Keeping fit is something that everyone should try to do, especially if you want to maintain good health. There are many reasons why you might decide to start attending the gym more regularly or going to exercise classes. It could be that you want to lose weight, become stronger, or just want to start moving towards a generally healthier lifestyle. Whatever the reason you have decided to engage in more physical activity, it’s important to make sure that you’re recovering properly after each workout. This way, you will be able to keep up your momentum more effectively and reduce the chances of discomfort and pain in the days after exercise.
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Make Sure You do a Warm Down
Stretching and warming up your body before a workout is a sensible thing to do, but you must make sure you’re doing a warm-down if you want your body to reduce aches and pains. When you’re working out, you can develop microtears in your muscles, and this is why you can feel stiff for a day or two afterward. This is more likely to happen if you’re doing exercises that you’re not used to, which is why stretching both before and after your workout is essential.
Eat These Foods After Your Workout
After a good workout, you might notice that you’re feeling hungry. While it might be tempting to grab something quick and easy, make sure you’re not consuming foods with a lot of sugar or saturated fats. Not only will they undo all of the calories that you have burned off, but they won’t give your body the right nutrition it needs to recover well. Instead, eat lean protein, leafy greens, nuts, whole grains, fruit, or yogurt.
Don’t Overdo It
While challenging yourself when it comes to exercise can be a positive thing, overexerting yourself isn’t going to help. Instead, it can put you at a higher risk of injury and leave you feeling exhausted, which might put you off doing your next workout anytime soon. It’s better to start slowly building up to a more challenging workout rather than jumping straight in. On average, you should aim to do 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day.
A Warm Soak in the Tub
As a way to help soothe aching muscles after exercise, you might want to have a soak in a warm bath. Add some Epsom salts to help your muscles relax even further and reduce feelings of stiffness. If you have suffered an injury when working out, however, apply an ice pack to the area instead to reduce the swelling.
Injury Advice
Most sports injuries can be dealt with by resting, ice, and ibuprofen. If your injury is still causing you grief, though, contact your doctor to inspect the injury more closely. It is always wise to speak to a medical professional, though, to make sure you’re not making the injury worse before you try things at home.
If you have recently started a new exercise regime and want to know how to recover properly after a workout, use the tips as a brief guide.
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