Working out has a lot of fantastic health benefits, but it can be hard on your muscles and joints. This means recovery is a really important part of your fitness routine.
Here are some ways you can relax and recover after a workout.
Utilize Natural Supplements
Herbs like valerian, chamomile, and lavender can all have calming effects after a workout. Products such as l theanine gaba can help with calming your body as well as increasing your mental focus and concentration.
Especially if you work out in the evening, these supplements can help signal that it’s time to slow down and get ready for bed. Evening workouts heat up the body and activate the muscles close to bedtime, which can keep you from getting quality sleep.
CBD also has stress-relief capabilities and many people find it beneficial in getting a good night of quality sleep. Especially when working out late, it can help signal your body to slow down.
Give water-soluble CBD a try for better CDB absorption into the body. Better absorption means your body can more effectively and more quickly relax and destress.
Get Stretchy Bendy
Like herbal remedies, stretching is important to muscle recovery post-workout. It’s important to stretch when your muscles are still warm. With consistent post-workout stretching, your body becomes more flexible.
Stretching also improves book circulation and eliminates lactic acid. This means your muscles are more ready to take on a tough workout the next day and will help you avoid injury. Stretching has other benefits as well, like boosting your energy levels and pain prevention.
While it increases flexibility, it also improves range of motion and coordination. Again, this makes talking about your next workout safer.
You’ll gain more benefit from other workouts if your coordination and range of motion are at their peak. To incorporate stretching into your daily routine, there are many apps you can use.
Roll Out
Utilize a foam roller, bands or a croquet ball to further rehab sore muscles and joints.
Foam rolling is a self-myofascial release technique that gives you many of the benefits of stretching and helps recover muscles.
It does this by relaxing contracted muscles, which improves blood circulation and stimulating the stretch reflex in your muscles.
Practice Yoga and Breathing
Regularly going to a yoga class can also give you the benefits of stretching. A yoga instructor can challenge you to get deeper in stretches.
Plus with yoga, you also get all the benefits of deep breathing and mindfulness, which are beneficial for relaxation and de-stressing.
Deep breathing can also help you relax after a workout and keep you present at the moment. It’s one of the best ways to lower stress in your body.
Practicing deep breathing sends a message to your brain to relax and be calm. Deep breathing will lower your heart rate, decrease your blood pressure and calm your mind.
Hot and Cold Therapy
Aside from stretching and natural remedies, participating in hot and cold therapy can have huge, lasting benefits for relaxation and recovery. Cold therapy works by reducing blood flow, which can reduce swelling, inflammation, and pain.
Try an ice bath for about 6-12 minutes to get maximum benefit. Contrastingly, heat therapy increases blood flow to muscles and has huge benefits as well.
It increases blood flow to treated areas. Increased blood can help muscles relax, which means greater flexibility and less muscle stiffness.
Try sitting in a sauna or hot tub to utilize heat therapy. You can increase benefits even more by adding Epsom salts to the hot tub. Since both hot and cold therapy has benefits independently, it’s no surprise that they work best together.
It ultimately results in less soreness and swelling to muscles. To utilize both together, sit in an ice bath for 1-2 minutes. Then sit in a hot tub or sauna for 3-4 minutes. Repeat this 3-4 times.
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The nice thing about these methods is that you don’t have to use them independently of each other. You can use all of them or a few of them to achieve better results.
No matter which route you go, make sure you’re doing something to relax and recover after your workout.
