Many gym goers place big attention to their workout and not a lot of focus on their recovery.
This could be hurting your progress.
When you workout you are actually causing damage to your muscle tissue, your not building it. Your recovery time is when your body builds muscle, you see when you workout your actually creating microscopic tears in the muscle tissue that needs to be repaired. This is when your muscle tissue becomes bigger and stronger!
To much exercise and not enough recovery can result in a plateau in best case, worse case an injury. Either way the outcome is not good.
One of the biggest signs your body is not recovering properly is excessive soreness. Many people use soreness as an indicator of a good workout, but there is a different between a slight soreness and being so sore every day tasks are grueling.
Being lightly sore means your muscle have zero pain (it needs to be noted here that there is a huge difference between being in discomfort and pain) with full range of motion, and your muscles are fully functioning. If you are lightly sore it means you are probably ready for your workout.
But if you are so sore that it impedes the full function of your muscles, do not have full range of motion, or you are in pain (not discomfort) this is a sign that you have not recovered enough to workout. If you decide to attempt to workout before your body is ready your chance of injury increases and it even hampers muscle growth. So why even workout!
So what are some signs of not being fully recovered?
- Extreme muscle soreness
- Muscle cramping
- Decline in performance
- Fitness goals are plateauing
- Overuse injuries
So what are some common mistakes made by gym goers?
Not enough time is given to properly recover. Many people think more exercise is better and that is not always the case. Your body performs optimally up to a specific threshold, and this threshold is different from person to person.
Many people do not incorporate mobility work into their program, this is one I have been horrible with. Including mobility work with foam rollers, lacrosse balls, stretching, and even massage guns all help in recovery and helping with range of motion.
Your post workout nutrition is the number one factor in helping you recover. This is a very important key to your recovery and this is also the one and only time that a protein shake will trump a whole food source.
Like stated before working out actually stresses our muscle tissue and causes microscopic tears in the tissue, it also depletes the glycogen stores within our muscles for energy. To fully recover we not only need the microscopic tears to be repaired but we also need the glycogen stores replenished. Actually your bodies first priority is to replenish the glycogen for energy.
To accomplish both post workout goals you need to provide your body with some high quality protein that gets to the muscle quick along with some fast carbs to quickly replenish those depleted glycogen stores.
This is where I use and recommend 1st Phorm Post Workout Stack. This stack is made up of two products, Phormula-1 which is a hydrolyzed and predigested whey protein and Ignition which is a fast absorbing carbohydrate source. These two products combined have been key in not only mine but hundreds of my clients recovery.
For more in depth detail on how this post workout stack helps with recovery, or if you have any questions about fitness, nutrition, or supplements please reach out! You can email me at fultztrainingsystems@gmail.com
Jim Fultz 