Why is muscle recovery important

Dynamic stretching has been shown to positively influence power, speed, agility, endurance, flexibility, and strength performance when used as a warm-up. The cool down also brings fresh blood into areas to help with lactic acid removal, while bringing your heart rate down to resting rate safely. Two recent systematic reviews looking at self-myofascial release SMFR; one example being the use of a foam roller has found have a range of valuable effects, including:.

Research shows there are several ways you can allow your body the best possible chance to recover. Ashley Gudgeon Mar. Sleep: Sleep provides crucial time to recover, with adequate levels of sleep allowing time for fundamental processes to occur.

Sleep debt, or insufficient levels of sleep, impairs recovery from exercise via several pathways: Increases cortisol also known as the stress hormone leading to reducing testosterone production, which in turn lowers muscle protein synthesis.

Reduces the production of growth hormone, which is released when your body enters into a deep sleep stage. This growth hormone, released by your pituitary gland, stimulates tissue growth and muscle repair. A study has shown that athletes who sleep on average 8 hours. Increases risk of infections leading to a cold or flu. Those who sleep 7 hours sleep. This can be a cause of skipped sessions or poorer quality of sessions.

Nutrition: Nutritional advice will differs from client to client dependant on many factors such as training goals increased muscle mass, fat loss, etc. Some important factors that need to be considered when evaluating macronutrients and micronutrients include: Protein forms the building blocks of muscles, numerous studies show that eating sufficient protein can help increase muscle mass and strength.

Consuming protein immediately prior to sleep, after strength training late at night, effectively stimulates muscle protein synthesis and improves whole-body protein balance during overnight recovery. Omega 3 fatty acids have an anti-inflammatory effect, and it is important to buy good quality, well transported and stored products. Good sources of Omega 3 include fish oils and flax seed oils. Omega 3 are often limited in many peoples diets, therefore supplementation may be needed.

Reducing inflammation can accelerate healing. Zinc is a key substrate for the production of testosterone. It is beneficial to have testosterone available for exercise, in particular, weight training to help with tissue repair, and to build muscle and develop strength.

A study showed that supplementing zinc in athletes with depleted testosterone and thyroid hormone from exhaustive exercise was effective in restoration of normal testosterone and thyroid levels.

It depends on the intensity and frequency of your normal routine, along with your lifestyle outside of exercise. This includes activities like leisurely walking or slow dancing. To determine when you should rest, consider the recommendations for aerobic activity.

Each week, adults should get to minutes of moderate activity or 75 to minutes of vigorous activity. You can also do a combination of moderate and vigorous activity. These guidelines can help you plan your rest days. While running is a form of cardio, it usually requires a different approach to rest days. Running too much too soon can lead to fatigue and overuse injuries. On the other days, let yourself rest or do different activities. A personal trainer or running coach can explain how to rest based on your goals.

Bodybuilding, or weight training , incorporates rest days by rotating the muscles worked. After exercising a specific muscle group, let it rest for one to two days. This gives your muscles a chance to repair and heal. On the other days, train different muscles. Be sure to work opposing muscles to keep your body balanced.

One way to do rest days is to assign a day for each body part. For instance, Monday can be leg day, Tuesday can be chest day, and so on. Rest allows your muscles to rebuild and grow. But instead of trying to omit a specific number of calories, simply listen to your body. Adequate protein intake supports the muscle repair that happens during rest. Active people need 1.

This should be evenly spaced throughout the day. Yoga is one of the best things you can do on a rest day. It also helps you build strength while loosening your muscles. Plus, yoga promotes calmness, leaving you refreshed and ready for the next workout. Just 10 to 15 minutes will help exercise recovery. Like yoga, low-impact exercise is a great rest day activity. Low-impact workouts help you stay active without overstressing your body. It will benefit your performance in significant ways down the road.

You can also consult one of our health fitness specialists here at NIFS for advice. Most important, take time to rest and recover to avoid injury! To find out more about the NIFS bloggers, click here. NIFS blogs are written by our nationally certified and degreed staff on fitness subjects ranging from workouts to nutrition to how to live a healthy lifestyle. We hope you enjoy our tips and insight!

Indianapolis, Indiana Call us: The Recovery Stage To get better at a sport or to enhance your personal fitness, you must expose your body to stresses. Top 5 Recovery Techniques Here are some things to keep in mind and apply while recovering: Rest: Now we are talking about actual rest, sleep. Topics: exercise fitness running marathon training injury prevention endurance weightlifting recovery.

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