Regular body exercise is essential for your well-being. For some time now you have been going to the gym but there isn’t much to show this. Actually, the problem might not be in the workout itself but on how you recover from the workout. Do you want to know how to recover faster from workouts? If that is the case then consider yourself lucky because you are at the right place.

Can you imagine how frustrating it is to hit the gym daily and lift loads and in the end, there isn’t even any added weight to be proud of? Have you ever been in such a situation and felt like quitting altogether? Well, before you do so, here is a great piece that touches on what you have been failing to do all along.

Enough rest and proper recovery are very important areas of any workout exercise. They are as important just like the lifting tasks themselves. In fact, the process of muscle growth starts the moment you stop lifting and concentrate on recovery.

If you have never known, during lifting muscles undergo catabolism which includes tear of some muscles. These muscles are repaired just after the workout. However, your effort is needed to ensure that the recovery process happens as quickly as possible. Below are some of the ways through which you can recover faster after an intensive workout.

1. Proper Nutrition

The kind of foods you eat during the day, after or before the workout have a significant say on your recovery after the exercise. The foods you take before a workout is very important as they are responsible for pre-emptying the process of tissue-rebuilding once you are done with the workout.

If you intend to have a vigorous workout, then it is recommended that you take lean proteins accompanied by some complex carbohydrates before you hit the gym. Being that digestion takes time, the food you take before the exercise shouldn’t take much time before being fully digested.

The food should be taken at least two hours to the workout so that you don’t experience digestive problems as you do the lifting. Even after your workout, you need to take food that will rejuvenate your muscle cells almost immediately.

Take a meal an hour after the workout so that the depleted energy is replaced almost immediately. The post-workout meal needs to contain at least 50g of carbohydrates and 30g of proteins. Why proteins and carbohydrates? Well, proteins can be absorbed easily and quickly. On the other hand, carbohydrates are the energy masters.

Your post-workout nutrition should also include some potassium supplements as your reserves are likely to get depleted after thorough training. This together with calcium and sodium are key minerals needed for muscular energy.

2. Have quality rest and sleep

You have probably heard it all over that enough sleep is very important for proper health. Less sleep time can cause fatigue and affect your mood which by some extent might bring psychological torture; something that you wouldn’t wish to have during training.

It is during sleep time that the body restores itself after the fatigue associated with the workout. You need to sleep for about 7 to 9 hours for the body to resume its normal operations perfectly well. You have no choice but to reschedule your daily activities so that you get to bed early enough to have sufficient sleep time.

During this time, recovery hormones such as muscle-building ones are secreted to higher levels. At the same time, muscle-wasting hormones are hindered. Any disruptions to your sleeping time will inhibit the release of the anabolic hormones. Get enough sleep, get your body rejuvenated and you’ll be rearing to go.

3. Get hydrated

Before and after you get out of the workout, you need to ensure that you drink a lot of water. During exercise, there is an increase in the body’s metabolic activities. This by an extension increases the body’s need for electrolytes and water.

Even as you’ll be trying to replace the lost energy after a workout, water will play a significant role in ensuring that the foodstuff eaten gets to the required places. Ensure that you take enough fluids that can adequately replace the already lost ones.

4. Get proper massage

A proper massage from a qualified therapist can also fasten your recovery process after a workout. Through massage, muscle stiffness is minimized. Additionally, massage can promote blood circulation while at the same time leading to relaxation of the muscles.

The massage might be painful at the start but it is worth it in the long run. It should be a gentle one for the best results to be realized. Most people might think that this is not a good way of how to recover faster from workouts but just try it out and see the results for yourself.

5. Stretch out

A gentle stretch after that workout is also very important for your recovery process. It is a very simple but quick way to help muscles recover. Stretching is often underrated by many but it helps improve muscle pliability and flexibility, which are necessary for muscular gains.

After an exercise, carry out some stretch so as to give you some soft landing spot after the vigorous training. Muscular soreness and tension can be relieved through stretching. But you actually need to have this in your schedule so that you don’t end up skipping it.

The process also reduces cholesterol in the body and this prevents arteries from becoming hard. Create at least 20 minutes for stretching after you are done with the workout and you’ll surely like the end results.

6. Minimize stress

Minimal or acute stress is mostly known as a good thing. Chronic stress, on the other hand, will automatically affect your workout output and to a greater extent your quick recovery as well. Inadequate sleep and work-related stress should be avoided in totality during the recovery process.

Your body will most likely break down if you combine chronic stress with an already worked-out body. Therefore, you should avoid stress-causing activities as much as possible. Stress will not only affect your recovery after a workout but the body’s general operations.

Always keep yourself happy so that immediately after working out you take the least time possible to cool yourself down. Stress-free life will contribute a great deal to your healing after the regular workouts.

7. Minimize alcohol intake

Here is another way of how to recover faster from workouts. If you are one of the guys who enjoy happy hours after working out, then you need to reduce the intake for you to recover faster. It is recommended that you take only a small amount of booze, just 1 bottle should be enough for you.

8. Have a cold bath

The cold bath helps prevent injury as well as reducing muscle soreness. Cold water repeatedly dilates and constricts blood vessels which in the process help in the removal of waste products from the body tissues.

There is some research that claims that alternating cold and a hot shower can also aid your recovery process after the exercise. Doing this helps reduce inflammation and soreness for close to 24 hours after the workout.

Applying an icepack to muscles showing soreness for over 10 minutes after a workout helps you recover faster. Try it out and you’ll definitely like the results.

9. Listen to lots of music

Music soothes the soul. It helps reduce stress and any negative thoughts. Music can really help you through a serious workout. But remember, not all music tunes will help you recover faster.

Always listen to relaxing tunes as they are more likely to help reduce your blood pressure as well as reducing the pulse rate faster after an exercise. If you can sing along to the tunes, go ahead and enjoy yourself.

10. Schedule enough recovery time

After lifting weights, there is a high possibility that you will experience muscle soreness. There are trainers who believe that the sorer the muscles become after an exercise, the more effective the session is but this isn’t the best way to gauge how effective the training has been.

It is important that you only practice to the levels that you can sustain. But again, there is dire need to have adequate healing time before you get to the gym another time. Muscle tenderness, flexibility issues, stiffness and things like that will obviously be expected after a workout.

If you get to the gym prematurely, there is a high likelihood that your muscle fibers will get damaged a second time. Unless you want to go for physiotherapy, it is important that you take your time to heal before you head back to the gym. You can spend between 24 and 72 hours to get maximum rest. Thereafter, get to the gym and get muscles better.

Conclusion

As you have seen above, the recovery process after a workout is as important as the exercise itself. That is why this article decided to tackle the issue of how to recover faster from workouts. You can always speed your recovery process through the tips provided above. You can combine one or more of these tips to your benefit.

Your training shouldn’t be in vain. There should be results to be proud of. You shouldn’t go through the most tiresome process only to miss the prize simply by ignoring simple stuff like proper recovery.

Which one of these tips has caught you with a surprise? Which other one do you know that I haven’t included here? Share your thoughts with me. I hope this article has been of great help.