A Los Angeles Chargers Star Shares the 4 Recovery Habits He Uses to Stay Healthy All Season

Football fans are frequent witnesses to how hard NFL players push their bodies. From game one to the end of the season, the goal for football players is to maintain peak physical condition, which isn’t possible without a solid recovery routine. In a recent video shared by the Los Angeles Chargers, offensive lineman Zion Johnson gave a glimpse into his post-game recovery routine as a professional athlete.

"Even when the player leaves the field without an injury, they've endured hours of high-intensity exercise, high-speed collisions, and heavy physical contact on nearly every play," says team doctor Amanda Honsvall Hoefler, MD. "We say that playing in an NFL game is similar to being in multiple car accidents. So, recovery really begins the moment the game ends."

Following football games, the focus is on reducing inflammation quickly, restoring mobility, and promoting tissue healing.

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Nutrition and Hydration

Nutrition is a cornerstone of recovery. Immediately after a game, Johnson prioritizes hydration and electrolyte replacement, followed by nutrient-dense meals to refuel depleted energy stores.

He eats a lot of meals with chicken, seafood, elk, and bison. Meals are carefully planned to include around 100 grams of protein per meal, plenty of carbohydrates for energy, and antioxidant-rich fruits, like berries, and leafy greens to fight inflammation.

The Chargers' training facility, The Bolt, also includes a performance nutrition team, providing each player with a tailored nutrition plan to support all aspects of recovery.

Massage Therapy

Massage therapy is critical for maintaining peak performance. Johnson schedules regular massages to loosen tight muscles, often hitting the hardest areas the day after the game. He usually does one per week following a game, but if he feels really beat up, he'll schedule an extra session.

These massages help decrease muscle tightness, boost circulation, and support recovery between games, reducing the risk of overuse injuries. But Johnson notes they’re not the relaxing massages you'd enjoy at a spa, and some are particularly painful.

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Mobility

Repetitive stress on knees, ankles, and the spine is common in football. Johnson follows an ankle and knee mobility routine that includes wobble boards, toe and heel walks, slant boards, and resistance band exercises. These moves improve range of motion, stability, and strength while stretching key lower-body muscles.

He also performs shoulder and back routines as needed, including exercises like lat pulldowns and face pulls, to maintain upper-body mobility and strength.

Advanced Recovery Technology

The Bolt gives athletes access to a wide range of recovery tools. Underwater treadmills, cold-water immersion, hot and cold tubs, saunas, steam rooms, compression systems, red light therapy, laser treatments, and shockwave therapy all help enhance circulation, reduce inflammation, and support tissue healing.