Should You Cool Down To Recover From Muscle Strain After Workout?

You feel beat, bushed, and done after every workout session, and you want to hit the sack as soon as possible. Not so fast, as abruptly ending your workout session can lead to many complexities. Your muscles get tired after every workout session, and you should give your body some time so that you can build some strength. The tired muscles are all repaired, and you regain some energy gradually. Therefore, the immediate time after every workout session is highly important for your body’s strength and fitness.

How To Recover From Muscle Strain?

A muscle strain or a muscle pull results from excessive stretching of a muscle. Muscle pull severity level may vary, and the treatment process largely depends on the nature and extent of the injury. While less severe muscle pull does not limit physical dexterity, moderately severe muscle pull can cause some discomfort and impede sporting activities such as running or jumping. Moderately severe muscle pain usually comes coupled with bruising and swelling. A highly severe muscle strain may cause intolerable pain with swelling, muscle spasms, and bruising.

How To Cool Down After Every Workout Session?

You might have noticed that the treadmill comes with a ‘cool down’ option meant to help your body get back to its normal position after each running session. If you suddenly stop doing any weight training or cardio workout, your blood pressure cannot maintain the same pace, and you may feel too tired if you stop exercising this way. After every running session, decelerate your strides and jog and walk for a few minutes. For cooling down your muscles, you may try some yoga poses and other stretching exercises so that your pulse rate comes back to a normal state gradually.

Importance Of Stretching

Your muscles limber up, and they get more pliable and flexible after each strength or cardio training session. Stretching after a workout makes your muscles more relaxed, and you can prevent quads and calves and the soreness that usually follows the next day. Stretching also helps in circulating blood in all the muscles, and this helps in preventing muscle pull.

If you do not have time for doing multiple stretches, you should at least do the hamstring towel stretch, which should be pretty simple. Lie straight, raise a leg. Wrap the raised foot with a towel and pull the ends toward your chest. This way, you can stretch the leg and can feel the stretch as long as the foot is in the air. Hold it there for a few minutes and repeat with the other foot.

Drink plenty of water

One easy way to prevent muscle strain after a workout is to drink water aplenty. Your body releases huge amounts of water during intense exercise sessions. Therefore, you should increase your water intake following a workout. Getting a full body massage and drinking a protein shake is also great for keeping your muscles strong and relaxed after exercising.

Take Rest

Plenty of rest can actually make a difference. However, taking rest does not mean you should get completely immobilized. You should consult your doctor and take 1-5 days of rest depending on the severity of the injury. Do not just sleep countless hours as this may stiffen your muscles.

Apply Ice

Applying ice on the affected part of your body can lessen bleeding, swelling, and pain. You should start ice application only after sustaining the injury. Ice application should be done intermittently but do not apply ice for 15 minutes or more at a stretch.

Take Anti-Inflammatory Medication

This type of medicine is great for alleviating the pain and swelling that are the two most common signs of muscle strain. However, many of these medicines have side effects, and you need to check with your doctor to know the possible side effects.

Making Your Muscles Stronger

One major problem that athletes and amateurs need to deal with when they try to recover from muscle strain is muscle strength regaining needs too much time. Therefore, you need to do workouts during the injury period, and it’s best to consult your physiotherapist before trying any new set of exercises.

Muscles can absorb your body’s energy. Therefore, if you can restore the energy in your muscles, you can successfully prevent re-injury. It would help if you did proper workouts in consultation with your rehabilitation specialists.