What Happens to Your Muscles During Exercise
To understand why recovery is important after a workout, you have to understand what is happening in the body while you exercise. Before you can gain muscle, you must first break it down. While it might sound counterintuitive, the process of breaking down muscular tissue, through micro tears, is actually what allows them to reform and makes you stronger.
During an exercise, you’re not technically building muscle. It is after, during the rest period, that your body is capitalizing on all the work you just did.
Why Recovery is Important
In order to maximize muscle performance and adaptation, it is vital that you focus on your recovery time with as much intention as you bring to your work in the gym. Post-exercise recovery is an invaluable addition to anyone’s training regime who is serious about improving their results.
The reason why recovery is important after a workout, in addition to building muscle, is to avoid overtraining and putting yourself at risk for possible injury and burnout.
Overtraining is a long-term increase in training demand without adequate rest and recovery time. Pushing your body too far can result in decreased performance, chronic muscle and joint pain, burnout, and far worse. Recovery is an essential part of a workout plan to reduce the risk of overtraining and maximize muscular adaptation.
The Goal of Post-Workout Recovery
When you exercise, you put a strain on many of the body’s physiological systems. These systems have to reset in order to return to homeostasis, the condition of optimal functioning in the human body. The overall goal of post-exercise recovery is to aid in that restoration process. The three main ways we recover are through nutrition, physical interventions, and sleep.
- Nutrition– As we work out, in addition to burning calories, we also lose vital nutrients, like glycogen which keeps our muscles fueled during intense workouts. Low muscle glycogen can impair performance because of inadequate fuel. It’s important that we replace the fuel we burn with nutrient-rich foods and fluids that aid in restoring glycogen and stimulating muscle protein synthesis. Without these nutrients, our muscles don’t have the tools they need to grow.
- Physical Interventions– Stretching, massage, and hydrotherapy are some of the well-researched physical interventions proven to assist in muscle recovery. They work by inducing different physiological mechanisms to alleviate muscle fatigue. Try introducing a few of these practices into your post-workout routine and notice the difference it makes in your recovery.
- Sleep– The links between sleep and performance of physical and cognitive functions, have been widely studied. Experts across the board agree that sleep is an important piece of your wellness journey. When you rest, you are giving your muscles time to heal. A healthy sleep routine will help return your body to homeostasis and keep you on track to achieving your goals.
The 10X Way to Recovering Faster
IV therapy– Exercise, especially high sweat-producing workouts like cardio or HIIT, causes your body to lose fluids and key vitamins and minerals. Replenishing these nutrients within one to two hours after a workout is important for muscle recovery. 10X Health IV therapy includes a mixture of IV supplements like antioxidants, amino acids, and vitamins and minerals that help rehydrate you so that your body can recover more efficiently.
Red light therapy– Part of the 10X Health Superhuman Protocol, red light therapy is a powerful treatment to aid in muscle recovery. As red light enters your cells, your cells’ mitochondria are prompted to release toxins and unnecessary gasses in favor of oxygen, which may aid in cellular restoration and repair. When done right after a workout, red light therapy can maximize the results, forcing your cells to take in more oxygen and be more effective at building muscle and burning fat.
ProPlunge– The power of cryotherapy, the utilization of cold temperatures for therapeutic processes, has been harnessed by athletes for centuries to aid in muscle recovery and maximize their performance results. By causing blood vessels to constrict, cold water plunges reduce swelling and therefore muscle pain, decreasing your recovery time. The new 10X Pro Plunge System incorporates all the benefits of cold water therapy in a portable, practical tub, so you can receive the benefits anywhere your workout takes you.
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If you have been doing all the right things and still aren’t achieving the results you want, it might be down to your recovery routine. Reach out to 10X Health to see how our proven wellness systems can transform your workout recovery!
