Train Hard, Recover Harder

CHICAGO. (KFSN) -- After nearly a decade working in the healthcare industry, Liz Yerly realized that the hours after a workout were just as crucial as the workout itself and she built an entire business around it. But even if you don't have access to her kind of state-of-the art equipment, Yerly has some tips for the everyday athlete on how to train like a pro and recover like a pro.

Five mornings a week, the mantra for 32-year-old Caitlin Carducci is run faster. She wants to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

"Oh, the soreness. You're sore, you're stiff, muscles that you don't think you use while you're running somehow still hurt when you wake up the next day," detailed Carducci.

Which is why she recovers just as hard as she trains.

"It makes a huge difference in your ability to recover, come back and get back out the next day," Carducci told Ivanhoe.

Liz Yerly, MPT, ATC, owner of Chicago Recovery Room, said, "We kind of say train like a pro, recover like a pro. We wanted to bring that to the everyday person."

Yerly's Chicago Recovery Room features leg compressors that flush toxins from athletes' muscles and 12 minutes in the 52-degree ice bath works as a natural anti-inflammatory.

"If you come in here with ten miles on your legs you leave feeling like maybe there's two on them," said Carducci.

Yerly told Ivanhoe, "They can feel like they can work out harder sooner. So they can do more intense workouts quicker."

But if you don't have access to a recovery room like Yerly's, she said there are things people can do at home. Like make your own ice bath, or do a self-massage.

"Certain recovery tools are really easy to have so foam rollers or lacrosse balls; some every day products you can use to do your own self-massage," explained Yerly.

But Yerly said recovery doesn't mean falling into the couch for 24 hours, especially the day after a tough workout.

She said, "It can definitely be just going for a walk, getting on a bike, going for a swim. So you want to do something that's going to keep your body moving so you don't have a chance to get stiff, or have some of the metabolites or toxins that build up during a workout settle."

After Carducci put more emphasis on recovery, she improved her best marathon finishing time by a whopping 33 minutes.