Contents
Introduction – Ten Practical Tips to Speed Up Your Recovery After Training
Proper training is crucial for optimal progress, but your recovery is what determines your success.
Good recovery allows you to work out more frequently, push yourself harder, progress better, and stay injury-free. In contrast, poor recovery keeps you sore, fatigued, and stuck in a rut.
Read on to get familiar with the ten best practices for ensuring optimal recovery after exercise.
Eat A Balanced And Calorie-Controlled Diet
Eating a calorie-controlled diet rich in all the essential macronutrients (proteins, carbs, and fats) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) is crucial for your health and post-training recovery (1, 2).
Your body needs enough energy to carry out its internal processes, repair damaged tissues, and grow stronger in response to working out.
Tracking your calories is one beneficial tactic for ensuring an adequate food intake. You should also consume a wide range of whole foods, such as:
- Meat and poultry
- Fish and seafood
- Eggs and dairy
- Nuts and seeds
- Legumes and grains
- Fruits and vegetables
Stay Hydrated
Did you know that roughly 60 percent of the adult human body consists of water (3)? Three-fourths (75 percent) of our muscles are water, and even our bones are 32 percent water (3).
Water is the essence of life, and staying hydrated is crucial for your post-training recovery. Good hydration allows the body to flush toxins, carry out its processes (including muscle protein synthesis), and much more (4).
According to most guidelines, men should aim for 3.7 liters of fluids daily (125 ounces), and women––up to 2.7 liters (91 ounces).
Have a Solid Pre-Workout Meal
A pre-workout meal is one you eat approximately one to three hours before working out. The objective of such a meal is to provide your body with the nutrients and energy it needs for the workout.
A pre-workout meal is also beneficial for kickstarting recovery while you’re still exercising. To achieve that effect, the meal has to include some carbohydrates (oatmeal, rice, pasta, etc.) and protein (meat, fish, eggs, etc.).
Eat a Balanced Post-Training Meal
Having food after working out is necessary for recovering well and sending more calories to your muscles.
You should eat a good meal after training because you’re in a catabolic state: your body is breaking down tissue for energy. Eating counteracts these effects by providing fuel and building blocks for your body (5, 6).
Like your pre-workout meal, you should ingest carbs to replenish lost glycogen (a complex carb primarily stored in your muscles) and repair muscle damage (7). You can also have some dietary fats (avocado, oils, high-fat dairy products, etc.) for extra calories.
Take Creatine Monohydrate
Creatine is an organic acid your body produces with some amino acids and enzymes. The compound plays a vital role in energy production.
A creatine monohydrate supplement supplies a concentrated dose of the compound, providing several benefits for consumers. Most notably, saturating your muscles with creatine speeds up the rate at which your body synthesizes adenosine triphosphate (ATP) (8). These molecules are the primary energy currency of life.
Aside from improving your athletic performance, taking three to five grams of creatine daily can speed up recovery, allowing you to train harder and make better progress (9, 10).
Go For a Massage
Many athletes go for a massage after working out to speed up recovery and reduce the risk of delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) (11).
Deep tissue mobilization is beneficial for reducing muscle tension, preventing tissue inflammation, and promoting mobility.
If going for a massage doesn’t work for you, an alternative is self-myofascial release with a foam roller or a massage ball.
Consider Cryotherapy
Cryotherapy, also known as cold therapy, is a treatment where people expose themselves to freezing temperatures for brief periods. The temperature in a cryo chamber can be as low as -230 degrees F (-145 degrees C).
The practice is certainly not as established as other muscle recovery methods, but it can help. Some research suggests that cryotherapy can decrease inflammation, protect against oxidative stress, and reduce subjective feelings of joint and muscle stiffness (12, 13).
Get a Protein Powder Supplement
Protein powder supplements are not mandatory for making the best training progress. Still, such a product can deliver unique benefits and speed up recovery. It all has to do with the fact that protein powders provide a concentrated protein dose.
Protein provides the building blocks your body needs to repair muscle damage, carry out internal processes, synthesize important hormones (like testosterone), and more (2).
Instead of eating yet another chicken breast or serving of cottage cheese, you can take a scoop of protein powder and cover some of your daily needs.
Get At Least Seven Hours of Sleep Per Night
Adequate sleep is crucial for recovery, as research shows that sleep deprivation impairs protein synthesis, which slows down muscle repair and growth (14).
Growth hormone, a crucial chemical messenger involved in physical development and metabolic health, is primarily produced while sleeping.
Not getting enough rest could lead to a drop in growth hormone levels, resulting in fat gain (especially around the midsection), muscle loss, excessive fatigue, depression, and more (15).
Good tactics for improving your sleep include:
- Avoid liquids within an hour or two of going to bed
- Avoid caffeine within six to eight hours of bedtime
- Skip the nightcap because alcohol can prevent you from getting enough rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
- Avoid staring at a screen before bed
- Do relaxing activities like reading a book, meditating, or stretching your muscles before bed
Stretch Your Muscles
Stretching your muscles can speed up recovery, reduce muscle soreness, and contribute to superior mobility (freedom of movement).
First, stretching your muscles can promote blood flow, which would allow more oxygen and nutrients to travel to the area and repair muscle fiber damage (16). Superior blood flow can also help your body flush out metabolic by-products more effectively.
Second, some research suggests that stretching before and after exercise can reduce subjective feelings of muscle soreness (17).
Featured Image Credit: Photo by Alora Griffiths on Unsplash
References
1. Carbohydrates and fat for training and recovery; Louise M Burke, Bente Kiens, John L Ivy. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14971430/
2. Achieving Optimal Post-Exercise Muscle Protein Remodeling in Physically Active Adults through Whole Food Consumption; Stephan van Vliet,Joseph W. Beals,Isabel G. Martinez, Sarah K. Skinner,and Nicholas A. Burd. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5852800/
3. The chemical composition of the adult human body and its bearing on the biochemistry of growth; H. H. Mitchell, T. S. Hamilton, H. W. Bean. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-chemical-composition-of-the-adult-human-body-on-Mitchell-Hamilton/bf76b8c19ef4189aa9c5cb5dd97c72efb7fa9b55
4. Hydration to Maximize Performance and Recovery: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors Among Collegiate Track and Field Throwers; Lawrence W. Judge, David M. Bellar, Jennifer K. Popp, Bruce W. Craig, Makenzie A. Schoeff, Donald L. Hoover, Brian Fox, Brandon M. Kistler, and Ali M. Al-Nawaiseh6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8336541/
5. Maximizing Post-exercise Anabolism: The Case for Relative Protein Intakes; Daniel R. Moore. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6746967/
6. Nutrient timing revisited: is there a post-exercise anabolic window?; Alan Albert Aragon1 and Brad Jon Schoenfeld. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3577439/
7. Effect of glycogen availability on human skeletal muscle protein turnover during exercise and recovery; Krista R Howarth, Stuart M Phillips, Maureen J MacDonald, Douglas Richards, Natalie A Moreau, Martin J Gibala. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20489032/
8. Creatine supplementation enhances anaerobic ATP synthesis during a single 10 sec maximal handgrip exercise; Yuko Kurosawa Takafumi Hamaoka, Toshihito Katsumura, Masasuke Kuwamori, Naoto Kimura, Takayuki Sako, Britton Chance. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12701817/
9. Creatine supplementation with specific view to exercise/sports performance: an update; Robert Cooper, Fernando Naclerio, Judith Allgrove, and Alfonso Jimenez1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3407788/
10. Creatine supplementation enhances muscle force recovery after eccentrically-induced muscle damage in healthy individuals; Matthew B Cooke, Emma Rybalka, Andrew D Williams, Paul J Cribb, and Alan Hayes. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697134/
11. Effects of Massage on Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness, Swelling, and Recovery of Muscle Function; Zainal Zainuddin, Mike Newton, Paul Sacco, and Kazunori Nosaka. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1250256/
12. The Effect of Whole-Body Cryotherapy at Different Temperatures on Proinflammatory Cytokines, Oxidative Stress Parameters, and Disease Activity in Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis; Anna Straburzyńska-Lupa, Magdalena Paulina Kasprzak, Mateusz Wojciech Romanowski, Anna Kwaśniewska, Wojciech Romanowski, Maria Iskra, Radosław Rutkowski. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30402204/
13. Whole-Body Cryostimulation as an Effective Method of Reducing Oxidative Stress in Healthy Men; Agata Stanek, Karolina Sieroń-Stołtny, Ewa Romuk, Armand Cholewka, Tomasz Wielkoszyński, Grzegorz Cieślar, Sebastian Kwiatek, Aleksander Sieroń, Aleksandra Kawczyk-Krupka. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28028984/
14. The effect of acute sleep deprivation on skeletal muscle protein synthesis and the hormonal environment; Séverine Lamon, Aimee Morabito, Emily Arentson-Lantz, Olivia Knowles, Grace Elizabeth Vincent, Dominique Condo, Sarah Elizabeth Alexander, Andrew Garnham, Douglas Paddon-Jones, Brad Aisbett. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33400856/
15. Role of Sleep and Sleep Loss in Hormonal Release and Metabolism; Rachel Leproult and Eve Van Cauter, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3065172/
16. Daily muscle stretching enhances blood flow, endothelial function, capillarity, vascular volume and connectivity in aged skeletal muscle. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5978284/
17. Stretching Before and After Exercise: Effect on Muscle Soreness and Injury Risk; J. C Andersen, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1250267/
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