Despite what some fitness blogs might say, the best way to help your muscles recover is by eating healthy and getting a good night’s sleep.
Many people think they need pricey supplements to see results from their workouts. While some supplements can be beneficial, they won’t do much if you don’t get the basics right.
In this article, we’ll share 14 proven tips to boost your muscle recovery and help you stick to a consistent fitness routine.
Foods
What you eat can have a big impact on how well you perform and recover from workouts.
1. Protein After Your Workout
Exercise can damage your muscle fibers, so eating protein afterward helps your body repair them. Research suggests getting around 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight each day to boost muscle growth. The International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends a range of 1.4–2.0 grams per kilogram to build and maintain muscle. A high-protein meal or shake before or after your workout can help you meet your daily protein goals and aid muscle recovery.
2. Protein Before Your Workout
Some people find that having protein before a workout helps them hit their daily protein targets and supports muscle recovery. But, while timing can be helpful, overall protein intake throughout the day is more important than when you consume it.
3. Carbohydrates After Your Workout
Your muscles use glycogen, stored carbohydrates, as their main energy source during exercise. Eating carbs after your workout, especially with protein, can help replenish glycogen levels and improve muscle repair. How many carbs you need depends on your body composition and exercise intensity.
4. Eat a Balanced Diet
A healthy, balanced diet helps prevent nutrient deficiencies that could slow muscle recovery. Aim to:
- Limit ultra-processed foods
- Eat lots of fruits and vegetables
- Include healthy proteins like beans, tofu, lean poultry, and eggs
- Use heart-healthy fats such as olive oil, avocados, nuts, and seeds
Drinks
Staying hydrated is crucial for both performance and recovery when you exercise.
5. Keep Hydrated
If you’re dehydrated, your muscles can’t repair themselves properly. This is especially true if you’re working out in hot or humid conditions. To stay hydrated, aim to drink 1.5 liters of water for every kilogram you lose through sweat, which is about 3 cups for every pound lost.
6. Cherry Juice
Many athletes include cherry juice in their diet because it helps reduce inflammation, muscle damage, and soreness. A review from 2022 showed that drinking cherry juice in the days before exercise can support muscle recovery. However, more research is needed to figure out the best types, amounts, and timing of cherry juice for recovery.
Supplements
Supplements can be a handy addition to a healthy diet. While it’s usually best to get your nutrients from whole foods, powders, tablets, and other supplements can help you meet your goals more easily.
7. Creatine Monohydrate
Creatine is one of the most researched supplements out there. Studies show it can boost muscle strength, especially when used alongside resistance training. It may also help with recovery by reducing muscle damage and inflammation and by replenishing your muscle glycogen stores.
8. Protein Powder
Protein powder is an easy way to boost your protein intake. Many types offer a complete range of essential amino acids. Popular options include whey, soy, and casein protein powders.
Lifestyle
Your overall lifestyle habits are crucial for how well you recover from exercise, along with hydration and nutrition.
9. Get More Sleep
Sleep is essential for muscle recovery. If you exercise intensely, you’ll need even more rest. Some professional athletes reportedly sleep 10 hours or more each night. Research shows that not getting enough sleep can hinder muscle recovery by affecting inflammation and hormone production that supports muscle growth.
10. Try Massage
Many athletes use massage to help reduce muscle soreness. A 2020 review of studies found that massage can slightly improve flexibility and lessen delayed onset muscle soreness after workouts.
11. Use Compression Garments
Compression garments have become popular among athletes over the years. While there aren’t many studies on how well they speed up recovery, a small 2019 study found that they helped German handball players recover faster. In the study, athletes wore the garments for 24 hours, then took 12-hour breaks before wearing them again for a total of 96 hours.
12. Consider Cryotherapy
Cryotherapy involves exposing your body to extremely cold temperatures for a few minutes. Research suggests it might help speed up recovery by reducing pain, inflammation, and muscle fatigue after intense exercise.
Things to avoid
While some things can help with recovery, others can actually make it worse.
13. Alcohol
Drinking alcohol isn’t great for your health overall. It can raise your blood pressure, mess with your sleep, and doesn’t provide any nutrition. Regular alcohol use can also slow down muscle recovery and may increase the risk of muscle loss over time.
14. Tobacco
Smoking tobacco is bad for your muscles and bones. Though there’s limited research on how smoking affects muscle recovery specifically, some evidence suggests it can raise the risk of muscle injuries. Smoking is also linked to a higher chance of joint diseases and bone fractures.
How long does muscle recovery take?
How long it takes for your muscles to recover after a workout depends on a few things, like how fit you are and how tough the workout was.
The volume, intensity, and length of your workout all affect how hard it is on your body. After a light workout, your muscles might bounce back in about 24 hours. But if you’ve pushed yourself harder, it could take two to three days to recover, and really intense workouts might need even more time.
Other things that can impact your recovery time include:
- How well you sleep
- How good your nutrition is
- How much stress you’re under
- Whether your exercises hit many different muscle groups or push you close to your limit
How do I prevent injury during muscle recovery?
A great training program is all about making small, steady increases in intensity or volume over time. If you try to push too hard too quickly, you risk getting injured or overtraining.
Different trainers have different approaches, but most agree that you should finish your workout feeling challenged, but not totally wiped out. Even top athletes carefully plan their peak training periods.
To help your muscles recover between workouts, try alternating the muscle groups you work on. For instance, if you lift weights three times a week, you might follow a schedule like this:
- Monday: Back and biceps
- Wednesday: Chest and arms
- Friday: Legs and core
This way, each muscle group gets a full week to rest and recover.
Are there complications from not allowing muscle recovery time?
If you don’t give your muscles enough time to recover, you’re more likely to get injured. Not resting properly can also hurt your performance in future workouts.
When you exercise, your muscles get tiny tears called micro-tears, which is why they might feel sore and inflamed. If these micro-tears build up without enough recovery time, you could end up with more serious muscle strains or pulls.