Post-workout recovery can be long, especially if you practice resistance training. When you start exercising, you may experience delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). However, reduce your recovery time by following some health tips. Here are six ways to help your muscles recover faster.
1. Getting a Protein Boost
Getting enough protein is essential for building muscle and ensuring rapid recovery after a workout. You can consume protein-rich food a few hours before or after working out. Either way, apps like SideChef and FitMen Cook are invaluable resources with countless recipe options.
SideChef is a healthy cooking app that gives you personalized recommendations based on the ingredients you have on hand, your cooking goals, and dietary restrictions. If you’re new to cooking, don’t have much time, or want to keep your pantry to a minimum, give SideChef a try.
FitMenCook is another cooking app focused on fitness. Here, you can choose from over 800 healthy and protein-rich recipes. This app makes calorie tracking easy with a detailed nutritional breakdown of each recipe. Additionally, you can watch quick tutorial videos for each recipe.
Having a recipe and meal planner on hand can save time and take away the hassle of manually searching for healthy meals. If you follow a specific diet like vegan, keto, or low-carb, having a meal planner is essential for meeting your daily protein goals.
2. Double Up on Hydration
Hydrating after a workout is important for faster recovery. Sweating and sweating help keep you cool. But you need to actively replenish the fluid lost after exercise. Thus, a simple water reminder app or a smart water bottle can help you stay hydrated always.
A study in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition states that even a 2% water deficit can affect your physical performance. Water Reminder app sends you notifications from time to time. You can also manually enter any other fluids you consume and it adjusts your daily needs accordingly.
Alternatively, smart water bottles are more effective. Chances are you might miss out on app notifications, but a glowing water bottle is hard to miss. HidrateSpark’s smart bottles accurately track your water intake and will light up when it’s time to drink. You can also access your hydration statistics on the HidrateSpark app.
3. Get Enough Sleep
Optimal sleep is an indispensable tool for rapid muscle recovery. Nutritional needs alone won’t help your muscles recover if you don’t allow yourself to rest. So pay attention to getting good sleep. It starts with tracking your sleep patterns and day-to-day health.
WHOOP 4.0 is one of the best sleep trackers on the market. Apart from tracking your sleep patterns, it also measures your sleep latency and tells you how much sleep you need. A useful feature of WHOOP is its estimation of the amount of stress your body has endured after a workout.
Understanding your sleep performance can help you improve it. WHOOP’s Sleep Coach analyzes your stress and suggests when you need to sleep. If you follow a personalized sleep plan, you can recover much faster.
4. Try Massage
Extreme muscle soreness after exercise is difficult to treat internally. For short-term relief, massagers can be extremely useful. The Theragun Pro is one of the best massagers that enhances muscle recovery by relieving stress.
The Theragun is an effective tool for deep muscle treatment. It provides 60 lbs of force at adjustable speeds using a soft attachment. This can help relax your muscles and significantly affect post-workout recovery. You also get different attachments with the massager. For example, the thumb attachment is suitable for massaging the lower back and various trigger points.
Another way to massage is using foam rollers. A foam roller is a simple piece of equipment that with the right use eases muscle soreness. Foam rolling is a popular iOS app that can help you target the right muscle groups. It contains a library of foam rolling exercises with pictures, instructions and video demonstrations for each exercise.
5. Engage in Active Recovery
While rest and sleep are great long-term solutions, active recovery is another proven approach. This is a great option if you feel like you can’t do anything on a rest day.
Brisk walking, bicycling and yoga are good active recovery workouts. If you want to go for a walk outside after working out, try Strava or charity miles. Strava is best for accurate analysis. It can sync data with your fitness wearables and track your route.