Name: Playbook - TrickStrong RX - Recovery Mode (Cooldown Routine)
Uploaded: 2023-08-14T03:51:06.491Z
Duration: 20 min
Description: Recovery Mode (Cooldown Routine)

Renato

Flip

During and after training, our sympathetic nervous system, the part of our autonomic nervous system responsible for “fight or flight” responses is active. It triggers the release of many chemicals that allow us to perform at our best. Our blood vessels are expanded, our hearts are pumping hard and our breath is faster. Put simply, these changes (and many more) allow for increased athletic output. One of the major goals of a warmup is to get close to this state quickly and effectively. 

So what is the purpose of a cooldown, then? 

The purpose of a cool down after a training session is to do the exact opposite. We want to downregulate the autonomic nervous system, activating the parasympathetic nervous system. This allows for “rest and digest” functions to work within our bodies, cueing the initiation of rest and recovery. 

Ok, so what is the most effective way to do this?

The good news is that an effective full body cooldown can be done in about 20 minutes, setting you up to recover like a champ. This routine will: 

1)	Jump start recovery process through activation of parasympathetic nervous system (“rest & digest”)
2)	Promote circulation and lymphatic drainage back towards the center
3)	Joint and spinal decompression
4)	Maintain and improve mobility

It is important that we do each drill while performing deep breathing throughout, ending with the “recovery breathing” exercise. 

Our breath is our window into controlling our physiology. By using deep breathing throughout our cooldown, we will get into a parasympathetic state much more quickly. It may take getting used to, so don’t worry if it’s not perfect at first or if you lose it.

The idea is that we tap into a relaxed recovery state which should be very noticeable once you are done with your cooldown. 

More recovery means having the capacity for more frequent and/or intense training sessions and therefore improved athleticism in the long term.

We are using foam rolling to encourage circulation and lymphatic drainage from the extremities back towards the center. This helps to speed up the recovery process.

If you have access to compression boots and arm attachments, this can do the same thing. 

It depends on how long you have and the resources available to you. The aim is to gloss over the large muscle groups and improve drainage, not murder each knot you find.

Try to relax into this portion of the cool down by using deep breathing. Spend as much time as you have, but aim for a minimum of 3-5 minutes.

Below are foam rolling techniques you can use during this time. Aim for the big muscle groups for the biggest effect.

Foam Rolling: Calves

Foam Rolling: Anterior Tibialis

Foam Rolling: Hamstrings

Foam Rolling: Quads

Foam Rolling: Glutes

Foam Rolling: Spinal Erectors

Foam Rolling: Lats

Foam Rolling: Pecs

Foam Rolling (3-5 minutes)

The focus is on maintaining your deep breathing (5 sec inhale, 5 sec exhale) during these cooldown mobility exercises. 

By doing this, you are not only improving range of motion, you are activating your parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for rest and recovery.

The focus is on maintaining your deep breathing (5 sec inhale, 5 sec exhale) during these cooldown mobility exercises. By doing this, you are not only improving range of motion, you are activating your parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for rest and recovery. 

The hip 9090 stretch is called this because of the 90 degree angles your hip will make. 
The hip is a ball and socket joint. This means that in order to train our mobility in an effective way, we will want to explore and be less linear with this stretch. 
The front hip is in external rotation. By keeping our lower back straight and leaning forward, we stretch the external rotators of the front hip and allow more opening. Try to find your restrictions and spend time with them, remembering to try slightly different angles. I like to spend at least one to two minutes on the front leg before working on the back leg.

You should not be feeling any pain in your lower back, hips or knees.

Hip 90/90 ER - 3 Breaths

The focus is on maintaining your deep breathing (5 sec inhale, 5 sec exhale) during these cooldown mobility exercises. By doing this, you are not only improving range of motion, you are activating your parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for rest and recovery.
The hip 9090 stretch is called this because of the 90 degree angles your hip will make. 
The hip is a ball and socket joint. This means that in order to train our mobility in an effective way, we will want to explore and be less linear with this stretch. 
You can improve internal rotation at the back hip by rotating towards It or by leaning backwards. We want to explore our restrictions in a 3-dimensional way, so I encourage you to rotate, move around, lift your arm overhead and play around with this. You should feel a deep stretch in your groin, but it should not feel sharp. You should not feel this in your knees either. 
By improving our hip internal rotation, we can really help with low back, knee pain and ankle pain as restrictions in hip mobility can often manifest as increased stress and pain with jumping, pivoting and landing.

Hip 90/90 IR - 3 Breaths

The focus is on maintaining your deep breathing (5 sec inhale, 5 sec exhale) during these cooldown mobility exercises. By doing this, you are not only improving range of motion, you are activating your parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for rest and recovery.

The Brettzel is an awesome total body drill that improves spinal, shoulder, hip and knee mobility all at once. It is especially challenging to get deep breaths in here, so make sure you are within your limits to where your breathing can be a focus. 
To do it right:
1)	Start directly on your side with shoulders and hips stacked. Use a pillow, roller or mat for head support if needed.
2)	Bring your top knee towards your chest and grab it with your bottom arm. 
3)	Bring your bottom knee backwards towards your top arm and grab it with the palm facing up as shown. If you are unable to reach, you can use a towel or strap to assist.
4)	Relax into the stretch by exhaling for 5, followed by a 5 sec inhale. Repeat for 5 breath cycles before reversing this sequence to get out of the stretch.

Brettzel - 5 Breaths

The focus is on maintaining your deep breathing (5 sec inhale, 5 sec exhale) during these cooldown mobility exercises. By doing this, you are not only improving range of motion, you are activating your parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for rest and recovery.

Downward Dog - 5 Breaths

The focus is on maintaining your deep breathing (5 sec inhale, 5 sec exhale) during these cooldown mobility exercises. By doing this, you are not only improving range of motion, you are activating your parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for rest and recovery. 
For this drill, you will be doing 1 breathing cycle per squat, all at the bottom of the squat. If you need to take another breath between reps please do so!
Steps to doing this right:

1. take a dowel or broom stick and bring it overhead, palms up. 
2. With core engaged and feet grabbing the floor, descend into your deepest pain-free squat in which you can maintain deep breathing
3. Maintain bottom position for 5 seconds, engaging your shoulder blades to keep your arms overhead.

The overhead squat is an efficient drill to improve mobility in many areas of our body. In order to perform this drill well, we need great shoulder, elbow, wrist mobility, thoracic spine mobility, hip, knee and ankle mobility as well. We also need the ability to coordinate our upper and lower extremities effectively.

Overhead Pause Squat - 3 Reps (1 Breath per rep)

The focus is on maintaining your deep breathing (5 sec inhale, 5 sec exhale) during these cooldown mobility exercises. By doing this, you are not only improving range of motion, you are activating your parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for rest and recovery.

Shoulder Genies are another great mobility exercise for the shoulder girdle and thoracic spine. The shoulder is a 3D ball and socket joint. Our mobility and stability training needs to reflect this for maximum benefit and carryover to functional tasks such as reaching over head or behind our back.
 
For Genies, start in a standing position with your arms overhead in a goal post position.

Get some scapular (shoulder blade) engagement by pulling your shoulder blades down and back. Limit shoulder shrugging as much as possible during this exercise. 

As one arm aims to touch the top of the opposite shoulder, the other arm aims to touch the bottom of the opposite shoulder. 
Reverse this motion to complete a rep. 

The goal is to touch both hands together at the middle of the back WITHOUT compromising form (i.e. losing your breath, excessive spinal movement, shoulder shrugging, forward head posture). Many will not be able to do this yet (like me) but that is why this is worth doing! Stay within your range where your breath and form is maintained and it will improve over time.

Shoulder Genies - 6 Breaths

The focus is on maintaining your deep breathing (5 sec inhale, 5 sec exhale) during these cooldown mobility exercises. By doing this, you are not only improving range of motion, you are activating your parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for rest and recovery.
Dead hanging is a great drill for so many reasons! It can help improve overhead mobility, lat and pec tightness, upper body and core stability, grip strength and can even help decompress the spine. 
To perform this correctly, stay engaged with your grip, core and scapular muscles. When we dead hang without muscular support, we not only miss out on the opportunity to improve overhead stability, we can also irritate our shoulder by hanging our entire body weight on the ligaments and joint capsule. 

Make sure that you stay engaged by squeezing your shoulder blades down and in while squeezing the bar.
It is usually more difficult to hang in a supinated (palms up) position as this position requires more pec and lat mobility. If you can handle it, it can be a great way to improve shoulder, elbow and wrist mobility as well.
Neutral and pronated grips are also useful to train as they stress our upper body and grip differently. Change up your grip angles for best results.

Dead Hang - 3-5 Breaths

Mobility + Deep Breathing Drills

Our breath is our window into controlling our physiology. By using deep breathing throughout our cooldown, we will get into a parasympathetic state much more quickly. It may take getting used to, so don’t worry if it’s not perfect at first or if you lose it. The idea is that we tap into a relaxed recovery state which should be very noticeable once you are done with your cooldown. 

Lie down on your back with your feet in a comfortable position. 

Putting one hand on your stomach, and the other on your chest can help to guide using your diaphragm in your breathing. You should feel expansion in your lower half on your inhales. If you feel most of the air coming from your chest, try to align your spine in a neutral position and take a deeper breath until your ribs expand. 

Take deep diaphragmatic breaths with a 5 second inhale - 5 second pause - 5 second exhale - 5 second pause. This is known as Box Breathing.

Recovery Breathing (3-5 minutes)

Walking is a great, low impact way to improve circulation, joint lubrication, lymphatic drainage and set our bodies up for recovery. Walking has been shown to be effective in treating and preventing low back pain as well, which is helpful after placing as much load as we do in our training. 

Do this after your training if you have the opportunity. 

If not, walking during the day (before or after training) will still be beneficial.

Optional: Walking - 10 min

Recovery Mode (Cooldown Routine)

Love it! Feel better now when i actually start training

Sam Burnett

Been doing this before every session and I feel great

Aidan

Rafal

No Equipment Tricking Warmup

I for the life of me cannot get the last two exercises lol

Rich

TSRX Kicking Warmup

I think I've just found my new fave warm up!

Phillip

Challenging but rewarding at the same time

Baniaga

KB Warmup x Conditioning for Tricking

The only other thing I could ask for is a short summary list off all the exercises discussed at the end of a section. There was one in the stability section, but I don’t believe there was one for the mobility section. Otherwise very informative!

Recovery Mode (Cooldown Routine)

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