Maintaining a healthy lifestyle includes getting regular exercise, and no matter the kind of exercise you do, there will always be a recovery process that your body goes through. Whether it’s catching your breath after a walk or dealing with muscle soreness after a strength workout, your body needs time to heal after you exercise.
For more strenuous workouts, the recovery process will be longer and sometimes more uncomfortable, but knowing how to deal with the aftermath of a workout is the best way to ease any muscle soreness and take care of your body properly.
Table of Contents
What Happens to Your Muscles After a Workout?
First, it’s worth looking at what actually happens to your muscles after a workout. Once you understand that, you can decide how to best combat the effects of working out that suits your preferences and routine.
Why You Get Muscle Soreness
To grow muscle, your muscles end up tearing slightly throughout your workout, and then the recovery process strengthens and grows them. This can cause discomfort and tightness in your muscles after a workout.
How to Support Your Body’s Recovery Process
Massage Your Body
Whether with a massage gun, balm, or foam roller, massaging can alleviate some of the tension, tightness, and pain you experience after working out. You can utilize other pain-relieving ingredients when using a balm, such as finding a CBD muscle balm that will calm and soothe or adding essential oils into your balm to create a sense of calm.
Foam rollers and massage guns are great for a more intense massage or for those who experience a lot of tightness after working out. Having tense muscles can impede your ability to walk and do daily activities, so it’s important to combat this.
Rest
When we sleep and rest, our bodies can repair and recharge. So after you work out, it’s crucial to get a good night’s sleep so that your muscles can repair themselves more quickly. Broken, poor, or a lack of sleep will only extend the period of time that you’ll experience soreness and pain. Aim to get a regular 6 – 8 hours sleep per night, especially if you lead an active lifestyle.
Hydration
A key component of water is oxygen, which is absolutely essential for your body to function and heal properly. So drinking a lot of water is also an important part of any workout routine and recovery process. When you’re dehydrated, your body struggles to heal as quickly, so make sure you’re getting your two liters of water per day.
Fuel Your Body
Lastly, your body needs to be properly fuelled to heal and recover from a workout. Meals high in protein are vital for muscle building and recovery, as well as the right vitamins and minerals to support the healthy function of your immune system and body. Not eating enough will leave your body weaker and less able to repair itself, rendering your workout useless if you aim to build muscle and become fitter.
Following these tips will help you take care of your body and muscles properly and support you in your life.
Featured Image by rob9040 from Pixabay
