One of the things I usually do after a long ride (once I’ve cleaned up etc.) is put my legs up vertically against a wall. I do this for 5 minutes for every hour of lsd, based on some advice issued by British Cycling. My question, after hearing various things on the pod about recovery versus adaption, is which is this process most likely to promote? It definitely seems to help with recovery and makes it easier to ride the next day. Does that mean it is compromising the adaptations I’m getting from a given training session?
I understand the benefits are supposed to come from improving venous return and flushing out the ‘bad stuff’ after a workout. As such I assume it is not necessarily stopping the inflamatory processes that lead to adaption? But I’m no exercise physiologist so would be really interested to hear people’s views (and the science) to see if this is something I should continue doing.
No unfortunately not. Their training plans used to be free to members (of which I’m one), but now they have put them on Training Peaks and charge for them so I don’t have access. Perhaps you can find them there? But iirc it wasn’t much beyond what I put in my original post. I also recall reading about Chris Froome saying he often sits for hours after training with his legs inverted.
A quick search came up with this:
Based on that it seems it’s a fairly old school technique, and the original reasoning behind it might have been hazy (or just plain wrong). But it does then point to some things it might do - improving the flow of extracellular fluid and lymph. It also suggests it can reduce swelling which takes me back to my concern about adaptation vs. recovery. But how reliable a source CTS is I’m not sure.