If you’ve been training hard and pushed yourself during your workouts, you may have felt the after effect of DOMS (delayed onset of muscle soreness). While these aches and pains can sometimes be the make or break on what you do or when you next go to the gym, use these tips to improve the speed of your recovery and keep hitting your goals.
- Hydrate
We lose water and electrolytes during exercise through sweat. Make sure you replenish these with plenty of water or electrolyte heavy drinks. These minerals are essential for your nervous system. - Nutrition
You’ll be needing enough protein to fuel muscle rebuilding and muscle recovery as well as a healthy balance of fats and carbs to replenish glycogen stores (stored energy). Unfortunately sugary foods will cause more inflammation! - Pre-Workout Warm Ups/Mobility
If you’re going gun-ho straight into workouts and forcing tight muscles to stretch and work hard, you may be making the after workout DOMS worse. Try warming up before workouts with cardio, mobility or light sets of exercises to get blood flowing and loosen off. - Active Recovery Days
On days off the gym, instead of lounging around all day, try doing some very light exercise like a short walk, light stretching etc. This promotes better and faster recovery through increasing blood flow around the body. - Cold Therapy
Harder workouts can cause inflammation, muscle micro-damage and soreness. If you’re still feeling aches and pains a day or two after workouts try cold therapy. This can be in the form of a short cold bath or shower or even using ice packs. This will help reduce the inflammation in muscles as well as getting the blood pumping to areas of need as you cool then warm up again. - Bonus Tip…
Try to get more quality sleep. Sleeping and fully relaxing muscles promotes much better healing and recovery. So try to avoid the super late nights scrolling on your phone or watching films and get some good shut eye.
App Tip: Scroll to the bottom of the search plans tab in the app to find warm up/cool down and mobility plans.
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