The majority of people forgets or does not care how over-training has a bad effect on the body. They think that by keep pressuring the body to its limits will not cause any problem since no symptoms arise yet. However at some point if they don’t do something about it, then they will notice the effects. There are plenty methods for recovering the body from physical stress, but I gathered my top 9 ones.
Before we start listing the ways I want to explain why recovery is so important for the body. When you work out the body goes through a “Catabolic State”, which is the break down phase. It’s called like that because you tear your muscle tissues. It sounds bad, but don’t worry, it’s supposed to happen in order for bigger and stronger muscle to be produced. At the end of your training session, your body needs to get into the “Anabolic State”, which is the repairing and building phase. Now the body with the help of food and resting can create new muscle tissues.
That is where people go wrong. They think that by training more than an hour or by training again before the body get rested enough that they will get bigger. Actually the opposite happens. The reason for that is that the body remains at the catabolic state because it never got the chance to repair itself. So it keeps tearing up the already torn muscle tissue, resulting in health problems instead of getting stronger. Even though it may shock some of you, the body gains muscle mass and strength while resting. Actually it’s pretty simple. It gets what is needed to recover properly and after that it becomes even better than before.
Tip: 45 minutes to 1 hour should be your maximum time for working out. After that you start destroying your muscle tissues.
Since we analyzed what happens to the body let’s get to point.
1
Healthy eating
Food is the first thing that the body needs after a workout because it used up most of the nutrients that you ate before. Don’t start eating a bunch of junk foods or sweets though. Eat healthy foods with a ratio 2:1 carbohydrate to protein respectively because you want more carbs to replenish your glycogen that you burned while exercising.
2
Stretching
Most people don’t bother with this one and that’s the wrong mentality. Stretching reduces pain and soreness, improves flexibility, improves mobility, increases range of motion, reduces the risk of joint and/or muscle and improves posture. Hopefully you now see the advantages of incorporating stretching into your workouts. Moreover it’s divided into two phases, the warm-up and the cool-down. The warm-up is done before the workout and uses dynamic stretching, which consists of the moving stretches like leg swings or arm rotating. The cool-down is done after the workout has finished and uses static stretching, which consists of static stretches like sphinx or standing pectorals.
3
Sleep
Another one that is a no brainer. The body already needs it in order to work properly because it rests both the brain and the body. Also most of your hormones like testosterone (the one responsible for making you stronger) and cortisol (the stress hormone) balance. The most important hormone in that process is growth hormone that repairs the muscles. Strive for 7-8 hours.
4
Meditation
It calms down the body and mind while repairing every single part of it, even the internal organs. Many people recovered from untreated diseases, imagine what it can do to the stressed body. We talked about meditation and its benefits a lot to another article. Go check it out.
5
Massage
Who doesn’t like a good massage session? Someone else does the job for you and the best thing is that feeling afterwards that makes you fall asleep (if you didn’t already). Most of the pain and/or soreness go away, it speeds up the repairing and recovering of the muscles, increases blood circulation in the muscles, calms down your mind, relaxes you and in the end it’s also a great pleasure.
6
Tai chi
It’s a great form of exercise and martial arts simultaneously. It combines meditation’s breathing and slow movements for binding in harmony the body with the mind. It’s a type of active resting activity, which means that the heart rate remains elevated but the activity is a light one. Therefore you still have the cardiovascular benefits of working out but the body does not stress out, thus repairing itself.
7
Foam rolling
When you feel a lot of pain or soreness at specific spots, then a foam roller or any other related equipment is what you really need. I warn you; if your muscles are really tight it’s going to hurt a lot. But that’s the point; it shows how efficient it can be if used properly. When your muscles are tight they form some “knots” called Trigger points. By using the foam roller you put pressure on those spots and it helps release those trigger points. The longer you are able to hold it the better. It’s probably the best recovery technique because it’s easy to use and has a great effect on recovery and healing of the muscles.
8
Cold showers
They have plenty of benefits on the body, so start using them and don’t chicken out. Why do you think all the big teams in the world make their players use ice baths? No need of course to get hardcore like that or worrying that you can’t handle ice baths. Cold showers can still do the job. They increase blood circulation, speed up the recovery and the repair of the muscles and also make you mentally stronger toward pain.
9
Kinesio-tape
It’s a type of tape, which can be found in variety of colours and you put it on the muscles in order to heal them faster. It’s waterproof so whatever you do it stays there for a couple of days. It helps the muscles recover and repair faster, helps with joint problems, reduces the feeling of fatigue and pain and even helps with bruising or swelling.
There are plenty more ways to help your body heal faster itself and some of these might not be your thing. For example some people make fun of Meditation and Tai chi. However there are others that believe to those techniques’ healing powers and they use them frequently. Find the techniques that make you feel refreshed or painless afterwards and incorporate them into your training.
Share this article to inform more people and tell us your thoughts in the comments below: Do you feel sore and/or pain frequently? Do you use these methods to remove physical stress from your body? What other methods do you use?