Know-How: Post-Workout Recovery in 5 Steps

If your body isn’t shaking after a gym session, if you don’t feel the need to sit down immediately and wonder what you have done to deserve such ‘torture’, then you’re not training hard enough. Yes, working out is supposed to be difficult, it’s supposed to challenge your mind and body, and transform you into a tougher, happier, and healthier earthling.

And it also demands that you supplement your vigorous training with the right kind of post-workout recovery routine. You see, your body only grows and becomes stronger through adaptation to outside stimuli. These stimuli are you pounding the weights and running until your lungs give out.

So, contrary to popular belief, you don’t grow in the gym; you grow during your rest days. To help you maximize your results, here is the essential post-workout recovery guide you want to follow to the tee.

Get some quality shut-eye

There is simply no substituting quality sleep. Getting enough rest in between training sessions is wildly important in repairing your immune system, building up your CNS, repairing damaged muscle tissue and much, much more. In fact, when training is not supplemented with adequate sleep, the stress hormone in your body (cortisol) starts to rise, leading to an adverse, catabolic effect.

Yes, you could actually start to regress from training if you’re not sleeping right. While there are fiery debates out there about how much sleep is needed, the general recommendation for athletes is between seven and nine hours. In any case, the prevalent factor will be whether or not you’re sticking to a sleeping schedule — if you go to bed at different times every night, then all of that sleep might be for nothing.

Daily myofascial release

Myo-what-now? No, it’s not a made up concept. Myofascial release is a recovery method used by professional athletes to repair their body on a deep level by pressing up against sore muscles and muscle clots to release the tension and support faster tissue repair.

And you want to be doing it too. It shouldn’t take you more than 20 minutes to complete, preferably before you turn in every night. Simply take a lacrosse ball and lie down on it, pressing the sore muscle tissue against it with the entire weight of your body. Now, it will hurt, but the sweet sensation of the tension leaving your system will be worth it.

Refuel your body with the right nutrients

Probably the most important aspect of post-workout recovery is getting enough nutrients in your body before the next training session. So, if you’re following a restrictive diet, you might be suffering from a macro or micronutrient deficit which could lead to recovery and performance problems.

Along with a healthy diet plan, you also need to supplement your body with natural magnesium supplements for CNS and muscle tissue repair. This is because the human body has a tough time absorbing all of the vitamins and minerals from food, as every micronutrient has its bioavailability rate. And magnesium is extremely difficult for your body to absorb through food. Coincidentally, this is also a crucial nutrient for total-body recovery.

Stick to active recovery

The concept of a rest day has gained a new, twisted meaning in the modern world. It has become something sports science never intended it to be — a day when most people are completely inactive. If your rest days consist of nothing more than couch potato-ing and lifting the remote, then you simply won’t be able to maximize your recovery. In fact, you might come back to the gym feeling sorer than before, lethargic and unmotivated.

Instead, you want to turn your rest days into active recovery days. No need to do anything too challenging, simply get up an about, move, go out for a jog or a lengthy walk, be outside, spend time with your dog. The key is to drive blood into the muscles in order to reduce inflammation, boost cellular repair, and thus make greater gains. Plus, you’ll feel more energized and ready to crush your next gym session.

Take an ice-cold bath

When you train real hard, you create micro-tears in your muscles. This causes inflammation in your body, and your immune system starts sending satellite cells to the ‘injured’ spot in order to repair it and build new muscle tissue. This is your chance to do everything you can to support this process and help your body get the job done efficiently.

To that end, you want to take an ice-cold bath every now and again to help reduce excess inflammation and recover faster. Ice baths are a tried-and-tested recipe for growth, and although they do take some getting used to, they can do wonders for your overall health. Two to three times per week should be enough.

Recovering from training is just as important as exercise itself. In fact, if you don’t have a strong post-workout recovery routine in place, you might as well stop training altogether. So, make sure you boost your results and take your fitness game to the next level by following this essential guide and you will have no problem making steady gains for decades to come.