Rest and recovery is an essential part of any physical training routine. Your after-exercise recovery routine has a big impact on your fitness gains and sports performance and allows you to train much more effectively. Unfortunately, most people don’t have an after exercise recovery plan. Here are some tips to get your post-workout plans on track.
Why is Recovery Important?
Recovery after exercise is essential to muscle and tissue repair and strength building. This is even more critical after a heavyweight training session. A muscle needs anywhere from 24 to 48 hours to repair and rebuild, and working it again too soon simply leads to tissue breakdown instead of building. There are as many methods of recovery as there are athletes. The following are some of the most commonly recommended by the experts.
Restore Lost Fluids
You lose a lot of fluid during exercise and ideally, you should be replacing it during exercise, but filling up after exercise is an easy way to boost your recovery. Water supports every metabolic function and nutrient transfer in the body and having plenty of water will improve every bodily function. Adequate fluid replacement is even more important for endurance athletes who lose large amounts of water during hours of sweating.
Eat Healthy, Recovery-Rich Foods
After depleting your energy stores with exercise, you need to refuel if you expect your body to recover, repair tissues, get stronger and be ready for the next challenge. This is even more important if you are performing endurance exercise day after day or trying to build muscle.
Ideally, you should try to eat within 60 minutes of the end of your workout and make sure you include some high-quality protein and carbohydrates.
Rest and Relax
Relax and unwind as this is the best way to recover. Your body has an amazing capacity to take care of itself if you allow it some time. Resting after a hard workout allows the repair and recovery process to happen at a natural pace. It’s not the only thing you can or should do to promote recovery, but sometimes doing nothing is the easiest thing to do.
Stretch It Out
After a tough workout, consider gentle stretching. This is a simple and fast way to help your muscles recover.
Perform Active Recovery
Easy, gentle movement (such as NormaTec Compression Therapy) improves circulation, which helps promote nutrient and waste product transport throughout the body. In theory, this helps the muscles repair and refuel faster.
Do °CRYOtherapy
Countless athletes, celebrities and fitness influencers swear by cryotherapy to recover faster, reduce muscle soreness and prevent injury. The theory behind this method is that by repeatedly constricting and dilating blood vessels helps remove (or flush out) waste products in the tissues. Choose between Whole body and localized cryotherapy to achieve your desired results.