But Did You Die? Workout Recovery Made Easy!

Since humor/sarcasm is like my 2nd language, clients often get this type of response from me when they tell me they're sore from a previous workout (seriously, they'll tell you. lol). 

They also know that I don't advocate looking for wicked soreness as an indicator of a good workout, but it is an indicator that they were pushed out of their comfort zone a bit. 
There are times when you'll just feel a little something while moving and think "oh yeah, I worked that the other day" and other times you dread sitting on the toilet, sneezing, walking up the stairs and/or twisting to get anything in life. 
The latter shouldn't be the norm, you can easily put too much stress on your body and overtrain that way. 

Muscle soreness is caused by your muscles reaction of the tearing or break down of muscle tissue caused by overuse through strength training, strenuous cardio and sometimes just active living in general that's outside of your norm. 
While you can't avoid muscle soreness all together, here are a couple of ways to get over and reduce muscle soreness:

1. Foam rolling: this methods help to work out the "knots" in your muscles. This should be done before stretching and makes stretching more beneficial. Stretching without working out the knots first is like stretching a rubber band with knots in them, you'll have limited range of motion and there is still a weak point in your muscles that can cause issues down the road. 

2. Deep tissue/therapeutic Massage: This is best done within a couple of hours or the same day as your workout. I can tell you from experience, getting a deep tissue massage after a tough workout and soreness SUCKS!

3. Stretching: After you foam roll, that's when stretching is best. Stretching is also helpful right after working out. Stretching in a warm room like a sauna or after a hot shower/soak is great too because the muscles are warmed which makes them easier to stretch.

4. Ice/Cold water bath: Best done post workout to reduce inflammation of muscle tissue. Speaking from experience again, this sucks. lol. It's effective, but horrible. Best way I've made it happen is to start off with warm-ish water and let some of the warm water out and replace it with cold water to gently acclimate the body. If you decide to add ice cubes, you're on your own. LOL!

5. Soaking: This is great for hours later or even the next day to help with the soreness. The epsom salt sorcery is true. Also using Magnesium flakes in bathwater or taking a Mustard bath (no, not yellow mustard in the grocery aisle, it's called Dr. Singha's mustard bath) is divine!

6. Glutamine: This is a supplement that you can purchase from a supplement shop that you add to room temp water and drink post workout. While your body makes glutamine naturally (it's an amino acid), levels can get lowered through workouts. If you drink a protein shake post workout, glutamine is in that too. 
Glutamine has other amazing properties that I'll discuss later this week. 


So there you have it! While there are more methods, these are the easiest and most natural to implement. 

Questions? Comments? Leave them below! 

Happy recovery!