6 Things You Can You Do During and After Your Workout to Ease Muscle Soreness

Shin splints are inflammation in the muscles and tendons along the front of your shin bone, your tibia. They’re completely normal and in fact up to a third of people experience them at some point when participating in some form of intense exercise such as jump rope, especially when starting out for the first time.

To help relieve muscle soreness, try:

1. Gentle stretching.
2. Muscle massage.
3. Rest.
4. Ice to help reduce inflammation.
5. Heat to help increase blood flow to your muscles.
6. Over-the-counter (OTC) pain medicine, such as a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) like ibuprofen (brand name: Advil).

1. During and After Your Workout: Hydrate.
2. Immediately After Your Workout, Use a Foam Roller (Self-Myofascial Release)
3. Eat Within a Half-Hour After an Intense Workout.
4. Later On: Sleep.
5. The Day After a Tough Workout, Do Light Exercise.

The good news is that once your muscles repair themselves and grow stronger, they are more resistant to damage for up to eight weeks. While it’s okay to do an easy run while you’re dealing with DOMS, hold off on doing another intense workout for a few days. And expect to feel a little stiff during the first mile or so.

Studies have found that moderate-to-high aerobic exercise like running can reduce belly fat, even without changing your diet ( 12 , 13 , 14 ). An analysis of 15 studies and 852 participants found that aerobic exercise reduced belly fat without any change in diet.

In most cases, gentle recovery exercises like walking or swimming are safe if you’re sore after working out. They may even be beneficial and help you recover faster. But it’s important to rest if you’re experiencing symptoms of fatigue or are in pain.

How to Speed Up Your Recovery After a Tough Workout

1. Drink a lot of water. Hydrating after a workout is key to recovery.
2. Get enough sleep. Getting proper rest is easily one of the most effective ways to recover from any form or degree of physical exertion.
3. Eat nutritious food.
4. Massage.

A weekly day of rest is often advised when structuring a workout program, but sometimes you may feel the desire to work out every day. As long as you’re not pushing yourself too hard or getting obsessive about it, working out every day is fine.

After a relatively light workout, your muscles may be able to recover in 24 hours, whereas a more challenging workout might take two to three days. Very intense workouts might take even longer. Other factors that can affect your recovery time include: how well you sleep.

Massage. Therapeutic massage helps loosen tight muscles and increase blood flow to help heal damaged tissues. Applying pressure to the injured muscle tissue also helps remove excess fluid and cellular waste products. A 2012 study found that massage immediately following an injury may even speed strained muscle healing.

Many health conditions can cause muscle weakness. Examples include: neuromuscular disorders, such as muscular dystrophies, multiple sclerosis (MS), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) autoimmune diseases, such as Graves’ disease, myasthenia gravis, and Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Contrary to popular belief, your muscles grow in the rest period between sessions, which may give you an incentive to take more rest days between workouts (if preventing injury isn’t good enough for you!). Once the muscles have been given adequate rest, they then grow in mass.

It’s safe enough to do every day, unless your doctor says otherwise. But if you’re doing moderate or vigorous aerobic activity, rest days are essential. It’s recommended to take a rest day every three to five days. You can also have an active rest day by doing a light workout, like gentle stretching.

24 to 48 hours of recovery between sessions for the same muscle group is usually enough. This way, we prevent overtraining, ensuring better results.

You won’t see your muscles grow as much, but when you return to the muscle-building workouts, you’ll be able to lift more and see greater results. For an ongoing workout, eight weeks of muscle-building followed by four weeks of strength-building is a good pattern to follow.

How to Tell if You’re Gaining Muscle

• You’re Gaining Weight. Tracking changes in your body weight is one of the easiest ways to tell if your hard work is paying off.
• Your Clothes Fit Differently.
• Your Building Strength.
• You’re Muscles Are Looking “Swole”
• Your Body Composition Has Changed.

Muscle hypertrophy occurs when the fibers of the muscles sustain damage or injury. The body repairs damaged fibers by fusing them, which increases the mass and size of the muscles. Certain hormones, including testosterone, human growth hormone, and insulin growth factor, also play a role in muscle growth and repair.

While you may not see results right away, even a single strength training session can help promote muscle growth. Exercise stimulates what’s called protein synthesis in the 2 to 4 hours after you finish your workout. Your levels may stay elevated for up to a whole day.

You need to be hitting the weights at least three days per week. The research says that at the very least, training a minimum of two days per week is needed to maximize muscle growth.

“If you are exercising three to four times a week, and hitting your target heart rate for at least 30 minutes, you are most likely working out enough — even if it doesn’t feel like it. It’s better to work smarter not harder.”