For newbies

How to quickly restore legs after a workout. How to quickly restore muscles after a hard workout

There is one very important concept and process - recovery after training. They should not be neglected, otherwise training will lose effectiveness, and the body will experience prolonged stress after exercise. We will talk about how to recover properly and how to forget about what chronic fatigue is after a workout in this article.

Some useful theory

The human body is a self-sustaining and self-healing system. These two concepts are related. There is a certain balance point when all processes inside the body go at a normal pace (homeostasis, it's called). For example, this is a state of rest. When a person begins to actively train, his body uses all the reserves to provide the same normal stable state, but already in the process of training. After loads, the body restores the same reserves spent on physical work.

It restores the original biochemical, physiological and anatomical state that was before the load. Therefore, in order to understand how to restore strength after exercise, it is important to know what the body needs to renew spent resources. In particular, one of the necessary elements is healthy sleep.

Nature has provided for everything, including the ability of the body to adapt to hard physical work. Training to the limit (or, as athletes say, “to failure”) activates this very process of adaptation in our body, which is expressed in muscle growth. This is the natural preparation of the body to overcome more serious loads.

All types of training are based on the process of adapting the body to increasing loads. Both to increase muscle mass, and to increase strength or endurance. The increase in the body's capabilities occurs just during the recovery period.

Now you understand that the wrong recovery will lead to the lack of desired progress. And to train to no avail or even worse at the expense of health, believe me, no one wants to.

Recovery steps

Correct muscle recovery after strength training is just as important as maintaining proper technique during exercise. It's like the alphabet for a first grader. Without knowing it, you will not learn to read and write.

Do you know how long muscles recover after exercise? Individually long and step by step.

The recovery process can be divided into 4 phases:

Fast recovery.
Slow.
Delayed.

Quick Recovery

Fast recovery ends about half an hour after training. The body in a panic consumes all the remaining substances in the reserve in order to return to normal. And all because during training, he significantly depleted reserves.

At this moment, it is important for him to find a source of glucose in order to quickly restore energy reserves. Minerals are also required at this stage.

Therefore, get used to drinking mineral water during and after training. Preferably without gas. There are also special isotonic drinks, however, their cost is somewhat higher. Plain purified water will not be as effective. It will only allow you to restore fluid balance.

slow recovery

When the original balance of nutrients and minerals is restored, the body systems begin to work on the restoration of damaged cells and tissues. After all, strength training involves microtrauma of muscle fibers. Protein synthesis starts. At this point, it is important that you get enough amino acids from food (so it is important to take 25-30 grams of purified protein). This phase lasts for several days after exercise.

The most important, in terms of achieving training results, is the recovery stage. It starts 2-3 days after training. The most powerful supercompensation occurs after training to failure, when you work with maximum weights.

It would seem that it could be easier - lay down and sleep. No, here are some nuances:

Regime compliance. Sleep should be dosed, 7–8 hours is acceptable, ideally 9. To gain the number of hours of sleep you need, it is enough to go to bed early. You need to get up and go to bed at the same time (for example, we go to bed at 10 pm, and we get up at 7 am). On weekends, you can make exceptions and go to bed later.
You can not sleep immediately after exercise. It is important for the body to “cool down” for an hour. Eat protein, drink mineral water. You can also do carbohydrate loading. If you are in the mood for a long sleep, it is better to eat at a minimum so as not to spend all your resources on digesting food.
Sleep should be uninterrupted (awakening is allowed for the sake of “relieving the soul”). If you sleep for 2 hours, and do business between them, this will have a very negative impact not only on recovery, but also on your well-being in general. You can sleep an extra hour during the day. The main dream should be full and uninterrupted!
Provide yourself with comfortable conditions: you should not be cold, your neck should not become numb. It is best to sleep on an orthopedic bed and a special pillow that ensures the correct position of the head in any position. Sleep should be comfortable.

Quality sleep is the fastest recovery!

Cool down after workout

Even after running, you can not immediately stop. Did you know? You need to gradually slow down, take a step. And only then, having passed 3-5 minutes like this, sit down or stand up.

In the gym, training should be completed like this:

Stretching after a workout. In addition to stimulating muscle growth, you are working on injury prevention and completing your workout correctly. After all, these are also movements, and they take 3-5 minutes - just what you need.
Cardio exercises at an easy pace. Get on the treadmill and run at a slow pace for 5 minutes, then slowly move to a step, gradually stopping. The same with an exercise bike, an ellipsoid.

And even better, both. First cardio, then stretching. If time allows you (it's only about 10 minutes) - why not. If time is short and you are in doubt what to do after a workout, choose one thing. We recommend in this case to prefer stretching.

Food

After exercising (within half an hour), many recommend eating well. Indeed, at this moment the body absorbs amino acids and carbohydrates as quickly as possible (we emphasize), because it needs to restore reserves. But it’s okay if you didn’t have time to eat at this time.

The physiology of the body is so advanced that no matter when you ate proteins, they will always be digested. And whether this process will last 20 minutes or 40 is not so important.

Therefore, there is not much difference whether you take protein half an hour after training, or 2 hours later. It's important to accept. And when - at your convenience. It’s better right away, but if later, you won’t notice much difference (fatigue after strength training is an indicator that you need to eat).

So what do you do after a workout? Listen to your body.

And remember the daily rate of BJU. This is much more important than eating within the first 30 minutes after exercise!

Drink

Therefore, it is important to drink as much as you want. During exercise, it is recommended to stretch the fluid intake. It is better to drink several sips after each exercise than to drain 0.5 liters in one sitting. Water should flow gradually, otherwise you can create an excessive load on the heart. We do not recommend drinking soda, only water with minerals.

Massage

It is very good if your gym has a massage room. We recommend doing a massage of the working muscles before and after exercise. This will significantly improve the quality of the load and speed up the recovery period. Before training, this is warming up the muscles. A massage after a workout will allow the muscles to relax properly and as much as possible.

Sauna and pool

Immediately after a workout, you can relax in the pool and warm up in the sauna. You can alternate these two pleasures for the sake of a sharp change in temperature. The benefits will be double: a warm-up for blood vessels and muscle relaxation.

Pharmacological preparations

It is known that pharmacology significantly accelerates the recovery of strength. But whether it is useful or harmful is a very controversial issue. Let's just say - for the muscles - yes, it's useful. For health, it is very harmful. And health comes first, otherwise, what is training for then?

Recovery by training

There is such a thing as recovery training. This is an easy option aimed at dispersing blood and lactic acid in tired muscles. It can be a game of football, and a bike ride, or a run. Actively spent time is the same workout. This is a great option if you often experience fatigue after exercise. Do this when you feel like it.

1. Eat appropriate, high-quality calories. Overtraining, low body fat, and low energy diets all have one thing in common: a catabolic environment that interferes with recovery.

2. Enough water. For many years, water has been the main additive. Drink at least 40 grams of water for every kilogram of body weight.

3. Every meal should include high quality proteins and fats. As for carbohydrates, to avoid inflammation, consume nutrient-rich plant-based carbohydrates. That is, give preference to meat, eggs, nuts, saturated fats, olives, avocados, coconuts, and lean on vegetables and berries.

4. Increase your intake of amino acids. Each meal should contain at least 10 grams of essential amino acids.

5. After training, do not forget to drink 20 grams (dry product) of fast-digesting whey protein. Whey is an excellent source of BCAAs and also provides the body with essential amino acids for faster tissue repair.

6. Eat foods high in zinc, such as meat and shellfish (oysters contain the highest amount of zinc). Zinc plays a big role in the recovery process, as it increases glutathione, which accelerates the removal of decay products from tissues after exercise and stress.

7. Antioxidant-rich fruits such as blueberries, pomegranate, kiwi and pineapple can help reduce inflammation and speed up the recovery process.

8. After a workout, add concentrated tart cherry juice to the water - it reduces muscle pain, speeds up recovery and improves sleep quality.

9. Eliminate alcohol from your diet, except for red wine. Alcohol slows down the elimination of waste products from the body and causes oxidative stress. Alcohol also increases aromatase activity, which leads to an imbalance of the hormones estrogen and testosterone, and this in turn hinders progress.

10. Actively support estrogen metabolism. Excess estrogen interferes with fat burning, and also upsets the balance of hormones, thereby slowing down recovery.

11. Every meal should contain cruciferous vegetables, as they are rich in antioxidants, fiber, and also contain the substance DIM (diindolmethane), which helps the body metabolize estrogen.

12. Reduce the amount of chemical estrogens entering the body. Chemical estrogen is a man-made hormone that mimics the natural hormone when it enters the body. Research data suggests a possible link between the chemical estrogens and diseases such as cancer, and the chemical compound bisphenol A (BPA) has been shown to increase body fat.

13. Choose natural products and avoid pesticides with estrogenic properties and growth hormones because they have a toxic effect on the body, interfering with the elimination of waste products and slowing down recovery.

14. Maintain pH balance for improved liver health. The liver is involved in fat metabolism and in the removal of toxins from the body. Add citrus fruits to your water and eat egg yolks and cruciferous vegetables—the nutrients in these foods help your liver metabolize fat.

15. Increase the amount of selenium. This micronutrient reduces oxidative stress and inhibits the aromatase enzyme (which converts testosterone to estrogen). Selenium is rich in fish and shellfish.

16. To support fat metabolism and improve the balance of testosterone and estrogen hormones, take carnitine. Most carnitine in beef and chicken, as well as in small amounts in dairy products.

17. Make sure your body gets enough vitamin D, as it maintains the hormonal balance necessary for recovery, and also increases the stability of the neuromuscular system. The level of vitamin D in the blood, which must be maintained all year round, is 40 ng/ml.

18. Replenish your omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids with saturated fats, olive oil, fish, and meat, not vegetable oils (corn, soy, canola, peanut, and vegetable blends).

19. To speed up the recovery process, reduce cortisol levels and reduce the inflammatory response, take fish oil after training.

20. 2-5 grams of vitamin C post-workout can help reduce cortisol.

21. To improve mental performance in the post-workout period, take 400 mg of phosphatidylserine (PS). This substance promotes the metabolism of cortisol and improves brain function.

22. To avoid inflammation, every meal should contain nutrient-rich foods such as dark green leafy vegetables, artichokes, beans, walnuts, pecans, olive oil, dark chocolate, raspberries, and spices, in particular turmeric and cinnamon.

23. Avoid high glycemic carbohydrates in general as they interfere with cortisol metabolism and lower testosterone levels. The only exception is after a very intense workout, when glycogen stores are depleted.

24. Eliminate sugar from the diet, as it provokes a surge in insulin. Regular consumption of sugar leads to lower testosterone levels compared to cortisol. In addition, foods high in sugar inhibit estrogen metabolism.

25. To boost immunity and speed up recovery, take 10 grams of glutamine several times a day.

26. End your workout by stretching on a foam roller to help reduce back pain.

27. Get a massage. It promotes the removal of decay products from cells, stimulates the nerve receptors of the skin and accelerates recovery.

28. To repair cells and reduce inflammation in the muscles after training, use topical magnesium preparations.

29. Use topical magnesium preparations to repair muscle fibers. This buffers lactic acid and, when combined with the calcium that builds up during intense muscle contractions, promotes faster recovery.

30. To reduce oxidative stress, calm the nervous system and improve sleep, take elemental (pure) magnesium (associated with compounds such as glycinate, orotate, fumarate).

31. Taurine will also help with muscle recovery after a workout. This substance reduces oxidative stress, and also acts as a relaxant, supporting sleep and restoring strength.

32. Avoid anti-inflammatory drugs because they have a negative effect on protein synthesis and intestinal activity, increasing inflammation.

33. 3-4 cups of caffeinated coffee before exercise reduces crepitus (delayed muscle soreness syndrome), muscle pain that occurs after intense exercise. Pre-workout coffee also recuperates after a hard workout, and you can train at higher intensity more often.

34. Avoid coffee immediately after a workout, as it interferes with the decline in cortisol levels and slows down recovery.

35. Don't skip your workout. Warm up the muscles you are going to work on for 10-15 minutes. Warming up activates the central nervous system, prepares the muscles for further work and reduces soreness.

36. To reduce muscle soreness on the days after a hard workout, work at a moderate intensity, choosing only concentric exercises.

37. Immediately after a workout, it is useful to listen to pleasant music - this calms the autonomic nervous system and accelerates the excretion of lactic acid.

38. Meditate. This lowers cortisol levels and reduces the post-workout stress response. In addition, studies show that meditation helps increase testosterone, growth hormone, and DHEA levels.

39. Sleep! In fact, the body needs more than 10 hours of sleep! Athletes who sleep a lot recover better and faster, thereby improving their performance in strength, speed and accuracy.

40. Sleep according to your rhythms, consider whether you are an owl or a lark. Following your chronotype improves the functioning of the central nervous system and the regeneration of muscle tissue, as well as restores the balance of cortisol and testosterone.

Overtraining and Recovery

Intensity is a measure of how hard you force your muscles to work. The more work you do in a given period of time, the more intensely you train. However, the harder you work, the longer the recovery period required for your body to rest and grow.
Overtraining occurs when you training your muscles too intensely, preventing them from fully recovering. Sometimes you can hear from athletes that they "tear" the muscles, and then let them recover. But such an approach is not entirely justified from a physiological point of view. During hard training, minor tissue damage can occur, and this is what explains the residual muscle pain. However, pain is only a side effect, indicating that the muscles need time to recover from the transferred loads.
Tense muscle contractions are accompanied by a number of complex biochemical processes. The process of using energy in working muscles leads to the accumulation of toxic by-products of breakdown, such as lactic acid. The fuel for energy release is glycogen stored in the muscles.
The body needs time to restore the chemical balance of muscle cells, remove residual breakdown products and replenish depleted glycogen stores. But there is another, even more important factor: time is needed for cells to adapt to the stimulus of exercise and grow. So if you overload your muscles by forcing them to work too hard and without enough rest from your previous workout, you won't give them a chance to grow and your progress will slow down.

Different muscles recover at different rates after exercise.. Biceps, for example, do it faster than others.
The muscles of the lower back are the slowest to recover. It takes about a hundred hours for them to fully rest after a hard workout.
However, in most cases, forty-eight hours of rest is enough for any part of the body, which means that there should be a break of at least two days between workouts of the same muscles.

The initial stage of training should take place only at an average level of intensity, so the recovery time here is less. But in later stages of training, in order to overcome the growing resistance of the muscles to change and growth, the intensity level must be increased. We should not forget about another important factor - Trained muscles recover faster after fatigue than untrained ones. Therefore, the more results you achieve in bodybuilding, the faster you will restore your strength and the richer your training program will become.

athletic exercises(except for very special exercises with limited range of motion) should be performed in such a way that each muscle moves with maximum amplitude. Any part of the body must be fully extended, and then bent until the muscles are fully contracted. This is the only way to act on the entire muscle as a whole and on individual muscle fibers.

Overtraining Syndrome
Fitness is a medicine that heals not only the body, but also the spirit. However, like any medicine, when the dose is exceeded, it turns into poison. Excessive physical activity has a devastating effect. First, training begins to lose effectiveness, then more and more time is required to restore the body, and, finally, health problems begin.
The opinion that overtraining threatens only professional athletes is fundamentally wrong. Just the same, it is they who are engaged under the close attention of professional trainers and the dosing of the load is correctly distributed among them. Unlike those who, in an ardent desire to lose 5-10 extra pounds, do not notice the approaching disaster. And you just need to learn to listen to your body. Perhaps the reluctance to run or another approach to the exercise indicates not laziness, but fatigue. Undoubtedly, improving the figure is impossible without increasing the intensity of training, but working to wear out is a detriment to yourself.
Time is a necessary condition on the way to a beautiful body. After a few months of training, the first visible results will come. But only after 2.5 - 3 years you can come to a perfect body. You can't speed up the process of burning fat or building muscle, so patience is the best thing that can come in handy in this case.
Self-diagnostic.
The initial diagnosis can be carried out independently. To do this, in the morning, at rest, after a natural awakening and before the first cup of coffee you drink, you need to measure your pulse. For women, the normal heart rate ranges from 68 to 72 beats per minute. A slow or rapid pulse should be a signal for concern.
Symptoms of overtraining at the very beginning are subtle. It may take several months before the feeling comes that something is wrong with the body. Decreased effectiveness of training, emotional depression, poor physical condition, sleep disturbance are often attributed to the stresses that occur at work or at home. It is possible that this is true, but do not ignore the duration of discomfort. If the unpleasant situation is left far behind, and the symptoms do not go away, then it can still be overtraining syndrome. So listen to yourself and answer the following questions:
Are you having trouble waking up in the morning?
Do you sleep 12-14 hours a day, but still constantly want to sleep?
Do you suddenly develop insomnia?
Do you wake up before dawn and try to fall asleep again to no avail?
After sleep, do you feel tired and weak, although you went to bed on time and slept enough?
Even one positive answer indicates a violation of the usual sleep pattern.
Are you unable to deal with your sudden irritability?
Do you have regular bouts of anger?
Have you become constantly nervous?
Are you constantly in a bad mood lately?
Did you cry often?
Even one positive answer indicates the presence of psycho-emotional disorders.
Is it difficult for you to master the usual training program?
Does it seem to you that the usual weighting agents have begun to weigh more?
Are you taking longer to recover from workouts?
After training, you began to experience muscle pain and aching joints
Positive answers to the questions of this group indicate a decrease in the return on training.
Do you get sick with colds more often, like acute respiratory infections or herpes?
Is recovery taking longer than before?
Positive answers to the questions of this group indicate a decrease in immunity.
If you see symptoms from each group at the same time, then measures should be taken immediately, otherwise everything will become much more serious. Unrestrained training combined with a constant diet can lead to hormonal imbalance. And these are: skin problems, menstrual irregularities, thinning of bone tissue.
Prevention can be a normal calorie diet, the consumption of a sufficient amount of vegetables and fruits, the intake of complex vitamins and minerals.
Causal relationship.
What can cause overtraining? In short: violence against one's own body. In more detail, there are a number of reasons:
Reason one- Excessive physical activity. Physical activity is stressful for the body, but there is nothing wrong with it. It is impossible to change yourself for the better if you do not shake up the muscles or the cardiovascular system. But any stress beyond measure destroys the psyche and worsens the physical condition. Stress accumulates if you constantly exhaust the body with training, without giving it enough time to rest.
Reason two- poor nutrition. The most important determinant of overtraining syndrome is a calorie deficit. In order to recover from stress, muscles need amino acids, sugar, vitamins, etc. Depriving yourself of most of the calories for the sake of losing weight, you are depriving yourself of nutrients, which in turn significantly reduces the body's ability to recover from training. For the body, this is a double whammy.
Reason three- Achievement Syndrome. The excellent student syndrome is the desire to do everything better than others, to do absolutely everything with five plus, spending a minimum of time on what other people spend many years on. "Excellent students" put their desire to be better than others above all else. They spoil their own health with this approach.
And finally, the overtraining syndrome can strike those who forget that fitness is a science, neglecting the rules of which can lead to disastrous results.
Basic methods of treatment and prevention.
Overtraining syndrome, fortunately, is easily treatable and you don’t have to give up fitness forever.
First, you need to give your body a break: cancel standard workouts for several weeks and replace them with walking, yoga or stretching.
Secondly, it is necessary to reconsider the principles of nutrition: the calorie content of the diet should be brought to normal, the consumption of vegetables and fruits should be increased to 5-8 servings per day, you can additionally take a complex of vitamins and minerals. Foods containing a large amount of vitamin C are also useful. A balanced diet will immediately show its positive impact.
However, it is still not worth bringing to the overtraining syndrome. It is not difficult to follow basic preventive measures.
Don't get hung up on the same program after all, the same exercises affect only a few muscles, which leads to stress. Avoid monotony: go outdoors, play tennis, practice extreme hobbies like rock climbing.

keep a workout diary, where you will write down all your approaches and repetitions, the order of exercises and the reaction of your body to them. This will help to determine in time not only delays in growth dynamics, but also overtraining syndrome.

do not hurry . Remember the 10% rule, according to which the increase in load should not exceed 10% per week. For example, when running a 5 km weekly increase should not exceed 500 m.

drink more water, because even the slightest drop in the level of hydration has a very significant effect on the general condition of the body. If training takes more than 60 minutes - you can drink sports drinks, if less - plain still water or diluted fruit juice.

don't starve! A hungry body cannot be healthy. In addition, nutrition should be balanced and contain proteins, fats and carbohydrates in appropriate proportions.

Of the total caloric content of the diet, 50% should come from carbohydrates, 35% from proteins and 15% from fats.

Recovery time
Recovery time
Since muscles are able to recover faster from non-traumatic training than after traumatic ones, recovery times should also be different. Therefore, you should give your muscles more rest after a traumatic workout.
In most gyms, bodybuilders train, for example, the chest on Monday, no matter what. Whether she recovered from the last workout or not, if today is Monday, then this is chest training day. This is mistake. The recovery time of each muscle should be determined by how quickly it recovers. As I noted, if you do not allow the anabolic response to training to fully take place before the next workout, you will lose all the positive effects of training on protein metabolism and, as a result, get, on the contrary, the negative - increased catabolism.
Your recovery options are limited.
To make matters worse, the human body's regenerative capacity is limited. Imagine that they are measured in dollars. Let's say you have ten dollars a week in your recovery fund. Non-traumatic arm training costs one dollar, and traumatic training costs two. Non-traumatic leg training costs two dollars, traumatic - four. Non-traumatic chest, back, and shoulder workouts cost one dollar each, and traumatic workouts cost three. If you train each body part in a traumatic style for a week, you need about 15 dollars, i.e. much more than your budget ($10) allows. However, by alternating traumatic and non-traumatic training, you can reduce the cost of recovery. Doing a non-traumatic leg workout instead of a traumatic leg workout will save you two dollars. By doing the same with the muscles of the chest and arms, you will save another three dollars. Reducing the amount of injury to your muscles in a week will allow you to recover more easily. Therefore, if you want to increase the frequency of training any part of the body, you should either reduce the amount of injury from training other parts of the body, or train them less often.
Imagine that your arms are lagging behind in development, and you want to tighten them up by increasing the amount of load. If you only worked them, you could do it with trauma training five days a week. (Please don't try this, I'm just giving a theoretical example.) If you alternated between two traumatic workouts and two non-traumatic workouts, you could train your arms every day. What if you want to have big legs? To include one traumatic workout for them in the program, you have to sacrifice two traumatic arm workouts. Every time you increase the frequency or intensity of training, you slow down the recovery of other parts of the body. While it's true that a lagging muscle group needs to be trained more often to pull it up, many bodybuilders fail if they don't realize that something has to be sacrificed to get that extra work done.
Even most symmetrically developed bodybuilders have muscle groups that respond better to training. The lag in the development of some parts of the body is due to not very effective protein metabolism in them. In such muscles, training causes a relatively low anabolic drive and at the same time a rather strong catabolic response. The only way to remedy the situation is to increase anabolism in them, while simultaneously lowering the level of catabolism. For most people, this doesn't work very well. Ask the last two Mr. Olympias why they couldn't get their biceps up to the level of the rest of the muscle groups. Only a radical approach can reduce the imbalance.
How can you speed up muscle recovery?
Training can be an effective way to kick-start muscle growth if you give them enough time to rest. The more traumatic the workout, the more time it takes. Strong parts of the body usually recover faster than weak parts that seem to take forever. This distinction has important implications for bodybuilders. This means that you have to tailor your recovery time to each muscle group. Obviously, you should not load a muscle that has not yet fully recovered, otherwise local overtraining will occur. Such a simple statement completely contradicts what we see in most rooms. Many bodybuilders go from three to seven days between workouts of the same muscles. This interval is set in advance and is the same for all muscle groups. Once they decide to work out the muscle every three days, then they will have two workouts a week, and individual recovery time is not taken into account. The fact is that lagging parts of the body need more time to rest than strong ones. As noted in the previous parts of this article, the degree of injury caused by training is also an important factor to take into account when you determine the amount of time you need to rest.
The main problem with conventional training schedules is that you load the strong parts of the body more than the weak ones, resulting in an unbalanced development. The imbalance is further exacerbated when you reload a muscle that has not yet fully recovered. This prevents the growth of weak muscle groups, leading to their overtraining. By training them less often, you will allow them to recover and grow a little. Of course, it would be even better to train them more often if you could find a way to speed up recovery. A rest day is the best anabolism accelerator The first muscle reaction to training is very negative - increased catabolism and slowed down anabolism. Your body tries to fight this by increasing anabolism and slowing down catabolism. The best assistant to him in this battle is a day of complete rest, in which you do not give your body any catabolic stress. This greatly reduces the catabolic drive. And since you avoid the slowdown in anabolism caused by training, protein synthesis increases significantly. During rest, the level of anabolism is high and catabolism is low, which creates a very favorable environment for speedy recovery and muscle growth. Unfortunately, this metabolic trick cannot be repeated twice. After 24 hours, the anabolic response fades, and the ratio of the levels of synthesis and fiber breakdown again inclines in favor of the latter. This is why irregularly trained people do not grow. The body responds positively to a rest day only if you load its recovery capabilities with regular training.

Overtraining and progress
According to statistics, the main reason that more than half of the clients of fitness clubs stop their classes is the lack of results. And indeed, after a period of quick and rather easy successes, there suddenly comes a moment when the process goes on, but no achievements are observed.
Neither an increase in loads, nor the introduction of additional training into your schedule can affect the situation. In addition, there is a feeling of constant fatigue and apathy. “Apparently, fitness is not for me,” the man thinks disappointedly and sadly leaves the club.
It’s a pity, it was not worth it to capitulate so quickly to the difficulties that arose, especially since they are all temporary. This period of failures and disappointments is just a test of strength, from which each of us can easily emerge victorious. To do this, you just need to know what is happening to us during this period, and respond in a timely manner to the signals that our body sends us. And then the period of physical improvement will last for a very long time, and the process itself will bring only joy and pleasure.
Success in improving physical fitness depends on how effectively we can implement the basic principles of fitness - training, nutrition and recovery.
Practice shows that, as a rule, enough attention is paid only to training and nutrition, and the process of rest and recovery takes its course.
This omission is quite understandable and understandable. In everyday life, the bulk of our time and energy is devoted to work, study, raising children and household chores. What if we add regular workouts in a fitness club to this? But all the basic processes in your body occur outside the gym. Our muscles are strengthened and grow not during the training itself, when only the adaptation mechanism is turned on, but when we passively rest - we enable the body to direct energy to “repair work” to restore the muscular-ligamentous apparatus and to strengthen its “combat positions”.
This also applies to the process of fat burning. The main task of training aimed at reducing body weight is to set up the body to receive energy in everyday life from fats and speed up metabolic processes. But in a state of overwork and overtraining, the metabolic rate automatically slows down and the effectiveness of the training inevitably decreases, or even completely reduces to zero.
If, after a high-intensity workout, we continue to actively expend our strength, do not sleep enough, and even stay in a state of constant nervous tension, then we greatly increase the risk of falling into a state of stress. And then you won’t have to talk about any muscle growth - you would save what was. Moreover, long-term under-recovery leads, first of all, to the loss of muscle mass, since it consumes the largest amount of energy and becomes economically unprofitable for the body in the conditions of an energy shortage.
Rules for a good holiday
Our recovery period needs the same careful planning as the training process. There is nothing super complicated in this, especially if you know the basic rules of the recovery strategy, they are also the rules for dealing with overtraining.
Rule 1. Get enough sleep!
The textbook eight hours of mandatory sleep is a very conditional figure.
Each of us needs a different amount of sleep to feel good. So in this matter, focus solely on your individual characteristics and needs.
Rule 2
Even if you are a pronounced "night owl", try to fall asleep no later than 24 hours (at least make it a time for passive rest). It is at night that regeneration processes occur most intensively. One sleepless night can set you back far from your fitness goals. If you have difficulty falling asleep, your sleep is restless and interrupted, try to determine the cause of this and, if possible, eliminate it. Do not forget about the methods of auto-training and psycho-emotional relaxation.
Rule 3. Recover!
Is your goal to increase muscle mass? Then "heavy" workouts for the same muscle group should be carried out only if they are fully restored, otherwise your training will take place in the catabolism mode - the destruction of muscle tissue.
The ability to recover for each of us is individual. For someone, two or three days of rest is enough, and for someone, even a week will not be enough. Different muscles also need their own time to recover. And each of us must clearly define this time for ourselves. An indicator of the readiness of the muscles for a new work with weight - if during the working set you feel that you could add one or two more repetitions.
Rule 4. Take supplements!
During high-intensity training, take an antioxidant complex and / or adaptogens.
Antioxidants (vitamins A, E, and C, acting synergistically in the complex) promote tissue regeneration and protect against the damaging effects of free radicals, the number of which increases sharply during heavy physical exertion.
Adaptogens - natural preparations that increase the body's resistance to adverse environmental influences - for example, eleutherococcus, Rhodiola rosea, Leuzea, ginseng. Their positive effect is achieved by optimizing metabolic processes, and not by sharp stimulation of the nervous system (as, for example, when taking caffeine-containing drugs).
Rule 5. Break up workouts!
It has been proven that a cyclic training regimen is the best prevention of stagnation in the results of training. It is this mode that will help you maintain a high level of intrinsic motivation.
Break the training process into cycles, between which there must be several days of rest from training. The duration of the training period depends on its intensity and varies from one and a half to three months.
Rule 6. Do not overwork!
If you, overcoming yourself, train in a state of general physical overwork, you thereby increase the risk of injury (both during training and outside the gym), since the muscles that have not recovered for new work transfer part of their work to the ligaments and joints. Overwork also threatens the development of overtraining syndrome, which is characterized by a feeling of depression, apathy, a sharp decrease in immunity and muscle weakness. This syndrome can last for quite a long time.
How to determine in time that you are living at the limit of life's possibilities?
The appearance of the following signs should be for you at least a reason to reduce the intensity of training, and as a maximum - to introduce a break in your training process for a week or two:
- Lately you have to force yourself to go to the gym.
-Even after a sufficient period of sleep in the morning you feel lethargic and overwhelmed.
- Post-workout muscle soreness lasts longer than usual.
-There are pains in the joints.
- You have difficulty falling asleep even after a busy day.
-Your appetite is out of control. You either start to eat too much (moreover, leaning on foods that are forbidden by your diet), or, on the contrary, too little, with difficulty forcing yourself to swallow something.
- Concentration of attention sharply falls, irritability and aggressiveness are shown in behavior.
-You become too sensitive to fluctuations in atmospheric pressure, react to changes in the weather.
- During training, an increased heartbeat appears, pressure rises more than usual, and these symptoms persist for a long time after training.
-You tend to shorten your training time, feeling that you are struggling to cope with the planned load.
And please remember: overcoming yourself at all costs is not always the best way to achieve your goals.

Muscle Recovery - this is a hot topic for any sport, because, other things being equal, the more often and more intensively an athlete trains, the faster he pro-res-si-ro-et, and in order to train more, more often and more powerfully , not-about-ho-di-mo re-hundred-but-twist-sya after training. Co-from-vest-ven-but, absolutely any sports-shifter is looking for ways to speed up the process of restoring. Is it possible? Yes it is possible! Moreover, it needs to be done. This topic is especially relevant in speed-growth-but-strength sports, since technical skill in this case plays a lesser role than in game disciplines or martial arts. In this regard, it’s not-about-ho-di-mo-rob-but to understand the basic principles of restoring-new-le-niya and auxiliary ways of its us-ko-re-niya.

First, it should be understood that different body systems have different terms and after-le-do-va-tel-ness of re-stand-nov-le-niya. That is why the regeneration of muscle tissue never starts until the moment of complete restoration of energy systems. In this regard, in the process of training, some systems are constantly not-up to-restoring-a-hundred-nav-whether-wa-yut-sya, which, in the end, can lead to « plateau » , so it is necessary to go-do-vom tre-no-ro-voch-nom plan take this into account and, in accordance with this, draw up macro-cycles. Secondly, you should understand that there are basic things, and there are secondary things. The basic conditions for resurrection include nutrition and sleep, and everything else is secondary. And if you don’t follow the basic conditions for restoring after a tre-ni-ditch, then no secondary ma-ni-pu -la-tion will not be able to replace this!

Basic Recovery Factors

Food: the most fundamental recovery factor, since with a lack of one or another macro or micro nutrient, the regeneration of organic tissues and energy systems will be significantly slowed down. Many people think that the most important food nut-ri-en-tom is protein, because all the magazines scream about how important protein . But the magazines are screaming about it only because the protein costs much more gay no-ra , but, in fact, the principal-qi-pi-al-noe value is precisely the corner-le-water. And precisely because of this, all the si-lo-vi-ki, for whom the presence of the press does not play a significant role, allow themselves to have “excess weight”. So that, remember , the more ka-lo-riy-ness of pi-ta-niya, the faster you recover! On the other hand, without measure, but corrode, in order to “dry” all this later, losing the accumulated results, it’s just as meaningless, but, in this way it is recommended to count calories and eat according to circadian rhythms. You can read more about this here: men's diet ; bio-lo-gi-ches-kie rhythm-we .

Dream: the same fundamental factor in muscle recovery as nutrition, since it is impossible to compensate for its lack of current. It is necessary to sleep at night, in the dark time of the day, because at this time you-ra-ba-you-va-et-sya is more than all-me-la-to-no-na, pain- More than when a person sleeps from 10 pm to 6 am, this allows you to achieve the greatest production of growth hormone. You should sleep at least 8 hours a day, and you should sleep at least 10: 8 hours at night and 2 hours during the day. It is clear that not everyone can afford such a schedule, but you need to strive for the ideal! Especially ben-but important is sleep at the time of hu-de-nia, since the utilization of subcutaneous fat in-ten-siv-it all takes place in sleep, and therefore , it can be argued that the more you sleep, the faster hu-de-e-those.

Recovery training methods

Split: we are not talking about organizing a training schedule for muscle groups, we are talking about dis-membering tre-ni-ro-wok. The shorter the workout, the faster you can recover after it. And it’s not about the fact that the author needs a “boat”, like ma-te-ro-mu “ka-pi-ta-nu”. The point is that the total time required for muscle recovery between three training sessions will be shorter than the time that will not be -di-mo for restoring-new-le-tion, in the event that you put the volume of three tre-ni-ro-wok in one well. For example, if you do 6 exercises of 5 sets for 5 reps for a tre-ni-ditch, then you need to-to-beat-sya to restore new-le-tion time equal to n. If you are half-no-those 2 exercises in the morning, go home, sleep, then in the afternoon go back to the gym and you-half-none-those 2 more exercises, then rest again and already in the evening you-half-none-those 2 more exercises, then it’s time for a complete recovery-new-le- niya will be equal to n-1. At the same time, the intensity of more short workouts will increase. Therefore, if you are tre-ni-rue-tes 3 times a week, it is better to break the same volume into 6 times.

Warm-up and cool-down: two very important factors in muscle recovery, since both help prevent injury, and also allow you to quickly restore energy after training. And you remember that the muscles begin to re-stand-nav-li-va-sya only after the energy-ge-ti-ka was restored! Sa-mo so-fight, to the post-le-tre-ni-ro-voch-no-mu re-sto-new-le-niyu warm-up it has nothing to do with it, it is more needed for preventing injuries, but for this it is necessary for a min. What's for-min-ka? Za-min-ka pos-vo-la-et to speed up the process of removing lactate from the muscles, and this is the first thing that can not be done in order to start re-ge-not-ra-tion energy-ge-ti-ki.

Toning workouts: Another great training way to speed up recovery, the essence of which is to conduct light workouts. You can run in the morning, or “pro-ka-chi-va-sya” with light dumbbells, dispersing the blood, in general, doing something that allows you to achieve pumping. What for? Then, that, together with the blood, hormones and nutrients are put into the muscles, so the body is faster you-we-va-et from them, the products are dis-pa-da and in-lu-cha-et to-half-no-tel-nye re-sur-sy for their restoration.

Stretching: this method largely repeats the previous one, but it should be distinguished from del-but due to the fact that toning workouts and stretching can be done in parallel. Exercises for stretching you can see. This method of re-ko-men-du-em should be used not only as a way to accelerate the recovery of muscles after training, but also as a way to improve speed power ha-rak-te-rice-tic. Stretching helps to avoid injuries, improves muscle feeling, promotes the development of technical masters and, in general, is important aspect of training.

Procedures to speed up recovery

Massage: a more effective procedure when it comes to restoring muscles, but more costly in terms of time and finances. If you are a completely poor student, then you can ma-sa-zhi-ro-vat yourself, but sa-mo-mu, although this sounds ambiguous. Sa-mo-mas-soot a completely effective procedure, and it is re-com-men-du-et-xia to perform even in the event that you can call yourself a massage therapist. If you are a crazy fan and you have a friend who is the same crazy fan as you are, then you can learn the procedure dispute-tiv-no-go mas-sa-zha and don’t spend on pro-fessio-nal-no-go mas-sa-zhis-ta.

Preparations to speed up recovery

Steroids: the most effective of the additional muscle recovery methods, which is why d-oping is so popular in professional sports. Without observing the basic factors, ste-roi-dy, of course, will not work. But, if the athlete correctly tre-ni-ru-et-sya, eats and sleeps dos-ta-precisely, then in the case of using steroids, his progress will be faster at times. It can be said that all other ways of accelerating the recovery, in comparison with the ste-roi-da-mi, are nothing! Does this mean that we are re-ko-men-du-e-e-using steroids? By no means! Steroids are harmful , and the harm that they inflict is not co-pos-ta-wim with the benefit that they can bring to the lover. As for the pro-professional sports shifts, then they do-ping, unfortunately, to take ku "natural" "chemist" is not a rival. And, nevertheless, the use of do-ping in a pro-professional dispute is pro-ti-in-re-cheat sports ethics!

Sports pit: the main sports nutrition products that can accelerate the process of recovery after a workout should include isotonics , creatine and ami-but-sour-lo-you. All these preparations accelerate the process of resynthesis of energy systems, and you remember that the restoration of muscle structures begins only after then, how the energy was re-established. Isotonics should be drunk during training, ami-no-sour-lo-you before and immediately after, and creatine should be taken at off-tri-no-ro-night time, since this supplement ka ob-la-yes-et effect on-cop-le-niya. All other products of sports pi-ta-niya are la-yut-sya or ma-lo-ef-fek-tiv-ny-mi in the sense of us-ko-re-niya of re-stand-new-le-niya, or pre-naz-na-che-us for solving other tasks.

Conclusion: the most important thing that is necessary for a quick recovery after a workout is the right to eat and sleep. Frequent and short tre-no-ditches, light tre-no-ro-voch-ny sessions, a hitch at the end can help you recover faster developing tre-ni-dov-ki, stretching, massage, hardening and special preparations, pre-appointed for re-sin-te- for energy-ge-ti-ches-kih systems.

If we want to get in good physical shape, what is the first thing that comes to mind? and, isn't it? But is there anything else you don't do? What is stopping you from reaching your final goal? In this article, we will consider another important detail that most people do not attach much importance to. This detail is one of the reasons why people give up when they are close to reaching their fitness goals.

Few people attach importance to what needs to be done after the workout is over. People think that if they exercise and eat right, then there is nothing else that could bring them more impressive results.

Your post-workout actions determine how well you recover to continue fitness activities the next day. Injuries, severe muscle pain, lack of energy and that's what you have to deal with if you do not take action in order to recover faster. After all, the more fully you recover, the better your next workout will be, and the longer you can continue your fitness activities. In the long run, all this will bring much more impressive results.

In fact, it is these actions that can be what determines whether you get results or give up everything without reaching your full potential. If you want to avoid stagnation, then you must pay close attention to the recovery process. Here are a few helpful tips to ensure you have an optimal recovery:

1. Be sure to perform a "hitch". Make sure that the increased heart rate after training returns to normal. Low-intensity exercise such as walking, jogging, and slow pedaling are best. The duration of the "hitch" is determined by the intensity of the workout. The more intensively you practiced, the longer the “hitch” should be. Even if you have little time, still allocate 5-10 minutes for a “hitch”.

2. Maintain the water-salt balance. Environmental conditions determine how much fluid and electrolytes your body needs. The hotter the weather, the more you sweat and the more fluids and electrolytes you need. By the way, you don't have to drink isotonic drinks just because your favorite athletes do. There are healthier options as well. Try drinking water with juice or lime (or both), orange juice, and a pinch of salt. You can add stevia powder to sweeten the drink. Many energy drinks have added sugar, but you don't need it at all. Many people think that they need sugar to replenish their glycogen stores, but this is not at all the case. We will return to this a little later.

3. Knead soft tissues. Use a fitness foam roller, PVC tube, massage stick, or something similar to knead the soft tissue. This process truly works wonders. Kneading aching muscles causes blood flow to microdamages that appear in muscle tissue during exercise. And this, in turn, accelerates muscle recovery. Attention! If you have never performed soft tissue kneading before, this procedure can be quite painful. In addition, special attention should be paid to kneading particularly aching areas. But believe me, the next day you will be glad that the muscles no longer hurt so much.

4. Do exercises to increase mobility in the joints. If you have muscle imbalances or joint problems, then you need to spend some time with rehabilitation or joint mobility exercises to eliminate or at least reduce these problems. To perform such exercises, 5-10 minutes a day is enough.

5. Perform light static stretching. Although static stretching exercises should not be done before a workout, as they reduce the ability of muscles to contract effectively, doing them after a workout is a good way to restore normal muscle length. There are a huge number of such exercises, but at a minimum, each of us should perform at least stretching exercises for the hip flexors and pectoral muscles. Stretching your hip flexors will help release tension in your lower back, while stretching your pecs will improve your posture and relieve you of slouching. Hold the stretch position for 30 seconds or more.

A great way to perform these exercises is the "tension, relax, stretch" technique. To do this, you need to isometrically contract the muscle you want to stretch for about 6 seconds, then relax it and take a deep stretch position for 15-20 seconds. You can repeat this technique 2-3 times per exercise, each time stretching the muscle more and more.

6. Post-workout nutrition. The opinions of experts on this matter are very different from each other, because it all depends on the state of your health and fitness goals. However, the most common recommendation for post-workout nutrition is to take a combination. The ratio of proteins and carbohydrates varies from 1:1 to 1:4. If you train for an hour at a moderately high intensity, then a ratio of proteins and carbohydrates of 1:4 is more suitable for you. This ratio of nutrients is also suitable for those who want to increase muscle mass. But these recommendations aren't always true, so experiment with different ratios of protein and carbs and see what works best for you.

If your goal is the body, and you are not interested in gaining muscle mass, then after training you can take only proteins, especially if you follow a low-carb diet and do short high-intensity workouts lasting less than 30 minutes. Since these workouts are quite short, your glycogen stores will not be completely depleted during exercise and can be easily replenished by the body. In this case, if you consume enough protein after a workout, then you should not worry about losing muscle mass. Once again, this recommendation is not set in stone, and you can try adding some carbs to your post-workout meal (1:1 or 1:2 protein to carb ratio). Experiment a little to see what works best for you.

These are six recommendations that can help you recover faster after training. Keep in mind that small changes can make a huge difference in the long run. Just 15-20 minutes a day will help you drastically reduce muscle pain, restore muscle and joint function, so you can continue exercising and reach your fitness goals.