Exercising can be rough – especially during the first few sessions of a new fitness plan. Your muscles are being put through their paces and sometimes breaking down to build back up again stronger. Because of workout intensity and the muscle rebuilding process, it’s common to feel muscle fatigue. It’s not a sharp pain that’s unbearable, but it certainly causes enough discomfort to make just sitting still less than pleasant and movement even worse.
Accordingly, we thought we’d provide this article on some natural ways to help the recovery process from muscle fatigue.
Napping and Longer Sleeps
It might surprise you to learn that just a 25-minute quick nap taken a couple of hours post-workout helps the muscles recover better. Also, doing so won’t affect your subsequent sleep later that evening.
With muscle recovery, getting 7-9 hours of daily shut-eye without interruption has proven to be extremely restorative for the human body. With insufficient sleep, the muscles cannot repair themselves from the day’s exertions. Indeed, sleep deprivation has been found to slow recovery, reduce protection from illness and extend periods where a person will feel under the weather; all factors that only make matters worse when it comes to muscle fatigue and sustaining an active lifestyle.
CBD Oil
CBD products like CBD oil tinctures are helping exercisers deal with aches and pains. There are also creams that can be used. They can be bought individually as a treatment or you can get it in bulk from a wholesaler too.
There have been successful studies featured in US NIH research papers that support the benefits of CBD, which is effective in the treatment of pain, especially discomfort that’s hard to manage in other ways.
Lemon and Honey Treatment
A treatment to rub on the affected muscles can be created at home using three lemons, a jar of honey and access to a microwave. Take a microwave-proof bowl and squeeze out three lemons to get all the juice. Then remove the pips. Add a couple of tablespoons of honey and mix well. Then place the bowl in the microwave and heat it for half a minute.
With the salve ready, use a hand towel, dip it into the bowl and then massage into the affected muscles. The treatment is often found to work well because lemon is a natural anti-inflammatory.
Nutrition Before & After Exercise
It’s been found that consuming a small meal with two parts carbohydrates and one-part protein after a workout can help with muscle fatigue. Consuming a similarly balanced meal ahead of a workout is also useful. It avoids starving the body of energy or protein to rebuild muscles which is thought to affect the level of discomfort experienced.
Rehydrate and Restore Electrolytes
Replacing water lost through perspiration during exercise works well. Your body loses sugar, salt and minerals when sweating; these should be replaced as soon as possible. Drinking a sports drink that has electrolytes for this purpose is the fastest way to get back into balance.
Without enough fluids, muscles cannot contract properly, ease down or stay free from irritation. Taking in extra fluids even if you don’t feel the need after a workout session avoids depriving your muscles of a necessary lubricant. This is especially true when exercising outside in hotter climates or in a non-air-conditioned gym.
With exercise and post-workout pain, unless you are really trying to push yourself, it can also be a sign of overdoing it or overtraining. While a certain amount of discomfort is normal, only prolonged exercise using muscle groups that don’t get much use normally should ache afterwards, or the next day.