Effective fitness recovery enables your body to more efficiently repair muscle and tissue while helping you build strength and feel ready for that next workout. Your muscles need anywhere from 24 to 48 to repair and rebuild. Without effective recovery time, your tissues will break down with your next training session — instead of building up.
Of course, as an athlete in the San Francisco Bay Area, you want to train all the time to enhance your performance (and look good while you’re at it). The last thing you want is for post-workout recovery pain to affect your schedule and slow you down. Whether you’re a newbie or a workout junky, the good news is there are ways to speed up your fitness recovery, so you can get back in the gym.
1. Eat Foods That Fuel Fitness Recovery
You probably already know that, when you work out, you create microscopic tears in your muscle tissue that help those muscles grow bigger and stronger. Immediately after your workout and throughout the night, your body works to repair those tears.
That hard work your body is doing is fueled by protein. The amino acids in protein are what helps our bodies rebuild our damaged muscles after working out.
That’s why it’s so important to your fitness recovery to eat a protein-rich snack approximately 30 minutes after your workout and before you go to sleep. It’ll give your body the fuel it needs to repair your muscles faster and more effectively. Eating fruits and vegetables after your workout will also help with muscle regeneration.
Protein-rich snack ideas:
- Tuna
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Salmon
- Lean beef
- Milk
- Yogurt
- Peanut butter sandwich
Carbs are important to muscle recovery, too, which is what makes chocolate milk such a great post-workout snack on the go. It’s chock-full of protein and carbs to kick-start muscle repair and reduce the amount of recovery time you need before your next workout.
Research also shows that eating protein before your workout can help speed up muscle building and repair too.
2. Don’t Skimp on the Rest and Relaxation
Sleep is the best way to heal from illness and injury. It affects your entire system, from your brain and your heart to your lungs, your metabolism, your immune function, and your fitness recovery.
When it has adequate downtime, your body does incredible things to help you recover. Getting optimal levels of sleep is critical for athletes. It allows your body to produce growth hormone (GH), which is critical to tissue repair and growth.
3. Replace Lost Fluids Fast
Hydration affects every nutrient transfer and metabolic function in the body. Of course, that means that being properly hydrated will improve every bodily function, including muscle repair and recovery.
Unfortunately, though, you lose a lot of fluid through sweat when you work out. This can leave you feeling weak, dizzy, and dehydrated. Replacing those lost fluids (and accompanying vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes) will not only help your body recover but also help your mood and energy levels at the same time.
You should be drinking 7 to 10 ounces of fluid for every 10-20 minutes of exercise during your workout, another 8 ounces after 30 minutes of exercise, and 16 to 24 ounces more for every pound of body weight lost during your workout.
The fastest way to replace lost fluids and initiate the recovery process after a hard workout is to administer them intravenously via IV infusions. A Fitness Recovery IV drip is not only full of much-needed fluid but also vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes. Plus, the 100% absorption rate of intravenous fluids means your body will be able to recover faster, so you can perform better.
Rejuv IV offers specialized Fitness Recovery IV treatments to help athletes in the San Francisco Bay Area get quick relief from post-exercise pain and recovery faster from their workouts. Get help now.
