How to speed up recovery after exercise?

Sports and Hobbies
1
Hi

I'd need some advice how to speed up recovery after exercise as fast as possible .

I've searched the net for tips, but they are contradicting, some say heath (warm showers) would aggrevate the tear, some say it is beneficial. Some say load up on proteins, some say don't.

Many thanks.

2
Hi there,

As a former international swimmer who often had to swim/gym twice a day, this is an issue I am familiar with!

Firstly, if you are just starting doing exercise/haven't exercised for a while/are doing a new form of exercise or even just mixing things up slightly so that different muscles are worked, NOTHING is going to completely stop you feeling sore for the first two or 3 weeks - at some level you should learn to enjoy and almost revel in the pain which is your body rebuilding itself to be stronger, leaner and healthier!

From my own personal experience, a protein shake STRAIGHT AFTER (ie within 20minutes MAX of finishing exercise) will go a long way towards helping you recover/stop feeling sore. I'm pretty sure that any healthy food containing protein (ie chocolate milk or a chicken sandwich on wholegrain bread) would be just as effective if not better, however you can't beat a protein shake for how simple and easy they are to carry around with you.

Stretching (The jury is is still debating whether it is more effective straight after or an hour after training) will help your muscles recover more quickly, but has never been proven to reduce pain per se. It definitely did nothing for me pain-wise.

Rolling over tubing (look it up on google to learn how) is very popular, and definitely feels good/loosens you up. Again it is only really effective for the back/abs and maybe legs, worth a try though.

I think staying hydrated is definitely underrated, and makes a massive difference to how well your body responds to a gruelling workout - Try for 300-500ml of water straight after training, make sure you are hydrated before as well, and maybe even set an alarm on your phone for every hour to remind you to drink a glass of water?

The only other thing i can think of is a sports massage (expensive but sooo good, and sooo effective). Let me know how it goes!

3
Oh and showers are good, but the aim is to increase circulation (blood flow to the muscles in particular). The most effective way to do this is to alternate 1min very, very cold 1 min hot. This causes blood to flow to and from the skin rapidly in response to the extreme temperatures, and should help reduce soreness to some extent. Nevertheless, your muscles will still need to repair themselves by the same amount regardless of whether you shower or not, so could be purely psychological!

4
First of, I will work under the assumption that you want to speed up recovery to get faster results (whether these be aesthetic, endurance or strength makes a little difference, but not much)

Fast results are most easily achived through gruesomely hard training, with proper nutrition, sleep and muscle rest. So make sure you don't overtrain (which is a typical mistake)

Now for the fast recovery, consider looking into kreatine supplements. It is probably the easiest way to promote fast recovery. do a 4-6 week on then 4-6 week off cycle to ensure your body will still produce kreatin itself.

Finally growth hormone is naturally developed in the body. This is called testosterone. Testosterone is mostly produced, when you activate the bigger muscle groups, so make sure to do the core exercises and don't fall for the "i only do biceps" stuff.

Squats, deadlifts, etc, will increase testosteron production the most, so make sure they are in your schedule.

Finally, your body will not grow properly, if you do not provide the proper buildingstones (nutrition).

The easiest approach to this is to overeat (preferably on proteins, but most anything can go really). Sideeffect will be that you will get chubby, while you will also be putting on massive gains, at least if strength is your focus.

Another approach is a low carb diet, heavy on proteins and vegetables. If you do go for carbs, go for low gi ones, as they are much more filling than the high gi ones.

If you however are training for heavy endurance activites, such as ironman or marathons, feel free to go a bit more crazy with the carbs.

Good luck with it.

5
That's great advices, thank you so much.

6
Thank you for the answer.

Probably I should have explain why I must recover asap ... my trainer is only for one month in my town (he is from India), and we work on some exercises every day. So I don't want to be slacking and miss out training.

I had to skip today class as I almost couldn't walk straight... and have to go back tomorrow.

Cheers regarding the tip about Kreatine supplement, I'll have to read up about this.

7
Well in theory you can prevent DOMS from happening by avoiding eccentric exercice, but that is probably not something you want.

As previously suggested, bloodflow to the muscle might help, so a warmdown session, massage, low resistance workout, warm baths, etc..

Also, you might find that powering through the soreness, can also help to reduce it.

Stretching is not proven to prevent any soreness, but i guess you can try for yourself.

PS: sorry kreatin was the danish word for it. Its creatine in english.

8
I think one thing left out from all the good and valid points above is Active recovery sessions. I train and coach a triathlete and one thing we have to keep on top of is recovery both mental and physical and avoid overtraining. depending on your schedule and goals, a complete day id deffinately neccesary but between hard days take part in an active recovery workout, not training session, workout. If you work from Heart rate, you want to complete this session at minimal HR, this allows your muscles to keep moving and transport blood and oxygen around the body and to the effected muscles. Be it a swim cycle or run what ever you want, but id say gym go for a swim, after a hard run session cycle, cycle go for a run to loosen out the hips etc, up to you really. Also keeping in a HR range to do this dont be afraid just to walk will do the same job, nice n easy. Some light stretching and high protein snack afterwards as no the muscles have been loosened out and easier to absord nutrients (well thats what it feels like). Taking part in the form of exercise, gives the body or probably more the mind the fix of a workout, is not demanding on the body, mentally i should be relaxing and revitalising and get you get back faster to more high intensity training session towards you goals!!

Good luck!

9
Something I haven't seen mentioned is that some studies have shown vitamins C and E can reduce "oxidative stress" and post-exercise muscle soreness.

10
... more exercise...

It's true though.

11
Don't grow old. Age plays the biggest role.

If you've got weight to lose, then lose it. I've lost 10kg slowly over 16 months, with slight gains in speed (running/cycling), modest gains in endurance, but great gains in recovery time and feeling.

Eat something immediately after training...ideally a chocolate milk or similar (good combo of carbs, calcium and protein) with maybe some magnesium (can only be efficiently absorbed in combo with calcium). If you've gone a bit hard, take an aspirin or two before bed...not something to do regularly but it's a reasonably natural subtance.

12
Ditto for most of the above. Getting calories and salts back into your system and keeping loose is vital. Whatever kind of exercise you've done, try to avoid doing "nothing" for the subsequent few hours, like sitting in front of your PC. Keep moving, even if it just means standing at your workplace and taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

13
Out of interest are you talking about normal muscle fatigue after exercise or an actual tear?

I think most people here have referred to the former, however, the particular bit in your post that I've highlighted makes me wonder whether you have an injury - which requires a different approach...

14
All good points, recovery time is related to age, the older you are in general the longer it takes you to recover, Ryan Giggs swears by yoga, the importance of a dynamic warm up and warm down and deep long stretching and flexibility is probably the best way to keep active at high intensity for short bursts during a day of intermittent exercise, the fact that Ryan Giggs (nearly 40) can out run an 18 year old is testament to deep yoga stretches and flexibility.

You should always keep hydrated during exercise, a little salt (say a bag of crisps) and plenty of water will stop you cramping, you want to go fancy try the magnesium tablets, watch out for that stuff though, the mega doses of calcium could lead to other problems.

There is quite a lot of research indicating that your body synthesizes protein better just before and just after a work out, all you need is 250ml (a glass) of regular milk before and one after, these protein packing powders are a waste of time and deliver your body far too much protein, the excess is stored as fat or runs your liver and kidneys at 100% in order to excrete the excess, if you are a regular powder user in your 30's, look out for the kidney stones... nasty side effect of the hyper doses in these powders, expensive and unnecessary.

15
1) Do you have evidence of a direct pathway of converting protein to fat? I haven't seen one, and was taught that excess protein is literally pissed out. The body will, however, preferentially use protein as an energy source over carbs - which means any excess carbs will be stored as glycogen (fast energy in the muscle) or as fat.

2) Effect on liver? Really?

2) Re effects on kidneys: even then, the link of any harm isn't that strong/clear cut/conclusive: http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/2/1/25 , without pre-existing problems, although I do agree that overloading with protein powders may challenge your health in other ways.

16
Beer is the perfect recover drink.

It even says so on my T-shirt

""Visualize your victory, realize your goals and make sure to drink a beer or two along"

17
You are probably correct there. "Weissbier/Weizenbier" in its (sorry) "alkohol-frei" form, has been mentioned in some recent studies as being a very good recovery drink. There's a good one available from Aldi albeit with 5% alcohol, but I solve that by leaving 5% at the bottom of the bottle .

18
Can i ask what you do or what are your goals that you feel the need to recovery really quickly!?? oh and on the comment above, im not sure if you can get here, not that iv looked, but 'cherry active' the product is called. either in capsule form or a liquid serum. the natural anti oxidents and nutrients in it, or cherrys alone for that matter, help with muscle soreness and increased recovery and aids better sleep!

19
Not sure what help this will be, but...

Last summer, I made the mistake of going for a very long bike ride (about 8 hours), after having not ridden a bike such a long distance in a very long time. So later that evening, I could barely walk because the muscles in my upper legs (above my knees) hurt so badly.

To my surprise, I found that Ibuprofen worked wonders and took almost all of the muscle pain away.

Of course, I'm sure there are more natural and healthier remedies, but Ibuprofen is what I found to really help.

20
Ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory agent.

When you do a lot of exercise for the first time in a long time you will generally:

1) have tissue damage from over use (this is generally a good thing - put very simply it's how the body builds new muscles)

2) have damage from lack of oxygen (because your cardiovascular system is not used to heightened need for oxygen in this new/unusual exercise state)

3) have damage from lactic acid build up (a by-product of exercise and burning all that sugar and point 2)

4) and for riding a bike, you'll have a sore but, but that's another issue

Leaving aside point 4, points 1-3 all result in damage, which is usually characterised by calor (warmth), dolor (pain), tumor (swelling) and rubor (redness) - the "cardinal" signs of inflammation, and initially identified by some chap called Celsus (ca 30 BC–38 AD) .

Ergo, ibuprofen, and anti-inflammatory agent works wonders.

History and physiology lessons aside, I've a hunch that that the OP might be wanting to fit without the "quick fix" use of drugs.