A recovery routine for runners in Amsterdam

A good recovery routine for a runner is mostly boring. Sleep enough, keep easy days easy, eat after long runs, and let your training load rise slowly. Cryotherapy, compression boots and a massage chair sit on top of that. They can make a hard block feel more manageable. They do not replace the basics. If you are building towards the Amsterdam Marathon in October, running the Dam tot Damloop in September, or just doing laps of the Vondelpark and the Amstel, this is how we would structure it.

What recovery actually means for a runner

Recovery is not a product. It is the time between sessions in which your body adapts to the work you gave it. Three things drive most of it.

• Sleep. The 2021 expert consensus on sleep and the athlete is clear: regular, sufficient sleep is the single most important recovery tool, and most athletes get less than they think.
• Load. Injuries tend to follow sudden jumps in weekly volume. A slow build with a lighter week every third or fourth week is well established practice.
• Easy days. Easy runs should feel easy. Conversational pace along the Amstel is a recovery session. A tempo effort dressed up as an easy run is not.

Everything else, from foam rolling to cold, is a supporting act. The 2018 systematic review by Dupuy and colleagues found that massage, compression and cold had measurable effects on perceived soreness and fatigue, with massage scoring best. The effects on actual performance markers were smaller and less consistent. That is the honest picture: some evidence, mostly on how you feel.

Where cryotherapy fits in a training week

Whole Body Cryotherapy at Freezlab is 3 minutes at -110°C in dry cold air. Runners like it after hard sessions because legs feel lighter afterwards and the mind resets. The evidence is thinner than the marketing. The Cochrane review on whole-body cryotherapy for muscle soreness found insufficient evidence to say it works or does not, mainly because studies were small. So treat it as a way to feel better and get a clear head, not as a proven performance booster.

Our practical rule: use cold after the sessions that leave you most beaten up, usually the long run and the interval session. Skip it in the hours before a key session, and skip it in the last two days before a race if you have never tried it before race week.

The Recovery Room and the massage chair

The Recovery Room is 30 minutes with Normatec compression boots, mats and a massage gun. A 2021 critically appraised topic on pneumatic compression in endurance athletes found it did not change blood markers of muscle damage, but people did report less soreness in the short term. That matches what our runners tell us. It is a quiet half hour with your legs up, which after 30 kilometres is worth something on its own.

The Massage Experience is 20 minutes in a Komoder Focus III 3D chair. Massage has the best evidence of any passive recovery method for perceived soreness. Pair it with Red Light Therapy in the same visit if you want a calm 30 minutes before heading home.

The day after a long run, and race week

Day after a long run: walk or cycle easy, eat properly, drink, and if you come to Freezlab make it the Recovery Room plus the massage chair. Save cryotherapy for the evening of the long run itself, or the next morning if you slept badly. Keep the whole visit under an hour.

Race week is about not doing anything new. If you have used cryotherapy through your build, one session three or four days out is fine. If you have not, do not start now. Compression boots and the chair are gentle enough to use up to two days before. On the day itself, nothing. After the finish, walk, eat, sleep, and come in the next day for boots and a chair.

How it fits into a week at Freezlab

A typical marathon build week for our runners looks like this: cryotherapy after the interval session, the Recovery Room and a massage chair the day after the long run, and a rest day with nothing at all. That is around 9 credits. We are a few minutes from the Vondelpark and next to the Olympic Stadium track, so it slots in after a session without a detour. Book a visit, or start with a Trial Membership to find the rhythm that works for your block.

Freezlab does not diagnose, treat or cure medical conditions. If you are unsure whether a therapy suits you, talk to your doctor.