Everyone wants to get fit and healthy nowadays and for that purpose, they tend to get a healthy diet and do the workout as well. But because of the workout, sometimes soreness occurs which hurts a lot, soreness after a workout is not always a sign that it was a good or effective workout and it is not directly related to muscle growth or strength gain. It is a possibility that the soreness you feel is often referred to as delayed onset muscle soreness or named as DOMS for short. One should know that it is caused by micro-tears in the muscles, lactic acid produced during exercise and other metabolic byproducts that build up in the muscle. We have been told that the pain is a natural part of the CrossFit exercise and the people who do CrossFit experiences pain on multiple levels throughout the training and each type unique in its torture. One may need a little soreness, it means you are adapting, getting stronger but too many means you are risking injury or overtaking.
When we get interacted with the CrossFitters, it is found that the muscle soreness seems to be treated like the stereotypical mother in law. There is a lot of SB (or silly bullshit, to use a Rip expression) swirling around the topic of DOMS in the fitness industry for example, it is often taught by fitness experts, and even by many sport coaches, that muscle soreness is a sign of having “overdone” it, to be avoided where possible. It is also taught that lactic acid is the cause of soreness and that post- exercise static stretching will reduce or eliminate DOMS. In addition to it, for many specialized athletes, muscle soreness tends to be an issue only after prolonged layoffs from their sport or after training sessions that have been unusually tough or substantially different from normal.
In CrossFit, of course, there is no “normal,” just constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity: the perfect recipe, as it turns out, for ongoing muscle damage and soreness. There are a variety of things which one can do to reduce the DOMS such as stretching, warming up and training frequently can help significantly in such case. If you are sore because you did squats, deadlifts, lunges and box jump in one workout then it is recommended that you should not do the similar movements the next day, as it can be risky. There are a number of processes that occur during training which lead to a reduction in function of the muscles and we can promote certain mechanisms through recovery techniques which allow us to get back fresh and ready to train state. As we have now discussed the CrossFit soreness in detail, now have a look in top tips by which one can easily recover the soreness.
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Take care of your nutrition
During workout or training, there are cells which have been damaged and protein is so much essential for the repair of such cells. The repair of such cells will allow our muscles to get bigger and stronger, most of us could benefit from increasing our intake of lean protein. A qualifies dietician must be consulted by serious athletes to ensure they consume adequate protein in their diet to get healthy, fit and stronger. We rapidly deplete glycogen stored in the muscles when we train at high intensity, this is the fuel we need to perform. One should consume the quality carbohydrates as soon as possible after training because during the post workout period we make better use of carbohydrate as our muscles want to replace glycogen. Moreover, the glucose is absorbed easier during such period, preventing it being stored as fat and the amount needed depends largely on duration and intensity of the training.
The vitamins and minerals are essential for the proper functioning of our cells and muscles, it is so much necessary that we eat a balanced healthy diet with healthy fats and supplement with a good multivitamin. That’s how the greater needs of repairing cells are met which allows them to restore themselves completely.
When we get sweat, we lose water so it should be kept in mind that hydration is extremely important. As we know that the water is the main constituent of blood and when hydration is poor we have a reduced blood volume in our body and the blood’s deficiency in the body can affect our health and performance. So keep your body hydrated and monitor urine to ensure a light lemonade color is maintained.
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Metabolize Clearance
The metabolic by-products are produced when we exercise or workout, lactate is the most common. Such by-products significantly impact the contractile function of the muscle tissue, dramatically decreasing performance and when we stop exercising these metabolites can sometimes remain in the muscle. It is so much important to flush them out as soon as possible and there are multiple methods as well which are effective in such case. The light intensity exercise helps us to promote blood flow and clear metabolites through several mechanisms, gentle warm down exercise after a session can be very beneficial in achieving such thing.
A thing to be considered is that our blood vessels constrict in the cold and dilate in the heat, alternating between hot and cold acts as pump flushing blood through the muscles, promoting clearance. It should be noted that the ice baths have the added benefit of hydrostatic pressure, the external pressure of water added to the cold, forces blood and metabolites out of the extremities and this can help you to recover sore in short time.
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The Tissue Quality
The chemical shifts in the muscle cells occur during the strenuous exercise and these shifts are normal but an interrupt contractile function. Sometimes muscles do not relax fully and we get camping because of the muscle fibers contraction, cramp may not always occur but over time the muscle tissue loses quality, such thing can eventually cause tightness and pain. As a remedy, we must use stretching and myofascial release techniques to break up the fibers and trigger points that form. The foam quality is probably the most popular option in such case, this is a cheap and accessible way to smash out any knots in the muscles and maintain good tissue quality and one must perform such activity on regular basis.
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Proper Rest
When you have worked out intensely then rest is essential but it is often overlooked. Our body is allowed to divert resources and attention to restoration when we take rest, this is when the real progress is made eventually. For the proper recovery of soreness of your body, proper rest is so much necessary. While taking rest, our body makes the appropriate adaptions to the effects of training, without it, we will never truly recover physically or mentally so the good quality rest is by far the most important but the one we often neglect. The adequate sleep is necessary for recovery, power naps and meditation & chillout time are essential to get recovered.
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Use of Foam Roller and Mobility Tools
Foam rolling method is one of the most popular methods to recover a sore muscle and with foam rolling, you will simply place the foam under the muscle that’s sore and roll back and forth. Such act will place extra tension on those muscle tissues, helping them loosen up and will let you relax and the recovery process will get faster in this way. If your body is so stiff or very tight, it can be slightly uncomfortable at first but keep at it and you will find you fell quicker recover by doing this again and again.
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Mobility exercises
The activation of muscles is so much necessary for the activation and contraction of the muscles leads to blood flow and draining of the lymphatic vessels and helps with muscle recovery in an easy way. Mobility exercises must be done on regular basis, consider scheduling 1 or 2 yoga or athlete mobility classes into your week to increase the activation and help improve flexibility, mobility, blood flow and lymphatic drainage which can help you to recover the muscle soreness.
The use of resistance bands for low-intensity upper and lower body movements to re-activate the muscles is no doubt a great idea and get the stiffness out of your system by such means. The loop bands or bands with handles to stretch, lengthen and pull your muscles for increased flexibility and mobility.
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Two or three days off per week
Your body needs rest, the professional athlete standard of no days or only one day off per week will likely not be enough for those of us doing intense CrossFit training sessions. Aim for two or three days off per week from all intense exercise.
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Post workout meal
Your post-workout meal is the most important meal of the day. Its main goal is to replenish glycogen, decrease protein breakdown and increase protein synthesis. In other words, you need to replenish your energy systems, increase quality and/or size of muscle and repair damage caused by the WOD. Therefore, post workout meal should consist mainly of protein (check our guide on the best crossfit protein powder drink) that will aid protein synthesis and carbohydrates that will help replace muscle glycogen. You should ideally consume your post workout meal within max one hour after the workout. If you know that it will not be possible (because you live too far from the gym or you do not like meal prepping), you can have e.g. a protein shake and a banana. The earlier you eat, the better it is.
Your overall nutrition also has got a big impact on how you feel and recover. There are many approaches to that, but if I really simplify it, you need to be eating healthy balanced meals in moderation. The quantity depends on your goals. You can also consider taking supplements like branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) that help with recovery.
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Compression
The theory behind compression clothing is that super-tight shirts, shorts, and other form-fitting gear push blood through veins, thereby helping you slow fatigue. There is a research made on this which supports the use of compression gear to enhance recovery, however, it must be significant graded compression to actually work.
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Don’t stop the burpees
It is basically a bodyweight movement, they may suck but there’s no reason why you should stop moving. When you take a prolonged rest, the more time on the clock you will eat up. Keep the pace consistent and stay moving, don’t rest at the bottom, don’t rest at the top. Moreover, if you need to break jumping up with then putting one leg up into a lunge position and standing up instead, that is completely fine. But one thing you must keep in mind that, don’t go really hard and fast on these out of the gate, this needs to be a paced movement.
Conclusion
These were the top 10 tips by following which one can easily recover the soreness of muscles in short span of time and there are a number of extra tips as well in such case which can help you a lot. As we know that the food is another important factor when your muscles are sore and it could be the number of reasons like a sign of dehydration, lack of sodium, protein, electrolytes and sometimes vitamins as well. During the soreness of muscles, it is necessary to eat foods which have fatty acids like salmon, avocados or almonds. The soreness of muscles can be very hurting and disturbing sometimes because due to such thing one can’t perform the tasks of routine in a proper way. Most of the people don’t know about the recovery process of sore muscles that’s why this post is concluding the best recovery tips for sore muscles. Working out and exercises on daily basis are so much necessary to stay healthy and active but we should keep in mind the remedies and precautions which could be proved as helpful in case of soreness of muscles.
