Here are 5 tested ways to speed up your muscle recovery after a workout to help you build muscle faster.
You always hear people talking about specific fitness training and diets but no one talks about muscle recovery.
If fitness trainers and athletes start talking about rest days and the importance of listening to your body, everyone will get to experience a lot more breakthroughs in training.
We all need to realize that muscle repair is more than just a post-workout shake. In this article, we will discuss 4 ways for the recovery of your muscles after a tough workout.
What is Muscle Recovery?
Recovery is crucial for any form of physical activity and training.
When you exert during training, it put stress on your muscle fibers causing them to break apart. During the recovery time, these fibers are healed stronger than before, which in turn, makes your muscles grown faster and stronger. Over-training without any recovery days can negatively affect your performance. Therefore, it is super important to give time to your body to recover.
1. Get More and Better Sleep:
We have all heard about the importance of good night sleep. But did you know that a lack of good sleep can hinder your muscle recovery progress?
Lack of quality and quantity sleep can spike up your blood sugar, causing an increased appetite which in turn, will make you overeat because you are hungrier and you’ll end up eating more than your calorie budget. YES! All that because of lack of sleep.
Sleep is also the time where your body undergoes protein synthesis. So getting, more sleep after a workout session, might make your muscles stronger.
Therefore, 8 hours of sleep is important for better endurance and muscle recovery.
If you want to optimize your sleep to improve your metabolic and hormonal health, you can try out the following:
- Turn off your gadgets before going to bed
- Blackout the shades to darken your room
- Sleep in complete silence
2. Active Recovery:
It is always great to take rest days to give your muscles time to recover. However, if your concept of rest days includes sitting on the couch all day and drinking protein shakes or tons of junk food, that might not help with your muscle recovery.
This is where the active recovery comes to the rescue. Try to do some low-intensity physical activity, mobility exercises, yoga, or simple stretches to get your blood flowing. The idea is to move to optimize your recovery process.
3. Drink Lots of Water:
During the workout the body sweats, causing you to lose a lot of fluid. When you properly hydrate yourself pre, during, and post-workout, you can maintain sufficient levels of fluid which is important for your vital organs. Dehydration can cause muscle fatigue, reduced performance, and other negative impacts which poses a threat to your general health.
The general rule of thumb is to drink between an ounce or half an ounce of water for each pound you weigh.
4. Focus on Your Nutrition Intake:
Protein is the most important muscle repairing nutrient that you should incorporate into your diet. Try to consume wholesome foods such as eggs, lean cuts of meat, and Greek yogurt. These foods can help speed up your recovery.
Some essential amino acids are released from this macro-nutrient that will not only help you bulk up but also aid in the recovery of sore muscles.
Moreover, I always tell my clients to get their pre- and post-workout meals specific to their workout and training goals. Because let’s get real, you cannot push your body without fueling it with the right food.
By no means I am trying to talk you guys into ignoring carbohydrates or fats. They are essential macronutrients for your gut, hormones and to keep your body functioning.
A balanced diet is key to healthy living. The point I’m trying to make here and I often tell my clients the same is that, protein in the Number 1 nutrient for muscles.
Other Ways to Aid Your Muscle Recovery
Besides maintaining a healthy diet, getting enough fluids, and rest days, you can take advantage of different techniques to improve recovery. You might consider using a foam roller to help your body recover much effectively.
Much of the soreness comes from the connected tissues becoming knotted. Using a foam roller can help remove these knots and prevent muscle imbalances. This is a must for my clients after every training session.
The Bottom Line…
- Watch what you eat and make sure to include protein in every meal
- Get a good night sleep and set the right environment to enhance the quality and quantity of sleep
- Stay well hydrated and drink water every 30 minutes instead of only when you are thirsty.
- Take rest days but consider adding light exercises or stretches on these days as well.
- Lastly, whatever form of workout you do, a muscle recovery period is important.
With the right approach and mindset, you will be able to achieve your fitness goals sooner.
If you liked this article, kindly let me a comment below. And don’t forget to check out our favorite post-workout protein meal.