Finding time to train can be a challenge for anyone. Finding time to train for an endurance sport is another ballgame, altogether! Endurance training, as it implies, requires more time – time under tension specifically, meaning you are exposing your body to environmental stress for a sustained period of time. Let’s be clear, training can be extremely healthy for an individual. However, training is still received by the body as a stressor and as such needs respective recovery. Recovery can come in many forms, be it muscle work, nutrition, and/or sleep and time off (rest days). Unfortunately, intensive muscle work often comes at an added expense and does not always…

Athletes are accustomed to tight and achy muscles. We accept inflammation and edema as an unavoidable consequence of the intensity and load of training we put our bodies through. But how much is too much? And what to do? First, let us define inflammation as the body’s response to and subsequent effort to eliminate what it identifies as ‘foreign’ invaders (i.e. food that one is sensitive to, offensive chemicals, pathogens etc.). Edema is swelling and fluid accumulation typically in response to a specific injury or inflammation. For years, the simple and easy to remember remedy, RICE – Rest, Ice, Compress and Elevate – was prescribed for both inflammation and edema.…