Posted on October 04, 2013 by Jenny Cromack

“There is no such thing as overtraining only under-recovery”

To get stronger, leaner and faster you must apply a stress to the body and then recover from that stress in a never-ending cyclical pattern.  If we can improve recovery between workouts we can speed the cycle up allowing us to complete a greater volume of training and therefore hit our goals quicker. Below are my top 5 tips to speed up your recovery:

 

• Increase your magnesium consumption– Magnesium has excellent anti-inflammatory properties that really help recovery. Magnesium interacts with calcium that accumulates during intense muscle contractions.  Furthermore is plays an important role in supporting testosterone levels, critical if you want to get back in the gym ASAP.

• Hydrate, and then hydrate some more– Regardless of what any supplement company would have you believe, water is the number one supplement of all time. The correlation between dehydration and delayed recovery is very strong. If you’re training hard you should aim to drink 0.7 ounces of water per pound of body weight.

• Eat the right amount of calories– overtraining and a low fat and/or energy restricted diet will lead you to DOMS central station. You need to replenish glycogen stores, blood antioxidant levels and repair all the damage you have done to the structures in the body.  If you want to build some muscle and get some sweet gains you need to be adding extra calories to your daily intake. It gets tricky when the only goal is fat loss as a calorie deficit is required, so if this is the case to get the correct nutrient blocks you need to opt for a high protein, high fat, low carbohydrate diet.

• Get munching on antioxidant- rich foods– fruit like pineapple, kiwi and pomegranate have been shown in research to reduce muscle pain after brutal eccentric workouts, the antioxidant’s are believed to speed up the elimination process of waste products brought on through exercise.

• Massage and Foam role– you lucky devils you…. we have both of these available for members of Motive8! Both of the strategies support muscle recovery, they have been shown to improve the removal of waste products from exercise and stimulate receptors on the skin decreasing the pain feedback from the spine. If you want to book a sports massage drop me a line and I’ll put you in contact with Hannah our Sports Therapist.