How to Recover After A Very Tough and Exhaustive Football Match

Have you ever played a match where the opponent were better prepared or have more skillful players that keep mounting pressure upon pressure over the 90 minutes of play... you and your teammates had to struggle and struggle to contain their on-slaught.

It may even be worst during a tournament knockout stages, when a match may have to go extra time upto 120 minutes or so, before going to penalty shoot out.

Playing football is a traumatic experience for the body. Apart from the immediate dangers – shoulder barges, flailing elbows, a clash of heads and bone crunching tackles – there’s all the explosive movements – sprinting, change of direction, jumping and tackling.

Once we’ve put our bodies on the line we bruise, swell and ache. It’s a painful business, but there’s no place for a whinging mummy’s boy on the pitch. If you want to achieve optimum performance you need to get back to training and prepare for the next game.

After such exhaustive games, getting your recovery right is the key. For Dutch coach Raymond Verheijen , who has worked with Holland, Russia and South Korea at six major championships, you have to understand the effects football has on your body before you can treat it.

Most times, what we are interested is how much a player earn in weekly salaries and bonuses, not many are aware what these players go through and how they are putting their bodies on the line.

“What everybody, especially coaches, should understand is that a lot of things happen to the body when playing football,” Verheijen explains

“You deplete your energy stores, you’re damaging your muscles and you’re developing a lot of waste products that have to get out of the body. So after the game a lot of things have to happen.”

To recover fast,  require rest, stretching out and possibly massaging the body, taking a cold bath... It also include eating the right foods, according to Verheijen.

Train and Acclamatize the Body
"Before playing, acclimatise your body to the stress it will be put under during a game or else you’ll be sore the next day. Replicate match conditions by incorporating change of speed and direction drills.

Refuel the Body
Refuel within half an hour of the game finishing – that’s the best time for muscles to recoup energy. A milk chocolate drink gives you protein and carbohydrate in one hit.

Take A Ice cold Bath
An ice bath will definitely get rid of aches and pains in the short term. Aim for 10 minutes at 10 degrees.

Eat Green Vegetables
Eat green veg and foods high in carbohydrates and protein within two hours of the match to replenish your depleted energy stores. Add spices like ginger which will help to boost your recovery.

Get Eight Hours Sleep
Make sure you get at least eight hours sleep and avoid alcohol, TV and caffeine an hour before you finally hit the sack.

Reset with this Exercise
The day after a game, hit the bike or pool for 30 minutes. Then stretch all the key muscle groups for 30 seconds. Make use of a foamroller [available in gyms and easy to buy online] to massage tight spots."