How to Speed Up Your Post-Exercise Recovery

When you’re new to training, or you’re training particularly hard, you can end up stiff and sore for a few days after. It’s the same if you’ve followed a particularly tough training programme for a while - you’ll likely accumulate fatigue and need some rest.

So the advice in this post is how to speed up your post-exercise recovery (without the need for any expensive treatments or supplements). The advice contained within this article is practical, achievable and doesn’t require you to do anything extraordinary!

Follow these tips and you’ll be recovered in no time at all…

Get plenty of food in…

The research around your post-exercise food requirements is really clear. It says you need carbohydrates and protein. Nothing out of the ordinary here.

The confusion lies within how much and when this food should be taken. The reality is that the science is a little sketchy and there’s no clear answer. The evidence for an ‘anabolic window of opportunity’ appears to be slim at best.

Instead, the suggestion of protein and carbohydrate consumed after workout will help to speed the recovery of glycogen (your body’s sugar stores) and start the rebuilding and repair of tissues damaged in the workout. In terms of how much protein you should be eating, the general advice is that a figure of around 1g per pound/2g per kilo of bodyweight is perfect.

Sleep as much as you need to…

Notice here how the advice is to sleep as much as you need to? That’s on purpose.

We know from research that there’s no such thing as the perfect amount of sleep and that you can’t make a blanket guideline that will suit everyone. The suggestion is to aim for 7-10 hours of sleep, but in their 2021 narrative review, sleep researchers suggested that post exercise sleep should be advised as following…

‘An individualised approach that should consider the athlete’s perceived sleep needs.’

With this in mind, there’s no need to worry about a certain sleep target. Your body will tell you how much sleep you need - as long as you don’t feel tired, assume you’re getting enough sleep. Whether that’s 7, 8, or even 12 hours - if you’re asleep, you obviously needed it!

Stick to a solid sleep routine - no phones in bed, aim for a similar bed time each night, avoid excess caffeine or alcohol before bed etc. All of the usual suspects required for a good night’s sleep.

Drink plenty of water

A big asset when it comes to keeping yourself healthy is making sure you’re sufficiently hydrated. There are no hard and fast rules for hydration - a good guideline is to make sure you drink enough water to keep your urine clear.

Hydration isn’t just about making sure you’re not thirsty - over 60% of your body is water, so making sure you’ve got enough of it is important. You don’t need to overdo it, otherwise you’ll spend half of your day running to the toilet. Shoot for a minimum of 2 litres - that’s a solid baseline for most people.

Fizzy drinks and caffeinated drinks aren’t as good - they’re dehydrating, so replacing water with coffee/tea/cola etc isn’t OK. You can get away with sports drinks and diluted fruit juices etc, but avoid getting by on strong coffee, thinking you’re doing your body a favour!

Use a sauna

What was once seen as a quirky Scandinavian thing has now been proven to be an incredible health tool. The research around saunas has moved from ‘do they actually work?’ right through to ‘how do they benefit human performance?’

What we know is that the answer is a clear ‘yes’. Saunas have a positive impact on a number of health biomarkers, including recovery, cardiovascular health and even low level detoxification (some surface-level toxins can be excreted via sweat in the sauna).

The performance and recovery from exercise element is fascinating. In runners, research showed that sauna bathing increased the time to exhaustion by a huge 32%! The scientists believe that this is down to an increase in blood volume created by the sauna use.

In more recovery-focussed piece of research, pre-activity sauna use was shown to improve the effects of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), increasing range of movement and reducing pain ahead of the next session. This shows that pre-exercise sauna use will be helpful for post-exercise recovery.

Finally, the hormonal response to sauna use is increased growth hormone production, which is important because it helps the muscles, bones and connective tissues recover from high intensity exercise and the damage that it creates.

Enjoy expert level coaching…

One of the simplest ways to make sure you’re able to recover from exercise is to do an appropriate level of it in the first place! By hiring an AdMac Fitness personal trainer you’ll have your workouts planned for you, meaning you’ll be working at an appropriate level of intensity.

Not only will you have access to the best personal trainers in east London, you’ll also be training in a private studio and will enjoy fantastic results.

We have personal trainers with a range of specialities, so we can offer the ideal personal trainer to help you achieve your goals.

For more information on who we are, what we do and how we can help you achieve your health and fitness goals, contact us on… 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!