If you’re an athlete or someone who trains heavily, then muscle soreness is an inevitable part of your life. Feeling sore after a strength workout or a tough game is perfectly normal. This is part of the body’s healing response and something you can’t avoid if you participate in intense activity. There are things you can do to accelerate the healing process, however. You can also do things to diminish soreness. Here are a few natural ways that you can help your muscles recover faster.
Do Active Stretches Before Exercise
Most people understand the importance of warming up and stretching before exercise. The problem is that we’ve been taught to do static stretches instead of active ones. Few people know this, but static stretching could actually make muscle soreness worse and increase the chances of injury. This is why you need to learn how to do active stretches and do them before any exercise. Active stretching tries to replicate the movement you’re going to engage in, but without the load. So, if you want to do a set of heavy squats or deadlifts, you can replicate the motion either without weight or with the bar only.
Go for a Massage Afterward
Massages after a heavy workout session will also help you recover much faster. If you can’t afford to see a massage therapist or you don’t have access to an automatic massage chair or bed, then learn how to use foam rollers. Foam rollers and massages will help make your tissues more supple and accelerate blood flow to the area. This is what will ultimately help boost recovery.
Sleep Better
Sleep is extremely important for recovery, but also for people who want to get maximum results from their workouts. When you sleep, your body spends most of its energy repairing damaged tissue. It also releases human growth hormone into your system, which helps repair the muscles and make them grow stronger.
If you want to improve the quality of your sleep, there are tons of supplements that might help you sleep better naturally. Look for sleep supplement formation that contains magnesium and other ingredients such as l-theanine. Be very careful with things like melatonin, however. While melatonin supplements can indeed help you sleep, they can also interfere with the natural production in the body and lead you to become dependent on them. Things like 5-HTP and valerian root should also be avoided as much as possible.
Be Slightly Active the Day After
Some people have a skewed view of what recovery is about. They assume that they have to stay completely inactive after training sessions and think that it will help them recover faster. This might sound counterintuitive, but activity could help boost immunity the recovery process. You have to make sure that it’s not too intense, however. Light activity will send nutrient-rich blood to the parts of the body that need to recover. This is why you should engage in moderate activity that targets these areas days after your workouts.
If you’re looking for a good activity after workouts, we suggest you look at swimming. Swimming puts little stress on your joints and bones and is one of the safest ways to recover. Cycling and walking can also help after lower body workouts. If you train your upper body, light rowing or even playing pickup basketball could help with recovery.
These are all ways that you can boost your body’s natural healing process after intense physical activity. Listen to your body, don’t be sedentary, and give your body the fuel and rest it needs for the best results.