I have better recovery eating raw!

[littleangelbear]

I am so stoked about this! I feel like since going 95-100 percent raw as of Dec. 1, 2005, that I have faster recovery times from my workouts. I do yoga 3x per week, in addition to my bicycle racing training routine and schedule. I'm currently in the indoor portion of my training for biking. I've done intervals and harder workouts and do not notice the same level of soreness I used to experience when I ate in other ways! Yay!

I am thinking since less energy is required for digestion and assimilation and such, that more energy is available for muscle recovery and removal of metabolic wastes from exercising...not sure what the scientific reason is.

I am tracking all of these improvements in both my food diary and my training diary...The big test for me will come race season to see how I feel after a race :)

[rawfigure]

I am so stoked about this! I feel like since going 95-100 percent raw as of Dec. 1, 2005, that I have faster recovery times from my workouts. I do yoga 3x per week, in addition to my bicycle racing training routine and schedule. I'm currently in the indoor portion of my training for biking. I've done intervals and harder workouts and do not notice the same level of soreness I used to experience when I ate in other ways! Yay!

I am thinking since less energy is required for digestion and assimilation and such, that more energy is available for muscle recovery and removal of metabolic wastes from exercising...not sure what the scientific reason is.

I am tracking all of these improvements in both my food diary and my training diary...The big test for me will come race season to see how I feel after a race :)

Thats great littleangel, I am glad you are finding the raw diet so energizing. I find the same and I recover better too.

Unlike you thou in my first three months I found myself very fatigued during my weights, and could not lift as much or as long. Same with cardio. At about three months I CROSSED over and now I feel better during weights and cardio. I no longer get the mid morning crash after a intense work out !
I also do not get as sore !!

So many benefits to Raw !!!!!!!

[tglasco4]

I think that theory about the recovery time makes sense. The body does use alot of energy in the digestion of food. Especially cooked food, flesh food and rich foods. It uses much less during the digestive process of raw foods. If that is true (and we will all find out as we continue to work out), then we should experience greater gains in performance overtime. For example, littleangelbear should record faster times on the bike in the next year or two, Rawfigure and myself should experience more dense, higher quality muscle on our frames.........definitely sounds good:)

Peace.

Todd

[Karen_in_FLA]

You know, littleangelbear, now that you mention it, I've been working out for almost a month now, six days a week, and I have yet to be SOAR! Usually, when I work out with these video tapes I'm soar some days. But not now. WOW!!!

[littleangelbear]

This faster recovery time bit is just so wild for me. In the past I was one of those people who would need twice the amount of time to recover from a hard workout or race. I also had to watch my heartrate more closely that other people, etc. After a hard effort, I would feel very fatigued for days, needing extra sleep and I would have a ton of difficulties getting and staying hydrated. This was even though I was eating a "healthy" semi-vegetarian diet--ha, ha, ha! LOL

I am 34 and for the past 8 years, I've had relapses of chronic fatigue syndrome and it's been quite frustrating. I am keeping track of all of the improvements I'm experiencing with fitness and in other health and other life areas. I'm astounded and it feels like I am on my way to permanently reversing my chronic fatigue syndrome...whoaaa! :)

This "recovery" idea had me thinking this morning. I notice a splinter I had in my art class this week healed much quicker than usual. Also, in the past two weeks, I have noticed my usually dry and cracked heels healing. So, I am thinking that the repair process in the body is very positively affected (better circulation and replacement I think too).

It will be fun for me once race season starts to compare my performances in this years' races to last year's...I'm sure I'll write about that too! Yay!

Bear hugs!, Lisa

[misslinda]

True that everyone !!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm noticing that also. Lisa, will you post your progess?

[Arky]

You know, much is made of the reduced 'digestive effort' supposedly involved with raw food consumption and, indeed, a good deal of this may very well be true, not least by virtue of raw foods retaining most of their hydration (dehydrated foods notwithstanding, although I do not, personally, consider dehydrated foods to truly be unadulterated natural foods) and thus being significantly easier to break down rapidly.

However, another very significant factor in post-excercise recovery time while on a raw food diet is the increase in alkaline-forming foods consumed by raw-foodists. This means the body may not (if plenty of alkalinizing greens are cosnumed by the individual, for example) need to draw so much upon alkaline mineral reserves such as calcium and magnesium, each of which contributes to helping muscles relax. Similarly, a reduction in the storage of acid wastes (a positive consequence of alkalinizing foods is that they effectively scavenge and neutralize stored acid wastes) in peripheral body tissues such as muscle will assist healthy blood circulation through the cappiliaries, to muscle tissue, and thus improve elimination of metabolic by-products produced during excercise.

In short, it's not ALL about digestion! :)


J.

[jaurequi]

That's great, littleangelbear :)

I agree with Arky, which is why I contribute so much of my overall improvements, in all areas, to greens. It was when I began with the green smoothies that my most dramatic improvements began. Will always be thankful to Boutenko for introducing them to me.

Best,

[littleangelbear]

I forget who asked, but I'd be more than happy to update this thread and relate my progress, etc. during bike race season, etc.

Arky, that is very interesting about the alkaline principle. I once read the book Alkalinize or Die--the author escapes me now. I found it to be very relevant to my health and healing processes. When you are an athlete, anything you can do to speed the body's removal (or utilization of in the case of a lactate threshold situation) of metabolic wastes is highly important.

I do not come from a scientific background, but I was pondering the idea of oxygen the other night. I was thinking that perhaps, greens and other "living" foods somehow assist the oxygenation of the tissues and then, somehow, this translates into more bio-available energy for the human body during physical efforts? (Time to call my exercise physiologist friend LOL). Really, when you think about athletic performance, it all comes down to oxygen and efficient uptake. I've never had a VO2 Max test, but wouldn't it be interesting to see how raw athletes compare to non-raw athletes?

I come from a more esoteric career, so I tend to think very right-brained. So, I also had this idea about how living foods have more energy of the sun in them. So, I started to think about how the sun is so important in health in general. I have read about how sun affects the pineal gland, melatonin and serotonin production. I am thinking eating food that has "sun energy" in it helps to assist the body in sleeping better, having better mood, and feeling less soreness....when you sleep better, you are not as sore and grumpy! LOL So, I am extrapolating here...Perhaps, this also is an aid when it comes to recovery from exercise?

So many factors to consider when it comes to recovery from exercise. I not only thought of "recovery" as a post-exercise phenomenon, however. I am thinking of recovering from "efforts" contained within a workout or race. Let's say I am working out doing intervals. In between each interval or hard effort, is a recovery period usually slightly less than the interval period. Also, during a bike race, someone might break away from the pack and if I feel like I want to chase them down away from the aerodynamics of the pack, I will go anaerobic. Once I catch up to the breakaway person, I am going to have to recover. So, see how brain is working when it comes to recovery. These are the kinds of things I'll be charting and observing with my heart rate monitor.

For the hardcore data type of folks, I utilize a heart rate monitor when I am riding my bike. At the end of my workout, I have a feature that records a recovery heart rate for two minutes. So, say I ended my workout with a heart rate of 150. I take it easy and spin on my bike to recover for two minutes and it gives me a delta of how many beats I lost or lowered. Well, lately, I have had delta's of 30-40! Last year, mine were usually only 5-10. I think that speaks volumes! :)

Also, this year I changed my early season bike training such that I am building strength (hard gear akin to lifting weights on your bike) without the anaerobic heart rates. I am doing lots of aerobic base work...so, longer rides at a moderate heart rate. My coach says it only takes 5-6 weeks to build the anaerobic base, which I can easily get from training races come March to early April as well as some other workouts on my own.

Thanks for letting me ramble on and for your thoughts :)

Bear hugs!, Lisa

[SparklePlenty]

I agree totally about the faster recovery time and less soreness. I am 60 and since doing a very high % of raw over the past coupla months, this is true, and I have more energy for more intense workouts.
For example,I am jogging, I started at 90 sec intervals with walking in betweeen about 3.5 weeks ago, have been steadily increasing and today I jogged 23 mins walked maybe 5 mins and then jogged another 20! I am amazed. It's wonderful! And no I'm not sore after this.

Both the digestion theory and the alkalinizing theory ring true to me, but whatever, I like it.

[rawfigure]

I started to increase my running in anticipation of spring (in winter I do more a varied array ) but come nice weather who can resist outdoors. So I noticed immediately I am stronger faster and the soreness has been minimal, nice. Usually I struggle the first few weeks !

[theresaann]

I think the faster recovery is from greater alkalinity in the body fluids which dissapates the lactic acid faster. This is what I"ve noticed with myself. And the greater energy from raw too. It's almost like the workout is too easy, but I know it's not-it's just that my body is HEALTHIER!! Yeehaw!

[julesmoz]

Wow. That alkalinizing theory made a lightbulb go off in my head. I think more green smoothies are my ticket to better workouts!

Also, greens have so much protein in them that maybe that also helps when it comes to recovery (just a theory).

Thanks for sharing!