Accelerate Recovery

How to Accelerate Muscle Recovery

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It is essential to accelerate muscle recovery for a number of reasons. In order to get back into your fitness routine, incorporating a few healing techniques for sore muscles is essential. Whether you're a seasoned athlete or just starting a fitness routine, giving the muscle time to repair itself is imperative to muscle recovery, which can affect your ability to exercise or train on a regular basis. No matter what your fitness level, you'll be able to get back on track with your exercise routine by following these tips.

Steps

1. Start the day right, by having an egg white omelet in the morning. Egg whites have a solid amount of lean protein, which helps repair muscles and tissue within the muscles.
2. Eat low-fat peanut butter and celery sticks for a snack. The low fat peanut butter makes you feel satiated so you eat less the entire day.
3. Grab a low fat chicken fajita or a can of tuna in spring water for lunch. Eat this with whole grain crackers and low fat cheese; both have plenty of protein.
4. Prepare any type of beans you prefer for dinner. Soybeans, kidney beans, pinto beans and black beans are all great choices of lean proteins. Sprinkle with olives, salsa, and low-fat sour cream to add even more flavor.

Take a Rest to Restore Muscles

1. Allow your muscles enough time to recover from a strenuous workout, especially if you just started a fitness routine. Failing to take a well-needed rest for a day or two can result in muscle tears, which will make muscle recovery time even longer and may result in an ongoing injury.
2. Apply cold and hot compresses to sore, achy muscles. The heat works to alleviate pain, while the cold temperature helps to reduce swelling and inflammation of the muscles.
3. Exercise parts of the body that are not sore. For instance, if you did lunges and squats and it hurts to sit down, exercise your arms instead. Perform various bicep and tricep exercises with weights, to tighten and tone the muscles in the arms.

Stretch the Muscles Thoroughly

1. Stretch the muscles that are sore. For instance, if your legs become increasingly sore after exercise, make sure you stretch these muscles thoroughly.
2. Hold each stretch for a minimum of 10 seconds. Start out with shallow stretches and gradually increase the deepness of the stretch on each repetition.
3. Repeat this same stretching exercise on the other leg. Do 3 sets of 5 repetitions on each leg. Failure to stretch muscles after an intense workout leads to sore muscles and increases the likeliness of pulled muscles.

Tips

• While you may not experience muscle soreness immediately after a workout, you may notice it a day or two later. Scientists believe that this swelling and stiffness is caused by biochemical changes within the body, which increase nerve sensitivity and leads to sore muscles.

Warnings

• When stretching it is important only to go as far as what is comfortable for you. As soon as you begin to feel any form of discomfort, stop and take it back to starting position. Stretching too deeply can result in torn ligaments. Use slow and controlled movements to prevent this from occurring.

Related wikiHows

• How to Recover from Workout Soreness

Sources and Citations

• http://www.3fatchicks.com/4-ways-to-accelerate-muscle-recovery/

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