Effective muscle recovery is crucial not only for progress, but also to avoid overtraining and injuries. It's important in the short term to prepare you for your next training session, in the medium term to arrive in top form for your competition, and in the long term to continue enjoying your passion for many years.
Optimal recovery will allow you to get back to full strength faster after a training session and keep improving your training performance. This is known as supercompensation.
When training sessions are consecutive days without a recovery phase, or when the recovery phase is incomplete, it's referred to as overtraining, and this is when the risk of injury arises. The body becomes fatigued, hindering progress or even causing regression.
There are different methods you can use to optimise recovery that we will discuss here.
#1 Boost Muscle Recovery via Massage
Massage helps to relax muscles after intense training, reducing muscle tightness, stiffness, fatigue, and aches. It also plays a role in improving tendon flexibility and reducing adhesions. In terms of circulation, it promotes venous return. On the nervous system level, it has a pain relief effect through gate control (inhibiting pain message transmission and reducing perceived pain) and endorphin release. Psychologically, it reduces stress, letting you take care of yourself and relax.
Massage also stimulates blood circulation, aiding in toxin elimination, which all contribute to better muscle recovery!
For massages, there are various highly effective tools for easy, deep self-massage, such as rollers, vibrating balls, or massage gun.
#2 Optimise Recovery using Compression Boots
Pulsating compression from boots reduces leg fatigue and muscle pain by improving venous return, blood circulation, and accelerating reoxygenation which all optimise recovery. We recommend using compression boots for 20 to 50 minutes after intense training to reap the benefits. You should do this within 2 to 4 hours after physical activity.
#3 Decrease Soreness and Relax Muscles with Electrostimulation
Electrostimulation helps to optimise recovery mainly by reducing pain; it has an analgesic effect. Like massage, it triggers gate control and endorphin release. Using an electrostimulator also reduces aches and relaxes muscles passively, without any effort from you.
Use the muscle recovery programs within 3 hours after exercise to quickly remove muscle waste before it builds up. Since the goal of these programs is not to develop muscle, electrode placement can be less precise than for strength and conditioning programs. The advantage in these conditions is being able to stimulate multiple muscles or muscle groups simultaneously. For example, you can recover the muscles of the thighs and calves at the same time.
