Worked Hard? Here is Why Recovery is so Important.

September 11 2018, by Matthew Norton, 2 min reading time

We all know the feeling of satisfaction that can only come from working out, our muscles are aching, but the endorphins are flowing. Whilst you may feel that you are ready to take on the world, the truth is, one of the most important things to do after a workout, is to rest and recover.

The trouble is, resting isn’t something that comes naturally to many of us, which means that recovering could be the hardest thing to do. However, to inspire you to try your best to rest, we have put together the reasons why recovery is so important to do, along with some ways to help you to get the rest that your body needs.

Muscle Repair

Muscles only grow if they’re forced to.

By working out, you are actually causing tiny tears (known as “micro-tears”) in the muscle fibres, which the body then repairs and adapts the muscles to better handle the stimulus that caused the damage. This is the process by which muscles grow. For optimal muscles growth, you must feed your body what it needs to grow and give it the proper amount of rest.

Replenishing Energy Stores

Working out takes energy, simple as that.

Which means its vitally important to replenish your depleted energy stores post workout. It’s well known that nutrition is a major contributor to how our body performs during a workout, it’s also one of the key ingredients to replenishing body energy stores. Eating clean and balanced meals in moderation post workout is proven to be effective to remain healthy and improve performance.

Prioritise Life

Staying fit and exercising is important, we know that, but there are plenty of other aspects of your lives that are important too.

Kick back, relax and enjoy an evening out with friends. Order your favourite beer and get the cheeseburger as this may mentally benefit you more, allow you to unwind and put you in a better place to perform as opposed to another solitary night of broccoli and chicken. Life for an athlete who sacrifices everything for the sake of performance can be a very long, lonely, boring and tiresome.

Best Ways to Recover

The importance of recovery has been highlighted, you might want to give some thought to the best way to do it. There’s a multitude of different contributing factors such as sleep, hydration, nutrition, stretching, foam rolling, heat, ice and compression.

For us here at Bearhug Sports one of the first things we do after training is slipping into a support or sleeve, whether that be an elbow support after a game of squash, a wrist after a jiu-jitsu session or a calf sleeve after a run. With their superior heat retention properties, they boost blood flow to the desired weary joints and muscles helping us reduce aches, remove niggles, rest and recover quicker!