How to Relieve Post-Workout Pain

by | Nov 3, 2018 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

How to Relieve Post-Workout Pain

You probably feel great as soon as you finish a good workout. You’re happy it is behind you, you’re energized, but you’re also physically exhausted.

However, a few hours later, you may start to feel worse as you start to experience a soreness that you feel when you’re walking– and you may even start to question if you want to work out anymore. This pain can last for days, especially if you tried out a new exercise that your body wasn’t used to. The pain leads to muscle tension, and you know if you exercise through the pain, you can cause you body some real damage.

So what happens if you’re always sore, but you don’t want to skimp on the gym? Here, we will give you five tips to help soothe your damaged muscles, repair torn tissue, and improve the relaxation in your muscles and your blood flow. Following these tips will help you speed up your recovery and reduce your muscle soreness, which will help you return to the gym sooner.

1. Eat a Banana

In order to fight dehydration, it is important to get enough potassium in your diet. This will also help you avoid getting muscle cramps during your workout. When you fight post-workout dehydration with potassium, you can avoid any severe muscle cramps that may come after a workout.Most Americans are deficient in potassium, so it’s important to include potassium-rich foods such as bananas in the diet. One medium banana will add 400 mg of potassium to your day’s diet, which is about 11% the daily value of potassium.

2. Take Hot and Cold Showers

To help soothe achy muscles, alternate between hot and cold water in the shower. The contrast in temperature helps fight tension and improve blood flow. Switch from hot to cold every 30 to 40 seconds.Doing these switches about ten times is enough to have an effect. As you get more used to each extreme temperature, increase the intensity to create an external ‘pumping’ of blood by cooling your muscles and then heating them. This will help bring fresh blood into your muscles for a faster recovery.

3. Soak in Salt Water

Taking a hot bath after your workout will make you feel relaxed because the hot temperatures pull the toxins out of your skin. As the water starts to cool down, the toxins are released from your body through your skin. A bath also helps to soothe aches and pains, increase blood flow, and relaxes your mind.Adding Epsom salt to your bath helps alleviate soreness, muscle cramps and pain, inflammation, and aches. Epsom is a magnesium sulfate, which is a natural muscle relaxer. When it is in a salt form, it pulls water and lactic acid away from any injured tissues to help reduce swelling. Fill your bathtub with warm water and add 2 cups of Epsom salt before soaking in it for at least 15 minutes.

4. Drink Tart Cherry Juice

Tart cherry juice is high in antioxidants, and research has shown that it can reduce muscle pain and weakness following a tough strength training routine. Drinking 12 ounces of tart cherry juice can also reduce the pain associated with exercise-induced muscle damage after a weight-lifting session. Experts believe this to be true due to the high levels of polyphenolic compounds that are present in tart cherry juice, such as flavonoids and anthocyanin. Keep this juice at home so you can drink it as soon as you get back from the gym.If you can’t stomach tart cherry juice, watermelon juice is a reasonable alternative. It tastes good and it is great for replenishing your electrolytes after you workout. Studies have shown that drinking about 16 ounces of watermelon juice after a tough workout can reduce muscle soreness because watermelon is rich in l-Citrulline, which is an amino acid that has been known to help with muscle soreness.

5. Use a Foam Roller

Using a foam roller can break up any tension in your muscles and fight muscle soreness. Foam rolling can hurt a bit during the process, but it will alleviate pain and muscle tightness in the long run and help to prevent you from experiencing an injury in the future. You can even work a very specific muscle by switching a foam roller for a hard ball such as a lacrosse ball.When you apply pressure to a knot in your muscle, the elastic fibers disperse back to their true alignment, which will help you get into lengthening positions with better body alignment and restore your proper movement patterns.

Three Ways to Increase Your Core Strength

Three Ways to Increase Your Core Strength

by | Nov 3, 2018 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

If you are like many other people, you go to the gym with the goal of achieving a flatter stomach and firm abs. Most people want a toned stomach– not only to improve physical health but also to give a bit of an ego boost.

However, if your only goal when you are working out is to get visible abs and you are focusing on doing sit ups for hours, it may end up giving you the opposite of the results that you are looking for.

The trust is, your core isn’t just one muscle. Rather, it is a lot of muscles bunched together to hold together your abdomen and connect your hips, backbone, shoulders, and neck together and keep your body in place. If you do exercises that are micro-focused on only your stomach, you are leaving out a lot of the muscles that are an important part of that muscle group.

The good thing is, there are a lot of exercises that you can do to effectively work all of your most important muscles. In this article, we will talk about some exercises that you can do to increase the strength in your core and obtain a healthy and toned core.

Deadlift

Start by standing with your feet hip-width apart with a heavy dumbbell placed in front of each foot. Bend forward at your waist while maintaining a flat spine and a neutral, relaxed neck. Lower your torso down toward the ground until you are able to reach down to pick up the weights. Push down on your heels and tighten your core to help you return to a standing position as you lift the weights. Then, lower the weight back down to the ground to complete 1 rep. Do this 8-12 times and complete up to four sets of this exercise. Do this along with your strength workout twice a week.

Farmer Carry

Start by holding one heavy dumbbell in each hand. Stand up straight with your shoulders back. While keeping your core muscles engaged and standing up tall, walk forward ten steps. Then, turn around, take ten steps to return to your starting position, and return your weights to the ground to complete one rep. Do 3-4 sets of 4 reps twice a week.

Bird Dog

Start in a tabletop position and raise your right arm until your hand is at an equal height with your ear. Then, simultaneously lift your left leg until it is at a 90 degree angle with your body. Return to your starting position and repeat this exercise with your left arm and right leg. Make sure to tighten your ab muscles to give yourself some stability and prevent yourself from leaning towards one side. Do 10-15 reps 3-4 times every day.

Why Does Core Strength Matter?

You don’t want to just strengthen your abs for aesthetic reasons. The truth is, there are many extremely strong people in the world who don’t sport a six-pack. There are other things you will gain from having strong abs.

1. You’ll avoid pain.

Having a strong core is a prominent factor in keeping yourself free from injuries, especially in your hips and knees. Research actually shows that women who regularly engage their cores have more control over the movement of their knees while they are doing strength exercises such as squats and lunges, which can help protect against an ACL injury.Your core also stabilizes your pelvis and femurs, and help your glutes fight pain. Essentially, without having a strong core, you are missing out of having the foundation for pain-free movement.

2. Improve your posture.

Your core muscles support your spine, which makes it easier to have proper and healthy posture. Having correct posture will prevent the small movements in your spine that lead to pain. Also, having proper posture looks good and will give you a boost of confidence.

3. Increase your athleticism.

With an increased amount of core power, you will have an advantage over other people in sports because your stability, balance, and agility will come from the center of your body. As long as your core muscles are all working together while you move, all of your power will be equally translated from your lower body to your upper body. This will allow you to rotate your core when you’re throwing, punching, or serving a ball. It will also help you absorb force while you are decelerating, such as when you are falling, catching, or diving.