydrated so as to flush out waste and toxins. Ideally, you should replace lost fluids during exercise, especially endurance exercise, and always top up once you’ve finished.

2. Work out then cool down

Cooling down at a much reduced intensity for around 10 minutes after exercise, helps your heart rate and blood flow return to normal. This could involve easy, gentle movement such as a run into a jog, or hopping from strength training into a yoga class. Stretching is also really important and can help to improve mobility and flexibility. It also makes us feel better, providing a sense of relief and release, and brings blood flow into your muscles, making you feel relaxed.

3. Eat to build muscle

What you eat post-workout can influence your recovery. Your body’s preferred fuel source is glycogen. When you exercise, your muscles use up their glycogen stores. Proteins in your muscles can also be broken down and damaged. Once you’ve finished exercising your body tries to rebuild its glycogen stores and repair (and regrow) damaged muscle proteins. Eating the right nutrients soon after you exercise can help your body do this faster. Carbs and protein are especially good at getting this done.

4.Rest and relax

A muscle needs anywhere from 24 to 48 hours to repair and rebuild, and working it again too soon simply leads to tissue breakdown instead of building. Rest is one of the best ways to recover and heal from just about any illness or injury and this is also true of exercise. Resting after intense exercise allows the repair and recovery process to happen at a natural pace. Sufficient sleep is essential; our body does much of its repair work when we sleep.

Need a helping hand?

Sore or tired muscles? A popular choice for muscle and joint pain is Devil’s Claw, a plant only found in the Kalahari Desert of South Africa. It has been used for many years to help reduce rheumatic, muscle and joint pain and studies suggest that long-term use of Devil’s Claw is not only safe, but may also lead to improvements in those with chronic lower back pain. Try Atrosan Devil’s Claw tablets (from www.avogel.co.uk).

For topical relief from inflammation you may wish to try Arnica. Arnica is well-known for its homeopathic use for bumps and bruises, but when used in its herbal form it can also help with pain and stiffness in joints and muscles, with research showing it may be just as effective as ibuprofen at reducing pain and stiffness in the fingers of osteoarthritis patients. Atrogel Arnica Gel (from www.avogel.co.uk) contains herbal extracts of Arnica flowers and can help with muscular aches, pains and stiffness, sprains and bruising.

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By Penny Young

Luton Town Football Club are Back

If you will forgive me for taking a small break from the story of Charles and Lucy, to mark the momentous occasion of Luton Town Football Club, against all the odds, finally making it back to the pinnacle of football – the Premier League.

No one would be happier than my dad, Claude, sitting up there on his cloud, draped in an orange and navy scarf, wooden rattle (pigeon scarer) in his hand, cheering on the Loo-un, yes we even pronounced it that way!

This was my first experience of football, being taken to Kenilworth Road, every other Saturday back in the late 60’s early 70’s. Malcolm Macdonald was their star striker, that bow-legged, gap-toothed colossus of a number nine, a prolific goal scorer and my first schoolgirl crush! Many years later, I was running a pub in Cotton End and one of our regulars was good friends with ‘Super Mac’ and one night he brought him into our pub, and I got to have my photo taken with him – swoon!

Around the same time, Dad and his best mate, Roger Dunkley, landlord of the White Horse at Tilbrook, were frequently invited to night games at LTFC – a cousin of Dad’s was a director, and they were hosted in the Directors box, where, always propping up the end of the bar, pipe in hand, was fellow Director, Eric Morecombe, a staunch Luton supporter. Who can ever forget that memorable Morecombe and Wise sketch with Glenda Jackson as Cleopatra, and Eric Morecombe, as a roman legion, dressed in a toga carrying a board with Luton Town F.C. in flashing lights on the reverse!

Sunday lunches with Mum and Dad always saw me and Dad discussing the previous day’s games, usually with Mum rolling her eyes! Dad’s Club now was Liverpool and mine was Arsenal – I had followed Malcolm Macdonald when he went to Arsenal and have stayed a ‘Gooner’ ever since; but we still had a soft spot for our first love – Luton Town. I would say to Dad – did you see the crowd yesterday at Luton – it might have been, say 10,000 – which, for the league they were in at the time, was massive. Dad would say – “That is nothing, I was there one night back in the 1950’s for a F.A.Cup replay against Spurs and there were 45,000 there”. I think that might have been something of an exaggeration – but they were a magic club, in that tumbledown old ground, which was tumbledown even back then!

Fast forward quite a few years and I was a Council Member on the Bedfordshire Football Association, serving all in all for 15 years or so, until I moved out of the County and back to Kimbolton. I always remember being very impressed that at the AGM every year, Luton Town Football Club, Bedfordshire’s most senior football club, always sent a representative to the meeting. They did not need to, attendance was not compulsory, many other local teams did not bother attending or even sending apologies, but Luton did things right and showed respect to their affiliated county.

Sadly, the early 2000’s saw things going wrong off the pitch for Luton – yes – they had gone back to grass by then, after a flirtation with a plastic pitch in the mid 80’s –early 90’s. Financial mismanagement and administration saw a 10 point deduction and inevitably relegation followed. More financial woes – another administration and a 20 point deduction. Finally in 2009 the Football Association hit Luton with an unprecedented 30 point deduction and this, unsurprisingly, proved unsurmountable and Luton Town dropped out of the football league into non-league football.

I remember my dad being absolutely incandescent with rage, at the total injustice of it. For quite some time he spoke of nothing else, to anybody who would listen (including Mum and she hated football!) and we became avid Luton Town supporters again. We followed their five year struggle to get back into the football league and felt such unbridled joy when they finally made it.

About four years ago I took my eldest grandson (then aged 10) to Kenilworth Road. We caught the train from Bedford to Luton and walked from the station to the ground. My grandson who is used to the grandeur of White Hart Lane, was somewhat surprised at the almost derelict ground, but his spirits soon soared when he realised that we were in the noisy, singing part of the ground with songs and language which would make your hair curl! After a while I gave up putting my hands over his ears and shrugged as he joined in the singing! He raced down to front when Luton scored, and I knew we had another ‘Hatter’ in the family.

At Edward’s school, he tells me, it is popular for the boys to support unfashionable clubs and right up until now – Luton Town exactly fitted that bill – but I think this special club will have won over new fans, perhaps from all over the country, following the telling of their history and the play-off exploits.

So now ‘The Kenny’ (Kenilworth Road) will host the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United and the Premiership Champions, Manchester City, who perhaps will not want to be reminded of the time in 1983 (40 years ago), when Luton beat City 1-0 at Maine Road to avoid relegation from the top tier, and who could ever forget David Pleat galloping onto the pitch in his beige suit, arms aloft in celebration.

Come on you Hatters – welcome back to the big time!