Regular exercise is vital if you want to increase your fitness, maintain a healthy weight, and optimize your mental health. However, muscle soreness can leave you feeling reluctant to pick up your training shoes. Fortunately, there are effective ways to relieve muscle discomfort after a workout. To get started, take a look at these four ways to minimize muscle soreness after exercise.
1. Massage
Massage increases the flow of blood to the muscles and helps to eliminate waste products from your muscle tissue. By reducing inflammation, massage can decrease delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) after a workout and leave you feeling ready for your next session at the gym.
However, you don’t need to book a session with a masseuse after every workout. Theragun Prime is a handheld ‘massage gun’ that provides a deep muscle treatment using percussive therapy. You’ll find the Theragun range available at SSENSE, along with a range of designer fitness, sporting and outdoor accessories. Whether you’re a pro athlete or a weekend runner, SSENSE makes it easy to kit yourself out for success.
2. Stay Hydrated
When you’re dehydrated, you can experience higher levels of post-workout discomfort. You might notice that you don’t perform as well during your workout too, so don’t let dehydration prevent you from getting a personal best! Monitor how much water you drink throughout the day and remember to replenish any water you lose via sweating when you work out.
While severe dehydration causes noticeable illness, many people overlook the signs of mild dehydration, such as fatigue, headaches, and muscle soreness. By making sure that your body is getting enough water, you can reduce post-workout muscle soreness and boost your energy levels too.
3. Take a Break Between Workouts
Working out numerous times per week can help you to stay fit but intense workouts should always be staggered. When you’re building muscle mass, you’re essentially damaging your muscle tissue and it needs time to repair. By trying to do too much, too soon, you increase your risk of injury and are likely to experience more discomfort. Adjust your workout schedule to give your body a break in between intense workouts and follow a rigorous session at the gym with a lighter form of exercise the next day.
4. Fuel Your Body
What you eat has a major effect on how you feel, and this applies to muscle soreness too. If you aren’t giving your body the nutrients it needs, it’s going to find it harder to repair the tissue damage that occurs when you exercise. By making sure you consume healthy amounts of protein, carbohydrates and fats, you can fuel your body so that it’s able to bounce back from exercise more quickly.
Minimizing and Managing Muscle Soreness
Although it’s normal to experience some muscle soreness following intense exercise, it’s always worth visiting a medical professional if you’re concerned about post-workout symptoms. Once you’ve got a clean bill of health, you’ll be able to incorporate fitness techniques and lifestyle tips into your routine to minimize the impact of post-workout muscle soreness.