Muscle Recovery

There is a lot to say about recovery and you will not find many people talking about it. Lets face it, it’s not that sexy. Most people would rather talk about how much they can lift and what’s the latest and greatest supplement their taking.

Most peoples priority is about their training and diet, but no one seems to talk about what their doing to recover. Do You?

I could care less about how much you can lift, If you are not recovering properly you won’t make that much of a significance in your development.

You will make GREAT GAINS if you recover properly!

Muscle builds and grows while you sleep. How much sleep is enough?

Most of the fitness experts would say you need to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep every night. Also, it’s a good idea to make sure you go to sleep before 12 a.m. Why?

When you go to sleep before 12 a.m. you will feel like you got more sleep than if you were to go to bed after 12 a.m.

Your body will tell you when you need to get some rest and often times staying up past 12 a.m. is too late.

What you can do to start the recovery process is right after your training take a cold shower.

Taking cold showers is not that easy, but it works.

Have you ever seen a baseball pitcher throw a long game? What does he do to relieve his soreness soreness in his elbow? He puts it in ice water. There are a lot of athletes that soak themselves in a cold ice bath to reduce inflammation. You will not feel that sore the next day if you follow this strategy.

Next, I would like to talk about an important supplement, fish oil. Fish oil is another way to speed up your recovery.

Fish oil is great for reducing inflammation and soreness. One thing to be aware of is to take a high dose of EPA and DHA otherwise taking lower dosages and poor quality will be useless.

Eating the right foods at the right times is essential essential to your recovery and muscle growth as well.

After your workout you want to get a quick digesting protein into your body. The quickest way to do this is to consume a protein shake within 15-30 minutes after your workout. An hour after your workout you want to eat your first recovery meal.

This is where you can take full advantage of upping your carbohydrate intake. Eating carbohydrates will replace all the glycogen that was lost in your muscles after your workout. Protein is important as well.

You should always consume your protein first in your meal and then carbohydrates.

Take some ZMA’s before bed as this will replace the zinc that you lost during your workout. Make sure not to take them with dairy because doing this will not have its effectiveness.