Muscle Recovery Tips

Rest and recovery is an essential part of any workout 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. Recovery after exercise is essential to muscle and tissue repair and strength building. This is even more critical after a heavy weight training session. A muscle needs anywhere from 24 to 48 hours to repair and rebuild. Unfortunately, most people don't have an after exercise recovery plan. Training consistently is incredibly important, but if you don't listen to your body and give yourself a chance to recover between workouts, then your performance and results will suffer. Unfortunately, a lot of people get muscle recovery wrong. Rather than speed it up, they slow it down. Let’s take a look at tips on how to speed up muscle recovery after a workout. Stretching One of the best muscle recovery tips that you can follow every time, which was also help prevent future injuries, is stretching. After a tough workout, consider gentle stretching. This is a simple and fast way to help your muscles recover. As you exercise your muscles tighten up. Stretching helps you relax muscle tension and decrease soreness the next day. Sleep Optimal sleep is essential for anyone who exercises regularly. When you're active and work out hard, one of the most important yet often most neglected things you can do to help your body recover is to get plenty of sleep. During sleep, your body produces Growth Hormone (GH) which is largely responsible for tissue growth and repair. If you’re struggling with severe muscle soreness or just always feel fatigued, make sure you’re getting enough sleep. If you want to speed up muscle recovery, we suggest at least 7-8 hours a night. Avoid over training Excessive exercise, heavy training at every session or a lack of rest days will limit your fitness gains from exercise and undermine your recovery efforts. The muscle recovery phase after a workout is when your body rebuilds and re-energizes your muscles. Designing a smart workout routine not only improves your recovery efforts, but also helps you reach your overall fitness goals. Food rich in potassium As well as protein, potassium is a key nutrient in your post-workout recovery regime, and it’s a fundamental mineral that plays a key role in muscular energy. Without enough potassium, your muscles will feel exhausted, and the speed at which they recovery will be much slower. Excellent food sources include bananas and potatoes, and because these foods are so convenient and versatile, you can mix them up with a whole tonne of other foods. Hydrate Muscles are made mostly of water, so it’s also important to get enough fluids for them to repair and rebuild. The amount of water your body needs depends on the whether you’re male or female, how much you weight, what climate you live in, how much you sweat, and other factors. Proper hydration makes every function of the human body more efficient. Drinking water during and after your workout helps rid your body of waste products and prevents dehydration. Dehydrated muscles are more likely to be injured and often can result in painful cramps. More protein Protein is the building block of muscle tissue, and when you're in the recovery phase of your workout you'll need a lot of it. After a good night’s rest, eat a high-protein breakfast to start your day. After your workout at the fitness gym, be sure to grab a high-protein snack. Eating a light protein-rich snack right before bed can boost the overnight repair process. Drink chocolate milk Chocolate milk is an excellent recovery drink after your HIIT workout. It’s a natural source of high-quality protein and carbs which helps you build lean muscles in addition to helping your muscles recover. Chocolate milk comes with a whole host of health benefits for our body, not least because it is loaded with flavorins that look after our heart. It also comes with protein and it’s this potent combination that makes it a super recovery aid after an intense workout.