Christie Aschwanden

"Deeply researched and artfully written. . . . A must-read for all athletes." -- Wall Street Journal

What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery

Good to Go

Shannon Archer

For someone that's read a lot of running books, this book didn't really offer much. But it's a good light read about the state of recovery in amateur athletics and why there's really nothing to worry about.

All athletes from Olympians to weekend warriors must toe the line between training and recovery to maximize the benefits of workouts and reach optimal performance. For the longest time, coaches and training manuals have emphasized training. But now sports science is homing in on an even more fundamental part: recovery.The aim of training is to force the body to adapt to stress, and this adaptation is what makes you fitter and better able to perform. But to adapt, you need to optimize recovery too. You only benefit from training that you can recover from, and the ability to recover determines how much training your body can handle. Recovery, the science shows, is a crucial component of exercise training and it's starting to look like it may be the most important one.Good to Go assesses the science and claims of a wide variety of recovery methods and potions, and debunks the junk to give a clear picture of what we should actually be doing to look after our bodies better between exercising.

How to Eat, Sleep and Rest Like a Champion

Mohamed Rifai

Alex Spurrier

In recent years "recovery" has become a sports and fitness buzzword. Anyone who works out or competes at any level is bombarded with the latest recovery products and services: from drinks and shakes to compression sleeves, foam rollers, electrical muscle stimulators, and sleep trackers.In Good to Go, acclaimed FiveThirtyEight science writer Christie Aschwanden takes readers on an entertaining and enlightening tour through this strange world. She investigates whether drinking Gatorade or beer after training helps or hinders performance, she examines the latest trends among athletes--from NFL star Tom Brady's infrared pajamas to gymnast Simone Biles' pneumatic compression boots to swimmer Michael Phelps's "cupping" ritual--and she tests some of the most controversial methods herself, including cryochambers, floatation tanks, and infrared saunas.At a time when the latest recovery products and services promise so much, Good to Go seeks answers to the fundamental question: do any of them actually help the body recover and achieve peak performance?

Good to Go What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery

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