Do you often feel like you’re overly sore after you workout? Does this prevent you from wanting to go to the gym? If so, you might be curious to know some tips on how to speed up muscle recovery after your workouts.
Muscle damage and soreness is inevitable if you're trying to build strength and fitness. However, you CAN help your body recover faster by doing some simple things post-workout.
When we exercise, our body loses fluids and salts known as electrolytes (sodium, potassium, magnesium). Because of this, hydrating properly, regularly and after a tough workout is essential for giving your muscles what they need to repair themselves. One way to make this easy on yourself is to invest in an oversized cup that you can just refill with water throughout the day.
The exact amount of water you should drink will depend on how much you lose. If you're exercising for over an hour, make sure to add electrolytes to your water to replenish any lost salts.
Muscles and tissues repair and rejuvenate as we sleep, so if you're not getting a sufficient amount of rest each night, it's going to be harder for your body to bounce back from an injury.
Sleep helps muscles release protein-building amino acids into the bloodstream at an increased rate which helps them grow bigger and stronger over time. Sleep is shown to release growth hormones during REM sleep, which can help with muscle repair.
For every two hours of time an athlete spends awake and stressed, it can take about one hour of sleep to recover. This means that if an athlete is awake and under stress 16 hours a day, at least 8 hours of sleep are required for the body to recover from the overload.
After a competition or workout, you could try to focus on getting carbs and protein into your body. This can give your muscles the ability to replenish the glycogen they just lost through training and can help your tired muscles rebuild and repair with the available protein and amino acids. For muscle recovery, complex carbs are said to be your best choice. Complex carbohydrates are found in foods such as peas, beans, whole grains, and vegetables. These are shown to help to restore your glycogen levels in a healthier way.
After a strength-training workout, nutritional experts say aim for a 2-to-1 ratio of carbs to protein (meaning 20 to 40 grams of carbs and 10 to 20 grams of protein). If you completed an endurance (aerobic) workout like jogging, the ratio shifts to 3-to-1 (with 30 to 60 grams of carbs and 10 to 20 grams of protein).
Active recovery restores your muscles after exercise. Active recovery is often considered more beneficial than inactivity, resting completely, or sitting. It can keep blood flowing and help muscles recover and rebuild from intense physical activity.
Try a low-intensity exercise (like walking or swimming) after higher-intensity workouts. With active recovery, you can increase blood flow to your muscles and help remove toxins from your body that build up during exercise. This can help you feel better much faster after major workouts. One should avoid active recovery if feeling injured or in a lot of pain.
Massage appears to have a positive effect on athletes' perceptions about muscle recovery. Massage is most likely to reduce delayed muscle soreness when administered two to six hours after intense exercise.
The best types of massage to improve recovery post-workout can include a combination of sports massage, remedial, deep tissue and relaxation massage. Including these massage types in your post-workout routine is shown to help to relieve pain and muscle tension, as well as provide therapeutic benefits to the mind.
It has been proven that soaking in a hot tub not only provides relaxation, but it can also reduce joint pain, aid in muscle recovery, and help regulate sleep.
Heat therapy helps increase blood flow, stimulate healing, and relax muscles. In fact, you'll benefit from soaking in the hot tub before and after exercise. Studies have shown that both heat and cold therapy can promote healing and prevent muscle damage following exercise.
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