4 Ways to recover from DOMS

You’ve probably been inundated with information about what to do to recover from delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Everything from supplements, foam rolling to stretching, it probably all seems a bit over the top and it definitely doesn’t do all that much! Here is a little breakdown of a few things that require very little besides a bit of time.

Managing your training load 

It is the most common error made in the exercise industry. One of the simplest things you can do is be smart about the way you train.

If you train regularly and have had anything more than 7 days of being sedentary, don’t expect to be able to jump back to the same intensity as you may have been at before.

Managing load is easy, less sets, less reps and less resistance are just a few options.

Re-introduce the stress that is training and do it gently. Within a week or two, you’ll be back to where you were.

Quality sleep

Matthew Walker is probably one of the most commonly known sleep specialists in the world. He has been featured in countless podcasts (our favorite being this 3 part series) and his latest book “Why We Sleep” suggests that sleep is our superpower and something we should take advantage of rather than take for granted.

He is also dead right.

By sleeping well, the body and all the special and complex systems that help it function, go into recovery and restoration mode.

Particularly the muscular system.

Movement 

We all know when you exercise, you increase blood flow around the body.

What you might not know is that blood flow helps muscle recovery. Put simply, the increased blood flow helps transport the necessary minerals and nutrients to the damaged and recovering muscle cells that are probably in pain.

A walk, swim bike ride or anything at low intensity will do.

Neurologically Down Regulate

The faster you shift your nervous system out of a fight or flight state and into a rest, digest and recover state the better. The next step is about keeping yourself in the downregulated nervous state which is an optimal environment for the body to recover. Not sure how to do this? Well just scroll down and have a squiz at one of our posts below for some ideas.

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