Recovery
Sleep, nutrition, recovery strategies, and emerging therapies.
84 articles in Recovery · page 6 of 7
Alcohol and Recovery: What One Drink Costs
A 2024 meta-analysis of 27 studies shows even ~2 drinks reduce REM sleep dose-dependently. The data, without the lecture.
Read →The Autonomic Nervous System and Recovery
Recovery is largely a story about sympathetic and parasympathetic balance. How the autonomic nervous system shapes it, and how it is measured.
Read →Caffeine, Sleep, and the Recovery Trade-off
Caffeine's ~5-hour half-life makes afternoon coffee a recovery decision: a controlled trial found it cut sleep even 6 hours before bed.
Read →Resting Heart Rate as a Recovery Signal
Resting heart rate is the simplest recovery metric you already have. What trends in it actually mean, and what daily noise does not.
Read →Tart Cherry Juice and Recovery: A Look at the Data
A popular recovery aid with a surprisingly reasonable evidence base for soreness and sleep. What the trials used, and how large the effect is.
Read →Compression Garments and Recovery
A 2014 meta-analysis found moderate benefits for soreness and recovery. The caveats worth knowing before you buy the sleeves.
Read →Foam Rolling: Real Benefit or Ritual?
Small, real acute gains in flexibility and reduced soreness, minor overall. Where foam rolling earns its place, and where not.
Read →Massage and Recovery: What the Evidence Supports
Massage modestly reduces soreness and lowers creatine kinase, but the lactic-acid folklore is wrong. The honest picture.
Read →Sleep Debt and Performance: Can You Repay It?
Partial recovery is possible; full repayment is murkier. What the research shows about catching up on sleep, and what it costs.
Read →Active Recovery vs Rest: What the Research Favors
Light movement or full rest? A 2019 systematic review found only weak evidence that active recovery actually boosts performance.
Read →Creatine for Recovery, Not Just Performance
A well-studied supplement with recovery effects beyond strength — though the muscle-damage data is genuinely paradoxical.
Read →DOMS, Explained: What Soreness Does and Doesn't Mean
Soreness mostly tracks unfamiliar eccentric load, not muscle damage or growth. What DOMS actually signals, and what it cannot tell you.
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