If you’re transitioning to a healthy lifestyle, there is no doubt that exercise is going to play a crucial role in that. With that, your workout recovery should be of the utmost importance.
If you follow me on Instagram, you know I’ve started 75 Hard which is a transformational mental toughness program. It is a major increase in exercise so I have to be extra careful about how to prep my body between workouts.
If you push yourself too hard or don’t take enough time to recover, your body can start to feel the effects day after day. Here are a few ways I am enhancing my recovery from working out.
Goodbye aches and pains. See you never.
Take care to let your body ease back down
A lot of the pain of recovery is what’s called delayed onset muscle soreness. It’s the pain you will feel not immediately following a workout, but usually the next day. To reduce this pain, and to help your muscles recover more effectively, make sure that you’re cooling down from your workouts with light cardio and then finishing with stretches. Don’t just immediately change out of your gear and relax post-workout. Hit that cool down button on that treadmill, and don’t forget to stretch!
Work the stress out of your muscles
Aside from making sure you cool down and stretch after an exercise, you need to make sure that you give yourself a little aftercare. Your muscles are going to be tense and they can use some help getting back the flexibility they need to settle back into space. A massage from your personal trainer would be the ultimate stress releaser, but if you don’t have one, then you should look at foam roller techniques from sites like Runners World. Work all the tension out of your muscles and not only are you going to have less chance of injuring yourself, but the soreness you feel post-exercise can be lightened, too.
Don’t neglect to tackle inflammation
If you’re feeling aches in your joints and back, rather than in your muscles, following exercise, then that’s not going to be the same delayed onset muscle soreness as described above. Rather, it’s likely that your body is having an inflammatory response to stress that can go on to cause pain to your joints. Switch up to lighter impact exercises for a while as you use remedies from stores like CBDistillery to soothe the inflammatory response. Some anti-inflammatory foods such as tomatoes, olive oil, and green tea can help, too.
Ensure you’re fueling your body property
Just as you need the right fuel to help your body gain the best benefits from working out, you need them to help the body recover properly, as well. While protein is vital for repairing muscle during workouts, healthy carbs like those shown at Bodybuilding can not only help in this process but restore your energy levels back to normal so that you’re not feeling overly tired out for too long after your exercise. You are going to want to eat roughly an hour after your exercise, getting both protein and carbs.
The tips above all directly address the causes of the pain you might feel after your exercise and what you can do to change it up. Hopefully, they help you get better at recovering from your workouts.
