Recover faster after your workouts (a step by step guide)

Written By Harry James Pointon on .

Harry Pointon From Manchester City Center talks about how you can achieve faster recovery after your workouts.

The aftermath of a tough training session can take its toll.

Getting out of bed after a tough leg session can be a real mission and it can cause you to walk like a cowboy who is new to riding horses.

Now, I LOVE to feel my muscles the next day as it’s a good sign to show that my workout was shocking my body in a new way, however I don’t want this soreness to last any longer than it needs to and I am sure you think the same way.

So here is a step by step guide on how you can recover quicker from a tough workout down at the gym.

1) First things first stretching.
Yes I know you have heard it all before, you should stretch after training. But how many of us actually stretch properly after training? I for sure don’t always do enough stretching, once I have got myself back off the floor after a tough session, all I want to do is eat, stretching is the last thing on my mind.
BUT, if we were to stretch for just 10 minutes on the specific muscles that we have been working on that day, this alone can drastically speed up our rate of recovery. The sooner you do this after a workout the better.

2) Get Hydrated
It’s not unusual to sweat a lot while your training, well if you’re training hard enough that is. . So first thing when you finish your workout is to drink 1 litre of water with a pinch of sea salt in the bottle and super hydrate yourself.

3) Get some Protein
Eat some protein NOT CARBS within the first 15 minutes after training, if you have carbs, this will cause an insulin elevation and blunt your growth hormone response which will intern reduce the amount of nutrients that get to the lean tissue and stop the muscle growing bigger and stronger. This means you will have to pre prepare some lean protein before you go to the gym for after.

4) Bring in the carbohydrates, the chilling juice and the supps.
So my preferred reefed one hour after training is one apple, one mug of organic oats and water, one cup of my favourite herbal tea to get me relaxing and help facilitate fast recovery, 2 capsules of Ashwagandha and one Zinc tablet. As zinc levels will quite often be reduced from a tough workout.

5) Get one hours extra sleep
In an ideal world you want 9 hours of undisturbed sleep after a tough workout, so stop drinking water 2 hours before bed, so you are not waking up in the night. Another option is to have a 30 minute power nap after training.

Follow the 5 tips above and this will allow you to recover quicker, hit the same muscle groups again with less rest days needed and get your results in the gym quicker.