How To Recover Like Wolverine

We all know that feeling, where you wake up the day after a big workout and your muscles feel so sore. But did you know there are some methods you can use to help prevent that ‘exercise hangover’?

Here are 9 ways to boost your recovery from day to day training.

1. Sleep

The best way to recover from your training sessions, and often the most neglected, is adequate quality sleep.

This means 8+ hours of uninterrupted sleep, so that your body can go through the specific sleep stages to release the hormones required for the recovery process.

It's best to be in complete darkness and have no electronics in your bedroom. If you have your phone or tablet for an alarm, be sure to put them into flight mode so that the signals don't interfere with your sleep stages.

Power naps work really well too, and are generally best when done for up to 30 mins, or longer than 90 minutes. Anywhere in between can cause you to wake up a little groggy. Power naps should be used before 3pm, so that it doesn't affect your night time sleep.

2. Nutrition

A diet which has a wide variety of foods with optimal macro and micronutrients allows for a more productive body. Everyone is different and each person's body reacts differently, so “optimal protocol” should be individualised through trial and error.

Having adequate protein (the building blocks of muscles) in your diet will also help the repairing process, as well as good fats (such as fish oil) and magnesium.

If you haven't already, ask us for our Clean Eating Guide which can point you to the right direction for better health and performance!

3. Water Intake

Most people are in a constant state of dehydration, and wouldn't even know it. When it comes to strength and conditioning, it's important to keep the muscles hydrated for better performance and recovery.

The easiest calculation for how much water you should be drinking is:
'Your bodyweight' x 0.033 = Litres of water per day.
(Eg: 50kg x 0.033 = 1.65L of water per day)

If you have a hard training session, you should also be drinking around an extra litre to make up for water loss.

4. Contrast Therapy (e.g. hot and cold showers)

This can be done immediately post workout by turning the shower from hot to cold every minute or so, for a few rounds. We recommend a 1:1 ratio, gradually getting hotter/colder each round.

The change in temperature creates a contraction and relaxation of your muscles which results in a pump-like action in your blood vessels. Because of this pumping action, metabolic waste products produced during exercise (that cause muscle soreness) can be flushed out of your muscles and back into the bloodstream to be broken down.

5. Hydrotherapy

Now this can either be the same as point 4 or can be just cold or just hot.

This doesn’t mean sub zero temperatures for extended periods of time. Cold therapy should be between the range of 12-15 degrees for 6 minutes and hot between 35-40 degrees. The cold water constricts blood vessels and decreases metabolic activity, which reduces swelling and tissue breakdown. Once the skin is no longer in contact with the cold source, the underlying tissues warm up, causing a return of faster blood flow, which helps waste removal much like contrast therapy. The hot therapy increase blood flow to the muscles with micro-tears which occur when we train, this allows for nutrients and recovery cells to act.

We also recommend hitting up a sauna - there is an amazing sauna at Oceans Edge Health Club in Palm Cove, which we visit regularly! (Cost is under $10)

6. Static Stretching

The body is a lot like clay after a hard training session - in the sense that, if you finish and cool down with tight muscles, you'll end up losing a bit of your flexibility.

Holding stretches post workout for 1-2 minutes can reduce DOMs (delayed onset muscle soreness) for the days to come. Rather than just leaving right after class, stay back and stretch for 5 mins. This will save you much muscular pain in the days to come and allow you to continue to turn up and perform.

7. Massage

The cheapest massage is using a foam roller or other mobility tools, but if you happen to have spare time and $$, a sport massage allows the muscle fibres and tissue to flush waste out and also increases blood flow for muscles to recover. Make sure to do this only after 48 hours after your hard session, once the inflammatory response has subsided.

8. Compression Garments (e.g. skins)

You can wear these in the evening and even to bed, just make sure they’re not too tight!
Research has shown that compression garments may improve joint awareness, local blood flow, waste product removal, improve running economy, reduce swelling, reduce muscle oscillation, and decrease post-exercise muscle performance whilst appear to have no negative impact on performance.

9. Active Recovery

Going for an easy walk, bike ride or swim outside of your training sessions can have a positive impact on your recovery, by getting the body moving and helping to promote blood flow. Just make sure to keep it as a low intensity endeavour.

Implement these strategies and see if you begin to recover better!