Proven Tips To Maximize Muscle Recovery
Overview
Despite what you may read on some fitness blogs, there’s no better way to help your muscles recover than by eating healthy foods and getting a good night’s sleep.
Living an overall healthy lifestyle is the most important step you can take to maximize your muscle recovery. No recovery method can make up for poor nutrition and a lack of rest.
Many people believe they need expensive supplements to achieve results from their workouts. Although some supplements have benefits, you’re not going to maximize your performance unless you’re already taking care of the basics.
How the tips are categorized
I have broken these tips into 5 categories:
- foods
- drinks
- supplements
- lifestyle habits
- things to avoid
Keep in mind that the following tips are meant to give you ideas of how you can improve your muscle recovery, but they aren’t meant to be a comprehensive list that you need to follow point for point. Your body type, fitness goals, and current level of fitness all play a role in determining the best way to recover.
Foods
Protein pre-workout
Eating protein before your workout may help increase muscle protein synthesis.
As with post-workout recommendations, research has found 0.4 to 0.5 g/kg (0.9 to 1.1g/lb) of body weight to be the optimal amount.
Protein post-workout
When you exercise, the proteins that make up your muscle fibers become damaged. Consuming protein after your workout can help give your body the raw material it needs to repair this muscle damage.
Research has found that about 20g of protein, or roughly 0.4 to 0.5 g/kg (0.9 to 1.1 g/lb) of body weight, is enough to maximize muscle growth.
Carbohydrates post-workout
Your muscles store carbohydrates in the form of glycogen for energy. During short-duration and intense exercise, your muscles use this glycogen as their primary form of energy.
If you need to rapidly restore glycogen levels in less than four hours, such as when performing back-to-back workouts, the International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends consuming 1.2 g/kg of body weight per hour with a focus on carbohydrates with a glycemic index (GI) over 70.
White rice, potatoes, and sugar are three examples of carbs in this GI range.
Eat an overall balanced diet
Eating an overall healthy diet can ensure that you don’t develop any nutrient deficiencies that may impair your muscles’ ability to recover.
As a general rule, this means:
- minimizing your consumption of ultra-processed foods
- eating plenty of fruits and vegetables
- getting at least 1.4 to 1.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight (0.6 to 0.8 g/lb)
Drinks
Stay hydrated
Dehydration can impair your muscles’ ability to repair themselves. You’re especially prone to becoming dehydrated if you exercise in hot or humid weather.
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends drinking 16 to 24 ounces of fluid for every pound you lose while exercising.
Tart cherry juice
Research has found that drinking tart cherry juice after exercise may reduce inflammation, muscle damage, and muscle soreness from exercise. More research is needed to fully understand its effects, but many studies published to date look promising. A typical dose used in research is 480 milliliters per day (about 1.6 ounces).
Supplements
Creatine monohydrate
Creatine is one of the most widely studied supplements. Research consistently shows it can help improve muscular strength when combined with resistance training.
Studies also found creatine may help athletes recover from intense training by helping reduce muscle damage and inflammation, as well as aiding in replenishing your muscles’ glycogen stores.
Protein powder
Protein powder is a convenient way to add more protein to your diet. Many types of protein powders contain a complete spectrum of essential amino acids. Whey and collagen powders are two popular choices.
Lifestyle
Sleep more
Sleep gives your muscles time to recover from exercise. People who exercise intensely need even more rest than the average person. Some professional athletes allegedly sleep 10 hours or more per night.
Research has found that sleep deprivation may impair muscle recovery by impairing the body’s inflammation reaction and the production of hormones that aid muscle growth.
Massage
Many athletes incorporate massage in their training to reduce muscle soreness.
A 2020 review of studies found that massage has a small but significant effect on improving flexibility and decreasing delayed onset muscle soreness after exercise.
Compression garments
Wearing compression garments has become common among athletes over the past several decades.
There’s a limited number of studies looking at their effectiveness for speeding up recovery from exercise. But a small 2019 study found that they lowered time for body muscle recovery in German handball players.
In the study, the athletes wore the garments for 24 hours and then alternated between 12-hour breaks and 12-hour periods of wearing them for a total of 96 hours.
Contrast water therapy
Contrast bath therapy involves alternating periods of submerging in very warm water and very cold water.
This change in temperature stimulates the contraction and dilation of your blood vessels and changes your heart rate.
Research has found that contrast bath therapy may help reduce muscle soreness post-workout. The results are limited and may only be relevant for athletes.
Cryotherapy
Cryotherapy is the technique of exposing your body to an extremely cold temperature for a few minutes.
Research has found that it may be able to speed up recovery by reducing pain, inflammation, and muscle tiredness after strenuous activity.
Things to avoid
Alcohol
Consuming alcohol is damaging to many aspects of your health.
Research has found that consuming alcohol after cycling impairs your muscles’ ability to replenish glycogen after endurance exercise. Alcohol also impairs protein synthesis in your muscles.
Tobacco
Smoking tobacco negatively impacts your musculoskeletal system.
Although there’s a limited amount of research on the effects of tobacco on muscle recovery, there’s some evidence that smoking is associated with an increased risk of muscular injury.
Smoking tobacco is also associated with an increased risk of developing joint disease and an increased risk of fracturing a bone.
How long does muscle recovery take?
The amount of time it takes for your muscles to recover from exercise depends on your fitness levels and the difficulty of your workout.
The volume, intensity, and duration of your workout all play a role in determining how taxing it is on your body.
After a relatively light workout, your muscles may be able to recover in 24 hours, whereas a more challenging workout might take two to three days. Very intense workouts might take even longer.
Other factors that can affect your recovery time include:
- how well you sleep
- how much nutrition you’re getting
- how much stress you’re dealing with
- doing exercises that involve many different muscle groups or a near max effort
It’s important to give your body time to recover fully after a workout. While you’re exercising, you create damage to your muscles. It’s only during the recovery period that your muscles can repair the tiny tears that form during exercise.
Your body also needs time to clear out lactic acid produced during strenuous exercise that makes your muscles feel sore and tired. If you don’t give your muscles time to recuperate, you risk injuring yourself.
What can happen if I don't give my muscles time to recover?
If you don’t let your muscles recover between workouts, you put yourself at risk of getting injured.
Repeated stress from exercise causes small tears called microtears that lead to muscles feeling sore and inflamed. An accumulation of tears puts you at risk of developing torn muscles, also called muscle strains or pulled muscles.
Muscle strains can range from mildly uncomfortable to complete ruptures that may need surgery to repair. If you’re not recovering fully, you’ll also likely notice your athletic performance decline over time.
