Anyone who has ever trained hard has probably experienced the delayed onset muscle soreness that comes following a challenging workout.
The pain can be almost crippling, which means you’ll want to consider ways to speed that recovery time so that you can keep working toward your fitness goals and ease those painful aches faster too.
Stay Hydrated
Hydration is an important part of recovery after a workout, but with intense exercise, there’s more to it than drinking plenty of water. Rehydration is only possible if a volume of fluid in excess of the sweat loss is consumed together with sufficient electrolytes.
Electrolytes are minerals like potassium, magnesium, and sodium that are critical for the nervous system, but they get depleted during muscle contraction. Drinking coconut water and consuming a diet that includes plenty of fruits and vegetables, with an emphasis on bananas, avocados, and watermelon, can aid recovery and help replace electrolytes.
Tart cherry juice is something you might want to add as well as studies have found that drinking it after exercise may help to limit inflammation, muscle soreness, and damage.
Cold Therapy
While it might sound a bit out there and not too pleasant, athletes often take cold, full-body plunges following intense workouts to reduce inflammation and soreness. It helps to constrict the blood vessels and flush out waste products like lactic acid while decreasing metabolic activity as well as reducing tissue breakdown and swelling.
The warmup that occurs after plunging into the cold boosts circulation, which in turn speeds the healing process. If you decide to try this option, you can easily find an ice bath for sale online. Most athletes who use them recommend a water temperature that ranges between 50 and 59 degrees Fahrenheit, with an immersion time of five to 10 minutes.
Get more sleep
Sleep affects the entire body, from the brain and lungs to the heart, immune functioning, mood, and metabolism. When you don’t get enough rest, it can have a significant negative effect on both recovery and performance. Ensuring you get at least eight hours of sleep after a tough workout is another important part of a faster recovery.
Make the Foam Roller Your Friend
Soreness after exercise occurs when the connective tissue running through the body gets knotted up. Using a foam roller on those sore areas can help remove the knots (officially known as myofascial adhesions) and prevent a muscle imbalance from forming.
Post-Workout Nutrition
Good nutrition overall is important for recovery, but you may want to get some extra protein after your workout. It’s made up of amino acids that act like building blocks. Experts recommend consuming 0.14 to 0.23 grams per pound of body weight as soon as possible following strenuous exercise to give your muscles what they need to repair and rebuild.
Carbs are essential too. Your body’s glycogen stores are used for fuel during exercise, and consuming them will help to replenish them. Endurance sports like running or swimming require more than resistance training like weightlifting. The general recommendation is 0.5 to 0.7 grams of carbs per pound of body weight (ideally within a half-hour after the workout) for proper glycogen resynthesis.
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