Muscle Soreness is one of the best feelings you can get as a gym trainee.
It means you have done a good job there, but sometimes they are just too much where they start to interfere with your daily functions. Now, you can’t magically cure them, what you can do however is to try to optimize your recovery as much as possible so your body rebuilds those damaged muscles fiber as fast as possible.
How to do that? It is not that complicated, you just need to nail the following few things to the best of your ability.
1. Optimize your Nutrition/Get enough protein:
We all know how important is nutrition when it comes to muscle building and fat loss. However, some people misinterpret that and think they only need to eat healthy food and their body will magically build muscle and lose fat.
But that’s not the case because calories do matter, to be in an anabolic state you need two things: high calories and enough protein because your body will use calories as energy to repair damaged muscle fibers and build new bigger stronger fibers.
So if you want to build muscle make sure to ingest enough calories. You should aim to ingest a minimum of 1 gram per lb of lean bodyweight of protein per day. The best protein sources include Chicken breast, Beef, Eggs, Whey protein, Fish and dairy products.
2. Optimize Your Rest and Sleep:
Getting your sleep schedule in check could be one of the toughest challenges you may face nowadays, but it is crucial for optimal recovery.
Sleep deprivation will do basically two things:
a. Increase Cortisol production:
Cortisol which is your stress hormone and it is a catabolic hormone, unlike testosterone. Also, high Cortisol levels will inhibit testosterone production since they are both made from the same enzymes. Cortisol is the hormone responsible for you holding fat on your lower abs. So less muscle and more fat.
b. It decreases Insulin Sensitivity:
Decreased insulin sensitivity will make the process of optimal muscle recovery much harder. Your body won’t be able to utilize the nutrients you are ingesting to your advantage, heck they will be stored as body fat.
3. Promote blood circulation :
There are a few ways of doing this :
a. Stretch :
Stretch the afflicted area, preferably by repeating the motion that caused the soreness. For example, if you have soreness on your quadriceps, glutes, and hamstrings because you were squatting the day before, then stretch by getting into the bottom of the squat position.
(This will hurt.) But be careful not to stretch too much either, because the muscles do need to rest. 3-4 light sessions spread throughout the day should be fine.
b. Massage :
You can either pay for a massage or do it yourself. If you prefer to do it yourself, I highly recommend getting a foam roller.
(This will really, really, really hurt.) For the smaller ‘knots’ in your muscles, you can roll on a tennis/lacrosse/hockey ball instead of a foam roller to loosen them up. (Seriously, it will hurt.)
c. Heat :
Keep the afflicted area warm, like with a hot water bottle or a warm shower. Also a good excuse to take a relaxing warm bath.
4. Do Some light Cardio:
Nothing fancy here, 10–15 minutes of low-intensity cardio will increase blood through your body and facilitate the transfer of nutrients to your muscles. This is especially true after leg workouts where some light cycling can go a long way in reducing doms in your legs.
