Fact: Foam Rolling is a useful recovery tool.
Foam rolling has been shown to decrease perceived pain after use. Although its effects on ROM are generally short lived, allowing athletes to mentally feel fresher after training can have long term benefits in attitude and effort toward training.
Fact: Static Stretching pre exercise can decrease performance.
Static stretching before exercise has been shown to decrease muscular power/strength, with one study reporting a 30% decrease in muscular strength before training. While Static stretching may provide benefits in recovery, it is not optimal to perform pre exercise.
Fact: Individualised ‘sleep hygiene’ improves sleep quality and recovery.
Building a consistent sleep routine that fits with an individuals lifestyle can ensure adequate sleep is had each night. Sleep hygiene has been shown to increase sleep quality, allowing our bodies and mind to better recover.
Myth: My deload or taper should be easy.
A deload/taper is predominantly a decrease in the total volume within training sessions, although intensity levels remain high throughout this period. We may have dropped to 1x gym session for the week, and our session may look a lot smaller, but a good intent is still required to perform come gameday.
Myth: Doing less in my taper will throw me out of routine and I won’t perform as well.
As much as we want to keep approaching our training with a want to improve, it is necessary to decrease our volume prior to races/events to ensure we are in peak condition and able to perform at your best. You may feel lazy, but your body will thank you.
Myth: I will lose my strength gains if I do a deload.
As good as we may feel, and as much as we may feel like we’re getting better, regular deload weeks/sessions need to be in place to make sure we allow our bodies to rest, adapt to our training, and avoid long term stress that may result in injury. More often than not, we will come back stronger following our deload.
Myth: I need to stretch to be flexible.
While there are instances where our lack of flexibility is caused by a restriction in muscle length, it is also possible that our lack of flexibility is caused by our nervous system and poor motor control. While some may find benefit in stretching, building strength and control through our muscles’ full ROM will give the most benefit in lasting flexibility, and we are technically stretching under load while doing so (use it or lose it does apply!)
