How can I improve the regeneration after a training?

After a hard workout, it is almost essential to treat your body with care and especially to give your muscles enough recovery time. It doesn't matter if you are a competitive athlete or an amateur athlete.

If you want to have an advantage over other athletes, it is important that you support your muscle recovery. In addition, poor muscle recovery can lead to injury and loss of performance. This article explains how you can optimize your recovery after training.

Before you can promote your muscle recovery, it is necessary to understand the systematics and processes of muscles after training. In short, after training the muscle goes through several phases until recovery:

Putting strain on the muscle is necessary before regeneration can occur. During the intense load on the muscle, fine tears are produced in the muscle fibers. Therefore, the first phase is set during the load when training.

Once you have set the training stimulus, the muscle is exhausted. In this phase, the performance is greatly reduced and any further loads should be avoided. Not adhering to the resting phases of the muscle leads in most cases to injuries and a significant drop in performance.

Now the body recognizes the fine tears in the muscle tissue and wants to repair them. The body needs proteins and enough energy in form of carbohydrates to regenerate the muscle accordingly. In this phase, the body recovers and restores the former performance.

Supercompensation - this is what experts call the process of improving the performance of muscles. After the muscle is fully recovered in phase 3, the body then adapts the muscle to the new load. The muscles grow and gain mass. Supercompensation occurs after approximately 48-72 hours and ends the recovery phase.

The way to a trained body is to damage your muscles and then rebuild them in an improved way. Attention: If there is no further training stimulus, the performance of the muscle falls back to the initial level.

Now that you can demonstrate the competencies of muscle recovery, you will better understand how to facilitate it. The most important aspects of successful recovery are proper nutrition, adequate sleep, and circulation-enhancing techniques. Even top athletes use these techniques. In the following, we will go into more detail about the individual measures.

The body repairs the muscles with proteins as building material. For the repair it needs a lot of energy in the form of carbohydrates. Fat is needed for metabolism. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to provide the body with these substances in adequate quantities.

Optimally, you should consume the amount of protein in grams that corresponds to twice your body weight (80 kg body weight x 2 = 160 g protein daily).

In terms of carbohydrates, it is best to use long-chain and complex carbohydrates (whole grains), as they provide your body with long-term energy compared to simple carbohydrates (sugar). The International Olympic Committee recommends a daily intake of 6-10 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight.

To support muscle regeneration, the body needs unsaturated fatty acids (fish, olive oil, nuts). They are needed to perform metabolism. In addition, these fatty acids promote the elasticity of cell membranes, optimizing regeneration after exercise.

Experts recommend a fat content in the diet of about 30 percent. This value optimally improves muscle regeneration. Too much or too little fat can have a negative effect on the entire body.

The muscle grows while you sleep! To improve regeneration, sufficient sleep is an absolute must. Any training stimuli are processed by the body during sleep, minor tissue damage is repaired and muscle is built up. The body needs a sleep time of seven to eight hours a day for these processes.

If you don't allow your body this rest, it will thank you in form of uncontrolled food cravings, weakening of the immune system or reduced muscle regeneration. A proper sleep rhythm improves recovery.

The classic way to regenerate after sports is to use the sauna. Muscles relax and are optimally loosened and supplied with blood. Consequently, muscle regeneration accelerates and injuries heal optimally. In addition, sauna has a nice side effect: the body and mind are in a state of relaxation.

As a result, the muscle tone, i.e. the basic state of tension of the muscles, decreases, which contributes to a more intensive recovery and also improves regeneration. However, sauna use reduces body and muscle tension so much that physical performance the next day is limited. Plan your rest time accordingly.

Experts suggest that the mind and body are directly related. Your thoughts determine your body's actions and reactions. You can use this knowledge to support muscle regeneration by means of effective relaxation techniques.

Meditation, yoga or autogenic training stand out as first-class techniques for reducing tension. Short training sessions of 10 to 15 minutes are sufficient for this purpose. However, the body and mind must first learn the ability to relax. Be aware of this and keep going!

As mentioned above, the muscles are damaged during exercise. The ice bath reduces blood circulation after exercise and thus prevents bleeding. Once the ice bath is over, the body rapidly increases blood flow. This stimulates the elimination of waste products, and also improves general body regeneration and accelerates metabolism.

To boost muscle regeneration, massages are indispensable in sports. They have a positive effect on mental balance and accelerate various repair work of the body. In order for the body to improve regeneration, the type of massage is crucial.

To optimize blood circulation and transport all the nutrients necessary for regeneration to where the body needs them, a gentle massage is recommended. Hard massages, on the other hand, can further damage the already injured muscles.

Since proper hygiene is absolutely essential after a workout, you can use the shower directly to reward your muscles and improve recovery. Switch from ice cold to warm water every 30 seconds during the shower. Repeat the process 6 times. The cold water prevents sore muscles and consequently the pain. Switching to warm water relaxes muscles and tendons.

If you want to achieve optimal training results and a clear advantage, proper muscle recovery is essential. Training stimuli damage the muscle fibers, whereupon the muscles become unable to perform for a short time.

However, the human organism rapidly repairs this damage and then strengthens the muscle fibers using macronutrients such as proteins, carbohydrates and fat.

With this process, the body adapts to the training stimuli. Therefore, the muscles need adequate nutrient intake and enough sleep. Sauna, ice baths and massages optimize post-exercise regeneration due to their circulation-enhancing qualities. The body is not alone in regeneration processes.

A balanced mind also promotes the body's own repair processes. Meditation, yoga and autogenic training reduce muscle tone and relax the entire body.