January 31st, 2019 | Updated on February 21st, 2022
Exercising plays a key role in keeping your body fit internally and externally. And after a great workout, you want to feel exhilarated and energized rather than muttering an “ouch” every time you take a step or lift your arm.
You may also find yourself having difficulty getting out of bed the next day and just feeling awfully fatigued. This all, in turn, can affect your next workout session. And that is just plain annoying to deal with, to be honest.
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But this is how your body communicates to you that it needs some time to recover so it can rebuild and re-energize itself. However, the length of the recovery time when proven to be long can serve as an obstacle in your workout regime. To ensure your body heals faster than it does, you need to basically improve your recovery time.
So here are 10 Ways to Speed Up Your Recovery Time that you can remember at the tip of your fingers.
Let us begin!
1. Stay Hydrated
You know it already but let us just go through it again to ensure it sticks. You often forget to drink water throughout the day and the times you do drink is usually not enough. You must understand that keeping yourself hydrated is essential for a lot of reasons.
One of which is to improve your recovery time. Your body often suffers from aches and stiff muscles due to dehydration and to avoid that, you just need to drink enough water.
This is especially important as you sweat a lot when you workout, so you are losing a lot of water from your body that way. So if you find yourself to someone who sweats a lot or suffer from painful muscles after a good workout session, its time you increase your water intake.
2. Sleep Is Not For The Weak
There is a misconception that sleeping is for the weak and pain is gain. Now indeed, good workouts do result in some pain you have to go through but to think that sleep is for the weak is probably not the best motto to live by.
Your body needs time to recover and the best time it does so is when you are asleep. The cells get to work to rebuild themselves and deal with any damage, improving your immune system.
If you sacrifice your sleep to workout, you are not really doing your body any favors there. You will then find yourself fatigued and having elongated recovery periods. So if you want to speed up your recovery time, you need to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep every day.
3. Say Hello To Massages
Who can ever say no to massages? Well, even if you did, its time you start saying yes. Massages help relieve muscle pain, open those unnecessary knots and deal with scar tissue.
It also helps improve your body’s overall blood circulation which means your muscles get what they deserve. And if you have to be honest with yourself, a good massage is extremely relaxing which allows you to relieve yourself from any other stress for a while.
That itself can help improve your recovery time. You can either go to a professional masseuse or ask a friend/significant other to give you one.
4. Ice Away
You better be singing Vanilla Ice’s “Ice, Ice, baby” because this is all this tip is about. You can take an ice pack and apply it on those pesky muscle aches or sore muscles for about 20 minutes.
It helps them heal faster but if you want to take it a step further, you can engage in contrast water therapy. That means often switching between hot and cold showers. This helps relieve muscle aches, save you from injuries and improves your recovery time.
All because the constant constriction and dilation of blood vessels get rid of the unnecessary products in your tissues. If you do not have it in you to go through with that, simply take ice baths or indulge yourself in ice massages. They can do you some good.
5. Stretch It Out
It is an amateur mistake to not warm your body up before you start your workout and this mistake often leads to consequences.
You can find yourself unable to engage in the workout longer, suffering from cramps and muscle soreness after the workout and may even suffer from injuries.
Your muscles need to warm up before you get to exercising and the best way to do so is by stretching. Not only does it prevent future injuries but it speeds up your recovery time.
Indulge in some gentle stretching after the workout as well to allow your muscles to relax and recover. Its like petting a dog after taking it out for a run.
And if you do not intend to workout on some days, just do some planks or lunges to stretch your muscles out and keep those muscles engaged.
6. High-Protein And Healthy Diets
You knew that a healthy diet would be a point here somewhere so here it is. High-protein meals are great for your muscles and researchers suggest that by having one before you sleep improves your post-workout recovery.
And if you find yourself craving unhealthy foods or eating unnecessarily, a high-protein breakfast or shake can help curb those cravings. You need your body to get the best intake if you want it to repair and strengthen itself.
Not only that, but if you are one who is working out to build some serious muscle, your body needs enough protein and carbohydrates to let that happen. So keep an eye on what you eat and try to include foods from all the food groups, avoid unhealthy foods and time yourself.
7. Supplements Can Do Good
If you find yourself in an awful rush to improve your recovery time and are frustrated how the measures you take are not enough, you can turn to supplements to help achieve this goal.
All natural supplements help individuals achieve their goals such as improved recovery time without the negative side-effects. The Dianabol Cycle is one example that allows you a categorization of the dosage and usage in accordance to your needs and body capacity.
It allows you to bulk up, increase your strength and improve your recovery time. All of this with the most important benefit of saving you from any harmful side-effects.
8. Have A Smart Workout Regime
This is plain and simple. You need to understand what your body needs, what it can handle and when to engage it in workouts. You cannot over-train yourself and expect your body to be a-okay.
Putting your body through excessive stress, workouts and limiting the relaxation periods can result in delayed recovery. Not only that, but your body is practically breaking down from within. Get to researching and know whether the workout regime you picked is right for you or not.
Try having a personal coach or trainer help you out in planning your exercises so you can avoid injuries, target the essential muscles and improve your health rather than worsen it. Do not try to overdo things in an effort to get ahead or build more muscle. Stretching a rubber-band beyond its capacity causes it to snap, mate. Remember that.
9. Allow Your Body Some R&R
Allow yourself time for some good ol’ rest and relaxation. As mentioned in the previous point, over-training your body and constantly exercising is not going to get you anywhere except to a doctor possibly.
Recovery time is going to stick, the key is to speed it up, not get rid of it completely. And to recover, you need to rest up and relax. Rest is advised all the time for different reasons, whether it is to recover from an illness or injury or to simply get your body up and running faster after a good workout.
Maybe watch a nice movie or meditate, but let your body unravel and give it some time off from all those hard exercises. It is important to understand a good balance between resting and exercising is important for your body’s health and thus, its recovery time.
10. Engage In Active Recovery
Active recovery refers to exercises that are less in intensity because staying in bed all day is not the only thing recovery is about. Try to fit in 1-2 days of active recovery in your weekly workout schedule where you go out for a walk, swim or even do some yoga.
This allows your body relief and prevention from muscle aches and stiffness. Not only that, but your joints’ health seems to benefit as well just like your body’s overall circulation.
If you find yourself to be stressed often or worry about wasting away days in a week when you do not workout, active recovery can help you out greatly.
It helps you manage the stress and also allows individuals with a knack to over-train an opportunity to get some exercises done without putting your body through a full-blown workout. Your muscles repair the damage better and refuel themselves as easy movements allows nutrients to circulate better around your body.
And that is a wrap, ladies and gentlemen. Now you not only know the importance of the recovery period but ways to improve it so you may get the most and best out of your workout regime.
Just be sure to understand to keep a balance between resting and exercising, including a healthy diet and engage in low-intensity training. Understand your body better and treat it as the wondrous temple it is.
Health Disclaimer :
Information provided by Newszii.com does in no way substitute for qualified medical opinion. Any text, videos or any other material provided by us should be considered as generic information only. Any health related information may vary from person to person, hence we advice you to consult specialists for more information.
