Are you finding yourself in more and more pain after the gym?
Having good recovery time is really important for getting and staying in shape, whether you’ve just started working out or you’ve been at it for years. If you’re sore for days after a workout, it’s going to impact your desire to get back in there the next time.
In this post, we’re going to help you out by telling you how to improve your recovery times. Follow these 7 tips and your body and mind will be ready for fitness every single day.
Contents
1Get Quality Sleep
Your body does the most recovering when you’re asleep and if you’re not getting quality sleep, then it’s going to be tough to get up and hit the gym day after day. Lack of good sleep will lead to a litany of other health issues as well.
If you don’t know how much sleep to get, try for 7-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night.
2Hydrate
You’re supposed to drink 8 glasses of water per day, but if you’re working out and sweating a lot, then it’s even more. You need to stay hydrated in order to improve blood flow.
Your blood carries oxygen and nutrients throughout your body, so the better your blood flow, the more quickly your body is likely to recover. According to the American Council on Exercise, it’s best to drink 7-10 ounces of fluid for every 20 minutes of exercise.
3Stretching
A lot of people end up getting injured when they work out because they don’t know how to stretch properly. You can find lots of guides online that tell you which stretches you should do before and after specific exercises to avoid soreness and tightness the next day.
4Eat Your Protein
If you’re doing strength training, then you’ll need to increase your protein. You can get protein from lots of different meats, but if you’re a vegetarian or vegan, you can get protein from lentils, beans, seeds, and soy products.
The protein will give you a boost of amino acids that can help improve your recovery time.
5Foam Rollers and Massages
Buy yourself a foam roller and give your muscles and tissues a good massage after a good workout. If you go straight from workout to home, even with some light stretching afterward, you may wake up feeling tight the next day.
A foam roller will help you avoid knots in your muscles, which can become big annoyances if left unrolled.
6Strong Diet
We talked about protein, but combining exercise (and stretching) with a really good diet is what will help you feel good all day every day. The key, of course, is balance, but the other important thing is looking at ingredients that are in packaged foods.
If you can avoid foods with lots of unnatural ingredients, you’ll notice it in your body right away. You’ll wake up feeling fresh and ready for whatever the gym throws at you.
Don’t Let Recovery Times Get You Down
If your post-gym recovery times aren’t to your liking, then follow these tips and change them. At the end of the day, it’s up to you how your body reacts to exercise. If you want to be in peak physical condition, then you’ve got to put the work in.
Did you find this post helpful? Come back again for more health and home tips.
