How to Enhance Recovery After Working Out

In our article Good Sore vs Bad Sore, we mentioned a few techniques to enhance recovery after workouts: nutrition, sleep, and cold immersion. In this article we expand on recovery with easy-to-implement techniques which can enhance your workout recovery while feeling good about your decision to engage in strength training.

Play with these techniques as time allows. You may find some helpful and others not so much. Think of these techniques as suggestions, not must-do time suckers.

Easy to implement recovery techniques

Future articles will take a deeper dive into recovery topics as well as sleep and nutrition. But give these easy to implement techniques a try and see if you feel the difference:

• Myofascial release and body work: In an ideal world, we would all be receiving bi-weekly massage from a licensed massage therapist who specializes in work with active peri/post-menopausal women. For most people this is simply not practical or affordable. Even if you get regular massage, say once monthly, supplementing with other techniques - such as the ones outlined below - may be helpful between appointments.
  

• Self-massage: Foam rolling and the use of hand-held rollers can significantly improve muscle tenderness and post exercise soreness. You do not need a fancy, expensive roller. During our competitive days, we simply used pastry rollers or the cheap foam rolls from craft shops to help with flexibility and muscle soreness. Some of our best self-massage tools came from Pampered Chef catalogs.
  
  Rolling can be done before or after workouts and on days between workouts. All these methods are supported by science. A good place to start is rolling large muscle groups, or body areas which tend to get sore for 90-120 seconds each. For example, roll out the right quadriceps out for 90 seconds, then switch to the left, then repeat with the hamstrings or gluteal muscles.
  
  View videos on self-massage via rolling
  
  - Lower body foam rolling

• - Upper body foam rolling
  
  - Forearm rolling
  

• Recognizing micro-wins: This is more brain maintenance, than body, but it is every bit as important and will lead to more joy and inspiration to workout. Exercising is hard! Take a minute each day to reflect on small accomplishments. Recognizing a finished workout, or even one set of one exercise, helps us stay motivated as we work for improved health. Mirco-win acknowledgement may be as simple as a high-five shared with a training buddy. Or, some prefer to keep logs tracking daily exercise or add exercise completion to an existing journal.
  
  We all have off weeks. Don’t feel silly giving yourself an “at-a-girl” or a 5-minute walk at a time when your brain begs you to stay in bed. Recognizing a finished workout, or even showing up to begin exercise, helps us stay motivated as we work for improved health.
  

• Active recovery: Though counter-intuitive, movement is an excellent way to decrease soreness and increase energy. Walk for 5-10 minutes when you have post-exercise leg soreness or move your trunk and arms with some gentle yoga moves for upper body soreness. The concept of exercise snacks originated as a method of gaining fitness and decreasing sedentary behavior. BONUS: gentle exercise snacks are fabulous for body recovery and maintenance following hard workouts.
  

• Incorporate rest in your plan: Exercise is a necessary, but not sufficient path to good health. Rest, whether it be between sets during a workout, or days off between targeted strength workouts allows the body to rebuild and generate the best value for the work you’ve done.
  
  While doing aerobic exercise on most days of the week generally makes us gain fitness and feel good, back-to-back days of strength work aimed at the same body parts is detrimental. Strength training causes micro-injury to muscle and soft tissue. This is great because it allows us to grow muscle and increase strength. However, muscles need a full day or so to recover in order to grow stronger. You’ve worked hard. Now let your body do the work it does so well.

We also suggest taking a day or two off each week from planned aerobic work. Keep your body moving, but give yourself a break from planned bike rides, walks, or hiking.

And finally, be patient. Health gains from exercise take time. The amount of time for a regular exercise program to show results in cardiovascular, metabolic, body composition, mental health and bone health vary. In general, 3 weeks to 3 months are required for most benefits. Bone health generally requires longer, and more specific exercises, such as the strength and resistance training you are doing in our program.

Sources:

Pearcey GE, Bradbury-Squires DJ, Kawamoto JE, Drinkwater EJ, Behm DG, Button DC. Foam rolling for delayed-onset muscle soreness and recovery of dynamic performance measures. J Athl Train. 2015 Jan;50(1):5-13. doi: 10.4085/1062-6050-50.1.01. Epub 2014 Nov 21. PMID: 25415413; PMCID: PMC4299735.

Cheatham SW, Kolber MJ, Cain M, Lee M. THE EFFECTS OF SELF-MYOFASCIAL RELEASE USING A FOAM ROLL OR ROLLER MASSAGER ON JOINT RANGE OF MOTION, MUSCLE RECOVERY, AND PERFORMANCE: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2015 Nov;10(6):827-38. PMID: 26618062; PMCID: PMC4637917.

Islam H, Gibala MJ, Little JP. Exercise Snacks: A Novel Strategy to Improve Cardiometabolic Health. Exerc Sport Sci Rev. 2022 Jan 1;50(1):31-37. doi: 10.1249/JES.0000000000000275. PMID: 34669625.

Eckard TG, Padua DA, Hearn DW, Pexa BS, Frank BS. The Relationship Between Training Load and Injury in Athletes: A Systematic Review. Sports Med. 2018 Aug;48(8):1929-1961. doi: 10.1007/s40279-018-0951-z. Erratum in: Sports Med. 2020 Jun;50(6):1223. doi: 10.1007/s40279-020-01284-x. PMID: 29943231.