5 Post-Workout Tips to Help You Build Muscle and Recover Faster

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Millions of people now make working out and physical fitness a part of their daily routine. But most of us struggle with recovery and muscle building. That’s why these 5 post-workout tips are so helpful!

(Photo by RUN 4 FFWPU from Pexels)

 

Recovering from your workout can be incredibly draining, but its actually more important than how you exercise. If you don’t take the right steps, like these post-workout tips, then you may cause damage to your muscles and prevent their growth. Even worse, you can stunt your muscles’ ability to repair themselves after a workout.

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Getting over the post-workout hump is a challenge we all must conquer. Doing so is integral to building muscle, and that means recovering quickly. These are universal goals, made easier with our 5 post-workout tips. Everyone who works out, no matter the exercise, needs to recover. These tips will help you build muscle and recover from your workouts faster.

 

5 Post-Workout Tips

 

1. Fuel Your Body with Protein

When you work out, you are stretching and actually tearing your muscles. This is the burn you feel when exercising. Your body replaces the tears in muscle with more muscle, increasing your muscle mass and with it your strength and endurance.

In order to do this, your body needs protein. So after a workout session, your body has a high demand for dietary protein to help it repair itself and strengthen. This has led many gym fanatics to enjoy protein shakes after working out to fuel their body’s repair phase. You can also stick with more traditional proteins like chicken and vegetables to help your body repair itself. Mix in some veggie crumbles to your scrambled eggs for an enhanced vegetarian breakfast that’s rich in protein.

2. Stretch and Cool-Down

Anyone who has spent time working out knows the importance of warming up their muscles before beginning an exercise session. This helps our body prepare for exercise and makes sure that the sudden change to lifting weights or running miles doesn’t come as a shock to our system. The same is also true post-workout.

Not enough people understand the importance of cooling down your muscles and giving them a chance to adjust to normal behavior at the end of an exercise session. The change from a workout routine to normality can come as a shock to our systems. You risk causing excess damage to your muscles without a proper cool down session and stretching after a workout. This prevents them from repairing themselves completely, leading to long term damage. Grab yourself a foam roller for a deeper stretch, or to help rehab a light injury.

 

 

3. Use the Right Supplements

Supplements can offer your body a lot of help when you are recovering from a workout session, just don’t go overboard. Your body will likely be low on potassium, and many fitness fanatics rely on supplements to quickly and conveniently add some extra potassium to their system, rather than eating bananas. CBD oil has recently become a popular choice for gym goers as well. The cannabinoids in CBD are great for helping your body deal with inflammation and soreness that is associated with working out. There are lots of different CBD oils on the market, so find a good brand you can trust and stick with it.

4. Stay well Rested

One of the best ways for your body to recover is with deep and restful sleep. Sleep is one of our body’s natural recovery processes, and deep sleep allows our muscles to relax for a long period of time and repair themselves. You may be stuck with your current bed, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t inexpensive upgrades you can make for a better night’s sleep. Add a memory foam mattress topper and transform your bed without breaking the bank. A new pillow also makes a huge difference!

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Good sleep can be hard to achieve, so give it the attention it deserves. Anyone who invests time and money into working out by paying for gym memberships and setting aside time to exercise, should also invest some time and money into making sure they have a peaceful and comfortable place to sleep and recover from exercise. Then get to bed early at least one night a week, and give yourself the energy to conquer your next workout.

5. Relax and Reduce Stress

Tension in your life outside of the gym or a workout session can have a bigger impact than you might think on your body’s ability to repair itself. Having stress in your life will prevent your body from completely relaxing, preventing your muscles from repairing themselves. Many committed gym goers will combine their cool down and stretching session with some de-stressing techniques and complete a yoga class post workout. Taking a rest day or yoga day to focus on recovery is also great for your mental and physical health.

 

Staying fit and healthy is quite possibly the most rewarding pastime anyone can engage in. But if you don’t take care of yourself after working out, then you won’t see the benefits and just feel the burn. Hopefully, our 5 post-workout tips will help you make the most of your muscle mass and feel great every day of the week.

 

Additional Post-workout Tips photo by Victor Freitas from Pexels

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