Why Sprint Progress Requires Sleep and Healing: Recovery and Rest.
Most athletes believe that improvement occurs as one trains more, however the rule of sprint improvement is a different story: as the body gets to rest, after high-quality training, it improves. Sprint training is rigorous since it puts a lot of pressure on both the nervous system and muscle-tendon system compared to ordinary jogging. Sprints are high force exercises and the body requires time to heal and adjust. When an athlete trains on speed without taking into consideration the process of recovery, it is not an improvement one will achieve but instead fatigue, low performance and risk of an injury. Speed training awareness imparts the lesson of knowing that it is not weakness which is recovery, it is strategy.
The nervous system is very significant in sprinting. Sprinting is not merely the movement of muscles it is the brain to muscle communication in high speed. The nervous system is fresh and therefore the coordination is sharp, the reaction is quick and the rhythm is smooth. However, with a fatigued nervous system, a sprint seems to be heavy and slow, despite the strength of the athlete. Consciousness enables one to know that sprint training is not an experience of exhaustion. Sprint racing requires quality and quality requires the freshness of the nervous system. It is because sprints must be spaced apart with a limit of time.
The most powerful recovery aid of an athlete is sleep. In deep sleep, the muscles are repaired, hormones are balanced and even the nervous system is reset. Sleep deprived athletes have been found to have slower speed, decreased power and higher chances of being injured. Consciousness educates the establishment of a sleep habit: bedtime, less screen time before going to sleep, and 7-9 hours of sleep based on the training load. Sportspeople who use sprint require sleep since speed is work of nervous system. The body is not able to adapt without sleep. Exceptional sleep means enhanced velocity.
Nutrition is also recovery. Sprinting disintegrates the muscles and burns up energy. When an athlete trains and has poor diets, the body is not able to regenerate. Consciousness leads to healthy eating, including adequate protein to repair the muscle, complex carbohydrates to replenish glycogen, and healthy fats to maintain the health of hormones. The effects of hydration are also significant since dehydration enhances cramps, decreases performance, and slows down recovery. It is not just rest that is recovery, it is fueling. Fuel determines the speed at which the body heals. Good training is made good with good food.
Finally, progress in sprint training is determined by recovery. The effect of training is stress; recovery growth. When athletes sleep, eat, hydrate, add mobility, respect rest days and manage stress, long-term speed gains are developed. Recovery does not mean the absence of training, and is a subset of training. The awareness of speed training ensures recovery is a discipline, and disciplined recovery results in an uninterrupted performance and injury-free development.