How do you recover after a tough workout? Many athletes don’t know how to recover their bodies after intense training. After a tough exercise, your muscles are broken down, leaving you sore. However, if you’re not taking the proper steps to recover properly, your muscle damage can accumulate over time and cause you to miss training sessions or limit your potential gains. Here are some of the best muscle recovery tips for athletes!
Get Plenty Of Sleep
Sleep is one of the most important aspects of recovery. Your body heals during sleep, so you get at least eight hours per night. Not only will this allow your body time to heal any soreness or damage from a tough workout session, but it’ll also rejuvenate you for more intense training sessions!
For athletes, sleep is an important recovery tool. Aim for quality over quantity, and make sure you are getting a solid eight hours of shut-eye each night.
Eat A Well-Balanced Diet
Eating a well-balanced diet is important for everyone, especially athletes. When your body doesn’t get the right nutrients and fuel it needs to recover from intense training sessions, you can become run down and exhausted. To avoid these feelings of fatigue following an intense workout session or game, ensure you have a solid nutrition plan.
Avoid Alcohol and Tobacco
Alcohol and tobacco can prevent your muscles from recovering properly. Alcohol is a diuretic, so it will dehydrate you of fluids that are needed to recover the body after an intense workout session. A good rule is not to drink alcohol within 24 hours of physical activity or training sessions. Tobacco is harmful and could increase your risk of muscular injury.
Take The Right Supplements
Taking the right supplements can be extremely beneficial in helping your muscles recover. However, you should always talk with a dietician or doctor before taking any supplement because they can interact poorly with other medications you might take and cause negative side effects such as headaches, nausea, dizziness, or even heart problems. If that happens, then stop using the product immediately!
Supplements such as creatine and monohydrate, and protein powder are usually great recovery aids! When taking a protein supplement, you want to ensure that the product is from whole food sources and low in carbohydrates (less than 30 grams). You should also take supplements to build muscle because they can help your body recover faster.
Stretch After Workouts to Help Muscles Recover
After a tough workout, it is important to stretch your muscles. This can help increase blood flow and reduce muscle soreness. Simple stretches include hip flexors, quads, calves, hamstrings, and back extensors. Hold each stretch for 30 seconds before repeating on another side if necessary.
Stretching while your muscles are warm also improves your range of motion. This helps tense muscles relax after intense workouts, especially when you lift weights. This is crucial and should not be overlooked!
Use a TEN+EMS Device from HiDow to Give Your Muscles a Massage
A TEN+EMS device is a portable, lightweight machine that sends electrical impulses to your muscles. It can be used in the comfort of your home, and you’ll notice an improvement in muscle recovery time and performance after using it regularly.
HiDow has many different devices to choose from that have different levels of intensity. They also have devices targeted for specific muscle groups, like the calf or ankle.
You can find our many devices here: https://www.hidow.com/shop/
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