Working out is not only beneficial to your body but can be loads of fun as well. However, if you work out fairly regularly your body might need to be treated with care and rest periods in order to recover well enough between each workout session. Here are four tips to help improve your workout recovery times.
Stretch Out Your Body
Stretching before a workout is a good idea, but you should definitely always stretch after a challenging workout. This is because the muscles in your body will be unavoidably tight – having spent a significant amount of time contracting to help you complete your workout. Based on the workout you did, take some time to stretch out the corresponding muscles; aiming at the calves and the hamstrings if you spent some time running, or the quadriceps and hips if your workout focused more on squatting.
Give Yourself a Massage or Visit an Active Release Technique (ART) Chiropractor
Modern human beings – which includes you – find themselves moving much less than they should. One of the effects of this is that the myofascia – which is a protective coating that can be found around muscle and bones – become stuck, making it difficult for muscles and joints to go through their full range of motion. This can lead to faulty movement patterns and injuries during and after workouts. An easy way to recover from a workout and resolve the problem of myofascial adhesions is to give yourself a massage using a trigger point tool like a foam roller or a lacrosse ball. Doing this will reduce inflammations and keep the muscle and surrounding tissue supple. You can also visit a certified Active Release Technique chiropractor who will use manual techniques to directly manipulate your myofascial tissue and break up any adhesions. While this may be more pricy than using a foam roller it is definitely more effective.
Use Cold Treatment to Reduce Inflammation
Intense workouts usually lead to a build-up of inflammation in the body. An effective way to regularly get rid of inflammation is to take a dip in an ice bath. The cold removes inflammation by causing the blood vessels to constrict and expunge waste from the body. It also forces the body into a state of reduced metabolic activity, helping broken tissue to rebuild itself. The downside to using ice baths is that the cold they give is wet and takes a significant amount of time to run its healing magic through the body. A more expensive but effective alternative is cryotherapy, which exposes the body to ultra-low temperatures for three-minute bursts. This form of cold treatment is much more efficient and gets the muscles working perfectly in short order.
Eat Well
Strenuous exercise also depletes the body of nutrients, and it is necessary to eat well in order to replenish those nutrients. Healthy proteins like chicken and salmon will help rebuild broken muscle, and healthy fats like coconut oil and cheese will help restore joint health. Of course, it is necessary to also include vegetables and carbohydrates to your meals for energy and wholesome nutrition.
Working out is good for the body but so is a good recovery. Use the tips above to make recovery quick and effective.