What’s more, studies have demonstrated that fasting doesn’t decrease lean muscle tissue at all. On the flip side, intermittent fasting increases the production of human growth hormone, a key driver in building and maintaining lean muscle mass. There’s a big misconception among amateur athletes that working out while in a fasted state has a dramatic catabolic effect. In other words, people are afraid to lose muscle tissue and thus negate any previous gains.

Minimal effective training dose

Better sleep doesn’t just help your muscles recover—it enhances focus, energy, and overall performance. Now, it’s time to give your muscles the tools they need to recover, rebuild, and come back stronger. When you work out, your muscles undergo controlled damage—what scientists call exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD). Think of it as a mini demolition project, breaking down muscle fibers to pave the way for rebuilding stronger, more resilient tissues.

Even one or two nights of poor sleep can decrease performance for long bouts of exercise, but not peak performance. However, consistent, inadequate sleep can result in hormone level changes, particularly those related to stress, stress hormones, muscle recovery, muscle building, and worst of all performance. Exercise depletes the body’s energy stores, or muscle glycogen. Giving adequate muscle recovery time allows the body to “fix” both of these issues, replenishing energy stores and repairing damaged tissues. Beyond treating initial tightness and improving circulation with therapeutic remedies like heated blankets, proper rest is the most important component. A different soreness happens when you try a new exercise or a new movement.

Studies recommend spending about 6-10 minutes after your workout session performing some active recovery for best results (Ortiz et al. 2018). Light cardio exercise, like walking on a treadmill or cycling at a low intensity, can help you get your heart rate down to recover from your workout. You don’t need to be a recovery perfectionist — nobody’s got time to ice bath, foam roll, stretch, and meditate after every run.

Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional prior to beginning any diet or exercise program or taking any dietary supplement. The content on our website is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice or to replace a relationship with a qualified healthcare professional. While each workout contains identical volume (25 reps), adding in the load gives you a much better measure of how challenging the workout actually is.

These peanut butter–banana oatmeal bars are a perfect grab-and-go breakfast, packed with protein to keep you full and energized. The combination of oats, peanut butter and banana provides a well-balanced dose of fiber, healthy fats and natural sweetness. In addition to adding plenty of protein, using cottage cheese and feta instead of cream cheese and Cheddar cuts back on saturated fat and calories. With warming spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, juicy apples and hearty oats for a healthy dose of fiber, this smoothie is like enjoying a sippable slice of apple pie. Hydration after a workout is important — and drinking water is often the best place to start. He advises that you drink a minimum of two liters a day, not including teas or coffees.

Do ice baths, cryotherapy and saunas work for recovery?

For beginners who are just getting started by taking a walk around the block, active recovery might look like a light stretching routine or walking at a slower pace. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to stop moving altogether. You can still rely on active recovery workouts to help keep up the pace and quicken your recovery. When it comes to fitness features, there’s a lot to love about WHOOP’s latest release. Designated 5.0, it positions the Boston-based fitness app company as a potential leader in numerous areas, including recovery, blood pressure and HRV tracking.

Lifestyle and Habits To Boast Recovery

Beyond just sleep, general rest throughout your day is a key part of how to help your body recover from exercise. Longer naps (up to 90 minutes) can help restore cognitive performance and nervous system balance after intense training blocks or travel-induced sleep disruption. This applies whether you’re strength training, playing sports, or doing high-intensity cardio. It’s not just about feeling less sore; it’s about returning to a high level of performance, mentally and physically.

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• Improper technique can lead to muscle strain, requiring significantly longer recovery times or medical intervention.

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• Through “Fit Life Regime,” he generously shares the insights he’s gained over a decade in the field.

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• If you make some of these changes to your routine and still find you’re sore after every workout or the pain lasts for extended periods of time, consider speaking with a healthcare professional.

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• Creatine monohydrate is one of the most researched supplements in sports nutrition.

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• Quality sleep is often overlooked but is crucial for muscle recovery.

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• Think of deload weeks as pressing the reset button on your training, giving muscles, joints, and your nervous system the chance to recover fully.

Use deload weeks, track recovery markers (like sleep, HRV, and mood), and prioritize quality over quantity in your workouts. Learning how to recover from exercise faster is just as important as training hard if you want to improve performance, reduce soreness, and stay consistent in your training. Fortunately, active recovery can also help you get back in the black when applied correctly. One madmuscles app question to ask yourself when selecting your activity on a busy recovery day is, “after completing this workout, will I feel invigorated or exhausted?”. If your answer hedges on tired, worn-out, or exhausted, it’s too intense to be doing on an off-day and would be considered a withdrawal to your energy system bank. In addition to active recovery, foam rolling is also a great post-workout recovery technique that can reduce DOMS onset (Ozsu, et al., 2018).

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Listening to your body, prioritizing sleep, and maintaining proper nutrition are essential to maintaining performance, avoiding injury, and ensuring sustainable results. However, that post-workout soreness doesn’t necessarily equate to muscle growth or an increase in strength, he says. Improvement in fitness over time will depend on pushing hard plus a handful of variables, like rest, nutrition, and certain recovery modalities, like foam rolling and active rest, according to Machowsky.

They compress the blood vessels, which helps them pump blood more effectively. The increased blood flow brings healing oxygen to your muscles and removes pain-causing toxins. But if you’ve overtrained or pushed yourself too hard, you’ll need more than a rest day. Think of active recovery as a way to promote delivering nutrients to your muscles so that they can recover and heal at a faster rate than if you were sitting on the couch. When you see active recovery on the schedule, it doesn’t mean that you have to do a structured workout. The key is to do some easy movement to keep your blood flowing.

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Balancing Exercise and Recovery for Long-Term Success

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Options like our Cottage Cheese Snack Jar with Tomatoes, Cucumbers & Bell Peppers and Crunchy Quinoa Bites will have you feeling satisfied and nourished. “Recovery gives muscles, tendons and ligaments time to heal and rebuild, restoring energy levels and reducing inflammation”, says Jay Silva, CSCS and RRCA-certified running instructor with TeachMe.To. “It also enhances performance by enabling consistent progress over time”, he says. Dehydration can lead to muscle cramping, fatigue, headaches and poor physical performance. That’s why keeping yourself hydrated is one of the keys to a strong recovery. Another supplement that’s skyrocketed in popularity in recent years is creatine.

According to Martin et al., this protocol can yield upwards of 60% greater lactate clearance after a lower body workout than passive recovery alone. Alright, let’s take it from the top on how to recover faster from a solid leg day session. We just can’t talk about running recovery without mentioning sleep. This is when our bodies have the best opportunity to rebuild and recover,” says Corkum. “Proper hydration is a cornerstone of recovery, as fluid and electrolyte losses during running can lead to dehydration, fatigue or cramping if not replenished”, Silva says.

There are so many gadgets and accessories out there that aid in maximizing downtime, so you can take on your next workout feeling even stronger. The SkiErg machine works your entire body, essentially serving as a ski ergometer that simulates Nordic skiing. The machine was initially used as a training tool for cross-country skiers before becoming popular in the fitness community. While you might not be on the snowy slopes, you still mimic the motion of skiing and work your arms, legs, core, glutes, hamstrings, and other muscles.

I consider myself a serious fitness enthusiast and so I employ all the strategies I’ve mentioned above. I also enjoy experimenting with new techniques and products as I stumble across them, so check back here from time to time as I’ll update this article with new findings. You shouldn’t do anything after a workout that would prevent your body from recovering. In particular, that means depriving your body of sleep or intoxicating it with alcohol or other drugs.