10 Recovery techniques for hybrid athletes and tips

Do you have epic endurance or hybrid goals set for 2025?

Hold on.

As a hybrid athlete, you can't just go after doing epic stuff without factoring in recovery tips and goals for this year. 

With a range of different intensities and types of exercise involved, hybrid training can often become taxing on your body. But while anybody can handle stress, recovery periods are needed to support homeostasis and adapt quickly to future physiological responses. 

If you don't get enough recovery, you could be at risk of facing overtraining, increasing your injuries, burnout and compromising your future performance goals. Trust us, if you've got any ultramarathons, triathlons, Hyrox's or anything else, this could be a MAJOR setback. 

Stop this from happening, and keep reading. Today, learn essential recovery techniques for athletes and tips to make the most of your hybrid training. 

Understanding the importance of recovery techniques for athletes

If you're a hybrid athlete, you can agree that training can become mentally and physically grueling. No two days are ever the same, and with the various workouts involved for strength and endurance, you'll need to take a break at some point. 

After all, when you do any workout, your body goes through a process called catabolism. This is where your muscle tissues break down due to exertion. However, when you recover, your body goes to an anabolic state, where cells regenerate and repair and muscle fibres grow stronger and denser. 

Energy reserves are furthermore restored, metabolic waste is removed, and essential body systems, such as the nervous and immune systems, are regulated.

But why is recovery therapy for hybrid athletes important?

Recovery techniques for hybrid athletes must simultaneously address muscle fatigue and repair and cardiovascular recovery. These three areas are crucial for supporting efficient blood flow, reducing soreness, and optimising performance. 

Again, another area that needs to be addressed independently is mental performance. Mental resilience is crucial, as is knowing how to manage stress, being mindful to encourage motivation, and preventing mental burnout.

Remember that hydration and electrolyte strategies are also key for training and recovery if you're an endurance athlete. The last thing you'll want is to become dehydrated before, during, or after the workout, losing lots of fluid and compromising your performance.

10 key recovery techniques for athletes and tips

Let's get straight to the point: recovery sessions for athletes are not one-size-fits-all and differ based on the person, training, goals, and lifestyle. However, a lot of them share similar foundations, such as:

Active recovery 

If the thought of rest days bores you, just know they don't have to be stationary. You can do active rest, which involves low-intensity exercises and activities, instead of being sedentary all day. While passive recovery is beneficial for recovering from pain and injury, active recovery tends to hold a lot more benefits, such as: 

• Increasing blood flow

• Reducing soreness and muscle fatigue

• Encourages blood circulation

• Eliminates toxins

• Reducing lactic acid buildup in your muscles

• Maintaining flexibility of muscles 

• Complements other parts of your exercise and fitness routine

• Aids nutrient delivery to other muscle groups 

Recovery techniques for athletes 

Exercises like yoga, cycling, or walking that keep your heart rate between 120 and 140 bpm can help with active recovery.

Dial into your mental fitness 

When we think of recovery, we often think of physical fitness first, but mental health is just as important. As a hybrid athlete, you need a strong mental game, and it cannot be compromised by an above-average belief system. 

Living a hybrid lifestyle requires juggling various training regimes, which causes mental exhaustion more frequently than sticking to one discipline. To reset your mental agility and focus levels, you must do everything you can to protect them during your training. 

Recovery techniques for athletes

Take time out of your day to meditate and practice breathing exercises and positive affirmations). Another technique you may want to practice is mental visualisation, which involves mentally visualising you achieving your goals. 

Mental visualisation helps increase neuroplasticity, boost confidence, and prepare you for potential scenarios in your training, races, and competitions. Even Michael Phelps swears by it.  

Schedule time for your hobbies

Sometimes, we can all become victims and slaves to our training, neglecting and overlooking the activities we love. Taking time out to participate in activities outside of training can serve as a distraction and a mental break and reduce burnout-related stress levels. Participating in your favourite hobbies can be a great way to relax and recharge. 

Get a good sleep 

We all know sleep is essential to survival and thriving in life, but how good exactly is your sleep hygiene? If we were to rank recovery techniques for athletes based on importance, we'd put sleep right at the top. It's incredibly underrated. 

Why?

Sleep not only helps muscle repair and tissue growth, but it also supports cognitive decision-making, attention, and memory consolidation. It can help provide mental clarity and focus and switch to different strategies between training and competitions. Having consistent high-quality NREM and REM sleep can also help increase your duration, reaction times, performance, and accuracy in your training. 

Recovery techniques for athletes

One of the best hybrid athlete tips we can give when it comes to getting a good sleep is to have a consistent sleep schedule. Go to sleep at the same time every night and wake up at the same time. Moreover, whenever you can, take naps! Five- thirty minute naps in the early afternoon can be crucial to increasing your concentration levels, alertness, and cognitive performance in training. 

Another important area to look into is your routine leading up to sleep. A wind-down routine can help notify your body when it's time to sleep and help you fall into a deep sleep more easily. Essential sleep techniques like reading, taking a warm bath, and reducing screen time and bright lights can save your circadian rhythm from being disturbed. To know more about having good sleep, check out our post on sleep for muscle gain. 

Know your nutrition 

What you eat has a direct link to your training performance. The right nutritional intake and balance of protein, carbohydrates, and fats can support muscle recovery and replenish your glycogen stores. This means you need to fuel up before, during, and after your workout. 

Recovery techniques for athletes

We can't provide you with the exact nutritional techniques for your hybrid training as nutrition requirements can differ based on your training, goals and lifestyle. However, we recommend prioritising your protein intake and adding a range of colourful fruits and vegetables to your diet to ensure you get your micronutrients, minerals, and vitamins. But to really optimise your nutrition, we suggest speaking to a nutritionist. 

Get your hydration on point 

To ensure top performance and recovery, you need to get your hydration strategies on point. Hydration plays a role in homeostasis and helps transport essential nutrients to your muscles to facilitate growth and repair. It also helps maintain joint lubrication, stopping stiffness and encouraging mobility during weightlifting or high-impact training, reducing the risk of injuries. 

Recovery techniques for athletes

If you're serious about training as a hybrid athlete, you have to do more than just drink 11-16 cups a day. You should consume water regularly before, during, and after your workouts. Moreover, you should monitor your hydration status by looking at the colour of your urine. 

But drinking water isn't enough. If you drink too much, you could be at risk of diluting electrolytes in your bloodstream, especially sodium. Sodium is essential for supporting fluid balance, nerve function and contractions. 

Especially if you're a heavy sweater, you may need to replenish your sodium levels alongside your hydration. For that reason, we recommend adding electrolytes to your training. Taking electrolytes like ours at Go Nutrition can help support you on your training journey. Our watermelon-flavoured electrolyte blend effortlessly dissolves in water, supporting your hydration and recovery. 

Consider creatine 

It's not a MUST, but taking creatine can definitely help aid recovery. Creatine helps decrease myostatin levels, a molecule that hinders muscle growth. Adding creatine to your diet can also potentially help increase cognitive function, enhancing recall, alertness, and reaction time. In other words, it can make you respond quicker in your conditioning and switch between functional movements more easily. 

Recovery techniques for athletes

If you're interested in adding creatine to your routine, it's important to know when and how to take it. The best way to take creatine is to start with a small amount and then gradually increase your dose. 

Mix creatine into water or your favourite drink after a workout or meal for effective absorption. To start with, try our creatine at Go Nutrition. The serving size is only 3g per scoop! 

Formulated according to scientific research, it helps support quick bursts of energy for lifting, training, sprinting, and strength output.

Focus on amino acids 

If you're a hybrid athlete training for an event, you probably know what amino acids are already—but do you know how much you need them? For hybrid training, amino acids are king; they serve a range of roles. BCAAs, in particular, can aid muscle recovery and decrease DOMs—a must for allowing you to jump back into training. That's just one benefit out of many. To know more, learn about the science behind BCAAs. 

Recovery techniques for athletes

You can get a lot of BCAAs like lean meats like chicken breast, turkey, fish, whole eggs, salmon and tuna, quinoa, tofu and more. But if you want to maximise your amino acid intake, try our Recovery Blend. Our recovery blend supports protein synthesis, aids recovery periods, and contains essential EAA and BCAAs. In addition to the health benefits, they're also packed with flavours available in both raspberry and tropical. 

Create a personal and comprehensive training plan 

If you haven't got one already, you need a Hybrid athlete workout plan that caters to your lifestyle and goals and helps push you beyond your limits during your training and for events to come. A personalised plan focusing on your training, active recovery, sleep, nutrition, mental health, and supplementation can be a game-changer for you as an athlete. 

Hybrid athlete tips for creating a training plan

Remember, when it comes to creating a training plan for your goals, there's no one-size-fits-all method. You have to create one around clear goals, your training schedule, and strength and endurance training. If you really want to optimise your training, you might want to seek the help of a coach.

Add saunas and cold plunges

Add saunas and cold plunges into your routine between your training sessions to relax muscles, enhance circulation, and aid recovery. Saunas can help enhance your blood flow and volume, adding more oxygen to your blood and boosting your athletic performance and stamina for your workouts. Moreover, immersing yourself in cold water can help boost your performance, too. 

Research shows that those who immerse themselves in cold water for at least 10 minutes after exercise can decrease muscle soreness. Both saunas and cold plunges are great opportunities for mental relaxation between workouts, helping you alleviate any stress from training and be more dialled into your performance. 

Recovery techniques for athletes

There are several ways to add sauna, steam, and cold plunges to your training plan. You can either opt for them immediately after your training sessions to maximise recovery or do them on your active recovery days. Often, it's best to do a sauna and steam session followed by a cold plunge. 

While the frequency and duration of these sessions can be controversial, it's recommended that you only do cold plunges for a total of 11 minutes per week, around 2-4 sessions a week lasting between 1-5 minutes at a time. Remember, before sauna, steam, and cold plunges, always hydrate yourself and make sure your electrolytes are replaced that are lost through sweat. 

Wrapping up 

To summarise this post, no hybrid athlete workout plan can be followed unless there's a recovery plan. If you're an athlete looking to create a recovery plan, remember to incorporate essential recovery techniques such as sleep, focusing on your mental health, nutrition, hydration, supplementation, and more.

But the most important part?

Take time out to do activities and hobbies you enjoy. Sometimes, training can overwhelm you. Doing what you love can decrease the likelihood of mental burnout and help you make the most of your training. 

Are you training for a big event this year, like an ultramarathon? Learn about the right supplements to take.