Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast, it’s your after-weekend recovery tip and we’re talking about the Legs Up The Wall Pose to speed your recovery after your weekend workouts.
Okay, it’s Monday today, and if you killed it this weekend on your workouts, congratulations!
If you went out and did a bunch of mile repeats or you were doing a bunch of hill training or you did some long 18-mile run or something else like that that really put a lot of money in the bank for your next event, that’s great.
But, if you put a lot into that effort this weekend, there is some possibility you are really treading close to that threshold for injury that could push you over into an over-training injury. And, if you do some simple things to accelerate your recovery right after those big workouts, it can make a huge difference to avoiding an over-training injury.
Trust me, on Mondays, I get calls all day from people who do a lot of stuff and push the limits a little too far on the weekends, and then they’re injured on Monday. By Monday or Tuesday, they’re super worried. They call me. Then I have to either talk to them on the phone during a consultation or do a webcam visit or go see them in person.
And, if you just do a little thing to try to mitigate the consequences of all of that workout, you can probably avoid all that trouble. So, on Mondays, I’m talking about one simple thing you can do, one thing you can do today or tomorrow or next weekend when you’re doing your training that will help decrease your chances of an over-training injury.
Today, we’re talking about the legs up the wall pose. So this is a specific pose in yoga, and it’s just what it sounds like. You lay down on your back, you sit close to the wall, and then you swing your legs around, get them up on the wall so you’re flat on your back. Your legs are straight up the wall, way up above your head and way up above your heart. The legs up the wall pose is one of the most effective things to move all of that inflammatory fluid out of the tissues and into your lymphatic systems and get the fluid out of your feet and your legs, and it will actually help speed up your recovery.
This is a simple thing. So I like to do this after my hard workouts, after long workouts, after long runs, speed workouts, that sort of stuff. I basically come home, I shower. I basically then do the legs up the wall pose only for about 10 or 15 minutes. It’s just too boring to sit there all day, but 10 or 15 minutes can make a huge difference. So try it. Try the legs up the wall pose. See if it doesn’t feel better.
You can also check it. You can push on the front of your shins, see if you have any swelling, and if you do, when you push on the front of your shin by holding your thumb down for a few seconds, and then you let go, you’ll see that you have swelling there.
If you do the legs up the wall pose, some of that swelling is going to go away, and it’ll make a difference. That dimple in the skin from your thumb will sort of flatten out faster on the front of your shin when you do the legs up the wall pose because it gets some of that fluid out.
Try the legs up the wall pose. Then do it next weekend if you kill it next weekend as well!
If you have a question that you would like answered as a future edition the Doc On The Run Podcast, send it to me, and then make sure you join me in the next edition of the Doc On The Run Podcast. Thanks again for listening!