MOVEHow to Take Care of Yourself After Exercise

Exercise is awesome. It gets your heart rate up, it gets you moving and it gets you fit.

What isn’t awesome, however, is forgetting to look after yourself afterwards. You might just be keen to sit down, eat some junk and stay there for the rest of the day, but there’s plenty of things you should do to avoid any post-workout injury.

Here’s a few tips on how to take care of yourself after exercise:

Replace Lost Fluids

Your body loses heaps of fluids, mostly through sweat, when you exercise. An easy way to help your muscles recover is to drink plenty of water during and after exercise. The hydration supports nearly every function in your body, which can make for a faster recovery.

Eat Healthy

Ideally, you want to eat within 60 minutes of finishing a workout. However, this doesn’t mean making a quick Macca’s run and devouring a Big Mac. Eat some high-quality protein and some complex carbohydrates, as well as some veggies, to aid in a fast recovery.

Rest and Relax

This one is pretty obvious, but you’ve got to give your muscles some time to heal. Your body has the amazing ability to heal itself, if you give it enough time. However, don’t simply do nothing at all. Combine rest and relaxation with some of the other tips on this list for an effective recovery.

Stretch

Stretch your muscles out, it’s really simple. Do some gentle stretches to release some of the tension and tightness in your muscles. It helps to prevent cramps and long-term damage to your muscles.

Do Some Active Recovery

This doesn’t mean go for another run after you’ve just finished one. However, it can mean going for a slow, short walk to help relax your muscles and gradually ease them into recovery.

Get More Sleep

Sleep is a wonderful tool for recovery. When you sleep, your body is given plenty of time to focus on recovering, as it produces growth hormones that assist in the growth and repair of muscle tissue. Plus, sleeping is great! Who doesn’t love waking up after a good night’s sleep and feeling excellent!

Avoid Overtraining

A simple one, but one that people often forget. Make yourself a smart exercise program before you start, and make sure to include enough rest days to ensure that you don’t overwork your body. Overtraining can put severe strain on your body, and while you may think you’re doing yourself some good when you’re smashing out reps on weights way above your level, you’re actually just hurting yourself.

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What’s your opinion about post exercise care? Is there anything I’ve missed?  Anything you think I should add to this article?

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