The commitment to stay in shape and to achieve short term fitness goals sometimes becomes the focus for most of the fitness freaks that they actually forget the importance of rest and recovery post-exercise. Workout recovery plays a vital role in improving performance and preventing the risk of several injuries.

Unfortunately, people underestimate the impact of recovery routine after exercise has, which in result occur as a hindrance in their path of attaining fitness goals.

If you are the one who doesn’t have any after recovery exercise plan, check out the given below reasons to understand its actual need.

What Is the Importance of Post Workout Recovery?

Spending hours in the gym without following any post-exercise plan is the worst mistake that you could do with your fitness regime. Are you curious to know why? Have a look below.

• It gives adequate time for muscle and tissues to recover themselves thus reducing the risk of injuries
• It helps improve the strength and performance to workout the next day
• Fulfil the nutritional requirement of the body required after exercising
• It makes you fitter and help achieve your fitness goals in short interval

Providing adequate time to the body to recover has equal importance as to exercise. Your body needs time to adapt and recover from your intense work out session and come back stronger and better than the last performance.

Now that you have thorough knowledge about the benefits of recovery, let us introduce you to various methods to make your post-workout recovery quick and effective.

1. Drink Plenty Of Fluids

Hydration is the cure to almost every problem because of its endless benefits for the overall health. Fortunately, it plays a significant role in boosting post-workout recovery as well. Check out the benefits that hydrated body provides for quick recovery after exercise.

• It helps to repair and make the muscles stronger
• It aids the digestive process of the body
• It helps prevent the feeling of sleepiness or tiredness
• A well-hydrated body remains energized before and after the workout session

In fact, we would recommend you to keep yourself hydrated before, during, and after the workout session for improved energy, performance, and recovery of course! For extra benefits, you can also consider, lemon water for flavour boost, coconut water, and chemical-free juices.

2. Take Enough Rest

This is the simplest yet one of the most beneficial tip to recover from your workout. Our body upholds the capacity to heal naturally from any injury and recover itself after an intense workout session. The lack of rest or sleep makes it difficult to give the sufficient time required by our body to recover.

For that reason, you should sleep for at least 7-8 hours (depending upon your age and skill level) to support the natural recovery mechanism of the body. Doing nothing and still enjoying the future benefits. Isn’t it amazing?

3. Do Stretching

Stretching is a major element to include in the post-workout recovery plan. In core training, especially, our muscles are tending to become sore. Here stretching helps to speed up the post workout recovery process in such a way:

• It relaxes and loosens the tight muscles
• Minimize the pain or stiffness in the muscles
• Make muscles stronger
• Improve blood circulation
• It increases flexibility hence prepare you to face the future workout challenge effectively

Keeping that in mind, you should consider it as an important part of the workout session both before and after exercise.

4. Get High on Nutritious Food

Image Credit: www.omorganickitchen.com

Getting enough nutrients as a part of the regular diet is the correct approach to contribute to the natural recovery process of the body. While a diet loaded up with fresh green veggies, legumes, and fruits will help heal your body, eating processed chemical food will act as poison for your body.

Eating the right food will supply all the essential vitamins and minerals to the body that will help boost your workout recovery process. However, do not binge eat just after the workout, have a gap of a minimum 2 hours and choose the healthy eating option for that.

5. Take Massage

Feeling a terrible pain after a hardcore workout is common. Right?

A “Good massage” is all you need to reduce all such pain, soreness, and tightness of the muscles. The best part is – You can even do it at home! Know how?

Foam rolling would be the most comfortable and easiest method to recover from the injuries and get relief. Apart from that, here a few other benefits you can reap out of using foam rolling.

• Increased flexibility and Stretching level
• Increasing the flow of blood circulation
• Reduces back cramps in the upper back
• Prevent tension in any muscle
• It promotes better sleep if performed a few hours before going to bed

To ensure safety and proper use of foam rolling, you are advised to consult with a professional coach like gym trainer or physiotherapist.

6. Have a Proper Planning

Do not perform intense weight lifting or strength training every day. Have some variations in your exercise regime to focus on every part of the body and avoid overtraining.

Make a weekly list of the exercises to better align with the recovery process. There are days when you feel tired and sluggish, kindly avoid heavy workouts on that day rather choose light exercises like yoga, meditation, stretching, etc. that keeps you moving without draining much of your energy levels.

7. Take Warm Bath

This is the method that you will absolutely enjoy after a grinding session of workout. Getting a warm both is not only relaxing but it also aids in healing sore, pain and stiffness in the muscles. Besides this, it also helps to remove sweat, bacteria and lowers the risk of any rashes from the skin.

Final Thoughts:

Apart from all the recommended tips that we have shared, the most important thing to keep in mind is to avoid “Overtraining”. It will lead to nothing but draining your energy levels, muscles loss, and poor performance.

To sum it up, do exercise in moderation, always have a post workout recovery plan irrespective of what your training is, and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Take days off if you feel there is some injury or you are not able for a training session.

Best of luck!