So I was googling around for CNS recovery ideas and came up with stuff that might not be applicable (ie. recovering from brain injury). So what can you do for CNS recovery? Stuff that I have seen is DHEA and sleep. There were some T-nation threads that came up, but I have a hard time reading some T-nation threads. Massage just seems to be a muscular thing, but are there CNS benefits?
Sleep....stress reduction techniques (daily deep breathing, meditation, taking a walk in the woods, not watching TV or news at night, whatever your cup of tea is...just reducing the amount of stimulus)....I think are the top 2. That and probably limiting or cycling caffeine. Imagine not having any for a week and then having some right before a competition...you might be on CNS overdrive. (aka performance enhancing but only if cycled properly)
With what Mike said also intake of enough salts (namely potassium and sodium) which are of primarily importance for creating the nerve impulses through action potentials.
I have noticed my performance and carb cravings (I think Robb has talked about this on his blog) are directly proportional to the amount or lack of sleep that i have recently gotten. Cutting out screen time before bed is truly great too.
As far as caffeine cycling goes, I figured out recently that i need to do it. i was caffeine dependent for awhile. Now I limit my self to 150mg/day on most days and take a whole week off every fourth week. This seems to work pretty well for me as a good compromise between staying alert and ready to go and recovery.
Catalyst Athletics is a USA Weightlifting team of competitive Olympic-style weightlifters. We are currently recruting new lifters and offer sponsorship opportunities.
CNS Recovery...
Linear Mode
