Post-Workout Recovery Tips for Faster Muscle Repair

What exactly is recovery and why do we need it?

So, when you exercise, you actually tear your muscles fibers, micro tears, and taking time to recover enables the repair of these tears. It also strengthens the muscles and optimizes performance next time around. Recovery also helps with muscle soreness.

Do you ever wonder if you are fully recovering after a good, intense, workout? Here are some tips to help you out:

To accelerate muscle repair after intense workouts, consider the following tips:

• Refuel with protein and carbs: Eat a meal or shake with 20-40g of high-quality protein and 40-60g of carbohydrates within 30-60 minutes post-workout to support muscle repair and recovery.

  
  

• Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of water and consider electrolyte drinks to replenish lost fluids and nutrients. Have you heard of LMNT? Drinklmnt.com

  
  

• Rest and recovery: Allow your muscles to rest and repair between workouts, avoiding overtraining and allowing adequate recovery time. If you do upper body today, do lower body tomorrow. If you do cardio tomorrow, take the next day off. And so forth.

  
  

• Incorporate anti-inflammatory therapies: Use cold immersion, hot baths, or massage to reduce inflammation and promote healing.

  
  

• Prioritize sleep quality: Ensure you get enough sleep, as it significantly impacts muscle recovery and overall health. Your muscles repair while sleeping!!

This is great, but what if you don't do "intense" workouts? Do you still need to recover? Of course you do. Even if you do low impact, non-strenuous workouts, your muscles are still working. Your recovery may not need to be as high maintenance as massage or cold plunges, or getting carbs in, but it's still important to take time to rest. Slow yourself down. Breathe. Focus on NEAT: non exercise activity thermogenesis. This is everyday activities like housecleaning, walking, going up and down stairs. In other words: Active Recovery.

I hope this helps you out this week, to focus on repairing muscle fibers and on staying active even while recovering. Your muscles are important. Take care of them.

PSAs:

Thank you for keeping this gym clean!! I have noticed though, this summer is very busy, and people are leaving things hanging around a bit more. Please make sure you put your equipment away after you've used/cleaned it up. Thank you.

We are in a new month (1 week in already!!) and this is just a reminder of our August Birthday Draw. Looks like there's quite a few names in there already, which is awesome. Happy birthday to all the August babies out there! Good luck in the draw.

Our class schedule will be the same until the end of August. Please be patient as we navigate to the Fall schedule the first of September. There may be some tweaking happening in the first weeks (mostly on my and Karla's part). We will do the best we can to accommodate you all.

I wanted to touch on the Suggestions that I've been getting this summer. First, thank you for voicing concerns, questions and super nice comments! If you would like an answer to your suggestion/question, please leave a number or email. I want you to know I read them and I put thought in to them. Some requests I can't fill, and others I'm working on or dwelling on. You can also send comments through our Feedback form on our app: sside.ca/FitStopApp.

Thank you all once again for being so amazing!

Until next week,

Tracy