16 Expert-Backed Tips on How to Speed Up Muscle Recovery

When you're in the thick of a training program, delayed onset muscle soreness can be a real bummer. That achy feeling you get a day or two after pushing your body, whether lifting weights, running, or practicing your sport, can dampen your upcoming workouts and training goals. Feeling sore after challenging workouts is normal, but you shouldn’t suffer. Exploring the best recovery tools for athletes, such as massage guns, compression therapy, and cold plunges, can make a huge difference in reducing soreness and speeding up recovery. Speeding up muscle recovery can help you get back to training sooner, with less soreness, so that you can crush your next workout. This article will outline expert-backed strategies to speed up muscle recovery to help you recover faster, feel less sore, and get back to training stronger and sooner.
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Pliability's mobility app can help you reach your muscle recovery goals. The app offers targeted routines and protocols to relieve soreness and improve muscle function so you can move better and bounce back faster.

How Long Does Muscle Recovery Take?

When you exercise, you create stress on your muscles. It doesn’t matter what kind of workout you do; every type of exercise places some sort of stress on your body. The more formidable the challenge, the more your muscles have to handle.

That can include lifting hefty weights in the gym or nailing Bhairavasana pose in yoga. Exercise can cause your muscles to feel tired in many ways. When you do something new or at a new level of intensity with your muscles, you cause microscopic tears in the muscle fibers.

The Key to Strength and Fitness

But far from being a cause for concern, this ‘damage’ is, in fact, positive, as long as you allow enough time for your body to heal. Working out and recovering build muscle, reduce inflammation, and improve insulin sensitivity and cardiovascular health.

It occurs because your body’s tissues (such as your muscles, lungs, heart, and bones) can repair this damage, which means the next time you do the same exercise, they’ll be ready for it. Repeated over time, this process of stress + recovery = how you become a healthier, fitter person.

How Long Does Muscle Recovery Take?

Your muscle recovery time depends on you and the type of exercise you’re doing. Certain factors, such as your fitness level, exercise history, workout intensity, and duration, will all influence how much recovery time you need.

Tracking Recovery for Optimal Rest

Listening to your body and tracking your recovery will be the best way to tell when you’re recovered and ready for another workout. If you’re doing light workouts and paying attention to your body, you may only need minimal recovery time aside from prioritizing sleep each night.

With this approach to exercise, you can probably work out most days but should always give yourself at least one day off each week. You must take a few days off if you’re doing moderate to intense exercise. At least one, if not two, after a challenging workout.

Muscle Recovery and Stress Factors

A study from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that muscles require three days to recover after an intense strength-training session. Again, paying attention to how far you’re pushing yourself and how your body feels afterward is essential.

It’s also important to know that when you experience stress daily, you’ll need to factor in more muscle recovery time.

Stress Management for Faster Recovery

A separate study from the same publication found that stress levels and recovery times are linked, with increased stress leading to a slower recovery. In comparison, less stress saw a faster recovery window.

Focusing on techniques for managing your stress on rest days is also a positive approach for improving your recovery.

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12 Pro Athlete Secrets on How to Speed Up Muscle Recovery

1. Protein Post-Workout: Your Muscle Recovery Bestie

The proteins that make up your muscle fibers become damaged when you exercise. Consuming protein after your workout can help give your body the raw material it needs to repair this muscle damage. Research suggests that consuming roughly 1.6 grams(g) of protein per kilogram(kg) of body weight daily maximizes muscle growth.

The International Society of Sports Nutrition suggests a broader range of 1.4–2.0 g protein/kg for building and maintaining muscle mass. Consuming a high-protein meal or supplement pre- or post-workout can support muscle recovery and be a convenient way to achieve overall daily protein goals.

2. Protein Pre-Workout: A Smart Move

Some people may find that consuming protein before a workout helps them reach their daily protein targets and increase muscle recovery. 

Studies show that while pre- and post-workout protein supplementation supports muscle development and recovery, overall dietary protein intake is more important than specific timings.

3. Carbs: The Unsung Hero of Recovery

Your muscles store carbohydrates as glycogen for energy. Glycogen is an important fuel source for all forms of aerobic exercise and the primary energy source during high-intensity anaerobic exercise.

Consuming carbohydrates post-workout with protein can help replenish glycogen stores and improve muscle repair and performance. The amount of carbohydrates a person requires will depend on body composition and exercise intensity.

4. Eat an Overall Balanced Diet

Eating an overall healthy diet can ensure you don’t develop any nutrient deficiencies that may impair your muscles’ ability to recover. 

As a general rule, this means:

• Minimizing your consumption of ultra-processed foods
• Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables
• Healthy proteins such as:
  
  • Beans and pulses
  • Tofu
  • Lean poultry
  • Eggs

• Heart-healthy fats, such as:
  
  • Olive oil
  • Avocados
  • Nuts
  • Seeds

5. Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate

Drinking water is essential for overall health and post-workout recovery, including muscle repair. Aiming for about two liters of water daily is good, but if you’re active, sweat a lot, or live in a warm climate, you’ll want to aim for more to replace the additional fluid loss.

• If you’re regularly working up a sweat, is water enough?
• Do you need special hydration drinks?

For most people, water and a nutritious diet will do the trick! According to a 2004 study on rehydration and recovery after exercise, electrolytes are essential for your nervous system and used during muscle contraction.

Electrolytes and Post-Workout Replenishment

Electrolytes include minerals like magnesium, potassium, calcium, and sodium, which are found in most foods, so you can get enough electrolytes by following a healthy diet and consuming plenty of fruit and vegetables.

After your workout, a glass of milk, coconut water, or a fruit smoothie can help quickly replace electrolytes without a sugary sports drink. Still, we recommend seeing a sports nutritionist if you’re training hard, focused on endurance sports, or not feeling your best. 

6. Warm Up Before Your Workouts

According to Mayo Clinic, completing an effective warm-up may help reduce muscle soreness and the risk of injury. While sore muscles are usually from the hard work you’ve put in, sometimes the pain you feel is strain from not warming up properly.

Importance of Warm-Ups

Proper warm-ups are significant before challenging workouts and lifting movements like deadlifts, back squats, and pull-ups. After some light cardio, ensure your warm-up includes dynamic stretching to activate the muscles you are about to use.

This will help prevent overstretching, strain, or injury during your workout. If you’re working out with the Sweat app, warming up is a breeze, as every workout includes a warm-up with movements best suited to the exercises in your session. 

7. Make Time to Cool Down

Alongside a warm-up, the Mayo Clinic recommends including cool-down exercises after your workout to gradually allow your heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure to recover from a tough workout or HIIT session.

Once your heart rate has slowed after 5-10 minutes of light cardio, holding a few static stretches can help to improve your range of motion and prevent you from feeling so tight the following day. Have trouble sleeping? A short stretching session before bed may also help you to sleep better.

8. Foam Roll for Recovery

A 2019 meta-analysis of the effects of foam rolling on performance and recovery found that foam rolling before and after a workout can also help improve performance while promoting flexibility.

9. Elevate Your Legs

It’s typical to spend most of your time with your legs down, whether sitting, standing, lying down, walking, or running.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, elevating your legs or practicing the legs-up-the-wall yoga pose can help promote blood flow, swelling, and the circulation of bodily fluids. Some calming yoga poses also help to improve circulation.

10. Take a Cool Bath or Shower

Post-workout soreness is usually caused by micro-tears in your muscles—a normal process as your muscles adapt to the workload and become stronger. If you are still sore one or two days after your workout, a cool bath or shower may help reduce inflammation and support recovery.

Cryotherapy and Contrast Therapy for Recovery

For muscle recovery, some athletes also enjoy cryotherapy (cold exposure, like cold) and contrast therapy (alternating between hot and cold temperatures in a single session).

We’re all here for whatever works and research suggests it can help, but always seek advice from your healthcare professional before you try a new health treatment like cryotherapy, especially if you have pre-existing health conditions.

11. Don’t Skip Rest Days

Alongside getting 7-9 hours of sleep each night, prioritizing your rest days can also help to speed up the muscle repair process and leave you feeling refreshed and ready to take on your next workout. Remember, your muscles repair and grow during rest, not during the workout.

With any demanding physical activity, the American Council on Exercise (ACE) recommends scheduling at least one day of complete rest (as opposed to an active recovery day) every 7-10 days to allow your body to recover and adapt. Every Sweat program includes rest days, but take it if you need more rest. Your body knows best! 

12. Keep Moving

Light movement between workouts, such as walking and stretching, can help promote blood flow, bringing nutrients to repair the muscles and assisting with removing metabolic waste.

A 2018 literature review published in Frontiers in Physiology found that active recovery within the first few days of a challenging workout reduced the effects of delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS).

13. Wear Compression Tights

Research from 2019 on the effects of compression garments on recovery observed significant positive impact on performance. Based on these results, the researchers recommended that athletes wear compression tights immediately after intense exercise.

Compression clothing may also help reduce your perception of muscle soreness, inflammation, and swelling. The tightness of the fabric can promote blood flow through the deeper blood vessels rather than those on the surface, which may aid with clearing waste and providing nutrients to the muscle fibers.

14. Reduce Stress

Did you know your emotional and mental well-being can affect your muscle recovery? Taking time to relax is essential, as being in a state of stress reduces your body’s ability to prioritize muscle recovery.

Stress Impact on Muscle Recovery

A 2014 study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research examined whether chronic mental stress affects muscle recovery, perceived energy, fatigue, and soreness after four days of strenuous resistance exercise.

The results showed that higher stress levels resulted in lower recovery, and, conversely, lower stress levels were associated with superior recovery.

Managing Stress for Better Recovery

Stress can also impact everything from sleep to eating patterns, hormones, and general well-being. These things can impact your immune response, essential for muscle recovery. If you’re under a lot of stress, try using techniques like mindfulness and meditation, including:

• Yoga in your routine
• Connect with your loved ones
• Make time for the hobbies
• Self-care rituals you love

Several internal and external factors can impact stress levels. If stress consistently negatively impacts your daily life, seek help from a healthcare professional.

15. Follow the Principle of Progressive Overload

Your training program shouldn’t leave you sore for days after each workout. Ideally, any resistance training program will gradually increase the intensity of each exercise within your limits.

This is called progressive overload, a principle used in many Sweat programs. In these programs, your training routine undergoes minor adjustments to your workout volume, intensity, density, and frequency. 

16. Sleep More

Sleep gives your muscles time to recover from exercise. People who exercise intensely need even more rest than the average person. Some professional athletes allegedly sleep 10 hours or more per night.

Research has found that sleep deprivation may impair muscle recovery by impairing the body’s inflammation reaction and the production of hormones that aid muscle growth.

17. Listen to Your Body

Our bodies are different, so keep checking in to see how you feel during your training sessions and as you recover. If an exercise feels too strenuous, take a modification. If a weight feels too heavy, go lighter. If you scheduled a workout for today but you’re too sore, have a rest day instead.

Self-Monitoring for Optimal Performance

Based on their findings, Sports Performance Bulletin highlights that while technology can be a helpful way to monitor performance and fatigue, you should never neglect the power of self-monitoring.

Only YOU know how you feel about fatigue, soreness, and training. To avoid burnout or overtraining, be aware of telltale signs like poor sleep, fatigue, lowered immunity, or constant achy muscles.

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Pliability provides daily-updated custom mobility programs for those interested in optimizing their health and fitness. It also includes a unique body-scanning feature to pinpoint mobility issues. If you're feeling limited by pain or the ability to move, Pliability aims to complement your fitness routine and help you move better. 

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