Four Powerful Ways to Decrease Muscle Soreness & Post-Exercise Exhaustion

Feeling lethargic and lacking strength is very normal after hard exercise.

To bypass a lot of the training fatigue and DOMS side effects, you must strategically plan your nutrition and post-exercise activities.

Targeting different muscle groups is the key — allowing you to train hard the day after a tough session and still put in place the necessary recovery time needed.

You should be aware that weakness, exhaustion, and DOMS post-exercise can leave us all susceptible to injury.

There is nothing worse than taking 2 steps forward, and 5 steps backwards because of an injury.

Below I’ll highlight a few steps you can take to decrease exhaustion and any muscle soreness.

It’s worth trying a few and seeing what will work best for you.

One: Use caffeine to your advantage

Athletes and heavy-duty trainers have used caffeine for a long time because of its enormous endurance and strength training benefits.

It’s well known for muscle damage recovery.

You can use this as a strategy to assist in the post-workout DOMS and accelerate the recovery process.

Use capsule-formed tablets, as they are much more potent and work better — although a good, strong coffee is also excellent.

Warning: If you have insomnia — tread carefully with this one!

Two: Use BCAA for increases in power and reductions in soreness

I’ve been using BCAA for a long time, and I recommend them to anyone.

BCCA combat soreness, but also assist in the healing of sore muscles & increase strength and endurance when performing the exercise.

They are perfect for anyone training in a fasted state — as it provides the extra benefit of strength and power in the absence of food.

It’s also great for retaining and building muscle mass.

It works so well because of its ability to increase muscle protein synthesis.

Use it before and after training to benefit.

Three: Try some pre-conditioning of the muscles to reduce soreness.

I highly recommend that you not only warm up but cool down during every session.

This pre-empts your muscles to work out, as well as cool down.

You can try bodyweight exercises before you train or use significantly lighter loads.

Pre-conditioning your muscles is helpful in that it increases sarcomeres and causes adaptations in the inflammatory response.

Those extra sarcomeres reduce the strain on muscle fibres during the second bout, leading to less muscle damage.

When it comes to cooling down, allow yourself time to stretch out the muscles to release any tension.

Follow up with a good walk of foam rolling.

Four: Try blueberries and tart cherries

Because these two fruits are high in antioxidants, they can significantly reduce muscle soreness, damage and pain after intense training.

Scientists say that the anti-inflammatory compounds of these fruits help to remove waste products (or the term garbage) that is produced during intense training, when these waste products have disappeared, the body is better able to repair tissue.

Try to consume either of these juice forms on training days, preferably a couple of hours before your session.

Just don’t consume it with milk as proteins in milk inhibit the antioxidant activity in the body.

Key Takeaways

See how you go trying a few of these alternatives when exercising intently.

A good plan of action would also be to make sure you get adequate amounts of protein and allow for recovery periods as much as you need to.

We all need to factor in several rest days between training to recover and begin to perform at our best the next time we train.

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