Don’t you hate when your body aches all day after a good workout? It can be painful to walk around, stand up, and sometimes even lie down on your sides. After putting your body through rigorous exercises, it needs time to recover and get back.
Instead of letting your sore body ruin the rest of your day, you can try different ways to boost your recovery and re-energize your muscles. Not only will it make you feel better, but it will also help you to perform better at the gym the next day.
To help you out, we have discussed 10 ways to improve recovery after a strenuous workout in the following article:
1. Hydrate
Without a doubt, the first and most important way to speed up your muscle recovery!
If you are working hard in your gym, you are bound to lose a lot of water as sweat. Workouts are meant for you to sweat and lose all the fat in the process. However, you need to replenish and rehydrate yourself too.
Since it is harder to keep up with your fluid loss during exercise, it is advised to replace it after you have finished working out. Most people only drink water when they feel thirsty or hydrate themselves before hitting the gym.
Water is essential for all metabolic actions in your body, even your muscle recovery. Thus, you have to make sure to hydrate after the gym to reduce fatigue and heal your injuries.
Athletes need to replenish their fluid loss when they are working on their endurance. Water will help to remove all the toxic material from your circulation after a grueling workout. In return, this will promote faster recovery and better performance.
Besides this, dehydration can exacerbate muscle pain from your workout. Therefore, you should try to drink a few additional liters of water on your gym days.
2. Sleep!
It might sound overrated, but resting can make you feel better and improve your overall health. A night of eight-hour-long sleep is essential for both; your mental as well as physical health.
If you are not getting enough sleep, it can affect your recovery and performance. Sleeping for just four to six hours every night is not enough to rejuvenate your body.
While you are resting, your whole body starts recovering from daily stress. This includes your heart, brain, immunity, mood, and even your metabolism. If you give time to your body to recuperate, it will naturally heal itself.
According to research, sleeplessness can negatively affect your body’s processes and hinders muscle recovery. Our body produces growth hormones while we sleep, which has a significant role in tissue repair, healing, and growth.
Besides your nighttime sleep, power naps during the daytime can help you recuperate faster too. They help to improve your alertness, tolerance, and boost your body’s metabolism.
3. Muscle Percussion Therapy
After a grueling session with your trainer, using a muscle recovery tool can be a blessing for your aching muscles and joints. When it comes to post-workout recovery, they are incredibly beneficial for athletes.
Such that, if you want the best massage for muscle recovery at home every day, you should opt for percussion therapy. This involves using a handheld device, like the well-known Exogun, to send rhythmic pulses of pressure to your deep muscles.
Exogun is a widely popular percussion device that comes with four massaging heads and a six-speed setting to target different parts of your body. It sends fast continuous blows to your muscles, which helps to release tension from stiff joints.
Besides this, it increases blood flow through your sore muscles to help reduce body fatigue and boost muscle repair. The slight stretching even helps to improve your flexibility and overall performance.
Compared to traditional hand massaging techniques, Exogun percussion therapy reaches the deep underlying cause of your muscle fatigue to give you multiple health benefits.
4. Protein Intake
After a strenuous workout, your muscles need to repair themselves. The healing process requires an abundant amount of amino acids to kick-start your recovery. Hence, it is quite beneficial to take some proteins after your workout to recuperate at a much faster rate.
If you consume protein shake either before or after your recovery, it can help reduce fatigue and muscle soreness. Besides this, according to research, eating a small protein snack before sleeping can even boost muscle recovery throughout the night.
Coming to breakfast, adding protein to your meal can reduce cravings, recharge your body, and rebuild the injured muscles.
So which protein-rich foods can you add in your diet to boost your recovery? Instead of depending on just supplements and powdered whey, you can add eggs, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, and lean meat to your meal to get all the essential amino acids.
5. Muscle Creams
Many athletes, gymnasts, and runners swear by potent, soothing muscle creams to help relieve sore muscles and aching body. If you have trouble doing your daily chores or you cannot afford to rest and wait for your tissues to heal itself, topical creams can take away your pain.
Working on the principles of gate theory, muscle creams like IcyHot, Tiger Balm, Art of Sports Recovery Cream, and Runner’s High Muscle Rub, can relieve pain and keep you focused on other tasks.
6. Cold Bath
While it may sound obscene, cold baths can be very beneficial for fast post-workout recovery. Many athletes, gymnasts, and trainers regularly use this technique to deal with fatigue and sore muscles. Moreover, they advocate its benefits to the whole society.
Whenever your sore body and stiff joints are affecting your routine, try opting for cold baths. It will help to reduce inflammation and relieve aching muscles for around a day or two. Since ice will anesthetize your muscle injuries, your body will be able to recover much quicker without dealing with the pain.
If you are not ready to plunge into ice-cold water after your workout, use ice packs on the aching muscles for instant relief and faster recovery.
7. Active Recovery
To help recover from strenuous exercises, many professional athletes swear by active recovery. Light exercises and movements can help improve blood circulation through your injured or overused muscles.
You can try light bicycling or a brisk walk for around 20 minutes after your gym session. In return, it will improve oxygen delivery and nutrients for faster recovery and remove waste products more quickly.
Besides this, you could opt for stretching your muscles for faster healing. Not only will it reduce the risk of future sports-related injuries, but it will also increase flexibility and improve your performance.
On your off-gym days, go for lunges, squats, planks, and other low-intensity exercises.
8. Rolling Sore Muscles
The post-workout soreness generally stems from the knotted muscles and fascia of our body. In essence, the connective tissue in our body gets stiff and contains sore spots that do not let us sit, stand, or walk without wincing.
Fortunately, foam rollers can help to remove these knots quite effectively. These muscle recovery tools are cheap, readily available, and assist in faster recovery.
You just have to roll out the foam or roller on the affected muscles and ease out the knots or myofascial adhesions. This technique helps to reduce and heal the scar tissues, which are most often the underlying cause of your aching body.
Use these rollers after your workout as well as night for a few minutes to see the best results.
9. Plan Workout Days
Instead of following a hardcore gym routine, filled with tough exercises back-to-back, it is better to organize your training. Your method has a significant impact on your recovery, and if you do not put together a healthy pattern, you will have a higher risk of injuries.
After a day of hard work out, make sure to add in light exercises, recovery, and rest periods in your routine. Most athletes use this type of training to build up their stamina and improve their fitness without overworking their bodies.
Such that, you can always try adding rest days and light-intensity exercises around tougher gym sessions. During your recovery days, make sure to continue stretching for faster recovery. In time, the period of recovery will keep getting shorter for you.
10. Anti-Inflammatories
Drugs like aspirin, naproxen, and ibuprofen are anti-inflammatory, which will help in reducing ache, soreness, discomfort, and promotes faster healing.
However, you have to make sure to contact your doctor before you start taking them for recuperation. Since these drugs can have adverse effects, it is recommended to use them sparingly and only during emergencies.
If you want to opt for a more organic and natural form of anti-inflammatories, you can always add turmeric, olive oil, willow bark, fatty fish, nuts, and green leafy vegetables in your diet.
Conclusion
As mentioned in the article above, there are many ways to speed up your post-workout healing and recuperation. You have to stay hydrated, eat healthily and stretch out your sore muscles. If you do regular workout and are often facing muscle soreness, using a workout recovery tool like Exogun can clearly reduce your muscle pain and enhance your performance.
If you maintain a balanced workout routine, you can help to boost your muscle recovery and reduce the risk of injuries. Make sure to add in rest days in your week or take a bath in cold icy water to kick-start your healing process.