Recovery after games
 

How do you guys do it??? I've never had a problem in the past but this week has been awful. After 7 games from Friday to Sunday I've just been hurting. Normally after Monday's I'm fine but I woke up in pain again today.

Luckily, I suppose, all the pain is located in just one of my legs (hey, I got two). Achillies, knee, and hamstring all killing me on the left leg.

What do you guys do to recover after games and get ready for the following week?

Three words...Miller Genuine Draft.

Ibuprofen, lots of water, stretch, light exercise, in that order.

Cold Bud and hot tub!

I posted this on another forum, so hopefully this will help:

1) Cold Tub - this is quite possibly the best thing you can do for sore legs. You don't even have to have an injury to do the cold tub. If your legs are very sore, do it! The "designed" cold tubs are the best because you can stand up in them, but you can make a home made one in your bath tub that is serviceable. Buy one of those extra large bags of ice at the store and dump it in your bath tub. Fill it up with cold water and jump in with a pair of underwear or compression shorts. Stay in for about 15 to 20 min. When doing the home made one, be sure to move around a bit since the parts of your legs and butt that are contacting the tub won't get as cold. For the first 5 minutes it SUCKS, but grit your teeth and stay in there. After you get numb it's tolerable.

I promise you your legs will feel like a million bucks if you do the cold tub properly.

2) Ibuprofen - Just pop 2 or 3 before your game to take the edge off. It won't cure it, but it will dull the pain a little.

3) Buy a foam roller. Here is the one I use : http://www.power-systems.com/p-2972-...am-roller.aspx (the big round one)

Roll out and do a stretch routine after every game and that will take a good bit of the soreness out of your legs and back. This is also a great tool for preventing soreness.

4) Stretch / warm up - If officiating a game is a highly physical activity for you (everyone is different) then it's important to warm up before so you don't pull anything. It's recommended to DYNAMICALLY stretch (lots of movement - ie- lying straight leg raises) rather than statically stretch (ie- touch your toes) before activity. It's just as important to STRETCH DOWN after the game as it is before. Stretching down prevents soreness. Static stretches are the best for stretching down. Stretch first, then foam roll.

5) General injuries - ALWAYS ICE before heat. Ice until the swelling disappears, then you can heat if you want.


Hope this helps!

I do not do 7 games on one day anymore. ;)

Peace

Avoid the Steel Reserve...your recovery time will be longer.

I agree with Rut as well as everything Bossman says, but in reality, it isn't an after the game deal anymore. You have to have a 24/7/365 fitness program that keeps you body at a high level and able to take just about anything thrown at it.

If you want to do 7 games on a Friday, you have to put in the work the rest of the week. There's no magic remedy until someone invents a fountain of youth or full leg transplants.

Think about it this way: special forces operators have to keep themselves at a conditioning level similar to elite athletes. We just have to keep ourselves at the level of the mediocre ones!

To be fair, he didn't say 7 games in one day, he said 7 games from Friday to Sunday. Don't get me wrong, that is still a good amount of games and Aggie, your point on fitness is dead on.

Even if that is the case, either you work out to make your body prepared for that, or you stop working those amount of games so that you are not hurting. Unless the pain for a few days is bearable, stop working that much.

Peace

No argument from me on that point.

Thanks, Welpe for the correction. I didn't read it closely enough and took Rut's word for it. Perhaps that's another issue.

We have a lot of guys that work 2 JV or Frosh games on Thursday, a varsity game on Friday, and loads of Pee Wees on Saturday -- anywhere from 2-6. So its easy to do 7 in 3 days. I don't do pee wees, though.

Neither did ChicagoLJ!!! :eek:

Why's that? Too much "Madden Video Game" rule knowledge for you? :D

After the floods of 2004 in WNC, I worked 8 games in 7 days to make up the missed games that were rescheduled. I begged my doctor to saw my feet off. He gave me cortisone in both heels and after the intense burning wore off in 30 seconds or so I was a new man.

The cold tub post game is good. I created one out of those plastic utility tubs with the nylon rope handles for about $5. I had to saw a notch so it would fit under the spigot in the tub. I fill it up on Friday morning before I leave for work and dump the post-game cooler ice in it when I get home that night. It only gets up to the bottom of my knees but that's all I'm really worried about hurting any way. I've got a little stool I sit on and I read SI or the Sporting News while I soak til the Friday night highlights come on the news.

A new routine I've added this season is on Saturday morning I get to the fitness center as soon as they open at 7:30. Ride the bike for 30 minutes until the pool opens and then soak in the spa/therapy pool for 20 min or so.

You did 7 games in 3 days... likely a 48-hour period? You should be hurting!

Rest is the only thing to physically prepare for this weekend.

I like the sound of that a lot better than sitting in a damn tub of ice. I hope it sounds worse than it is.

I actually have more trouble with my legs and feet during football than basketball. That's comparing 4-6 varsity basketball games a week to a JV and a Varsity football game each week.

Bah - I regularly do 12+ games from 17:00 Friday to 17:00 Sunday. You have to be in shape to do it - no doubt; however, it can be done. It takes time and effort in the off-season to build up your strength and endurance to handle that number of games.

:D

Ice, ice and more ice
 

For many of us in the +40 category, the issues are joint related, and usually knees are involved. After three or four decades of running, jumping, twisting, falling and ripping these joints the cartilage has decayed (or in my case, pretty much disappeared) and doesn’t provide the protection it used to from the smashing of the femour and the tibia.
Include a body frame that has packed on 20 or 30 pounds more than it used to and you’ve got the perfect recipe for inflammation in the knee joints causing stiffness and pain.

Ice is your friend my brothers. As soon as you get home, fill a zip lock bag with some ice cubes and go from knee to knee (ankle to ankle if you’re hurting there too) for a good hour and the next day you will feel a million times better than if you’d done nothing. I’ve got a couple of freezer packs that are about 12” x 18” and they’re perfect for wrapping around the joint for complete cool down therapy. You may also apply cold beer to your “interior muscles” as added therapy, but that’s another story entirely.
Ever see a photo of a baseball pitcher after he finishes a game? Their throwing arm is wrapped in ice from wrist to shoulder, even if the guy’s arm is fine. It’s now been proven that pro-active icing can reduce future injuries by taking the heat out of the joint that contributes to cartilage breakdown in later life.

Celebrex is a wonder too....but you got to talk to your doctor about that one.

I’m not a doctor, but after six trips to the surgeon, I know my way around the knee and given I'm based in Western Canada, lord knows I'm all up to snuff on this ice thing....

Well like I said, I like to think I'm in the best shape I have been going into a season. I've done that many games before, I just didn't understand how this week it's been so bad. Normally my pain is gone Monday morning, like clockwork. This week though, I've just started to feel better now.


Maybe I'll just have to double up the whiskey regimine.

Ibuprofen, gel inserts to go with my new Reebok's, and some good whiskey for afterwards.

I have pins in my surgically repaired right knee and lack an ACL from an accident 9 years ago when I lost the MCL, PCL, and ACL....all in one bad incident.. It's usually my feet that hurt after 4 youth games on a Saturday...not the knee.

Soaking seems to work well, although I never seem to have the time to do it.