When you leave the gym, you may be a wreck of jelly legs and abdominal agony, but your post-workout protocol is a chance to maximize progress. Here are 4 things you can do to make sure your body keeps working as it should even when you’ve finished your last rep.
Drink Ice Water
Rushing from the gym floor to office and, whether you shower or not, be fair warned: you’ll sweat through your suit. You can cool down faster with an icy cold drink. When cold water hits your stomach, thermoreceptors signal your brain to regulate your sweat, helping to ease the sweat-through as you transition throughout your day.
Add Protein To Your Drink
Even before you’ve stopped sweating, your body has begun to repair itself. Training causes micro-tears in your muscles. In response, your immune system sends in stem cells and growth hormones, which work with amino acids to make new muscle fibers. Adding 30g of protein to your post-workout drink is optimum to support recovery and growth.
Keep Burning Calories
Exercise racks up an energy debt. To return to a state of homoeostasis (steady temperature, hormone production, and oxygen levels), your body works overtime, expending extra calories in the process. If you work out at 70 percent of your maximum effort for 45 minutes, for example, you can increase calorie burn by 37 percent for 14 hours after your session.
Get Foam Rolling
As fat burn subsides, your muscles continue to repair. Metabolic stress damages your muscle cell membrane and causes inflammation. This leads to DOMS, or delayed onset muscle soreness, which peaks in pain up to 48 hours later. Roll with the foamies: 15 minutes of massaging your glutes, quads, and hamstrings with a foam roller will ease your path towards progress.
