7 tips on quick recovery after an intense workout
Reviewed by Aleksadra Łabędź (Personal Trainer) and Agnieszka Kaczmarska (Personal Trainer and Dietician)
There will be times when your body will feel extremely tired and tense. For example, from dancing at a festival, or after you’ve taken an intense dance or fitness class. This is exactly the moment you need to slow down, relax, and recover to prevent any injuries. Your post- physical training recovery routine has a massive impact on your fitness and dance gains, as well as your performance and allows you to train more effectively. Unfortunately, most people don’t have a post-training recovery plan. That’s why we want to share a few tips with you. This can help you to learn and implement the right habits and allow you to speed up the recovery process.
The need for recovery
Body recovery after exercising is essential for muscle and tissue repair as well as strength building. A muscle needs anywhere between 24 to 48 hours to repair and rebuild. That’s why working it again too soon may lead to tissue breakdown. It’s good to alternate your trainings. For example, if you decided to do a high intensity training one day, go for a yoga or stretching class the next day. Factors like age and fitness level are important in determining how much rest we really need between our sessions. Always listen to your body. If you feel tired, it’s a sign you should slow down.
1. Drink enough water to replace lost fluids.
You probably hear all the time that you should drink enough water, but the question is do you have a habit of drinking water? It supports every metabolic function and nutrient transfer in your body and having plenty of water will improve every bodily function. Don’t forget to drink it before, during and especially after you finish your workout. It’s recommended to drink at least 2 litres of still water per day and an additional 0.5 litres of water for every 30 minutes of an intense workout.
2. Eat healthily and regularly.
During dance festivals we usually don’t sleep much and dance for many hours a day. That’s why you should try to eat healthily. Make sure to include some high-quality protein, carbohydrates and fats (such as eggs, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, meat, fish, avocado, lentils, peanut butter or broccoli). When you do any intense exercise, make sure to eat within 60 minutes after working out. It will help your muscles recover and restore the glycogen they’ve lost.
3. Sleep enough!
After high-intensity physical training, or when you return home from dance festivals, make sure, that you let your body rest. Our body has an amazing capacity to take care of itself if you allow it some time.
When you sleep, wonderful things take place. During sleep, your body produces growth hormone which is responsible for tissue growth and repair. Chemicals that strengthen your immune system start to circulate in your blood. Sleep has been shown to enhance athletic performance. That means that if you aren’t well-rested, it will be harder for you to learn new dance moves, dance routines and execute them properly. Also, you increase the possibility of being injured.
Disconnecting from your screen before bed can help you improve the quality of your sleep, reconnect to your inner self and wake up properly recharged. The National Sleep Foundation (USA) recommends that you should stop using electronic devices, like your phone, at least 30 minutes before bedtime. Instead, grab a book and start reading before bed. You’ll be impressed with how much more quickly you’ll fall asleep and how much better you’ll feel the next day.
4. Stretching & Foam rolling
As we mentioned above, try to be gentle with yourself and give your body some time. There are a few things you could do to let your body relax even more.
After an intense workout, consider gentle stretching. This is a simple and fast way to help your muscles recover.
We also recommend using foam rolling techniques which can be a great warmup for your workout but also an amazing tool to help you ease tight muscles and recover faster. You can find a video about foam rolling under our Healthy Dancer category (link to the video here). When you travel to dance festivals take a double massage ball with you to relax your body at the end of the day and to release trigger points that tend to get tense during intense physical exercise. Check out our video on trigger point release (link to video here).
5. Book a massage
This is totally recommended when you come back from a big dance event where you danced 3 – 4 days in a row. This is your body, and it is supposed to serve you for many years so give yourself something that can bring you a lot of joy and allow yourself to fully relax. There are different types of massage (sports massage, reflexology, aromatherapy massage, etc), so we recommend you do a little research and choose the one that feels right at the time.
6. Ice, ice baby.
It has been proven that cold showers, ice massage, and contrast water therapy (alternating hot and cold showers) help us to recover faster, reduce muscle soreness, and prevent injuries. Many physiotherapists recommend massaging a sore place with an ice cube for a couple of minutes. Try it out!
7. Meditate
A mental practice can be of huge benefit to everyone. Following a mindful meditation program can help you to establish the right attitude and reduce stress and anxiety.
Getting familiar with how your mind functions, how thoughts can bounce around, and how you don’t need to attach to any of them, is an amazing way for any dancer to recover both mentally and physically.
What’s more, practicing positive self-talk can help you to gain more confidence in life and on the dance floor and take away unnecessary pressure.
It’s also proven that visualising our goals can help us to achieve them faster.
Always listen to your body!
If you are feeling tired, tense or notice decreased performance, you may need more time to recover or even take a break from training. If you are perfectly fine the day after an intense workout, you don’t have to force yourself to go slow. Remember to always listen to your body. It knows best.
We hope that these few tips will help you to increase your productivity and allow you to enjoy physical activities even more.
Sources:
Eric Franklin “Conditioning for Dance”.
https://greatist.com/fitness/18-scientifically-proven-ways-speed-recovery#foam-roller
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise/art-20045506
https://thriveglobal.com/stories/how-to-sleep-better-disconnect-unplug-tech-recharge-tips/
https://www.sclhealth.org/blog/2019/09/why-it-is-time-to-ditch-the-phone-before-bed/
https://www.verywellfit.com/ways-to-speed-recovery-after-exercise-3120085