Training a muscle can only provide stimulation for it to grow but does not provide for growth. You should give adequate rest and nutrition to your trained muscles so that they can recover and grow. IFBB Mr.Olympia is the highest bodybuilding competition in the world. Therefore, you can safely consider Mr.Olympia winners to be the go-to person when it comes to training, muscle recovery, and muscle growth. Muscle recovery tips will help you recover your muscles.

Best Muscle Recovery Tips

Six times Mr. Olympia winner Dorian Yates, has compared the process of muscle building with the process of the skin thickening and forming calluses after rubbing it with sandpaper regularly. If you rub the sandpaper too lightly, it will not cause enough damage for the skin to respond by thickening itself. This is equivalent to your muscles not being stimulated enough due to a lack of intensity in your exercise regimen. 

If you rub it too hard, the skin might break and bleed. This can be equated to muscle injury rather than stimulation. Eight times Mr. Olympia Lee Haney has always preached that exercise should stimulate muscles and not annihilate them. So the idea of building muscles is to stimulate the muscle just enough for it to grow and let the muscle recover. Then stimulate the recovered muscles again with a higher level of intensity and let it recover again. 

Thus, this cycle of stimulating the muscles, letting the muscle recover, and then stimulating the muscle again and letting it recover is the path to muscle growth. This cycle repeated over months and years brings about significant changes in the body.

1. Controversial Thirty Minute Anabolic Window Theory

The anabolic window theory is based on replenishment of depleted glycogen stores in the muscle immediately after a workout. Research has shown that workouts use glycogen stores in the muscle. Glycogen stores are severely depleted after a workout. This theory claims that there is a thirty-minute anabolic window after a workout. Therefore, a combination of simple sugars should be ingested immediately after a workout. 

Additionally, proteins should also be included in the post-workout anabolic window replenishment to decrease muscle protein recovery. However, later research has shown that there is significant muscle protein breakdown and the body’s glycogen stores are extremely low if the person has trained in a fasted state. 

Training in a fasted state means training on an empty stomach before breakfast. Mr.Dorian Yates popularized fasted cardio to the bodybuilding world when his training video called Blood and Guts showed him at a bodyweight of almost 300 pounds of muscle walking his two boxer dogs for cardio. Further research showed that there is an increase in muscle protein synthesis up to 48 hours after a hard workout. 

So how do we use the controversial 30-minute anabolic window theory to speed up our muscle recovery?

Research has shown that the body is more conducive to the absorption of nutrients immediately after a workout. Therefore, make it a point to start replenishing immediately after a workout. Exactly what you have after a workout will depend on your goals.

Have a whey protein shake if your primary goal is muscle recovery and reduction of body fat. Extensive research on muscle recovery shows that drinking a whey protein shake will help. This is because it consists of fast-acting proteins after a workout helps reduce muscle protein breakdown. You can have the dual effect of enhancing your muscle recovery and starving your adiposity (body fat cells).

Protein also has a thermogenic effect on the body and helps to reduce body fat further. You can have slow-releasing carbohydrates like casein or oats with a few egg whites as your pre-workout meal about 2 hours before your workout. This will help you to fuel your workouts with the carbohydrate. 

Chug a mug chocolate milk immediately after your workout to speed up muscle recovery and to satisfy your cravings.

According to a path-breaking market research company called Brainjuicer, human beings are gloriously emotional and not rational decision-makers. The number one reason why people get morbidly obese is that humans overeat after emotional trauma. So how can we use this research? It is proven that we get an emotional boost when we have a tasty treat.

It is also proven that human beings have cravings. Thus the best time to give yourself an emotional boost and satisfying your cravings is the post-exercise meal. You can drink some chocolate milk. It will help your sugar cravings and also replenish the glycogen stores in your body to speed up your recovery. 

In case you are an athlete who trains twice a day, research has shown that drinking chocolate between two workouts is among the best ways to recover between two workouts. Dieting stresses the nervous system and including some delicious chocolate milk helps the psyche. You can also prepare your own home chocolate milk with milk, pure cocoa powder along with stevia or honey.

2. Be Sure to Keep your System Hydrated

Muscle is 70 percent water. Our bodies are also about 70 percent water. Water is important. Be sure to keep your system hydrated. Drink plenty of water to flush off toxins and keep your system hydrated. Drink water before, during, and after your workouts.

3. Use Sports Drinks During your Workout

If you are a big fan of sports drinks then use it during your workout. Sports drinks like Gatorade art are enhanced with electrolytes. They will help fuel your workouts too.

4. Healthy Meal One Hour After Post Workout Drink

Eat a healthy meal of slow-acting carbohydrates like rice, oats, casein along with animal or vegetable protein or a protein powder to further speed up your recovery. Ensure that you stay away from fast-acting carbohydrates and sugar in this meal. You can add some curd or yogurt to add some good bacteria for enhanced gut health.

5. Sleep Plays an Important Role in the Recovery Process

Sleep reboots the system. A post-exercise sleep session releases a significant amount of growth hormone. Research shows that sleep interventions, such as sleep extension, play a critical role in an athletes’ recovery and performance. Therefore, getting seven to eight hours of sleep at night is more important than you think.

6. A Nap Contributes to your Recovery too

Try to schedule a nap. A 30-minute power nap speeds up recovery without disturbing your sleep at night.

7. Deep Tissue Massages Help in Muscle Recovery

A deep tissue massage is considered to be one of the best muscle recovery tips. It breaks the buildup of scar tissue and adhesions. If you do not want to invest the time and money on a professional massage, you can trade massages with your spouse or significant other. You will thank us later for the relationship benefits. You can use a foam roller yourself to help the recovery process.

8. There are Other Recovery Aids Too

Sometimes you may find that you have bombed, blitzed, and killed it in your last workout. You are too sore to move and feel as flexible as a log of wood lying down. Using pop and aspirins or ice or foam roll your sore muscles. Drinking some cherry juice which is known to ease inflammations is a good idea. You can also stretch the sore body part slowly and carefully.

Summary

Olympic lifting champion and the only undefeated bodybuilder in history, John Grimek, has a great saying on muscle recovery tips. He said that trainees should end their workouts with something left to give. Therefore, it makes sense to end your exercise session with something left to give in your tank rather than overstretching and blowing yourself to bits.