As you know, in order to grow a lot of muscle, you need to work out a lot. However, for the muscle to grow, you need muscle recovery after a workout. So, if you just pump a lot of iron in the gym, you need proper muscle recovery as long as you want to see muscle growth. If you eat the wrong foods after a gym session and/or do not get enough sleep, or have poor quality sleep, you will just ruin the efforts you’ve had in the gym.
What I’m trying to say is that what you do after a workout is exactly as important as what you do during your workout. That’s because proper stress on muscles during training is important. But proper muscle recovery after a workout is what actually helps grow that muscle. With proper muscle recovery, you will get the best results, boost muscle gains, lose body fat, and reduce muscle soreness. Not only that, but a good post-workout routine will allow you to maintain energy levels too.
- The conclusion? You need to aim for the best muscle recovery after a workout. How to do that? That’s why we’re here. We will help you by sharing our top tips on what to do after your workout for muscle recovery. It helps boost your post-workout routine and maximize your results.
How Long Does Muscle Recovery Take After A Workout?
Remember that for different people, there are different lengths of time required to recover from a workout. How long muscle recovery takes after a workout depends on your fitness level, the intensity of your workout, how long you worked out for, as well as what you do post workout.
For example, light activity may leave you a bit sore for only 24 hours. However, more challenging workouts could take 2-3 days for the muscles to recover. In some severe cases with very intense workouts, and usually, poor post workout recovery, for beginners, it can take up to a week!
What other factors will impact your recovery besides the ones I’ve mentioned?
- Quality and amount of sleep
- Quality and amount of nutrition
- The stress level in your life
- How intense the workouts are across different muscle groups
Why Is Muscle Recovery Necessary?
We do not grow muscle when we exercise contrary to some beliefs. When we’re exercising, we’re actually creating a lot of tiny tears in our muscles. In essence, we’re damaging your muscles, creating micro-tears in them. I guess you understand why muscle recovery is necessary. It is during the recovery time that our muscles heal and come back stronger. In case you won’t give your muscles time (and nutrition) to recover, it may work the other way around and cause muscle loss. Plus, the risk of injury significantly increases.
A continuous accumulation of micro-tears in muscle fibers without rest and muscle recovery will put you at risk of developing torn or pulled muscles, which can be uncomfortable, all the way up to requiring surgery! Not to mention that it could lead to muscle loss. That’s why we cannot work out 12 hours a day, becoming huge within a month.
How To Prevent Muscle Injury?
In order to grow muscle, you need progressive overload. This overload involves small increases in the intensity of your workouts over time. This could include heavier weights, more reps, more sets, different exercises, and so on. Nonetheless, if you try to jump ahead too quickly, and lift too heavy weights, for example, you risk injuries. Simply because your body and muscles are not ready for such intensity.
Moreover, in order to prevent injury, you need to work out to a certain intensity. Many agree that your workout sessions should feel challenging. However, they shouldn’t leave you completely exhausted. Only world-class athletes may attempt training at peak intensity, but only with a good strategy in mind. You should have a strategy too. It will help reduce injury risk and increase your muscle recovery needs and time.
A common strategy for strength training is working out three times a week. You need to schedule your workout per week so your muscles can have enough time to recover. For example, if you workout three times a week, it could involve:
- Monday: back and biceps; Wednesday: chest and arms; Friday: legs and shoulders. This way, each muscle group has enough time to recover and grow.
If you work out 6 times a week, you could follow the same plan as above, with Sunday off, and follow that plan twice a week. This means that your back and biceps that you work out on Monday, you will only work out again on Thursday, giving your muscles plenty of time to recover.
Foods To Boost Muscle Recovery After Workout
Your muscles grow from something – the foods that you eat. However, if you only eat foods without nutritional values, your muscles will lack of nutrition they need to use to grow. This will not only hinder muscle growth but will also hinder muscle recovery time and efficiency.
- What should you do? Focus on high quality foods with a balanced diet, ensuring your muscles get all the macronutrients and micronutrients they need to grow and recover faster.
Protein
When you are working out, you are damaging your muscle fibers, or more precisely – those proteins that make up your muscle fibers are the ones getting damaged. For this reason, having protein after your workout is extremely important. It will give your body the essential material it requires in order to repair that damage. According to research, having about 20-40 g of protein post-workout is going to be highly efficient in maximizing muscle growth and boosting post-workout muscle recovery. Studies also prove that having 20-40 g of protein before your workout may also help increase muscle protein synthesis too.
For this reason, lots of athletes choose fast absorbing proteins pre-workout (20-40 g) and then slower absorbing proteins post workout (20-40 g) post workout.
Post Workout Carbs
Your muscles are storing carbs in the form of glycogen for energy. In short, carbs are the energy source for your muscles. This means that during short and intense workouts, the main source of energy for your muscles is that type of glycogen (you take from carbohydrates). You need to replenish those stores of carbs. If you don’t, the muscles do not have what they need to support recovery and growth.
However, you need to aim for healthy (complex) carbs, rather than simple carbs. Of course, you need to pay attention to the amount of carbs you eat (to have a proper balance – see below), but you also need to pay attention to the quality of the carbs.
Balanced Diet
It is very important to have a healthy and balanced diet. This means that you need to focus on the foods that will maximize muscle recovery thanks to their high nutritional values. For example, you need foods that will provide a lot of micronutrients (such as vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants), as well as a good balance of macronutrients (fats, carbs, and proteins). Also, aim for the right amount of calories.
If your body develops nutrient deficiencies, it will impact your muscle’s ability to recover and, therefore, hinder the muscle growth process. General rules for muscle recovery after workout when it comes to diet:
- Avoid consuming processed foods
- If you’re cutting – aim for maximum 20% below maintenance calories
- If you’re bulking – aim for maximum 20% over maintenance calories
- Add a lot of fruits and veggies (they are full of micronutrients)
- Have a good balance of macros (one example: 50% carbs, 30% proteins, 20% fats)
- Do not avoid carbs or fats
- Aim to eat at least 1.5g of protein per kilogram of body weight. Usually 2 grams.
Drinks To Boost Muscle Recovery After Workouts
While there are a lot of companies advertising their post-workout drinks, as long as you have proper nutrition (diet), you do not need any of them. While some of them may be somewhat helpful, remember that they may add unnecessary sugars or calories. Also, some research suggests that tart cherry juice after exercise could reduce inflammation, soreness, and muscle damage. However, more research is required.
In the end, what you need to make sure in terms of drinks that boost your workout recovery is that you stay hydrated.
Compounds to Boost Your Muscle Recovery Post-Workout
Creatine and Protein
Creatine and protein powders are widely studied and perhaps the most popular sports supplements. That’s because they were both proven effective at improving muscular strength during resistance training, restoring your muscles’ glycogen stores, and boosting your muscle recovery after workouts. A lot of proteins have a wide spectrum of essential amino acids necessary for recovery. Both creatine and protein will work in different ways to achieve basically the same goal: reduce muscle damage and inflammation, replenish glycogen stores, and help athletes recover.
Other Supplements
Online or local supplement stores are full of various compounds and supplements that help in one way or another boost your workouts, boost your muscle recovery after workouts, and offer other benefits. There are various vitamins and minerals, including other sports supplements such as L-glutamine, L-arginine, L-carnitine, Fish Oils, Omega 3, Beta Alanine, and numerous others.
Anabolic Steroids and HGH
Anabolic steroids, among other performance-enhancing drugs such as HGH, are the best products you could use when it comes to boosting muscle recovery after a workout and boosting your strength, energy, stamina, and endurance during workouts. These are essential hormones for optimizing your workout and recovery. In fact, the way your body recovers relies on these hormones. By increasing the hormones, people achieve mind-blowing goals.
Anabolic steroids, HGH, and other PEDs you can buy from HGH.to are of the best quality. Plus, you can save a lot of money when doing business with us. These are the real deal when it comes to boosting recovery times and strength, thus maximizing muscle growth. People using anabolic steroids suggest that their recovery times (muscle soreness) went down from 72 hours (three days) to less than 24 hours (one day). They notice a huge strength and endurance increase, with a surge in energy and stamina levels among other benefits.
BUY ANABOLIC STEROIDS FOR BODYBUILDING ONLINE HERE
Anabolic steroids have been proven for a long time now that they are highly efficient in maximizing bodybuilding goals. There are a lot of studies proving they dramatically lower the necessary muscle recovery times.
Lifestyle To Boost Your Muscle Recovery After Workout
The way you work out and eat as well as the products that you use (protein, creatine, sports supplements, and/or anabolic steroids and/or HGH) are crucial in determining how fast and how efficiently you grow muscle and recover post-workout. Nonetheless, the lifestyle you have will play an essential role in muscle recovery and muscle growing potential.
Sleep
We all know that sleep is an extremely important part of your life. While it sounds straightforward, it is actually true that sleep gives your muscles time to recover. I mean, they best recover when you sleep. If you regularly exercise with high intensity (for big gains), you actually need more rest than the average person who doesn’t work. This is the reason why there are professional athletes sleeping 10+ hours a night!
On the other hand, sleep deprivation comes with a myriad of negative effects. It can impair your body’s natural inflammation reaction. It will stop the production of hormones that help aid muscle growth and wreak havoc on your metabolism, immune system, cognitive function, hormonal balance, and so on. People with poor sleep quality, especially lack of sleep tend to lose muscles and gain fat. What should you do after a workout to recover? Sleep!
Massage
Another thing that you can implement in your lifestyle to help muscle recovery after a workout is sports massage. While not as crucial as other factors I’ve mentioned so far like sleep, it can considerably reduce muscle soreness. That’s why a lot of athletes incorporate massages into their training. It can decrease DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) and improve muscle flexibility.
Things That Hinder Muscle Recovery After Workout
While there are a lot of things that you should consider adding to your recovery routine regimen, there are others that you may want to avoid. Simply because they stop the recovery process.
So, first, it is vital for you to find the balance when it comes to working out just right (not too much, but not too little), getting enough quality sleep, and fueling your body with a balanced diet, which means finding a perfect balance of macronutrients and calories. Too many calories will gain fat. Not enough calories can support muscle recovery. Which means you need to stay away from processed foods.
However, you also need to avoid alcohol and tobacco. For example, smoking will hinder your performance in the gym, and your recovery. Alcohol does it even more. The body attempts to get rid of alcohol first, instead of focusing on muscle recovery. Drinking alcohol has been proven to have a huge negative impact on your body’s ability to recover and gain muscle.
Also, avoid the urge to push your body too hard. Pushing past the level you’re at will increase the risk of injuries, but it also increases nausea, and restricts your breathing, causing dizziness and light-headedness.
Generally, remaining healthy (avoiding stress too) will help your muscles recover post workout and make those gains.
Sore Muscles? What Should I Do?
Stretch
Stretch after your workout while your muscles are still warm. Also, stretch every day even during non-workout days. This is going to help elongate your muscles, relieve tension, and boost flexibility. It may prevent muscle soreness and tension, increase your range of motion, build better form and posture, improve muscle mobility, and improve muscle relaxation, leading to less muscle soreness.
Cool/Cold Shower
Have you seen professionals having ice baths? Why would they do it? Because it encourages healing, prevents inflammation, and eases any tension in the muscles. However, you should start slowly. Start with a cool or cold shower. Then you may go for a cool bath. Then an ice bath. From this point on, you could start increasing the time you stay in the ice bath. Usually, cool or cold showers or ice baths last from one minute up to ten minutes or so.
Massage
As said, sports massage can help. If there’s nobody who can help you, you could also use a foam roller over the muscles you’ve worked out.
Quality Sleep and Eat Right
If your muscles are sore it could be due to lack of sleep (or proper sleep) and/or lack of macro/micronutrients. It’s obvious, that you need to make sure you sleep and eat right, as said numerous times earlier.
Pain Meds
I do not recommend pain medications for reducing muscle soreness and pains. While these drugs will help reduce the pain, they will actually delay muscle recovery and the pain disappears for as long as the medication works. I only recommend them in case the soreness is too harsh to resist, interfering with your daily life activities. But if you’ve reached this point, it is a clear sign that you’re doing something wrong in terms of muscle recovery after a workout or that you’ve overtrained. Instead of pain meds, if you have enough experience, you could try anabolic steroids. They will greatly reduce the recovery periods, with a huge improvement in overall muscle recovery. Just make sure you use them correctly and buy quality products (both of which you can do at HGH.to).
Talk To Trainer
A professional personal trainer can become your best friend when it comes to making gains. Sometimes, they can literally become your best friend. The point is that a personal trainer who knows what he is doing will help you boost recovery, optimize your workouts, and overall help you reach your goals. Regardless if you’re new to fitness, have underlying health conditions or injuries, or you’ve just reached a plateau and want to take it to the next level.
A trainer will help you reach new milestones, make gains, adjust your plan, and push you through plateaus. You can also talk with a dietician. But very often, a trainer can help too if your diet struggles.
Optimize Muscle Recovery Post-Workout And Boost Your Gains!
In the end, in order to optimize muscle recovery, you will need to use the recovery process after your workout to gain the most benefits. Give your muscles the chance to rest and heal. Not only does the proper workout make your muscles stronger and bigger, but you restore your energy too.
So, if you hit a plateau or your muscles feel constantly sore despite the fact that you’re trying your best to follow all the methods to optimize muscle recovery, it is time for you to get some help.
HGH.to is here to help. With the help of our products, such as various anabolic steroids, HGH, and numerous others, you will boost your workout and diet efforts, gain muscle, burn fat, and reduce your recovery time. We offer only the best quality products from the most popular manufacturers, so there’s no need to worry about that. Moreover, we help you save money as we provide the cheapest prices on the market. Lastly, we’ll help you with an individual plan, indicating which ones you need and how to use them. This way, you’ll make sure that these products won’t become dangerous, keep side effects at bay, and get the best possible results!
