To make yourself fit and ready for next training after a serious workout, you need to feed your body and muscles the necessary nutrition and fuel to make sure they are recovering properly and quickly. These are a few simple steps that will speed up your recovery after each workout.
1. Change your clothes – Prevent Illness
Quickly chnage your damp cycling jersey can help you to prevent catching a cold.
2. Cool down – Stretching
Perform a gentle stretching after your intense training and racing and you’ll naturally flush metabolites from your system and speed up the process of recovery.
3. Drink Non-fat Chocolate Milk
Usually after a long ride, a powerful workout, we would feel thirty and we know we need a lot of water, most of us will go for sugary sports drink.
However, a research presented at American College of Sports Medicine conference suggests that non-fat chocolate milk drink is actually a better option after a workout in term of recovery compare to carbohydrate sports drinks because it contain the mix of carbohydrate and protein that our body needs after a workout to builds and repairs muscles.
4. Eat Proper Snacks
Eating proper snacks right after workout (within 30 minutes) is important for your body to use the calories to repair and replenish your cells (not storing as fat). A small snack that is rich in carbohydrate to restore your muscle-glycogen levels. After around 60 minutes, have a meal that contain lean protein such as chicken or tuna to repair damaged muscle tissues. Research shows that eating after 2 hours of the workout reduce your body’s ability to refill muscle energy stores by 50%.
5. Lastly, REST
It takes time, but doing nothing is the best option for recovery. Our human body is amazing. They know how to take care of themself but it will take some time. Resting after workout will helps the the repair and recovery process.
Notes for Drinks: (Quoted from About.com)
Water – The natural choice for hydration is water. It hydrates better than any other liquid, both before and during exercise. Water tends to be less expensive and more available than any other drink.
Sports Drinks – Sports drinks don’t hydrate better than water, but you are more likely to drink larger volumes, which leads to better hydration. Attractive array of colors and flavors are available. You can get a carbohydrate boost from sports drinks, in addition to electrolytes which may be lost from perspiration.
* The typical sweet-tart taste combination doesn’t quench thirst, that’s why you will keep drinking a sports drink long after water has lost its appeal.
Juice – Juice may be nutritious, but it isn’t the best choice for hydration. The fructose, or fruit sugar, reduces the rate of water absorption so cells don’t get hydrated very quickly. Juice is a food in its own right and it’s uncommon for a person to drink sufficient quantities to keep hydrated. Juice has carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and electrolytes, but it isn’t a great thirst quencher.
