An intense workout can often leave your muscles overworked and tired – without the right recovery techniques, this can cause a problem for your future workout sessions.
Don’t overwork yourself
If you’re working yourself to the limit during your sessions, it’s likely that you will feel some muscle soreness for a few days afterwards. Although this process is necessary for the muscles to grow stronger, it is important that your body has time to renew itself and repair any injuries.
Keep your regime interesting
You need to keep your workout varied in order to shock your body into seeing results – if you do the same exercises time and time again, your body won’t be challenged and you’ll stop seeing an impact from them. For example you could opt for a strength training programme, focusing on the upper body, on one day and then your lower body the next.
Rest and recuperate
It may seem as though you need to be working out every day in order to see results, but it is equally important that you give your body time to rest and repair itself. It is suggested that you take one to two days rest after each workout so that your muscles can increase in strength and size.
Take time out for a massage
Often, a series of stretches isn’t enough to release the knots and scar tissue that build up during an exercise session. This is where sports massage comes in – a good practitioner can help speed up recovery and help you to gain muscle balance. Likewise, the muscles create micro trauma after an intense workout, which are small tears in the muscle tissue. Compression and ice can help to heal the muscle during this time, by increasing the blood flow and supply of nutrients – it also prevents oscillation, the excessive movement through impact that can cause further micro trauma.
Eat a balanced diet
Working out will only be possible if you feed your body the right nutrients to sustain a workout session, so choose healthy meals that give you plenty of energy. Aim to eat three small meals each day, with two healthy snacks mid-morning and afternoon, and eat enough protein and carbohydrates to give you energy.
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