If you’re working out regularly and properly, experiencing sore muscles can’t be avoided. When you train and put your muscles to good use, you’re basically damaging them by creating micro tears. This is a good thing, because after you’re done with your training session, the body starts to repair itself, and that process is when your muscles get bigger and stronger, as they adjust to your training intensity.
All of this also means that you must provide your body with enough time to rest. This makes muscle relaxation an essential component of a great workout. Without the right recovery protocol and by exercising your muscles beyond their current endurance levels and with improper nutrition, you won’t be able to do anything but crash in your bed. Don’t make this mistake, maximize your post-workout recovery instead.
1. Stretch
Stretching is critical for decreasing muscle stiffness and promoting recovery. Stretch before and right after your gym session when your muscles are most limber and at their warmest. Perform hamstring, quadriceps, triceps, calf, oblique, and back stretch exercises. By doing this, you’ll increase your muscle pliability and flexibility, and experience the peak of your potential muscle gains. Cool down and stretch about 20 minutes after every workout. If you tend to miss a stretching session, be sure to take it more seriously and plan for it. This is among the best ways for downplaying up-and-coming soreness and relieving muscular tension.
2. Drink water
Water expels from your body every time you move. Your body’s water supplies need to be replenished after an intense workout in order to increase your flexibility and strength and decrease muscle soreness. There’s a simple method to figure out how much water you need to drink after a workout: before each workout, stand on a scale to weigh yourself, and then do it again after the workout. The weight you have lost during the workout is strictly water weight. Drink that weight in liquid (plus 25-50% to make up for what you’ll lose in urine) in order to replenish your supplies.
3. Foam rolling
The rolling and compression of tissue help to improve your muscular pliability as it stimulates fluid movement and healing processes in your body. The foam rolling routine can do a lot more than just basic stretching. It can assist with post-workout muscle soreness and have a drastic and immediate impact on your performance and overall health. It has also been gaining in popularity among top elite athletes, so get yourself a foam roller, learn some good foam roller moves, and recover your sore muscles when you get home after a hard workout.
4. Sleep
It’s quite interesting how people fail to provide themselves with enough sleep, in spite of knowing how important sleep is. Lack of sleep can cause various health issues, and enough sleep is also the most obvious thing to grant yourself after an intense workout session. We can blame the times we live in for this lack of sleep because at one point we have a pile of daily obligations and work that just cannot wait. Sacrificing hours of sleep impairs physical health, but it also makes you weaker mentally, which can affect your workout motivation as well. Try to adapt your daily schedule to a minimum of 7 hours of sleep each night.
5. Marijuana (an out-of-the-box recovery aid)**
The stigma that is attached to marijuana about being a “gateway drug” is slowly fading, with many countries decriminalizing its use and possession in small amounts. It’s already an underground habit in the running community, and many runners are successfully combining cannabis with sports. Bodybuilders use it as well, as a means for reducing stress and anxiety, improving muscle relaxation and sleep time and an anti-inflammatory aid. Marijuana has been decriminalized in many U.S. states, such as Washington DC, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maine, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Connecticut, California, and a few more. Nevada residents can get their post-workout recovery by using medical marijuana in Las Vegas. Before you do so, make sure you research different cannabis strains and talk to dispensary employees about the dosage (it depends whether you want to smoke it or consume a cannabis concentrate).
There are many ways to relieve your sore muscles when you get home from the gym. Take an Epsom salt bath, have a massage, or consider stimulating your muscle trigger points with a dry needling technique. In the end, you shouldn’t sit down and do nothing in order to recover. Opt for active recovery by going out for a brisk walk, riding a bicycle, doing some light mobility exercises, or throwing a Frisbee in the park with your friends. Treat your sore muscles the right way to maximize your training efforts.
**DISCLAIMER SKFIT Life does not promote or condone the use of marijuana in any form or for any purpose, this is strictly the opinion of the blogger, Luke Douglas, mrlukeidouglas@gmail.com, www.ripped.me
