8 Best Things to do After a Workout
Published 2021-04-04
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Whether you want to burn fat or build muscle, your workout is just one piece of the puzzle. You'll definitely want to do certain things after your workout to maximize recovery and speed up your progress. And this can range from eating certain foods and taking specific supplements all the way to manipulating your body temperature in order to boost recovery and strength.
So I'm going to go over all that today starting first with one of my favorite things to do after any workout and that's contrast therapy. Essentially you would expose a limb or your entire body to a hot temperature for a period of time, and then you would immediately expose it to a very cold temperature for a period of time... and you would repeat this process several times. In very interesting study researchers compared contrast therapy to things like cold water immersion, hot water immersion, passive recovery, stretching, and active recovery (13).
Keep in mind all of these things are believed to be helpful with reducing soreness and speeding up recovery. But researchers foundĀ that contrast therapy led to greater improvements in the areas of muscle soreness and post-recovery strength levels than every other recovery method.Ā It also reduced muscle inflammation, improved mobility, and muscle range of motion significantly. This means that contrast therapy can help you recover from workouts faster than almost any other method.
Now the easiest way to perform contrast therapy that anyone can do starting today is by switching between a very cold and hot shower. You can switch back and forth, doing a minute of each for a total of ten minutes. However, my personal favorite way to do this is by using a sauna in combination with an ice plunge. You would get your body really warmed up in a saunaĀ by staying in there for at least a few minutes and then once you're really warmed up you would jump into the ice plunge, which is basically freezing cold water. Now if you don't have access to an ice plunge you can do something similar by using the sauna at your gym and then immediately taking a cold shower for at least a minute and then doing that back and forth for a few rounds. If on the other hand, you do want to try an ice plunge you can find one in most traditional Russian and Korean bathhouses.Ā Ā
The next thing you'll want to do after a workout is instead of having a sports drink like vitamin water, drink some Tart Cherry Juice because it's specifically great atĀ reducing post-workout muscle soreness. Multiple studies show that consuming tart cherry after resistance training reduces muscle protein breakdown and muscle soreness while speeding up the rate of recovery. (1) One of these studies was specifically focused on eccentric exercise. For those of you that don't know the eccentric portion of an exercise is when you extend and elongate the muscle as opposed to the concentric portion which is when you contract and shorten the muscle. So for example with exercises like bench press, bicep curls, and squats the eccentric portion would be when you're lowering the weight down.
Although both concentric and eccentric ranges of motion will break down muscle tissue, the eccentric portion is believed to do the most muscle damage in the form of microscopic tears. So this study was especially interesting because itĀ aimed to find out if tart cherry consumption before and after eccentric exercise would have a protective effect on muscle damage symptoms. (2) So they set up the experiment by having college students either drink twelve ounces of a tart cherry juice blend or a placebo twice a day, once in the morning and once at night for eight days straight. And the scientists found that the group taking the placebo still had a strength loss of 30% even 24 hours after finished the eccentric exercise. And after 96 hours they still had a 12% reduction in strength in the muscles targeted with the eccentric exercise. On the other hand, the group taking the tart cherry juice instead of the placebo only experienced a 12% strength loss after 24 hours and after 96 hours they actually had a 6 percent strengthĀ boost above baseline. So in other words, the tart cherry juice reduced strength losses after their workout and helped them recover faster. The reason that tart cherries provide these benefits is that they contain special flavonoids and anthocyanins, which are a group of substances that have antioxidant effects on the body.
All Comments (21)
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References 1. Multiple studies show that consuming tart cherry after resistance training reduces muscle protein breakdown and muscle soreness while speeding up recovery. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4271620/ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26578852/ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21233776/ 2. One of those studies assessed if tart cherry consumption before and after eccentric exercise may have a protective effect for related symptoms of muscle damage. Tart Cherry consumption led to fewer strength losses after working out and sped up recovery. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16790484/ 3. Creatine is well-known for benefiting strength, power, and muscle growth, as backed by many studies. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12945830/ www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5679696/ 4. Creatine can also reduce exercise-induced muscle damage and soreness, as shown by a 2010 study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology. Thatās why itās a post-workout recovery aid. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19956970/ 5. Better yet, research indicates that taking creatine after a workout compared to before is more effective for improving body composition and athletic performance. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3750511/ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18347671/ www.researchgate.net/publication/328075908_Timing_ā¦ 6. "Meta-analyses indicated that creatine supplementation immediately after resistance training was superior for increasing muscle mass compared to creatine supplementation immediately before resistance training.ā www.researchgate.net/publication/328075908_Timing_ā¦ 7. As shown by a 2016 paper, 20 grams of a high-quality protein like whey is enough to produce a significant protein synthesis response after a workout. (keep in mind 40 grams of protein, yielded 20% better results, so at least get 20 but aim for 40g.) pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27511985/ 8. Researchers also found that increasing the amount of protein to forty grams of whey increased muscle protein synthesis by another 20%. See figure 5B www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4985555/figurā¦ 9. One study found that athletes who foam rolled their hamstrings after a session of ten sets of ten reps on the stiff-leg deadlift experienced significantly less muscle soreness during the days after their training session than the athletes who did not foam roll. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24567859/ 10. āIncreased parasympathetic nervous system activity acutely, which could be useful in recovery.ā pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26592233/ 11. In a study on cyclists researchers found that active recovery consisting of moderate cardio removed lactic acid build up in the muscles, helping them recover from their workouts. (11) pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11156281/ 12. In another study, 26 athletes did high-intensity interval training sessions for four weeks. These athletes were split into two groups. One group engaged in passive recovery after the training session while the other group did active recovery consisting of 15 minutes of moderate jogging. At the end of the four weeks, both groups had similar increases in their cardiovascular endurance. But the active recovery group also increased their anaerobic lactate threshold, which is the amount of intense physical activity they could engage in without a rise in blood lactate levels. Essentially, the active recovery increased their work capacityā¦ and it did that without harming other aspects of their performance. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5916096/ 13. In one study, researchers compared contrast therapy to cold water immersion, hot water immersion, passive recovery, stretching, and active recovery. And contrast therapy came out on top. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3633882/ 14. Dehydration is very bad, for example one study found that a 5% dehydration significantly reduced testosterone secretion after resistance training while increasing cortisol and norepinephrine. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18617629/
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It might sound crazy but I love being sore after workout I feel like I have done very good work
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Taking a cold shower after working out and putting on fresh clothes is a different type of euphoria
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You got my subscription with this one. Like Iām studying to be a certified fitness trainer and you literally covered chapters in minutes with this info. All the while you spoke in a way anyone can learn. Thank you.
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seeing other people take action and have good results motivates me as well
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If I spend 10 mins in the shower switching hot to cold my dad will break down the door talking bout I don't pay bills around here
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I love your videos! Just started getting back into fitness and your tips are incredibly helpful, motivating and inspiring! Thank you š
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GREAT VIDEO! i knew lots of this already. But it helped remind me that i need to do some of these. Very well explained and informative. Thanks! appreciate your hard work.
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What I do for post workout are a 20-minute slow walk with soothing music on; leg stretch; a bottle of water all in at once; a hot and cold water shower(gradual reducing temperature); protein shake. Not even once have I ever had any sore muscle or any physical pain the next day. Great video !! š
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hey, nice work bro, I find your video really helpful now after watching I have less muscle stiffness and I feel more relaxed
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Absolutely love this, my favorite YouTube channel hands down
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Such blessing,honestly you are helping thousands of people with these videos that are always high quality and talk nothing but facts.
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Honestly man I love youāre content because of you I lost so much weight from the 200s to 175 in 6 months and Iām lighter, stronger and more active than I have ever been and Iām barely 19 I just wanna let everyone know whoās starting to watch this man, listen to him honestly
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Man you are the best at educating people on working out. ššš
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Funny I was looking for this type of content! And it just appeared! Love your content bro. Keep up the good work. Definitely is helping me with my weight lifting.
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My dad used to go into the sauna after workouts at the gym, and then jump into the cold pool. He was a football college athlete, in his 20's. I never asked why he did what he did. Now I know! š Thank you.
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Icy cold showers are awesome. Itās like an energy boost.
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Good stuff buddy. Appreciate itš
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Itās been a couple of minutes so far, great video šÆ Straight to the point
