You can’t get stronger without getting sore. When you workout, you are actually tearing your muscle fibers. As they heal, the fibers will strengthen–thus making you stronger.
But sometimes the soreness can be crippling. Here are a few priorities that you should focus on if you want to recover faster.
- Sleep. The body will recover itself automatically while you are sleeping. Get enough of it.
- Hydration. It’s really hard to drink too much water. The best way to ensure that you are drinking enough is to carry around a water bottle. Another strategy would be to buy some zero-calorie, flavored drink packets. This makes drinking enough easy.
- Nutrition. Eat real food. Limit the processed stuff.
- Active recovery. Movement will increase blood flow throughout the body and help flush out lactic acid buildup. Cardio, foam rolling, and dynamic stretches are best.
You already knew the first three, but they’re more important than the last one!
But because you may be less familiar with “active recovery sessions”, here’s a short video explaining it with some movements and stretches.
Tyler