RECOVERY POSITION!

The best way to get over a hard effort is all down to science and physiology.

- PROF. ROSS TUCKER

Are you Team Head or Team Knees? When I began running in high school, I was forced by my very first coach to put my hands on my head, and stand tall, when recovering from hard track interval sessions. My default previously had been to bend over, put my hands on my knees, and take 10 to 20 seconds' worth of deep breaths - and then get ready for the next repeat.

But no, said the coach. "Open the lungs!" Which happens when your hands are on your head. You shouldn't bend over, because that achieves exactly the opposite.

"Bending down also shows weakness. Stand tall," was another of his motivations.

I remember doing this; I instantly felt worse than when I was bent over, hands on knees. And I found it harder to breathe standing up. And then putting my hands on my head seemed to make it even worse.

But what did I know? My coach was the expert.

Now, almost 30 years later, my experience has been borne out by some research. In what was a pretty simple study, researchers in Washington got 20 women footballers to do hard four-minute running repeats on a treadmill, and then made them recover between repeats for three minutes - either with their hands on their knees, or with their hands on their heads. Then they measured heart rate and breathing rate, to compare the two recovery positions.

KNEES FTW