7 Proven Tips to Maximise Muscle Recovery
By Space Coast Daily // August 9, 2023
A regular workout routine offers us the opportunity to exercise different muscle groups and enhance our cardiovascular fitness. A well-designed workout or training program also includes a post-workout recovery phase.
Muscle Recovery and Its Importance
Muscle recovery involves the process of rebuilding and repairing muscle tissue after intense exertion. When you undergo a demanding workout, you could push a particular muscle group to the point of muscle failure, causing temporary damage to the muscle fibers.
Fortunately during the post-exercise recovery phase, your body actively repairs and reinforces the muscle tissue. This restorative process not only heals the muscles but also enhances their strength beyond their previous state, allowing for muscle growth and development.
For those looking for ways to improve their muscle tone and enjoy a healthy lifestyle, it is important to include recovery periods in your training routine. In our experience, excessive training can hamper the necessary protein synthesis needed for muscle repair.
When engaging in challenging full-body weight and resistance exercises, it is important to incorporate rest days to give your muscles the necessary time for recovery and rebuilding.
To help maximize your recovery period, we recommend practicing the following tips during your routine.
Tips For Boosting Muscle Recovery
- Hydrate Consistently
We can never over-emphasize how important hydration is during workouts and post-muscle recovery. You can think about water as the lubricant for your joints, tissues and muscles. Just like machines need to be well-oiled in order to function properly, your body needs water as a lubricant to keep muscles and joints pliable.
According to the University of Berkeley in California, you should drink 7 to 10 ounces of water every 10 to 20 minutes during exercise to replace your fluid loss. You can also opt for a sports drink to replace the electrolytes you have lost during a workout.
- Eat the Right Kinds of Food
Eating the right kind of food after a workout will not only re-fuel your body, it will also help speed up your muscle recovery. However, don’t just eat anything. The right kinds of food can greatly impact your health and muscle recovery.
To fully optimize recovery, stick to eating high quality lean proteins after a workout. Consuming 20-40 grams of lean protein after exercising can help maximize protein synthesis to repair damaged muscles and enhance growth.
This is because exercising hard causes glycogen stores to become depleted in your body. When this happens you won’t have enough energy to begin the repair and growth process for your muscles. A post-workout meal that is rich in protein gives your body the fuel and essential nutrients it needs to repair and grow muscles.
- Use an EMS Machine
An EMS Machine is basically a machine that emits current to get muscles to contract. Electrical muscle stimulation is used to increase stamina, muscle strengthening and injury recovery. Many athletes incorporate electrical muscle stimulation to their workout recovery to improve their muscle strength and growth.
You can use an EMS machine at home to help tone and strengthen muscles. It can be used to kickstart the recovery process and reduce muscle pain.
- Listen to Your Body
In our experience listening to your body is one of the best ways to recover faster. If you continue to exercise despite the pain and soreness, you are actually hampering muscle growth which could lead to a more serious injury.
Listen to your body carefully. Don’t go back to exercising unless most of the soreness has gone away. If it’s painful, take a few days off. Visit a masseur to relieve pain and tension in the affected muscle group. Our bodies are not machines, so don’t treat it like one.
- Try Active Recovery Exercise
Some people can’t just stay put. If you’re one of those people who need to exercise most days, try active recovery exercises like yoga, tai chi or a sustained stretching workout. These exercises are gentle on the body and are low-impact.
Tai chi for example, focuses on slow and gentle movements, meditation, breathing and posture. This is a good exercise for muscle rehabilitation as it is relaxing and calming to the body.
- Massage Therapy
Studies have shown that massage therapy can help muscles recover faster and stronger compared to untreated muscles. Massage works by relaxing muscles and delivering nutrients faster to the affected area.
When you are being massaged, blood flows faster in the area promoting healing. An influx of nutrients to the muscles speeds up the recovery of micro lesions in the muscle that occur during training.
- Get Enough Sleep
We recommend getting at least 8 hours of quality sleep everyday to help speed up muscle recovery. When you sleep, the body releases protein-building amino acids to the body at a faster rate, allowing them to get repaired and build faster. Sleep also releases growth hormones which also help in muscle repair.
Getting enough sleep gives your body the time to undergo the cycle of repair and recovery that’s needed for muscle growth.
Bottom Line
Investing in muscle recovery can optimize your performance and prevent serious injury to your muscles and body. Staying committed to muscle recovery will help propel you to achieve your health and fitness growth faster, so use your rest days wisely.
