Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery

Description

All athletes from Olympians to weekend warriors must toe the line between training and recovery to maximize the benefits of workouts and reach optimal performance. For the longest time, coaches and training manuals have emphasized training. But now sports science is homing in on an even more fundamental part: recovery. The aim of training is to force the body to adapt to stress, and this adaptation is what makes you fitter and better able to perform. But to adapt, you need to optimize recovery too. You only benefit from training that you can recover from, and the ability to recover determines how much training your body can handle. Recovery, the science shows, is a crucial component of exercise training and it's starting to look like it may be the most important one. Good to Go assesses the science and claims of a wide variety of recovery methods and potions, and debunks the junk to give a clear picture of what we should actually be doing to look after our bodies better between exercising.

Christie Aschwanden is the lead writer for science at FiveThirtyEight and health columnist for the Washington Post. She's also a frequent contributor to the New York Times, a contributing editor for Runner's World and a contributing writer for Bicycling. Her work appears in dozens of publications, including Discover, Slate, Proto, Consumer Reports, New Scientist, More, Men's Journal, NPR.org, Smithsonian and O, the Oprah Magazine. A lifetime athlete, Ashwanden has raced in Europe and North America on the team Rossignol Nordic ski-racing squad.

One of the best science writers in the world . . . Good to Go is the definitive tour through a bewildering jungle of scientific (and pseudo-scientific) claims that comprise a multi-billion dollar recovery industry. -- David Epstein, bestselling author of The Sports Gene and Range The most important book about training you'll read this year -- Alex Hutchinson, bestselling author of Endure This authoritative, delightful, and much-needed book slices through the hype around athletic recovery -- Ed Yong, bestselling author of I Contain Multitudes Deeply researched and artfully written. . . a must-read for all athletes, from the professional to the weekend warrior * Wall Street Journal * Immensely enjoyable and relatable examination of the science of recovery . . . a tour de force of great science journalism -- Nate Silver, bestselling author of The Signal and the Noise How to best adapt to and benefit from training is still fraught with confusion . . . Christie Aschwanden offers much-needed clarity * Runner's World * Fascinating! Christie Aschwanden makes the mind-boggling world of sports recovery a hilarious adventure, and she mixes science with stories that everyone can relate to -- Jessie Diggins, member of the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team and 2018 Olympic Gold Medalist Appealing to more than just gym rats and weekend warriors. It's for anyone who wonders how scientific studies happen, and how they influence the claims on products found in grocery stores and athletic stores alike * Science News *