6 Helpful Ways to Aid Muscle Recovery

Whether we like it or not, sore, tired muscles are a part of maintaining a highly functioning and healthy body. Hitting the gym, playing a sport, hiking your favorite trail, or even an afternoon of home remodeling or gardening can put enough stress on your muscles to experience soreness, tightness, and fatigue.

The good news is that there are many ways in which you can speed up the muscle recovery process, cutting down on the amount of time you spend feeling uncomfortable and increasing the amount of time you spend feeling great. Continue reading for 6 helpful tips to aid with muscle soreness and recovery:

Stay Hydrated

It may seem obvious, but hydration plays an important role in making sure your body functions properly. Muscle fibers break down under intense use, and they need lots of water to aid in the repair and recovery process.

When you are dehydrated, your muscles recover much more slowly, so making sure your hydration levels are good before and after workouts, and throughout the day in general, is the best plan. Make sure to carry water or other hydrating fluids with you, keep some in your car or at work so it’s always ready to go.

Don’t Forget to Stretch

Strong, healthy muscles are adapted to doing hard work, and one of the most important adaptations of strong muscles in flexibility. Stretching after exercise can improve blood flow and reduce the amount of time necessary for muscles to recover. Stretching also feels good and can release endorphins which help counteract general muscular discomfort and fatigue during the recovery process.

A short, easy yoga routine or just a group of stretches that target your affected muscle groups will aid in muscular recovery and increase flexibility, which has other benefits such as making you less prone to injury.

Prioritize Rest

Making sure you’re getting adequate amounts of exercise is one thing but knowing how and when to rest is just as important. Be sure to program time into your day where rest is your top priority. While taking some time to do nothing can feel great, you can also rest while being active. This is called active recovery, and can involve swimming, walking, or other low intensity activities that help promote increased circulation, pumping plenty of nutrients back into recovering muscles.

Perhaps the most important aspect of rest is sleep. Adjusting your habits so that you’re getting enough sleep will help immensely with muscle recovery and even brain function. Research suggests that cutting down on screen time and dimming the lights in your home an hour before bed helps you get to sleep quicker and stay asleep longer.

Take Cold Showers

Taking a cold shower after a workout may seem like an uncomfortable thing to do, but you can get used to it quickly and it is a great way to aid muscle recovery. This is because the cold temperature reduces inflammation in muscles, joints and tendons which helps your muscles conduct the important business of recovering and repairing more efficiently. The water doesn’t have to be ice cold, but research suggests the colder you can stand it, the better.

Eat Mindfully

What you put in your body has a direct effect on how you feel and how your body functions. Eating a balanced diet consisting mostly of whole foods is a good plan. Additionally, listening to and knowing your own body and how you respond to different types of nutrition can be useful in coming up with a diet that aids in muscle recovery and allows you the best possible chance of getting the most out of stressing your muscles in the first place.

Research suggests that foods that are rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds, such as tart cherry juice, fatty fish, and eggs help to reduce inflammatory markers after exercise which reduces perceived discomfort and aids in swift muscle recovery.

Reduce Muscle Fatigue with CHERRiSH

If you’re concerned about recovering quickly from activity, consider some of these tips which are incredibly enjoyable, like quenching your thirst with CHERRiSH Premium Cherry Juice, loaded with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties.

CHERRiSH is an all-natural, 100% premium cherry juice that features the powerful health benefits of Montmorency tart cherries, combined with the sweet flavor of Bing cherries. A complete health juice, CHERRiSH is a potent anti-inflammatory and muscle recovery aid, containing the highest antioxidant ratings on the beverage market.