As well as from training, it also depends very much on the restoration of muscle tissue: how often will you be able to train, how much weight will you gain, how quickly your strength will grow, etc. Therefore, you need to understand all the ways to increase muscle recovery.
How to Recover Muscle after a workout?
There are several ways to speed up recovery after a workout:
1. Massage and self-massage for muscle recovery.
It’s simple. After training, you can make an appointment with a specialist or at home ask a loved one to give you a massage. Better, of course, professional. But the usual stretching, rewinding, and the like will also contribute to the regeneration of muscle tissue. Self-massage is not so pleasant to the senses but no less effective.
These actions will speed up the recovery of muscles due to a faster outflow of lactic acid from them, by-products of metabolism, acceleration of blood and lymph. The blood flow to the muscles will increase the supply of necessary nutrients, speeding up recovery after training.
2. Hot water recovery.
Many people are mistaken, thinking that hot water (bath, shower) helps restore muscles quickly. These drugs increase the inflammatory processes in the body (heat shock proteins). In this case – in the muscle fibers. Yes, this allows you to increase the mass a little more, INCREASING THE MICRO-DAMAGE. But the speed of recovery abilities is affected in the OPPOSITE WAY: you’ll need a little more time.
3. Sauna to Muscle Recovery
Similar to hot water, and high temperatures will only increase inflammation, not reduce it.
Imagine that you are hurt. Inflammation occurs. To reduce it, we apply something cold. Apply hot to the injury site, and this will only increase the inflammatory reactions.
Therefore, a Sauna and other similar means can increase muscle growth but not renew the body as soon as possible.
4. Coldwater recovery.
It can be a shower or a bath. The main thing is to stay in a cold environment for some time (20-30 seconds). You can do it in sets: 3-4 for 20-30 seconds. Exposure reduces inflammatory reactions, and the musculature heals faster. The main actor here is the cold shock protein being produced.
There is also a method of cryotherapy. It is when you get into a cryo capsule and you are doused with cold. You need to sit for about 3 minutes. There are no restrictions on health and age, not such a shock effect on the body.
But let’s be honest: not all cities have such capsules. Except in the big ones. And not in all fitness centers. And if there are, they are worth much money. So this method is unlikely to be common.
5. Sleep for muscle recovery
It is generally a KEY element in the renewal of the body as a whole and after training. Sleep doesn’t just have to be enough: 7-9 hours, depending on your habits. But it should also be deep, without awakening, so as not to disrupt the regeneration processes.
Supplements to Improve Sleep Quality
If you get up at night to go to the toilet, wake up from noise (light sleep), and the like, then the only way out is to use supplements to improve sleep quality.
These can be:
6. Preparations for muscle recovery.
Vitamins for muscle recovery. It can also include minerals. Therefore, post-training complexes are best suited:
They will restore the electrolyte balance and improve the functionality of the muscles.
Also, pay attention to the B vitamins (in particular, B9 – folate or folic acid). This group of vitamins is responsible for carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism. B9 is generally involved in the body’s production of muscle protein. The greater the load – the more the body needs these vitamins.
Sports nutrition for muscle recovery. We need proteins (building materials) and carbohydrates (building energy) to accelerate the body’s regenerative abilities.
Proteins:
Carbohydrates:
Also, individual supplements can help to renew muscle tissue and internal organs:
7. Active muscle recovery.
Here we mean very light exercises and even stretching of the muscle groups that worked the day before. Soft movements without much tension contribute to the rapid removal of decay products from the muscle tissue, which accelerates its regeneration.
The exercises for muscle recovery can be the same (or very similar) as you did in the last training session. For example, you did a bench press with your working weight. Do the same bench press, only with an empty neck or light weight-1-2 sets. Or, if you have trained your back with pull-ups, then perform the upper block pull with a light weight-1-2 sets.
Muscle recovery time.
More or less, we understood what to drink to restore the muscles after a workout. Now you should understand what time you can count on.
100% muscle recovery occurs approximately two weeks after training (if you do not train more after that). Usually, different sources say about 48-72 hours (this is 2-3 days). During these periods, muscle recovery occurs by about 80%. And this is quite enough to practice again. But thanks to the methods described above, you can count on faster muscle recovery – 1, maximum 2 days.
Please note that I am not talking about full recovery and complete elimination of crepitation (when the muscles ache after a workout). I’m just talking about reducing pain and feeling good.