How do you recover as fast as possible from training and running injuries?

Do you believe ‘The older you get, the slower you recover?

If you believe that, you are wrong!

Well, of course, partially right. Basically, when you are 90 years old, you would recover slower than someone who is 20 years old.

However, if you think it is irreversible, or someone who is 50 years old recovers slower than someone who is 20 years old unconditionally, you are wrong. Many runners who I taught them can recover faster than when they were 20s.

Also, one runner who is 66 years old now said to me ‘Thanks to Mr. Ikegami, I can recover faster than when I was 60 years old and I get faster again’.

I will tell you how to do that and why recovery ability is so important.

Why is recovery ability important?

First of all, please understand that how fast you can run depends on how fast you can recover finally. If you are a still beginner and don’t train much so far, you still have a plenty of room to improve and it’s easy to improve. In the beginning, all you need to do is going outside and run. It’s as simple as that. In the beginning, you don’t need to think about how to do it much. Just go outside and run and you’ll run faster somehow.

While if you have trained a lot already, it is difficult to improve more without knowing how to do it.

Especially for adults, we have responsibilities for work and family more or less, right?

Our time and energy are finite.

If you want to reach your potential as a runner under this condition, you need to achieve the following two things.

First, you need to train as smartly as possible. In other words, you need to maximize the expectation value of your training, in other words, you need to know training which gives you enough stimulation to get you faster and as easy as possible at the same time.

And second, you need to recover as well as possible from training and overtraining and injuries in case you get them.

Many people believe ‘The harder they train, the faster they get’. But it is completely wrong.

The mechanism of getting faster by training is adaptation. You don’t get faster by training. You get faster by adapting to the right stimulus and training is a stimulus.

So, if your training is the wrong stimulus to your body, you don’t get faster or at least you can’t reach your potential and you can’t optimize your training. First, you need to think about what kind of stimulus is the best for achieving your goal.

Second, if your body doesn’t adapt to your training, you cannot get faster. Training itself has no meaning from this point of view.

Here’s the three conditions of adaptation.

First, the stimulus is not too strong for you.

Second, the frequency of the stimulus is high enough.

Third, you need to recover enough from the stimulus.

Even if one of these factors lacks, you cannot adapt to the stimulus.

And basically, the more stimulus you put on yourself, the more difficult it is to adapt to all the stimulus.

But the faster you get, the more stimulus you need to adapt to improve your performance further.

So, the long story short, the more training stimulus you adapt to, the faster you get. And the faster you recover, the more training stimulus you can adapt to and as a result the faster you’ll get.

That’s why recovering faster is very crucial if you want to run faster.

Thinking about how to optimize your training and how to recover as fast as possible from training are equally crucially important. If one of these factors lacks, you cannot reach your potential.

I already explained to you how to optimize your training in my Ebook ‘The most effective training system for distance runners and marathoners’.

So today, I will explain to you how to recover as fast as possible, even faster than your young age.

How do human beings recover？

To recover faster, we should know how human beings recover first. We should know its mechanism.

If I say recovery, many people imagine charging a battery or fueling gasoline to a car. But once we are full and hydrated fully, are we recovered 100%?

We all know that that is not that simple. Then, how can we recover?

What happens inside of our body?

First of all, we should know that materials in our bodies are catabolizing and synthesizing at the same time always to be against the law of increasing entropy.

In this world, always materials go into an unordered state from an ordered state if we don’t put any force onto that. Or I would also say materials in this world always go into simplicity from complicity if we don’t put any force onto it.

The same law works for our bodies too. If we don’t put any force (energy) into our bodies, our bodies go into an unordered state from an ordered state, in other words, we die if we don’t put any force (energy) into our bodies.

Recovery means putting energy into our bodies to synthesize materials inside of our body and to be against the law of increasing entropy.

However, here’s the question. Where does that energy for synthesizing materials come from?

If it is a car, we go to a gas station and get gasoline and it’s fine. If it is a mobile phone or laptop, we connect it with an outlet and everything is fine.

What about us?

Do you connect your tail with an outlet when you sleep?

Or do you replace your battery sometimes?

Or do you wind your screw to keep moving sometimes?

You don’t do all these things, right?

Actually, we produce energy for recovery inside of our bodies unknowingly. That’s why I always say ‘Appreciate for that we are alive now’ because unknowingly the energy is produced and thanks to that, we can stay alive. We don’t stay alive at our will.

Anyway, we produce energy for recovery and the more energy we can produce, the faster we can recover from training, overtraining and injuries.

The next question is, where do we produce energy?

If it is a car, the energy is produced in engine and gasoline is its fuel. Then, where and what are our engines? Yes, it is not an engine but engines, exactly speaking, from quadrillions to ten quadrillions mitochondria.

The greater number of and/or better mitochondria we have, the faster we can recover. And the most important thing is that we can increase the number of mitochondria and its function by training.

Imagine, usually 25 years old athletes are better than 50 years old athletes. But that doesn’t mean that 50 years old athletes are worse than 25 years old normal people, right?

Usually, 50 years old athletes are much better than 25 years old normal person.

Just like this, if you train properly, you can recover faster than 25 years old who does no training, drink alcohol and hang out with chicks in every weekend. Meaning, in terms of the function, a 50 years old person is younger than 25 years old person.

This is also one of the reasons you should train. Many people think that older people are wiser and richer while younger people are more energized and fitter mentally and physically. This is true only if all people do not train or all people train enough and properly.

The reality is that 99% of people train not enough, not at all and/or not properly.

So, if you train enough and properly, automatically you can beat 99% of people on this planet. In a sense, it’s easy to have a good life because all you need to do is doing what most people don’t do.

Tough men in developed countries already notice that men are getting weaker and weaker. Young boys go to a club to talk to girls or join a weak sport club to hang out with girls, drink alcohol, play a video game and so on. Meantime, we real men, train more, work more, study more, earn more money, get richer and get in a better shape.

Many people say ‘You sacrifice a lot and give up having fun’.

But it’s not true because first of all, we strong men don’t need to talk to girls because girls talk to us and it’s a lot of fun with getting stronger, smarter and making more money than playing a video game and getting stronger and richer in a virtual world.

And all these things come from physical vitality and mental vitality, in other words, you need to recover faster physically and mentally. This is the reason why I always encourage people to train.

Also, I highly believe that you need to recover faster if you want to get more intelligent because most great scientists were still in their 20s or 30s when they discovered great things. It doesn’t make sense usually. It’s not sport, usually the more you study, the smarter you get.

Then why did many great scientists and mathematicians achieved great discoveries when they were in their 20s or 30s?

One of the reasons why is probably, you need energy to adapt to the stimulus and work very hard. Studying is also one of stimuluses. So, to adapt to something new you just learnt, you need biological energy and probably, the higher level you want to reach as a scientist or mathematician, the more energy you need to produce.

And of course, you need to produce much energy if you want to keep high concentration level 15 hours a day. Even if you want to get more intelligent, you need to produce more energy, in other words, you should train.

The next question is, which type of training you should do?

The answer is, training which increases the number of your mitochondria and its function, in other words, lots of aerobic running, in other words, lots of running which does not require anaerobic metabolism.

Let me cut the story about metabolism. Long story short, you need to increase the total volume of running with mainly non-hard workouts. This does not mean, you should not do any hard workouts.

In fact, I still use some hard workouts as a runner and as a coach.

However, if the purpose of your training is only increasing your recovery ability, you don’t need any hard workouts. All you need to do is increasing your total volume of running and the intensity to the extent you don’t feel hard at all subjectively.

The biggest mistake many runners make is running too fast.

In Japan, running is very often used for physical punishment in ball sport. Coaches watch them and if they don’t run as hard as possible, coaches yell at the players.

Also, we do endurance runs in physical education in a public school. Again, if we do not run as hard as possible, teachers yell at us. From my point of view, this is the biggest reason why most people in Japan hate running and cannot run as often as it needs to be to cause physical adaptation.

The biggest three factors of training are volume, intensity and frequency. And many people miss or ignore the frequency.

But the frequency is one of the most important factors to cause adaptations.

If you want to increase the recovery ability, you better focus on the frequency first and then try to increase the distance one running sessions and then increasing the intensity, in other words, its average pace.

I always recommend very beginners run only 1-2km every day. The purpose is not training but creating a habit. Once you create the habit, it’s easy to run every day or almost every day. And soon you notice how joyful running is. And then it is easy to increase the distance or you naturally want to run more. And then, you naturally want to run faster.

The basic concept is moderate intensity and moderate volume. In terms of volume, there is a normal volume for you. For example, if you regularly run 300km a month, 10km a day is your average. I know that you don’t run the same distance every day, but your average is 10km a day, right?

Probably one day you don’t run and another day you run 40km, but 300km a month is 10km a day average anyway. In this case, 10km is your moderate volume. The condition is, if your body adapts to the training stimulus and have no physical issue right now.

Increasing the moderate volume is increasing the normal distance a day for you.

And in terms of intensity, there is an easy pace which you feel easy subjectively and there is a hard pace which you feel hard subjectively and in-between there is a moderate pace which you don’t feel easy but at the same time you don’t feel hard.

Approximately 80% of your maximal heart rate pace is this pace. But there is a personal difference. So, you need to go for your feelings.

If you feel hard and don’t want to run that pace every day or if you clearly hear your breathing, it is not a moderate pace anymore but a hard pace.

While if you don’t get much satisfaction after running, the pace is easy pace. Moderate pace is still conversational pace but I’m sure you don’t want to talk, even if it is with your girlfriend or boyfriend. You can speak a sentence without any problems, but you don’t want to talk with anybody. That is a moderate pace.

While if it is a hard pace, you still can speak a sentence, but it is difficult and often all you can speak is only a few words and if it is a easy pace, you can enjoy the conversation if your running partner gets along with you. Don’t think it is a moderate pace because you can speak a sentence clearly but you don’t want to talk because you run with a runner who you hate. It’s a completely different story.

Anyway, the basic idea is increasing your moderate intensity and volume step by step. But it doesn’t mean you do the same workouts every day. It’s better to make a change a little bit.

The basic idea is focusing on intensity and volume every other day.

For example, today I do only 4km moderate run, and the next day I do 8km easy run, and the next day 4km moderate run, and the next day 8km easy run, and the next day 4km moderate run, and on Saturday 15km easy run and Sunday take a day off.

This is just an example.

If you are at higher level, today you do 15km moderate run, and the next day you do 20km easy run, and the next day you do 15km moderate run, and the next day you do 20km easy run, and the next day you do 15km moderate run, and the next day you do 30km easy run and then you do only 8km easy run. Something like that.

Normal intensity and normal volume vary between people very much.

For some people, 6:00/km is normal pace and for some athletes 3:30/km is normal pace. 5km a day is normal volume for some people and 30km a day or even sometimes 40km a day is normal volume for some athletes.

But always the basic idea is the same.

Also, I often put some light speed workouts like 5x200m after moderate run or 20x1 minute fast and 1 minute slow once a week. But these workouts are not for increasing the recovery ability but increasing your performance on a race day.

Just remember, your recovery ability basically depends on your normal (moderate) volume and normal (moderate) intensity.

Masculine people very often like to compete only the performance on a race day or competition day, but remember, the race of our life is going on until we die one day. We need to be ready to keep fighting that battle until the day we die. Don’t be macho man. You wanna be tough. Better do what you can until the day you die.

The third Ikegami Machine

Basically, you need to train yourself. I really hate the idea ‘Take this pill and you’ll get 20 years younger’. Train yourself before you rely on any machines, pills or capsules.

But even if you train as hard as possible and increase your recovery ability as much as possible, you still want to use something useful if it is reasonable. I totally understand what you feel because I’m also that kind of person.

At the end of the day, our time and energy are finite. There is the limit. So, I studied about recovery and tried as many as possible tools, machines, pills and capsules.

And one day I studied about mitochondria, DNA, how cancers, other chronic diseases occur and these chronic diseases and chronic running injuries do not heal. At that time, I had a pain in the bottom of the left foot for 4 years and the bottom of the right foot for 2 years. There was no day I didn’t feel pain. I always felt pain unless I was asleep. It was one of the hardest times of my life.

And then I just noticed that these chronic diseases and injuries occurred when mitochondria didn’t work properly and as a result, they could not produce enough energy to be against the law of increasing entropy. If the whole body cannot be against the law of increasing entropy, we die, on the other hand, if a part of our bodies cannot be against the law of increasing entropy, we get chronic diseases or injuries. And in my case, that was pains in bottom of my feet.

Then the next question is, what causes the disorder of mitochondria?

I studied further. And I figured out, oxidative stress like nitric oxide (Just think any physical and mental stresses) inhibits the cytochrome C oxidase function and as a result mitochondria does not work properly anymore. Cytochrome C oxidase is a very important enzyme for mitochondria. If the cytochrome C oxidase does not work well, mitochondria do not work well too.

And also again, if your mitochondria number and its number decreases, you cannot be against the law of increasing entropy well. Also, this is the reason why many old people get more chronic diseases than young people.

But in my case, I was still 20 years old when I got chronic running injuries in the bottom of the feet. In this case, definitely my mitochondria in those areas didn’t work properly.

Actually, there is another reason, which is lack of oxygen. If muscles are too tight, it inhibits the blood flow, meaning the blood flow cannot go into the area. That means, oxygen does not reach the area and that means, mitochondria cannot produce energy because oxygen is a fuel for mitochondria just like gasoline is fuel for a car engine.

So, in case muscles are too tight, we need to loosen up the tight muscles and I also did that too.

But other than that, if we or a certain area gets too much stress, the cytochrome C oxidase does not work properly anymore and that’s why mitochondria do not work well and that’s why we cannot recover properly.

In other words, if cytochrome C oxidase works better, we can recover faster.

But the question is how?

The simplest way is eating healthy foods and sleeping more or increasing the quality of sleep.

‘Eat colorful vegetables and fruits’

This is what we are told by our mothers and/or grandmothers, right?

They are scientifically right. It’s time to respect them more.

Another way many people don’t know is emitting the laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission by Radiation) which the wavelength is from 600nm to 1000nm to cytochrome C oxidase. But where is cytochrome C oxidase?

The answer is everywhere in our bodies because cells are everywhere in our bodies and mitochondria are inside of cells and cytochrome C oxidase are inside of mitochondria. So, if you emit a laser which the wavelength is from 600nm to 1000nm, automatically it is absorbed by cytochrome C oxidase and you can recover faster from training and injuries.

According to Mark Sloan who is the cancer industry, these wavelengths laser increase energy production and blood flow and reduce stress hormone, lactic acid, inflammation and oxidative stress.

If several persons who haven’t been connected with each other reach the same conclusion, it is usually the truth. Before I read his book, I didn’t know Mark Sloan at all, however, we reached the same conclusion.

Which machine you should use?

No one can change the physiological fact that laser machines’ effect depends on the laser strength and range. In short, if you emit the strongest laser which has the wavelength from 600nm to 1000nm to your body as wide as possible, it is the best.

However, here’s the problem. If it is strong, the range is narrow and if the range is wide, the power per area is weak.

There are machines which are strong and cover the whole body.

But there is another problem. It costs about 100,000 US dollars. If you have that amount of money and the space for the machine in your house (it’s as big as a king size of a bed), just buy it. It’s the best idea.

And also, if you buy cheap products (mostly made in China, there is no offense to China though), it’s broken down very easily and sometimes broken products arrived at me. I just wasted my money.

Considering these things, I created the best one for normal amateur runners, exactly speaking, the light is relatively strong and it covers about half of your body (the whole upper body or the whole under body if it is located 50cm-1m away from your body) and cost not super expensive (1200 US dollars).

Since I cannot change physiological fact, the laser power is not as strong as a real laser machine which covers only like a marker. But I used a certain lens which strengthens the light power.

And I will fix the machine for free in case it is broken even if it is 5 years after your purchase. But the machine is consumable. If you use my machine 2 hours a day every day, it lasts 13 years based on our electric products master.

Let’s be conservative. If you use my machine 2 hours a day every day, you can use the machine 10 years. We’ll ship it out worldwide for free shipping cost.

How you use light therapy machine?

No matter which kind of machine you use (no matter whether you use my machine or other companies’ machine), the basic recipe is emitting the light energy to your body 10-15 minutes once or twice a day by placing the machine 30cm-1m away from you.

The reason why I recommend 10-15 minutes per one session is a completely practical reason. If it is longer than that, many people cannot do it every day while if it is only 2 minutes, it’s difficult to get enough effect. So far, no side effect report. So, you can use longer than 15 minutes if you want. Even 3 hours light therapy is no problem at all.

But don’t use the machine in a blanket. Like any other electric machines, if you use it for a long time, the temperature of the machine goes up and finally it reaches 50-60 degrees in Celsius. It’s enough high to get burned. But what I’m talking about is not laser itself but the body of the machine.

So, if you place it away from your body, there is no problem at all.

But the reason why I warn you is, some people fall asleep during the therapy.

Imagine, you put the machine in your blanket and fall asleep and what will happen 2 hours later?

Now, I did this several times. The result?

Nothing happened. I just recovered well. Although the body temperature of the machine reached 50 degrees in Celsius in the blanket, it was no problem for me. But it is a problem for someone who has weaker skin especially for babies, right?

This is the reason why I am warning you now.

Also, the most common mistake is, emitting the laser to only pain area. Even if you have pain only in the bottom of a foot, the problem could come from the whole body. Even if it is a local inflammation, that inflammation comes from the whole body system.

So, the best recipe is always emitting the laser as widely as possible 10-15 minutes and then focusing on pain area 10-15 minutes.

I also set 40 Hz mode in my machine it’s because one of my customers wanted 40 Hz mode because many researchers concluded 40 Hz light stimulus increases your cognitive function and concentration. I also use this mode when I am meditating.

Other than that, some researchers say that continuous wave is better and some researchers say that pulsed wave is better. Based on my experience, also sometimes continuous wave works better and sometimes pulsed wave works better. I see no significant difference.

But, most researchers conclude if the pulse frequency is more than 100 Hz, it works worse. So, continuous wave or less than 100 Hz pulsed wave.

As I described earlier, the machine reduced the stress hormone like cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones are necessary when we work hard. But it bothers the recovery.

We human beings are not like machines. We cannot switch on and off immediately. So, for some people cannot sleep well when they train hard in the night. This is because of the high levels of stress hormones. After hard workouts, high level of stress hormones stay in our bodies for a while.

But since the machine reduces the stress hormone, it increases the quality of sleep. So, my best recipe is getting the light energy 10-15 minutes before you go to bed and if possible, right after you wake up with meditation. So that you can be more energized during daytime.

Also, Maruo Satoshi who won the gold medal at the world race walk championship in half marathon uses my machine and he also feels he recovers faster.

The third Ikegami machine is hand made by Mr. Okada who is an electric products master (He is a kind of geek). Since he creates the third Ikegami Machine alone, we can produce only 25 machines per month so far (I am negotiating with him if he can work more or not).

Every month it is sold out within 48 hours. So, you are lucky if you can buy it. If you want to recover as fast as possible, please click here to check the machine out.