Tips to Maximize Muscle Recovery

What do you do in the hours and days after a strenuous workout because your muscles need a break for recovery. A well-deserved break can often feel harder than maxing out on a lift. You need to maximize muscle recovery especially after a ` workout.

So, what’s the goal actually? It is progress, right? The reality is, building recovery into your workout strategies can help you protect yourself from injuries and forced downtime. As a healthy person and a regular exercise, your recovery time should start right after your workout and continue in the days after.

What is Muscle Recovery?

If you enjoy your regular workout routine, muscle recovery is the vital part of your fitness journey. Scientific evidence proved that muscle recovery is the phenomenon through which you can optimize your performance, improve your overall health, and prevent injuries as well. Thus, muscle recovery is the process through which your body repairs and rebuilds its muscles and muscle tissues after a workout which can lead to muscle growth and increased muscle strength.

This article will help you explore physiological processes involved in muscle recovery and the most authentic practical tips for a father and effective muscle recovery.

The Physiological Processes of Muscle Recovery

Several physiological mechanisms are involved in muscle recovery which make it a complex process that can help repair, rebuild and strengthen the muscle tissues after a strenuous workout. The key stages for muscle recovery procedure can help you understand the whole matter. Let’s have a look!

Muscle Damage and Inflammation

Some high-intensity workouts and resistance training cause microscopic tears in your muscle fibers leading to muscle damage. Although the muscle damage at this level is a normal part of building endurance and strength, your body responds to this damage in the form of inflammation. This is a natural reaction of your body to help initiate healing. Inflammation causes an increase in blood flow to the injured or damaged area of the body, helping provide nutrients and immune cells to help with strengthening and repairing muscle tissues.

Protein Synthesis and Muscular Repair

After a muscle damage, your body starts to synthesize protein in bulk quantities so that it may help rebuild and repair your muscle fibers. Protein synthesis supports the creation of new cells which leads to repair and growth of muscles. After a strenuous physical activity, your protein synthesis rates remain elevated maximum for 40 to 50 hours. You also need proper rest and a well-balanced diet during this period of muscle recovery.

Removal of Metabolic Wastes

During exercise lactic acid and several other metabolic wastes large quantities which can contribute to muscle fatigue and muscle soreness. The muscle recovery procedure can help to remove such harmful waste products through lymphatic drainage systems or increased blood circulation. You Can  add a long walk or gentle stretching to promote the removal procedure.

Muscle Hypertrophy

This is the condition when your muscles increase in size due to the abrupt growth of individual muscle fibers. Muscle Hypertrophy hap[pens over time with adequate recovery and consistent training. Several hormones including growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor and testosterone play a vital role in muscle hypertrophy by inhibiting muscle protein breakdown and promoting protein synthesis. 

Authentic Tips for Optimizing Muscle Recovery

Studies show that eating healthy foods and getting a good night’s sleep are the best ways to help your muscle recovery. A few years ago, the majority of athletes and physical trainers thought that expensive supplements are necessary to achieve the results from their physical activities. But the research has proven that supplements cannot maximize your performance unless you take care of some basic necessities of your physical fitness journey, including muscle recovery. 

Remember that the discussed tips are just to give you some hints about the ways to improve your muscle recovery. So it is not safe to follow this comprehensive list point to point. In addition, you should adopt some of these tips according to your current level of fitness, your body type and your fitness goals. So here are the top tips:

Lifestyle

Your personal lifestyle habits play a key role in muscle recovery after a strenuous exercise. Follow these tips to improve your lifestyle habits. Building a Schedule will play an effective role to improve your workout routine. It also helps target different muscle groups on different days so that it may maximize your muscle recovery after exercise. The most common weekly schedule followed by the regular exercisers or athletes are jotted below:

• Three days of strength training.
• Two days of cardio.
• Two days of active rest.

Experts suggest that pushing your body and helping it recover are interlinked. A right routine will help you feel refreshed and refueled. It also helps you to get ready to crank up your next workout.

Get Plenty of Rest at Night

Seven to nine hours of sleep is the best recommended time for rest at night. A good sleep helps maximize your muscle recovery in no time. After a strenuous exercise, it is more important to have this recommended amount of sleep to help your body recharge and maximize muscle recovery. 

Slack of rest will cause less benefits from your workout and you may not rebuild your muscles effectively as you want. 

Get a Massage

Massage helps boost your muscle recovery after a challenging workout. It is not just a way to relax but it also reduces muscle inflammation, soreness, pain and fatigue you have perceived through a tough workout. 

According to studies, massage therapy helps reduce overall stress with improving relaxation and your immune system functionality. A recent analytic report has explained that massage is the most powerful way to improve delayed-onset muscle soreness and fatigue. Evaluation of different workout recovery strategies found that massage is a more effective technique to maximize muscle recovery than water immersion or cryotherapy. 

In addition, targeted massage or a whole body massage both can ideally work for the strengthening of your muscles. So a 20 to 30 minutes massage after a workout is recommended by the experts. Your gym may also offer this facility so that muscle recovery may be made quick and fast. 

Compression Garments

athletes mostly like to wear compression garments. Although a limited number of studies have supported the beneficial effects of compression garments in maximizing muscle recovery, expats suggest these garments for speeding up muscle recovery after an exercise. 

According to a 2018 study, these garments lower the time for body muscle recovery in athletes and plates. Another study found that it is better to wear these garments for 24 hours and then alter them between a 12-hour break and a 12-hour workout period.

Cryotherapy

Exposing your body to an extremely cold temperature for a few minutes is called cryotherapy. This technique speeds up[ muscle recovery by reducing muscle tiredness, fatigue, inflammation, and pain after a strenuous physical activity. 

Cold Water Immersion

athletes and players often complain that they experience soreness of muscle at a moment in a workout. Experts recommend soaking your body in cold water to make a quick muscle recovery in this condition. 

Researchers also suggest that cold-water immersion is the best technique to reduce delayed-onset muscle soreness and ratings of perceived exertion. Though very little research has been found on this topic, some gym trainers prefer this method.

Cold-water immersion technique involves targeting areas like swollen feet, immersing in ice water. This means your whole body doesn’t need to soak in such cold water. Only the targeted part of the body is immersed. 

Another modern technique includes cold-water cryotherapy. In this technique a chamber is filled with liquid nitrogen which makes it extremely cold, making the chamber minus 190 degree Fahrenheit cold. Your whole body is kept in this chamber for 2 to 3 minutes only. However, it is your open choice if you want to expose a specific part or the whole body to a cold. After immersing the targeted area to the cold environment for some time, it may decrease your pain, inflammation and swelling. It also prevents blood from pooling in your limbs and decreases your heart rate. A little research found that cooling down is linked with reducing muscle soreness or stiffness after a workout but more research is needed to confirm the validity of this recommendation.

Foods

Food is the basis element that profoundly affects your physical performance and muscle health.

It is a common observation that people do not like to workout on a full stomach, but it is good to have some food in your stomach while you’re exercising. You burn carbohydrates during your exercise. Thuis, eating some carbohydrates before exercise can help fuel your body. You can drink a pre-workout energy drink or whey protein shake. However, drinking such products is not recommended by the nutritionists because their quality in many cases is standard. 

The Food and Health department in the USA, recommended that eating carbohydrates including brown rice, pasta, whole grain cereals, or fruits and vegetables before workout can help you do your exercise in a better way. If you don’t find enough time to eat such food items, try to eat just a piece of fruit before working out. This may help maintain your muscle energy. 

In addition, you don’t need to eat anything during your workout, but try to drink water or keep yourself hydrated during exercise. This practice will help you boost your energy. If your workout duration is less than an hour you don’t need any drink to keep yourself hydrated.

Moreover, eating protein within half an hour of exercising may help your muscles grow and recover quickly. Studies show that proteins are made up of amino acids. Your body can make some of these on its own, called nonessential amino acids while the remaining essential amino acids are obtained from food. You can add the following foods to your diet to have a complete protein food:

• Dairy products.
• Wheat bread with peanut butter.
• Soybeans and tofu.
• Animal products including lean meat and eggs.
• Pita bread with hummus.
• Black beans with brown rice.

Everyone has different preferences for eating while exercising. So it is better to notice how you feel during your workout and how your muscle strength and performance is affected by what you eat. This practice may help you select ideal food that helps maximize muscle recovery during and after exercise.

Stay Hydrated

Hydration is necessary to repair your impaired muscles. When you exercise in a humid environment, you are prone to become dehydrated. Dehydration can be avoided by drinking at least 2 liters of water or liquid for every kg lost during exercise. No doubt, hydration is critical to ensure the body functions. It is recommended by the experts to drink before, while and after exercise. People generally prefer drinking water but studies show that working out over an hour can merit a sports drink to boost your energy and maximize muscle recovery as well.

Drinking during workout ensures post-workout hydration, which prevents losing too much body weight. If you feel good with this, you can weigh your body weight before and after a workout. Then drink three to four cups of water to compensate for every pound you lose.

Supplements

Taking supplements is also a source to support your overall all health and maintain your muscle recovery at good speed. Although it is best to fulfill your nutritional needs through food, supplements such as powders, tablets or liquids can help you reach your goals conveniently.

Protein Powders

This is the effective and convenient way to add more protein to your diet. Different types of protein powders are available which contain a complete spectrum of essential amino acids. The most popular proteins are whey, casein and soy.

Creatine Mono-hydrate

This is the widely used supplement. Research suggests that taking this supplement can help improve your muscular strength leading to quick muscle recovery after a workout. Creatine also helps athletes to recover from intense training by reducing inflammation and muscle damage. It also aids in replenishing your muscles glycogen stores.

Conclusion

Muscle recovery helps you a lot in achieving optimal performance. It is a multifaceted procedure that leads to gain of overall health. Understanding the physiological mechanisms supporting muscle recovery and building muscle strength can improve the results of your fitness goals. Implementing effective muscle recovery strategies also play a crucial role in reducing the risk of injury. According to experts, muscle recovery is as important as the workout itself. So giving your muscles the care and time for recovery will ensure your muscle growth.