To help my muscles rebuild after I work out, I have a small serving of cottage cheese.
To recover from workouts I typically drink a 20-gram protein shake, float in the pool for 15 minutes, then do a hot-and-cold tub contrast soak.
Protein is crucial to supplying muscle tissue with the building blocks it needs for its growth.
Hundreds of ballplayers have performed well after Tommy John surgery, in which an elbow ligament is replaced by material from elsewhere on the body. More and more, athletes will perform with a bit of this or a bit of that in a joint or muscle.
It's good for your body to have a break. Even when you're training, you have to have a cheat day every week. The body reacts better to training if you give it intervals of not training, or you relax the diet.
For 'Rocky II,' I got a torn pectoral muscle, I got all beat up inside, I had to have an operation to splice things back together.
The idea behind resistance training is that you're basically tearing something and creating a microtrauma in the muscle. When the muscle recovers, it's going to recover stronger and denser than it was before.
My workouts are based on very heavy, fast movements using weights, the science behind it being that the faster you move a weight, the more fast twitch fibres you rip and then repair.
If you constantly pound your muscles, they'll never have time to repair.
If you go to the gym every day, it's not really good. Your muscles get fatigued. Your vocal cords are muscles - they get burned out, they get tired, so you've got to give them the chance to recover and repair during the night.
I try to get in some extra carbohydrates and protein the night before and during my pre-match meal. I also eat about 200 calories right after to help rebuild my muscles.
Post-workout, I eat a protein-rich snack, like egg whites or chana, chicken, fish with some greens.
Really, off days for soccer players are just recovery days. You're trying to get off your feet as much as possible.
