Workout Routine: If you’re in the athletic community or work out a lot, muscle pain and aches must be familiar. These can be caused by a wide array of reasons, but most usually, they stem from an overuse of the muscles or minor injuries.
With that in mind, even though a bit of soreness doesn’t spell the end of the world, who wouldn’t like an easy-to-follow solution to these annoying pains and aches? That’s where the tips you’ll find in today’s guide come into play.
Table of Contents
The Importance of Muscle Recovery
Recovery from exercises can imply a wide array of things and can be applied in many different ways. Let’s start by looking at several types of recoveries.
Kinds of Recovery
As a fitness enthusiast, you may have come across phrases like:
- Psychological recovery
- Nutritional recovery
- Active recovery
- Post-exercise recovery
- Recovery weeks
- Recovery program
- Recovery days.
The main reason most gym-goers do not have a recovery strategy is that they do not understand the importance of each phrase mentioned above. To get stronger, fitter, and/or faster, your body needs to change and adapt. This adaptation phase will only occur as the body recovers from all the stress you put it through at the gym.
Different Reasons Training Causes Soreness
- Every time you push yourself to the limit at the gym or on the ground, it:
- Causes muscle length imbalances
- Leads up to a build-up of waste products
- Suppresses the immune system
- Damages muscle protein
- Causes loss of minerals, electrolytes, and fluid
- Depletes the fuel stores in your body
5 Post Workout Routines That Can Help Reduce Soreness
The five tips shared in today’s guide are designed to help fix all the issues mentioned in the previous section. Without further ado, let’s get into this and look at the first tip.
Foam Rollers
Muscle soreness tends to last anywhere between two and four days. If you’d like to speed up the process and reduce soreness so you can restore your muscles to normal function, one of the best tools you can employ is foam rollers.
The idea behind these oblong-shaped tools is that they promote self-myofascial release (SMR). They do this by releasing tight muscles and any knots through targeted, controlled pressure.
To stimulate blood flow and flush out any blood that might have pooled in a targeted area, you should use foam rollers both before and after your workouts.
Sufficiently Hydrate
There is no denying that drinking water is an essential part of any effective post-workout recovery routine. That said, it’s not the most effective way one should rehydrate, and that’s according to Loughborough University’s School of Sport and Exercise Sciences.
During a 2004 study on recovery and rehydration after exercise, the school found that sufficient rehydration can only be attained if a volume of fluids that surpasses the amount of sweat lost is ingested alongside sufficient electrolytes.
Electrolytes, including sodium, calcium, potassium, and magnesium, are essential to everyone’s nervous system, and a huge portion of them get used up during muscle contractions.
One of the best ways to get sufficient electrolytes for muscle soreness is by including plenty of vegetables and fruits in your healthy eating habits. An even better way to improve your health and accelerate your recovery, though, is to get IV therapy from a reputable service provider.
IV therapy gets to work right away, quickly replenishing your body’s level of electrolytes while at the same time quickly restoring fluids and vitamins lost during your workout.
Always Stretch
You know that warming down and stretching after workouts is essential, but only the purest among gym-goers manage to dedicate these last 10 minutes after their workouts. Ensure you do, though, because proper cool downs and stretches are just as essential as the workout program itself.
Every time you skip those stretches, you’re not only missing out on some key moves that can help lengthen and elongate your muscles, but you’re also placing yourself at greater risk of tearing a muscle.
Eat Lots of Fats and Protein 30 to 60 Minutes After Your Workout
After intense workouts, your muscles are depleted of all their stored forms of energy. These include glycogen and carbohydrates, both of which fuel all those muscular contractions that allow you to jump, lift, and sprint at the gym.
This implies that after exercising, your muscles are poised to absorb every nutrient you can award them so they can jump-start the repair process and award you those long, toned muscles. Experts recommend eating fast-digesting protein and carbohydrate sources 30 minutes to an hour after finishing your workout.
Get a Massage
Good News: Science says that you need post-workout massages. Not only can they speed up recovery time, but several studies have confirmed that massages after heavy workouts can also improve muscle strength. The sweet relief you’ll feel afterward will be worth the 30 minutes you dedicate to working out the lactic acid build-up in your muscles.
