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How to Relieve Aches and Pains from Working Out
5 Top Tips to Do Just This
Nobody relishes the stress of having to deal with aches and pain after a workout. After an intense workout, you will face some difficulties like breathing hard, uncomfortable soreness and muscles burning.
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It is this uncomfortable muscle soreness that forms the main reason why most people drop or opt out of their exercise routines.
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However, as much as it is not possible to completely eliminate the aches and pains that follow an intense workout, you can control them. This is possible if you observe a number of post-workout recovery tips.
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Below are 5 ways to relieve aches and pains from working out.
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1. Eating for Rapid Recovery
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Immediately after your workout, you have about two hours where your body will efficiently take in all that you can eat as repair and energy fuel.
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Ensure that you get a meal with enough fats, carbohydrates and proteins, which play an important role in maintaining, repairing and warding off soreness in muscles.
Carbohydrates will provide your body with enough energy to get your body ready for the next workout. Proteins will be instrumental in repairing your muscles while fats will help your joints and hormones.
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2. Compression
Engaging in a brief yet effective cool-down after your workout helps the contracting muscles eliminate the accumulated soreness-generating fluids.
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You can opt to do some stretches as they offer a first line of defense against post-workout muscle pains and aches. During a workout, your muscles contract and their fibers become shorter. Stretching helps in lengthening them, thereby, promoting mobility and putting you in a path to a thorough recovery.
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You can also opt to use a foam roller as it helps in removing the excess inflammatory fluids from the muscles and getting rid of tight spots or adhesions from your worked muscles.
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3. Getting Heated
Heat increases the blood circulation in your body especially the focused heat like in a hot tub or Jacuzzi. This makes the hot tub a potent recovery tool from your post-workout aches and pains.
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Hot tubs have been used across many civilizations and cultures for many years due to the many health benefits this method offers to the human body.
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Among the most notable hot tub benefits include the massaging of body muscles and loosening joints, which works wonders in eliminating aches and pains after a workout.
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The heat from the hot tub helps in dilating your blood vessels thereby promoting blood flow and lowering blood pressure. When the blood pressure is lowered, it brings about a relaxing sensation and the increased blood flow helps in hastening the body’s healing process.
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4. Applying Topical Ointments
You can also choose to rub a number of topical ointments on your body muscles to hasten the recovery process as well as eliminate soreness.
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A large number of these ointments work effectively by creating a cooling and pain-relieving sensation that increases blood flow and displaces high calcium levels in the body. These ointments can be applied on your muscles immediately after the workout or a few days after until the aches and pains subside.
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5. Hydration
Your body muscle cells require adequate water, and when it comes to the recovery process from all the post-workout pains and aches, proper hydration is necessary.
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It is advisable to take in 20–24 ounces of water for every hour that you exercise. Dehydration is a major enemy to your body when you are looking to recover from the soreness in your muscles after engaging in an intense workout.
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And Finally…
Experiencing pain and aches from your workout session is an indicator that you are increasing your intensity or volume, or you did not recover in the right way after the previous workout.
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However, working out should not be necessarily painful due to the huge gains it offers to your body. Whenever you experience any pains and aches after a workout, use any of the effective techniques discussed above to recover quickly and get fit.
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Dixie Somers, Freelance Writer
dixiesomers@gmail.com
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