By Mark Elmasry
“Man that was a good workout!” We’ve all said recently enough, or how about, “Ouch, I am sore”?
But the last thing, and possibly the worst thing you may be saying is, “I’m too beat up to do anything today.”
These are all indications of a couple of problems.
Firstly, feeling “beat up” is a sign of your muscles becoming slightly more acidic acutely following exercise, or days later you may be feeling the effects of delayed onset muscle soreness caused by sensitive muscle fiber endings. Secondly, it can be attributed to a poor diet and poor sleep.
Proper nutrition is what fuels our muscles, providing our body the nutrients necessary for repairing torn muscles post workout, while sleep allows for hormonal benefit and aids in muscle growth and rebuilding.
Last, and certainly not least as to reasons why you have ‘thrown in the towel’ for exercise that day are neglected recovery tricks.
For starters, we are not all lovers of pain, so soft tissue manipulation on a foam roller or trigger point tool of some sort is not something we all religiously do as we should.
Soft Tissue Manipulation (STM), be it that you go to a fancy massage clinic, performed self massage, or self myofacial release(SMR) with a ball, roller, stick, etc. should be done constantly. There is always some area in your body that has recently been over-worked and is extra stiff or sensitive. It is necessary that we release those trigger points, whether they are latent or active, and obviously painful.
Helpful Hint for STM or SMR – “Less is More” when it comes to targeting a specific area of soreness or tightness. Putting continuous and concentrated pressure for multiple minutes at a time will cause even further sensitivity and even bruising. Short, simple, and straight to the point is effective and essential for taking care of sore muscles and ridding our body of hazardous trigger points and sore muscles that will ruin our body mechanics.
Playing with temperature can also be a highly effective tool for recovery. “Throw some ice on that bad boy!” is an age old saying from all kinds of uneducated coaches but is extremely valuable and helpful for recovery. Ice application by itself for a couple minutes brings down pain levels, swelling, general edema(swelling), and stops the excessive nerve signals from the brain. Not only that, but applying ice for a few minutes causes the blood flow to slow down tremendously and then come back with oxygen and nutrient rich blood cells to help repair the torn tissue. Heat is the opposite, and acts in a different yet beneficial way as well.
Let Innovative Results help you with your recovery!
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