Top tips for recovery
When exercising regularly, it is so important to prioritise recovery. If you have recently upped the intensity of your workout routine or are returning from a break, you most likely will experience increased muscle aches and soreness. While this is normal, it can impact the quality of your workouts. High-intensity training is exactly that, and your body will feel the load after a tough workout. To prevent injury and increase recovery time, check out the tips below.
Ice cold
Not only will a cold shower post-workout cool you down, but it can help reduce inflammation caused by your intense workout. Any activity where you are exerting your muscles beyond their normal limits, such as high-intensity training, leads to microscopic tears in the muscle fibres and inflammation in the connective tissue. Coldwater therapy or immersion kicks the body’s natural healing response into gear and lowers the temperature of damaged tissues, which helps to reduce swelling and inflammation. So be brave and turn the shower all the way round to cold cold cold.
Hydration Hydration
While drinking water throughout the day is already important, post-workout it is even more so. Exercise causes muscles to break down and rebuild using protein synthesis. If you are dehydrated after a workout, this process will slow dramatically, which then delays recovery and can increase aching muscles and inflammation. There are many opinions out there about how much water we really need to be drinking every day, commonly agreeing around the 2-litre mark. On days where you are working out, try upping this to 3 litres.
Get stretchy
Stretching correctly after high-intensity workouts will not only feel amazing for the muscles that have just worked so hard but also help fasten recovery time. Stretching regularly can also improve circulation, which increases blood flow to muscles, shortening recovery time and reducing muscle soreness. Yoga is a great way to introduce regular stretching into your routine. It will not only help loosen up tight muscles but help with stabilising and supporting muscle groups you use during workouts, which can in turn prevent injuries.
Lights out
Getting enough quality sleep at night is key to recovery. When our bodies enter deep sleep (non-REM sleep), the brain can rest with very little activity, meaning the blood supply available to our muscles increases. This delivers more oxygen and nutrients to our muscles which assist their healing and growth. If we aren’t getting enough of this deep, quality sleep at night, then muscles don’t get a good enough chance to repair. Getting into a consistent sleep routine, turning off devices an hour before bed, relaxing and stretching or meditating are all ideas of ways you can increase the quality of your sleep.