How to Decrease Recovery Time After a Workout

Are you wasting your workouts? 

If you’re not including recovery time into your fitness schedule, there’s a good chance you’re not reaping as much benefit out of your exercise as you could be. 

Sure, you’ll get your heart rate up and burn fat, but you just won’t get the muscle-building benefits of your workout routine if you don’t include adequate recovery time. If you don’t plan enough time between workouts – you could also find yourself considering injury recovery more often.

With that said – you don’t have to just sit on the sidelines and wish your recovery time was shorter. A combination of strategic planning, coupled with the right supplements can drastically reduce your recovery time and let you work out more, accelerating your gym regimen and allowing you to get results faster.

Check out these tips, and you’ll know exactly how to decrease recovery time after exercise and get back to working out sooner than you might think.

How Long Should Recovery Be After A Workout?

The short answer? It depends. 

The specifics of what is good for muscle recovery after a workout depends on the kind of workout you’ve done. Generally speaking, when it comes to how much recovery time between workouts you need, you’ll want to rest the particular muscle group for 24 to 48 hours after an intense workout. 

That means that if you’ve just done cardio with your cycling group, you should probably enjoy a 24-48-hour break before following it up with your next leg workout. 

One rule of thumb is to wait until post-workout soreness peaks, which is usually about 48 hours after each workout. While you might instinctively want to focus on how to alleviate muscle soreness post-workout, by letting the soreness be your guide, you can gain the maximum muscle-building benefits of each workout.

Another essential element to reducing recovery time is your nutrition and supplement intake. By combining workout recovery supplements with a muscle recovery plan, you can hit the gym more frequently, without putting an unhealthy strain on your body.

What Supplements Can You Take Pre Workout and Post Workout? 

Your muscles are built by the food you eat and the supplements you take. Using the right supplements wisely, both pre and post-workout, is one of the best-known ways to speed up workout recovery. 

A few essential pre-workout supplements include: 

• Supplements that boost IGF-1 such as deer antler velvet.

By building a fitness plan that considers both exercise, recovery, and nutrition, you can create a modern workout strategy that lets you get better results, with less worry about recovery time and injury.

This pairing is an important tactic for modern sports science and a major reason why athletes are able to push themselves harder and recover more quickly from workouts and injuries. 

What is Good for Post Workout Recovery? 

• IGF-1 boosting supplements. The Growth Factor (IGF-1) found in deer antler velvet extract has been shown to have links to injury recovery, which is why Nutronics Labs products are so popular with athletes.

Do Pre and Post Workout Supplements Work? 

Just like every person gets different results from various workout routines, each person’s mileage may vary when it comes to taking different supplements. Studies have shown benefits from the ones listed above. But observing which nutrients have the largest positive impact on you is often the only way to determine what is the best recovery supplement after a workout (or before one, for that matter!) that will help you perform at your peak.

Are Post Workout Supplements Worth It? 

The bottom line is that if you’re not taking post-workout supplements, you aren’t getting the benefit from your workouts that you could be.  Some supplements give more available amino acids to help build lean muscle. Others help you have more energy to work out. Others let you push through when you start “feeling the burn,” so you can do more reps and sets, maximizing your training.

What Helps Recovery After Workout

Besides taking time to rest and using the supplements you’ve determined to help you the most, there are some simple things that shouldn’t be overlooked when it comes to post-workout recovery.

• Sleep 
• Eating well – especially vegetables and fruits
• Extra hydration

How to Decrease Recovery Time

Myofascial release is a recovery tool that everyone serious about exercise should have in her or his toolbox. This is similar to massage, but it uses pressure on the connective tissue around your muscles to help any tightness release. This can help to reduce post-workout soreness, increase flexibility, and even improve your future muscle performance. 

For best results, myofascial release massage and foam rolling together are a powerful combination to keep you moving well from one workout to the next. 

How to Improve Recovery After Workout

Listening to your body is the optimal way to get the results you want from your body and your workouts. If you’ve been working out intensely multiple days a week and you start to notice you’re not getting the results you want (or even a decline in performance), evaluate your routine. While some people immediately consider increasing weight or reps, for example, check first to make sure you’re getting adequate recovery and rest between workouts. 

The Simplest Way to Decrease Recovery Time Between Workouts

One of the most important parts of recovering after exercise is to remember that it’s not an excuse to be sedentary.  A Netflix binge on your couch filled with the “watch next” feature is not the path to a healthy recovery or a healthy lifestyle.  Use your recovery day(s) to get moving with non-strenuous activities like walking, playing with the kids, or taking care of your yard work. This is also a great time for any mobility work or light yoga.

Learning From Modern Sports Science

We can help our bodies recover more quickly after workouts and after injury, but we have to consider more than just the short term. By combining proper nutrition, with natural supplements and strategic recovery times, we can tap into the sports science that gives professional athletes an edge. 

Use your recovery time to your advantage, supplement a healthy diet, and treat your body well and you can decrease your recovery time and still get the maximum benefits from each workout.