5 Great Workout Recovery Tips!
Did you know that your workout begins long before you arrive at the gym? Or that your workout is not finished when you leave the gym?
The benefits of your workouts don’t occur during exercise, as that is when the muscle tissues are being damaged, but during your recovery!
The quality of your workouts and your recovery are each dependent on how well you take care of yourself. Without proper recovery, you’ll never realize the full, potential gains from your workouts.
In this article, we’ll dive into 5 of the best recovery strategies to help you reach your goals and improve your performance.
1. Plan Your Carbs & Protein Intake
It’s a good idea to take in both protein and carbohydrates before and after your workout.
Each of us is a little different. Depending on your level of intensity during your workout and your body size, you should take in about 20-30g of protein before and after workouts.
For carbohydrates, roughly 25% of your daily carb allowance both before and after should do the trick. Your body needs these carbs after workouts for and uses them during protein synthesis for rebuilding muscle tissues.
Staying hydrated is also crucial to recovery. For each day, aim to consume about 50% of your body weight in ounces of water (150lb equals 75 ounces) each day; up to 70% on workout days.
2. Magnesium Supplementation
Even with your well-rounded and healthy diet, certain supplements can be helpful in recovery. There are many to choose from, such as fish oil and creatine, but one specifically important supplement to take a look at is magnesium.
Most of us do not get sufficient magnesium in our diets. These electrolytes are depleted when we sweat, and athletes require these essential minerals more so than others.
Benefits of magnesium supplementation include:
Helps with reaching deeper sleep, an essential piece of the recovery puzzle.
Aids calcium absorption
Aids against Type 2 diabetes
Works as an anti-inflammatory
Helps to lower blood pressure
Note: not all magnesium supplements are created equal. Some forms have a laxative effect, so be sure to choose one of these four types: Magnesium Glycinate, Magnesium Threonate, Magnesium Orotate, and Magnesium Malate.
3. Get Enough Sleep
Along with diet and exercise, sleep is an absolute requirement for good health and performance. During sleep is when your body does much of its repair. Various hormones, like HGH and testosterone, are released during the process of sleep.
Your brain also assimilates what you have learned and develops muscle memory from your workout and daily activities. We learn and grow during sleep.
You already know that a miserable night of sleep results in poor performance the next day; workout or not. Sleep is critical to your overall health and your recovery to gain the advantages of your exercise.
Focus on sleeping well just as you focus on the rest of your routine.
Nothing bad will come of sufficient sleep, and not much good will happen without it.
4. Massage Those Muscles!
After your workout, your body needs all the help it can get to recover and realize the benefits of your efforts. One of the best things you can do to speed recovery and relieve some of the muscle pain is a massage.
Benefits of massages include, but are not limited to:
Increased blood flow and eliminated lactic acid from damaged muscles.
Relieved anxiety
Reduction in the stress hormone cortisol.
Aids in increasing dopamine and serotonin.
All of this leads to much better conditions for sleep and increased white blood cell count to boost immunity.
Massage is often paired with chiropractic adjustments to provide the ultimate in recovery. Nearly every NFL team has a chiropractor on standby to assist with injuries and rehabilitation. It only makes sense that keeping your body aligned and functioning as it will enhance both performance and recovery.
Both therapies should be part of your regular healthcare routine.
These treatments may not be an option every time you work out. However, you still want the benefits which they can provide. Foam rollers and lacrosse balls are two simple and useful tools for similar relief at home.
Other activities, like walking, swimming, and cycling, will also help. The key is to keep moving, stay loose, and work with your body to repair itself for your next workout.
5. Contrast Baths
During an intense workout, your body often creates lactate faster than it can be eliminated. For optimal recovery, it is best to remove lactate as quickly as possible. Ideally, you can do this immediately after your workout.
Alternating between 36°C hot water bath and a 12°C cold bath has been shown to accelerate the elimination of lactate from the blood. This practice will set you up for a less painful day after and a swifter recovery.
In Conclusion, Recovery is a significant component of your routine, easily as important as the workout.
Let’s recap these five simple strategies for recovery:
Intake: Have a strategy for water, protein and carbohydrate intake both before and after workouts.
Magnesium Supplementation: Use high-quality supplements, including Magnesium, to complement your diet and workout.
Sleep: Is critical for recovery. Shoot for at least eight hours each night.
Massages and adjustments: Massage and chiropractic adjustments improve blood flow and relieve stress. Products like foam rollers can help between treatments.
Contrast baths: Done immediately after a workout to eliminate lactate and speed recovery.
Dr. Craig Stutzman is a great chiropractor, practicing each day in Lake Forest, California at Mission Hills Chiropractic. He’s also an expert surfer, surfing each week on the beaches of Orange County, CA.
Dr. Stutzman, along with Dr. J and Dr. Gooing at Mission Hills, have a mission. That mission is to help people get and stay out of pain through chiropractic adjustments and health habit tips.
Some people say these are the best chiropractors in Lake Forest or even the best chiropractors in Orange County. We can’t help but agree with those people.
Are you looking for the best chiropractors in Lake Forest? You found them in Dr. Stutzman and Mission Hills Chiropractic, your local Lake Forest chiropractors.