What exercises are there for quick recovery? Overtraining and recovery. What should be done

I am sure that almost everyone who has ever played sports has had muscle pain. These are the consequences of active physical activity, which causes microtrauma to muscle tissue - hence the pain, and this is normal. What should you do toquickly restore musclesand how to recover after training?

There are many ways to restore clogged muscles so that the next day they do not remind you of themselves too much in pain. Today I would like to introduce 5 simple ways for muscle recovery after training. I hope they help you reduce muscle pain and allow your muscles to grow more efficiently.

How to effectively recover after training - 5 ways

It has already become a tradition to start with water. Without water, most processes on earth are impossible, including muscle recovery. So, about drinking.

1. Water and sports drinks

Since the human body is 85% water, it is logical that its regular replenishment requires special attention. Unfortunately, few people realize this, and those who do not attach importance to water are surprised at the emergence of various ailments, including obesity. The body is trying to tell you about a lack of fluid, but not everyone understands these signals. Okay, I got a little carried away. Let's get back to muscle recovery.

Muscles are also made of water, which you need to drink in sufficient quantities. For a training person, this is approximately 2 – 2.5 liters per day. But for real restoration you will need special liquids sports supplements. There are a large number on sale now sports nutrition, so be careful when choosing them. Pay special attention to the amount of sugar contained. Don't overdo it with dosages. Tim your consumption of sports drinks as needed (usually before and after training), rather than every day.

2. Proteins and sports nutrition

The time it takes for muscles to recover after exercise depends on many factors. The main one is proteins. Proteins are construction material for muscles, so it is very important that the diet consists of 30% protein foods.

One effective way to get enough protein is through sports nutrition. Typically, a meal consisting of whey protein or amino acids is taken before and after training. But you can make your own schedule. It is necessary to understand that after exercise, muscles require protein just like a person in need of water walking through the desert.

3. Stretching

Stretching the muscles significantly helps and reduces the recovery time of muscle fibers. Stretching can be done before and after exercise. Even during exercise, do not forget to stretch your muscles. This prevents possible damage to tissues and ligaments. Stretching can be used as a warm-up before training and as a cool-down after.

4. Ice bath or cold shower

You may have already heard about the concept of an ice bath. This method really relieves inflammation and muscle pain. How it works?

The fact is that ice and cold water accelerate the blood. And the blood actively flowing through the vessels expels lactic acid that has accumulated after an intense workout. In this case, lactic acid acts as a waste product and depresses the muscles, so it is very important to get rid of it effectively. By the way, the amount of lactic acid can also be reduced using a bath or sauna.

Unfortunately, finding 5 bags of ice is not always possible, but taking a five-minute cold shower is quite possible. It is worth noting that this method is not suitable for everyone. You may not feel very comfortable taking an ice bath or cold shower. And due to health reasons, you may not be ready for this kind of procedure. Keep this in mind.

5. Rest

Rest for quick recovery muscles mean no less than water or a cold shower. By the concept of rest, I include quality sleep (8 hours) and time sufficient to restore each muscle group (at least 2 days). It’s no wonder that training sessions are divided into several days a week. One day chest, another day legs, etc. This is the only way you can effectively restore, strengthen and increase muscles.

By following at least three methods, and there are actually more than five, you can minimize pain and speed up recovery time.

No matter what you're recovering from, learning how to speed up muscle healing will help you get back into shape and get back into exercise faster.

Steps

Part 1

Give injured muscles a rest. If you have strained, strained or torn a muscle, try not to stress it. Try to use the sore muscles as little as possible, or at least do not do the activities that led to their damage (running, lifting weights, etc.).

Apply ice to injured muscles. Cold reduces blood flow to the damaged area and thus helps relieve swelling and inflammation. If you don't have ice or a cold gel pack, you can use a bag of frozen vegetables or other freezer foods.

Reduce swelling by applying pressure and elevating the injured limb. In addition to cold compresses, compression therapy and elevating the injured area while resting also helps. For pressure treatment, simply bandage the sore area with an elastic bandage to reduce blood flow. This helps prevent swelling. You can also elevate the injured limb to further reduce blood flow and avoid swelling. Simply place a couple of pillows under your injured arm or leg while sitting or lying down.

Manage pain with medication. If you experience significant pain after your injury, you can take paracetamol or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as aspirin or ibuprofen. These medications will help relieve inflammation and pain, and increase mobility.

Try heat therapy. Many experts recommend using thermotherapy for muscle pain (applying a heating pad or warming gel pack, taking a hot bath). Positive effect This method is explained by the fact that heat promotes blood flow to sore muscles and thereby promotes their healing and restoration.

Get a massage. No wonder massage is so popular among professional athletes. Qualified massage therapists, including sports massage therapists, are able to deeply work on muscle tissue. Proper massage speeds up muscle healing, reduces inflammation and promotes cell repair.

• Look for a qualified massage therapist in your area using the Internet.
• If you don't want to visit a massage therapist, ask a loved one for help or do a massage yourself. Massage your arms and legs properly - this will help improve blood circulation and relax your muscles.
• You can also stretch your muscles using a massage roller. Simply roll the roller over the sore spot for 30-60 seconds. Do this every day.

1. Go swimming. Swimming is another form muscle massage. The water supports the body and provides gentle resistance, allowing you to stretch your muscles without straining them too much. Swimming also allows you to move sore muscles while they heal, improving circulation without the risk of increasing inflammation and pain.

   • Do not swim with full effort. It is enough to take a leisurely swim in the pool for about 20 minutes to properly stretch your muscles. At the same time, try to use sore muscles.

Part 3

1. Get plenty of rest after training. After intense loads muscles need time to recover, especially if you have recently started exercising. If you don't rest 1-2 days between workouts, your muscles will become tired and take even longer to recover. Fatigue also increases the risk of frequent injury.

   Get enough sleep. Normal sleep helps to quickly restore muscles and achieve good physical shape before the next visit to the gym. Try to get 7-8 hours of sleep every night. To get enough sleep, go to bed in the evening and get up in the morning at approximately the same time.

2. Take a hot bath or shower to relax. This not only helps soothe muscle pain, but also relaxes muscles, relieves muscle spasms and increases range of motion. Visit the hot tub or sauna once a week gym to properly relax your muscles after a strenuous workout, or simply take a hot bath at home to relieve muscle pain.

   • To more effectively soothe sore muscles, add Epsom salts to your bath.

Everyone is used to what is beautiful athletic body you need to work hard in the gym, and also watch your diet, otherwise you simply won’t be able to see the results of your labors under the layer of fat. However, few people know that recovery and rest after physical activity is as important as the activity itself. This process sums up our efforts in the hall: first there is the return of various physical parameters to the initial pre-training level, and then (depending on your training, of course) the muscles’ ability to adapt increases.

Muscles grow, become stronger and more resilient not during training, but after it, during rest. Don't force yourself into a rigid, daily training framework - this will cause you to plunge into a state of chronic fatigue and stress.

Recovery phases: rapid recovery phase.

This phase begins immediately after completion of training and consists of 2 processes. Recovery time: 30 minutes. At this time, glycogen and creatine phosphate reserves are restored, the secretion of stress hormones (cortisol, adrenaline, etc.) returns to normal, the functioning of the cardiovascular system normalizes, anabolic hormones (insulin, steroids) begin to enter the blood, i.e. is happening restoration of hormonal balance.

This phase begins 2-3 days after training and lasts about 5 days; in many ways it is similar to the previous one in terms of current processes, but the difference is that the increase in the functional and morphological characteristics of the athlete’s body in this phase begins to exceed the initial level. But of course, recovery depends, first of all, on your training: if the load was light, then the muscles can recover in at least a day. If the load was too heavy and voluminous, then the recovery time after such a workout can range from 1-2 weeks.

Plus, during this phase one of the most important recovery processes occurs - nervous system recovery phase. Everyone knows exactly nervous system controls our body. And if the nervous system is overloaded, then the quality of training and well-being will fall faster than a ruble of 98. Vitamins, sound, quality sleep and the absence of stress will help you bring us into a state of balance.

IMPORTANT: It is during this phase that the next workout for this muscle group should fall!

Alas, the theory cannot unambiguously answer the question - exactly how much rest you need between workouts. Everyone has their own answer to this question. Too many subjective factors influence this (sleep, food, body condition, rhythm of life, weather, degree of load in the last workout, work, etc.), which are solely in your jurisdiction.

With frequent training the body does not have time to fully recover. And each subsequent workout takes place against the background of a decrease in the body’s functional capabilities, which leads to overtraining. Our body is capable of a lot, but waking up early, lack of quality sleep, unbalanced diet and general stress significantly limit our capabilities. So with daily training, there is a 90% chance that we will exhaust ourselves both physically and mentally, and at the same time we will undermine the quality of training and the time spent in the gym will be wasted.

And who told you that frequent training will it do you any good? The rule “the more the better” does not work in this case, giving way to another - “less is better, but better.” So forget about five or six so-so workouts a week with insufficient recovery time. Force yourself to really work at least two to three times a week, be active in Everyday life and listen carefully to your body. Most likely this will give you where top scores.

Most of us would benefit from limiting our intense workouts. up to 2-3 per week, and on other days take walks and simply organize leisure. If you feel that you do not have time to recover, go to 2 times. If it’s the other way around, increase physical activity during training. But on average, recovery takes about 2 days.

Lost supercompensation phase

It occurs when there is no repeated load in the supercompensation phase. That is, this is a return to the pre-training level. Of course, you won’t get to this point with one pass, but a month or two is quite sufficient time. The most ideal training plan is to perform repeated loading on muscle group in the phase of its super-restoration.

We hope you understand that muscle growth comes down to 2 tasks:

— Recover to the supercompensation phase as quickly as possible
- Don’t skip this phase and next workout hold it at its peak

How do you understand that the body has recovered and is ready for exploits? Only relying on your subjective feelings.

Pain in muscles and joints

Oh, who is not familiar with the terrible muscle pain after the first strength training? Those who are not familiar, just believe me, this is an unforgettable experience. In the future, when regular training, the muscles don't hurt that much. Many people chase this pain because it is believed to be associated with growth. But of course, this is a wrong conclusion. The goal of your training should be progress and growth.

Muscle soreness usually occurs 24 hours after exercise and peaks after 36 hours. The myth about lactic acid arose in the early 90s, but is still popular in the fitness community. Allegedly, the cause of pain is lactic acid accumulated in the muscles. In fact lactic acid is completely neutralized within 30 minutes after training. She cannot have anything to do with what happens 36 hours later. Typically, soreness is worst at the beginning of a training cycle, especially when new exercises are being learned, and an increase is usually noticeable towards the end of the cycle, when there is no longer any soreness.

Those who rarely exercise regularly report crippling muscle pain. But few of them can boast good results in terms of growth. Those who train each muscle group 2-3 times per week often experience LESS soreness and MORE progress.

In most cases, real hypertrophy occurs in conditions of lower strength. By and large, post-training pain has nothing to do with muscle growth. You can spend the whole day mopping floors (you never know if you live in a palace), and the next day your muscles will ache, but this does not mean that you have gained muscle growth from such training.

Muscle pain is more likely a sign that you are loading your muscles too rarely or giving them an inappropriately large load. With regular and moderate training, muscles do not hurt, but grow well. By chasing a sore throat that's so severe it takes a week to recover, you're doing yourself more harm than good.

Yes, some people have sore throat, others do not, there may be significant individual differences in this parameter, it is impossible to determine exactly what causes them. But chasing strength for the sake of strength itself is masochistic stupidity. The goal of training is progress, not fatigue and pain.

Despite the fact that some trainers believe that muscle pain after exercise is a useful thing, showing that the body has received sufficient load, this absolutely does not apply to joints: some exercises can cause pain, which will require the intervention of a doctor. In order to save your joints, not writhe in pain during training and not feverishly search for exercises for sore knees on the Internet, we advise you to study the block of articles on the topic: “Healthy joints.”

• We understand the most common and probable causes of pain in the article


• Is it worth spending money on expensive chondroprotectors and how to protect yourself from joint problems in this article?

Quick: how to get rid of pain?

• Drink within 60 minutes after training about 1 liter of water. Also drink plenty of water during your workout. Water is essential to replenish fluid lost by the body and improve recovery.
• Even if you are losing weight, then does not need to be excluded from the diet, otherwise you simply won’t be able to recover well! According to the study “Anne-Marie Lundsgaard and imageBente Kiens. Gender differences in skeletal muscle substrate metabolism – molecular mechanisms and insulin sensitivity. Front. Endocrinol., November 13, 2014,” which was carried out back in 2014. This is a large comparative study of metabolic differences between men and women. It was studied what effect gender has on fat and glucose metabolism. And yet we found out that in different metabolic situations, female and male bodies use fats and carbohydrates differently!

  At low calorie diets high carbohydrate (where the amount of carbohydrates was increased from 55% to 70%), in men there was an increase in muscle glycogen concentration, and in women the additional carbohydrates were immediately used as a source of energy, but not for accumulation in fat depots.

  IN SIMPLE WORDS: men store excess energy more in muscle glycogen, women immediately put it to work.

  Also, due to the fact that women tend to have a higher percentage of type 1 muscle fibers (red muscle fibers), as well as increased capillary density of muscle tissue, this allows them to receive better blood flow into the muscles to provide them with oxygen and cleanse them of metabolic products, and also allows for more efficient glucose oxidation and fat metabolism (since this type of muscle fiber (type 1), contain a larger number of mitochondria and aerobic enzymes), thus promoting better insulin sensitivity.

  IN SIMPLE WORDS: During exercise of any intensity, women burn more fat but less glycogen. However, this picture changes dramatically during the recovery period, when the female body, as a rule, uses predominantly carbohydrates as an energy source, while in the male body the level of use of fatty acids increases.

  RESULT: Ladies, don't be afraid of carbohydrates. Not only are carbohydrates delicious, but without them you will simply forget about recovery and well-being.



• Dream. The best cure for many problems. During periods intensive training its duration should be at least 7 hours; if possible, 20-30 minutes of sleep during the day should be added to this. In addition, relaxation and meditation will greatly help calm your central nervous system. Read in detail about these methods in the article



• Proper planning training process. Each muscle group must fully recover, so training should be thoughtful and diluted with loads of varying severity and cardio training. About construction methods training plan you will find out in the article. Once every three months it is necessary to give the body a week of “vacation”, without serious training and stress.
• Thoughtful nutrition– the key to rapid recovery processes. Both a high protein content and a well-composed daily diet will help balance it.
• Warm-ups and cool-downs should not be neglected(warm-up after training). Detailed description These processes and a complex for stretching with photos can be found in the material
• Massage is very effective method speed up recovery. Local blood circulation and muscle nutrition improve, which has a beneficial effect on the speed of their regeneration.
• . Contrary to stereotypes, it is cold water that reduces muscle pain, but alternating cold and warm water will be most effective.
• Take sufficient quantities (300 mg/kg body weight) of essential fatty acid, they have anti-inflammatory properties. As their sources you can choose: linseed oil, fish fat, different kinds nuts (almonds, walnuts).

Schedule. After an illness, the body is weakened, the muscles are flabby, and the overall tone leaves much to be desired. To recover in a short time, you need to act comprehensively. First of all, you should normalize your day, in other words, you will need to eat and go to bed at the same time. Moreover, you need to allocate at least eight hours of sleep, otherwise the body simply cannot cope with the daily stress and will malfunction. Therefore, it is very important before you restore muscle mass, create a daily routine and strictly adhere to it, otherwise it will take more time.

Exercise stress. In restoring muscle mass, it is of great importance exercise stress, so you should regularly visit the gym or do exercises with dumbbells at home. Since it will not be possible to gain muscle mass without exercise, you should choose a complex that will be aimed at restoring certain muscles (it is better, of course, for an experienced trainer to do this, then the result will be much more noticeable). It is worth noting that on initial stage The duration of the workout should be about 40 minutes, but after a month, when the muscles get used to the load, it should be increased to an hour.

Nutrition. When thinking about how to maintain muscle mass, you should make adjustments to your diet. You need to include more fiber in your diet, while forgetting about foods that contain easily digestible carbohydrates, such as baked goods and sweets. But if you are tempted to eat sweets, then you can eat fruits and dairy products in unlimited quantities. Such a diet will help improve metabolism and will also help increase muscle mass. But if we talk about how to properly build muscle mass, then you should adhere to separate nutrition, that is, eat proteins and carbohydrates separately, then the food will be well absorbed and used for muscle structure.

Supplements After an illness, it is important not only to regain your former muscle mass, but also to restore your health, so you should also add various supplements to your diet that can contain vitamin complex. It would not be a bad idea to purchase protein shakes, only before purchasing them you will need to know how to calculate your ideal body weight so as not to drink too much and not harm your body. Such cocktails will help the body restore muscle tissue and compensate for the energy spent during training. You need to restore muscle mass after an illness gradually so as not to cause shock to the body, so you don’t need to be too zealous with exercise and diet.

A beginner should know only one answer to the question: “How long does it take for muscles to recover after training?” And this is at least 48 hours after strength training, and at least 24 after aerobic and/or stretching. There will always be a person who trains the same muscle groups every day with the goal of “getting rid of problematic belly or thigh fat” and killing any hope of the body for recovery. In fact, the lack of progress and the “as if in the water” state of health is complex, and it depends not only on the muscles.

Types of muscle fibers and their recovery rate

To simplify, human muscle fibers are divided into:

1. “slow-twitch” fibers are the ones we use when running on the treadmill, dancing on Zumba, or doing a simple leg swing during a boring meeting. They differ in that you can perform repetitive movements for a long time without getting tired. Therefore, we can run for half an hour, or perform dance steps for as long as 45 minutes, or... whatever, but cyclically and with little resistance. It is the slow muscle fibers that work when you lift a 2 kg dumbbell 100 times in squats, or try to “pump up” your arms with them. And here's a surprise - slow muscle fibers are not large in volume. That is why attempts to change anything in the proportions of those who engage in the above-mentioned types of activity are so unsuccessful. But MMVs are everyday “hard workers”, and if, for example, you don’t go to Zumba and lie on the couch all the time, they too can atrophy. And then a wonderful state occurs when a person cannot go shopping for groceries - he gets tired, walk around the city - his legs are buzzing, or even play with a child - his back hurts;
2. “fast” are fibers that work predominantly when we lift significant weight for 1-3 repetitions. Imagine loading a suitcase onto an overhead luggage rack, lifting a week's worth of groceries for the whole family into the trunk of a car, or stopping a large dog with a tug on its leash while out for a walk. These fibers are extremely poorly developed in the modern city dweller. And all because it is difficult to train them if you are in a bad situation. physical fitness. Usually, lifting with maximum weight is prevented by inability to move and truncated amplitude in the joints due to poor posture and muscle tension. But it is these fibers that thicken and “grow” well. Therefore, almost everyone you accuse of taking illegal drugs is just a couple of years old sports life dedicated to powerlifting or weightlifting;
3. “intermediate” - these fibers can work with resistance, but only for a limited number of repetitions. Then they get tired and you feel that same burning sensation. Imagine bouncing a heavy basketball with your hands. Or you work in the gym according to the usual program. These movements are also alien to a non-athletic person. At most, he will throw the child several times during the game. Intermediate fibers also increase in volume well. Their “bonus” is that they can be trained in physical training below average, and with injuries and restrictions on the condition of the musculoskeletal system. Lucky people who have a lot of these fibers quickly acquire an athletic appearance with fairly moderate training.

Each fiber group requires a different recovery time. The fast ones are ready to work even every day, they “heal” first, take a lot of resources (calories) for recovery and are ready to work in 24 hours. If you are involved in weightlifting, most likely you are that “witch” who eats 2000-3000 kcal on support, does not “bother” too much with the number of desserts you swallow and keeps a small clothing size.

“Slow” people are also hard workers. They recover within 12-24 hours (depending on the level of load, for standard aerobic fitness training this is a day), and are ready for work the next day. This, by the way, is the secret that someone goes to the gym every day and nothing hurts. This person is there “pumping up his stamina.” But she cannot get sick - until the hormonal system is disrupted.

“Average” are slightly less hardworking guys. They recover within 36-48 hours, and the more experienced the athlete and the higher the load, the longer. That’s why, by the way, the leg muscles “sore” and “tighten” for the longest time after training. They are big, we can load them well and we want to do it. What about arms and shoulders? Frankly, few women really pump them up in the right way. That’s why there are unique people who pump their biceps every day with the same weight for for long years life.

But all this, as usual, is just a theory.

In the practice of sports and fitness, there is no such thing as “muscle recovery.” There is a complex concept - supercompensation. It includes:

• how the nervous system handles the load. If you have overworked it, even after 30 minutes on the treadmill you will feel nervous, agitated and actively not want to engage in any such sport. Or you will sleep constantly. An increase in the duration of night sleep by more than 1 hour with the start of training is a bad signal if this duration lies in the 7-8 hour zone;
• how quickly the articular-ligamentous apparatus is restored. It is believed that it is impossible to “overwork” a joint or ligament. But... this is considered by those who have not seen fitness beginners and some of their movements. Micro-tears of the ligaments, if any, from inept placement of the foot on the treadmill, systematic squats with the knees inward in a large amplitude and monstrous eversion of the feet in plie “heal” in about 7 full days. If you already feel pain - even longer, because usually it is no longer a microtear;
• how it recovers the cardiovascular system. She may really “dislike” your attempts to lose weight with interval cardio and give out after them high blood pressure coupled with heart rhythm disturbances. The beginner's rule is to study in at a relaxed pace the first 3 months of your training, and don’t copy fitness stars with their hair-raising “intervals”.

This entire list is important, and that is why recommendations for amateurs have been developed.

Recommendations for beginners imply the simplest - strength training every other day, cardio up to 40 minutes in duration and at a calm pace - at least every day. But intervals - no more than 2 times a week and not next to leg training.

Is it possible to speed up muscle recovery?

Of course you can. To do this, you just need to “accelerate” protein synthesis to inhuman speeds. And for this...that's right, you don't need to do that. Only the male sex hormone testosterone and the “universal human” growth hormone actually accelerate protein synthesis (the latter, by the way, has not been 100% proven). And their little lovers also acquire rough facial features, “boyish” cracking voices, an Adam’s apple and other charms of virilization.

Why do this right away, because there are BCAA and amino acids, protein and gainer, and there’s also L-carnitine, which seems to increase endurance. You know what? The first Miss Olympia did not eat all this, did not inject hormones and were naturally beautiful. Because they ate according to a schedule and worked out not just for a week, but for half of their adult life.

With growth sportsmanship both the ability to synthesize protein and to utilize honestly eaten glucose and amino acids increase. But this does not mean that they can be accelerated with sports nutrition products, unfortunately.

In general, do you want to get rid of pain? One scientifically proven technique is to apply ice to the painful area. From slightly less justified ones - visit the bathhouse and massage. Over time, you will learn to train so as not to “crawl” out of the gym and not require crutches the next day, and still progress.