Hello,

Well, not often i start a thread, but i want some advice on recovery.

Last saturday i played my first rugby match of the new season, after a few years out of action. I made second string, with a great chance of making the first team soon. Problem is, recovery.

Rugby is a tough old sport on the body. Getting knocked about, sprinting, tackling, driving, pushing... 80 minutes of basically beating your body. I went to the gym yesterday, and it was HARD. I mean real hard. I pushed out my usual weights, but my muscles ached, my joints ached, basically it was really tough to complete my workout.

I wondered if anyone out there plays contact sport at the weekend and whether they have any tips for aiding recovery. Ice baths ? Massage ? Nutrition ? Any (legal) supps that might help ? Timing of things (what to do an hour after, day after etc).

I will of course read up on this myself, but wondered if anyone had any tips.

I always warmup and warm down (warmdown being full body stretchs and light jogging). I play saturday afternoons, and i cant afford not to go to the gym and lift monday night.

Thanks guys. :tu:

Im more of a footy man myself ( just cant understand the need to chase an egg around a field belting each other! just seems wrong on so many levels! :tu: )
I play Sunday league football (not really contact with all the falling over when being touched) restarted a couple weeks ago after losing most of the weight and I have to say after the first game it was pure torture. Anyways the aching muscles will pass, your body (like when you started lifting weights) needs to adapt to the physical strains associated with rugby.
To aid recovery after the game I have a protein shake with a litre of water and mixed with some porridge oats (not sure why just seemed like a good idea), with that I will down a Vitamin E tablet (this really helps with the soreness) and a Glucosamine tablet (help with joints etc). The rest of the day I will whenever I can be bothered keep stretching my muscles i.e while watching the telly on the couch stretch my legs or arms (I know its bad stretching cold muscles but for some reason this has really helped relieving the aches dont know if its helping actually realeasing some of the lactic acid or if its just psychological. Also when I have my shower I have it quite hot and then turn it down to cold gradually until it is freezing and stand there for how ever long I can.
Hope any of this helps (otherwise you have wasted a minute of your life reading this that you will never get back!!)
If you do try any of this let me know how you get on because Id be very interested to see if it helps or is it just me!
:gl: