Muscle Recovery

I am commited to 6 days a week of some really intense stuff for a couple of months. I have no time for dms or for soreness/stiffness to hold me back. Also, I want to be at my best for my friends I know this was discussed before, but if anyone (trainers) have recomendations, please pm me with your suggestions.

I already know about ice bath and hot/cold, motrin, daily multi, enough potassium and walking it out the next day....any other suggestions?

You can start with BCAA's, such as an amino acid supplement or glutamine. Best 2 things for muscle recovery

One of the best natural way to recover from sour muscles from a hard work out (gym, or BCD) is to get right back at it, it wont take long before you are no longer sour, injuries are a different subject.


IB

Have done glutamine in the past. I think you are right, IB! Ha! Just looking for some instant gratification that does not exist!! I need to suck it up, lol!

Plenty of hydration...!!

Jus' watch yerself!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-r...b_3977598.html

Thanks fer yer concern, DD Good article, btw! I had pyscotic coaches like that in school. She's partly to blame for my signature ASSet!

Hydration and protein good, SM. Just don't be thinkin dirty okay?! Hehe

I've been a trainer for almost 20 years now, so allow me to give you some advice...

#1 - your muscle soreness is what we call Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). It's the result of micro-level tears in the muscle fibers. Despite how it sound, this is actually a GOOD thing. As you continue to work out more and more over weeks, months, and years this will gradually become a smaller and smaller effect until you almost don't feel it at all. But, early on you can think of it as a general indicator that you worked hard enough in the gym to induce a physiological change.

#2 - DD linked to an article on Rhabdo. In all my years of training everyone from stark beginners to Navy SEALs, I've never even seen a case of this. EVER. Does it happen? Yes, I'm sure it does. But exercise induced Rhabdo is VERY rare and usually only occurs when someone is just doing outrageously stupid things for many consecutive days. Best smart with your training both in terms of volume AND intensity and you'll be fine. But remember, working hard is a REQUIREMENT for making physical improvements. Don't let articles like that be any kind of excuse to go into the gym and half-ass it!

#3 - Nutrition. Nutrition. Nutrition. The length and severity of your soreness will be directly related to how good your total nutrition is! And, this isn't just about "eating more vegetables"! You need to be consuming the right ratio of macro-nutrients (carbs, proteins, and fats) at the right times of the day to maximize your efforts in the gym. Calories are just one single parameter that you need to dial in. It's EASY for someone to go to the gym and bust their ass for 60 minutes a day. It's the people who are strong during those OTHER 23 hours of the day that achieve great results that last!

#4 - Also as previously mentioned, active recover is fantastic to help alleviate that soreness and prompt faster recovery! Just keep it light and easy. The idea isn't to "work that area out again". It's really just to get some good blood flow into the muscle fibers of the affected area.

#5 - Stretching. If you're not spending at least 15-20 minutes after your workout stretching the area(s) in question, you're just wrong! Good, progressive stretching will provide you with a host of benefits in addition to reducing the inflammation and soreness.

#6 - Take contrast showers, especially right after working out. Get the shower really hot for 3-5 minutes, then get it really COLD for the same duration. Repeat 3-5 times. This will cause the blood vessels and the muscle fibers to undergo several cycles of contraction and expansion creating a mini-pumping action to get nutrients into the areas where they are needed and get toxins OUT!

#7 - get a high protein, high carb meal in immediately after your workout. Breakfast is no longer THE most important meal of the day...that distinction belongs to your post-workout meal! Regardless of what diet you're on, after you workout immediately consume between 25g - 50g (depending on your weight and lean mass) of high quality protein and then 3x - 4x that many grams of carbs. This will not only replenish your body of what you just burned, but it will also get a HUGE jump start on the recovery process!

#8 - Sleep. Often overlooked but critically important is making sure you get ~8 hours of quality sleep each night. Chronic sleep deprivation is pretty widespread in this country and the fact that it creeps into your life slowly, inch by inch makes it very difficult for you to even realize you're under it's effects. When you're working out, it's even that much MORE important to get good sleep! Your body needs that time to shut down and work on repairs not only to your muscles and other soft tissues but also your nervous system! Often times, especially in new beginners the nervous system will get overloaded long before your muscles will!

#9 - RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. If you're in a lot of muscle pain, use these 4 things to mitigate the symptoms. You might also add in 600mg - 800mg of Ibuprofen (Motrin) every 4-6 hours. regarding using ice, go with 15 minutes on and about 30 minutes off and just keep cycling that. Contrast showers are also good during recovery, so you may want to consider them on a regular basis.

Let me know if you have any other questions...

Hi Scarlett, I always found l-Arginine to be a big help in recovery. Take about 3000mg per day to significantly reduce the burn (lactic acid). You can buy it cheap at Walmart, etc. Recommended that you stop using it if you come down with a virus, get pregnant, etc. I've never seen any side-effects. Good luck!

You could do all listed above or you could just ingest high dosages of protein, its good for the skin also.

L-Glutamine mixed in with 8 to 12 ounces of Chocolate milk immediately after you work out works well.

Thanks for the input, everyone.

I have a protein potion