How to Recover After Exercise Based on How You Train

Right off the bat, let's make it known that all the folks shivering their way through an ice bath in hopes of gains have been misled. Sorry brave souls, but ice baths after lifting can actually shrink your muscle gains over time (sure, there are other benefits, but you won't catch me freezing for them).

Regardless of whether you like to suffer in ice or not, knowing how to recover after exercise depending on the type of training you do will ensure your efforts aren't wasted or working against you. Lifting, running, and HIIT all have different recovery time frames and some tools work better than others.

What Happens When Your Muscles Recover

Training hard causes micro tears in your muscles, damaging your muscle fibers and connective tissues around them. This is normal, and your body repairs that damage between your workouts, rebuilding tissues to handle that damage, which can lead to muscle growth and strength gains. Your muscles will feel sore during this process, which is known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), typically peaking one to three days later. You'll feel DOMS most after a new exercise or slow, heavy lowering (eccentric) training.

Training also builds local fatigue in the muscles you worked and systemic fatigue that affects your nervous system and hormones. A good workout split helps you handle local fatigue because you're resting muscles while working others. Full rest days are still necessary for bringing down the whole body fatigue. Endurance training also drains glycogen, which are the stored carbs your muscles burn for fuel, and resting and eating helps replenish those stores.

How Long Does It Take for Muscles to Heal?

Most muscles heal in 24 to 72 hours. If you take all of your sets to failure, recovery can take a day or two longer. Heavy strength training, plyometrics/jumping, and sprint training can take 72 hours. If you've done an endurance event like a marathon, it can take a week or more to repair the muscle damage.

How to Recover Based on Your Workout Type

After Heavy Strength Training

Give each muscle group at least 48 hours before you hammer it again, and closer to 72 after days you do heavy squats or deadlifts. Not taking every set to failure (leaving 1-3 reps in reserve) can let you recover faster but still build strength, according to the updated ACSM guidelines. If you're strengthmaxxing, try taking two rest days in a row each week so your nervous system can reset.

When you take three or more days off, like during a deload, you can sneak in a recovery training day. Halve your usual weight, reps, and sets (4 sets of 10 at 200 pounds becomes 2 sets of 5 at 100) and focus on technique. It should feel almost insultingly easy.

After Hypertrophy Training

Hypertrophy training is high volume, so focus on food to help repair faster. About 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily is ideal. A scoop of Purist® Whey Protein will give you 25 grams of grass-fed whey protein isolate to help you get there.

Don't go low calorie on rest days, either, especially if you run a high-volume push pull legs split, because that's when much of the rebuilding happens. Don't bother with the ice bath right after lifting because cold water will dull the signal that tells your muscles to grow. You can still do it on rest days if you're a glutton for punishment.

After HIIT

HIIT is short but hard on your legs and nervous system. It'll take about 48 hours to recover from a typical HIIT session, but all out repeated sprints will take longer. Wait at least two days between HIIT training (you can do easy zone 2 cardio in between).

Prioritize sleep after HIIT because even one short night can impede HIIT recovery.

Read More: 4-2-1 Workout: What Is It, Benefits, How To

After Long Runs and Endurance Training

Endurance training burns through glycogen, so replenishing with carbs is your first task. Eat about 1 gram of carbs per kilogram of body weight in the first few hours and around 30 grams of protein to repair muscles after long training. Replace fluids and electrolytes as well, especially if you've been sweating.

Some light running after a marathon won't likely slow your muscle repair and help you feel better. If you're an ice bather, it won't hurt your aerobic gains, so you're good to go in this case.

Recovery for Athletes Starts With the Basics

Here are some basics to keep in mind for your recovery, regardless of what activity you're doing:

Sleep: Sleep is the most crucial recovery tool. Losing sleep impedes performance in all activities, so try to get seven to nine hours, plus a nap when you can. Naps can help you bounce back faster.

Eat: Rest days are for growth, so you still need to eat well. Keep your protein up, and consider creatine as well since it may help limit muscle damage. Purist® Creatine Plus is a great, high quality option.

Rest: Active rest should be easy, like walking, mobility flow, yoga, not hard cardio or anything that stresses you more. Rest your brain as well because mental stress can drain you just like physical stress does. If you have a lagging muscle, take your day off right before or after you train it.

Read More: How Many Rest Days Do You Actually Need to Build Muscle?

Best Recovery Tools for Athletes

Massage is the most effective recovery method for soreness and fatigue. Foam rolling can give you some relief from soreness as well and you only need about 90 seconds per muscle. You can skip static stretching and cooldown jogs unless you really enjoy them. They don't do much for soreness or next-day recovery.

If you want to know how to relieve sore muscles fast, your best bet is some light movement which can tame it for a little while. Cold water immersion does help after hard, super intense training, so it's a good option during a tournament or race weeks.

Signs You're Not Recovering Enough

If training stress outpaces your recovery for too long, it leads to overexertion. It's normal for this to happen near the end of a hard training block, but if it goes on for weeks, it can be a sign of non-functional overreaching or overtraining, which can take months to dig out of. Watch for these red flags:

• Strength or pace dropping for more than a week or two
• Soreness that hangs around longer than 72 hours
• Poor sleep even when you're exhausted
• Low motivation, irritability, or catching every cold going around

If some of that sounds familiar, take some easy days or a deload week, and build lighter weeks into your periodization so it happens less often.

Takeaway

Your recovery should be on par with how intense or damaging your training is. After lifting, give your worked muscles 48 to 72 hours to repair and fuel them with protein and carbs. Sleep is also crucial and has a huge impact on whether or not you recover well. If you're a psycho, an ice bath has its time and place, but avoid it right after lifting.

FAQs

What are the best ways to ensure I am well-rested for optimal workout performance?

Sleep seven to nine hours, eat enough on rest days, and take at least one full rest day each week. Space out hard workouts for the same muscles by two to three days so your body can catch up.

How does rest impact muscle growth and recovery?

Your muscles repair and grow between workouts while you rest, sleep, and eat. Without enough rest, fatigue piles up and your progress stalls.

How do recovery tools help improve athletic performance?

Tools like massage, foam rollers, and compression gear mostly help you feel less sore and tired so you can train well again sooner. They work best on top of good sleep and food, and they can't replace either one.

What does recovery for athletes look like?

Recovery for athletes includes sleep, food, fluids, rest days, and easy movement between hard sessions. Athletes with games or races close together may also use cold water or massage to bounce back faster.

Is it OK to work out with sore muscles?

Yes, light training is fine and can even ease mild soreness for a while. Go easy or train a different muscle group, and save hard sessions for when the soreness fades.