Recovering From Exercise
The recovery period from a strenuous bout of exercise has been shown to be just as important as the actual exercise itself. Allowing proper recovery from exercise aids in managing tissue and muscle repair, reducing inflammation and improving physical and psychological function.
Rest and Sleep
Allow for a suitable recovery period between exercise sessions. Your body needs time to repair muscle damage and build up strength following an exercise session. Prematurely returning to exercise can predispose you to injury. Following an intense training session, allow at least 24 hours
of rest prior to exercising the same muscle group again. Furthermore, give yourself some solid snooze time!
Studies have shown that a lack of adequate sleep can reduce your tolerance to exercise, increase fatigue and inflammation, and slow your bodies healing response to exercise. The purpose of sleep is to induce a state of recovery in the body. Therefore, it is essential that the development of a regular sleeping routine is essential for good recovery from exercise. Avoid distractions when you go to bed, and aim for 8 hours a night.
Ice and Massage
Ice is a very effective strategy to manage inflammation initially after a workout. Whilst there is conjecture in the literature, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that claims ice helps with the aches and pains following a workout.
Following this, massage is very effective in managing tightness and stiffness following a training session. Whether it be from a professional, or self-applied, massage also improves blood flow to the muscles, and therefore assists the healing process.
Active recovery
Active recovery is the process of performing a workout at a low intensity. This ensure that you aren’t damaging the muscles any further but are still permitting increased blood flow to the muscle, which stimulates the healing process.
Examples of active recovery include going for a bike ride or brisk walk. If you feel like you want to spice up your recovery days, activities such as rock climbing can also be very effective!
How to make an appointment?
Seeing a physiotherapist is a fantastic way in aiding your recovery process. Here at Pivotal Motion Physiotherapy in Newmarket, our team can help ease your aches and pains. Call us on 07 3352 5116 or book an appointment online today!
