How to recover from a hard workout –

It is normal that there are consequences after an intense workout: stiff muscles, pain, a certain tiredness and even fatigue are common. But not everyone knows the correct way to recover from it (and believe me, it’s easier than it looks). That’s why we talked to Bruno Sapo, a specialist in Sports Training, and Paulo Gentil, professor of Ed. physicist and creator of PERSON@LL – online platform for teachers to teach gymnastics classes via video –, and we separate some steps about how to recover from a heavy workout.

HOW TO RECOVER FROM A HARD TRAINING: USE OF ANTI-INFLAMMATORY

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First of all: Pain is not a good parameter when it comes to recovery. According to Paulo Gentil, it is associated with the first phase of inflammation and cleansing that normally peaks 2 days after exercise. Therefore, when training is very intense for two or three days in a row, you might want to consider skipping a day to ensure that the second phase, rebuilding muscle tissue, is quick.

The use of anti-inflammatory drugs to relieve pain is not indicated as they inhibit not only pain but also muscle recovery

However, certain people (mainly beginners) are bothered by the pain and use anti-inflammatories to relieve it, which is wrong. “The most inflammatory phase, cleaning the region, is associated with the release of substances that irritate pain receptors. It’s your muscle telling you ‘look, don’t mess with that region because I need to complete a cleaning phase’ and when the person takes an anti-inflammatory, what they do is cut this signaling cascade. Consequently, the person does not feel the pain because the inflammatory cascade is inhibited, but this inflammatory cascade is what also activates the subsequent recovery. Recovery becomes even slower. Not to mention the fact that it’s extremely dangerous to take anti-inflammatories in case of injuries and keep training, because, in fact, the injury is there, it’s increasing in size and the person is not seeing it”, concludes Paulo Gentil.

In addition, these remedies delay the necessary adaptations so that, in the future, the person becomes better conditioned and feels less pain.

FOOD AND SLEEP

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A better way to recover from an intense workout is to rest, sleep, eat, and stay hydrated.

Recovery after intense exercise comes from several factors, including the replenishment of your energy reserve and the time it takes you to replenish, for example, glycogen reserves (source of energy used in muscle contraction) — which are normally used in work high intensity – can range from 24 to 72 hours. What the person needs to do during this period is consume the amount of carbohydrates and proteins necessary for this glycogen reserve to be composed.

As for rest, if you have a minor muscle injury, you can recover in 24 to 48 hours, but if the injury is more severe, it can take up to a week.

CARE DURING TRAINING

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For Bruno Sapo, the static stretching (the one where you stretch your legs and arms while still pulling the areas) before training is not related to reducing late pain and does not warm up effectively, in addition to being able to impair performance.

When you stretch before training, you end up disturbing your muscle contraction mechanism. It’s as if you stretch the muscle and its ability to contract, to return that propulsion, is lost. When you stretch before training, you lose your contractile capacity.

static stretching disrupts the muscle’s ability to contract

Therefore, the dynamic stretching (where you stretch your muscles by moving your body at the same time, not standing still) is the best option. In exercises that require mobility and range of motion of the lower limbs, for example, squats and front and side kicks are more efficient and safer than the static ones.