How to Get Rid of Stiff Muscles and Sore Body
Stiff muscles and sore body often arise because we don’t do enough to prevent them, and we definitely don’t do enough to cure them once they appear. However, you can fix this problem and start feeling great again in no time at all! I can say from my experience of five years in the military and my current active lifestyle, I feel so much more better now than I am stretching, getting massages, and eating the right recovery foods. If only I had knew these things earlier! Read this article to find out how you can get rid of stiff muscles and sore body for good.
1) Stretching
Stretching is a must if you sit at a desk all day. It increases your flexibility, which leads to a variety of positive outcomes including a decrease in stress levels, faster muscle recovery, stronger muscles and improved posture. I recommend stretching in the morning, after a workout and before you go to bed. A form of stretching that I find immensely helpful is yoga. Don’t have time for a full workout? These simple stretching exercises will help relieve tension caused by sitting for hours at your desk. They’re quick exercises that can be done from anywhere.
Stretch One: Lay flat on your back and stretch your arms far above your head and stretch your legs. Imagine that you are touching the opposite walls with your feet and hands. This wakes the muscles up from holding a certain position for too long.
Stretch Two: Sit up, Rotate your head slowly in one direction for about 10 rotations, then rotate your head the opposite direction 10 rotations. This loosens the neck after being bent over a keyboard or phone.
Stretch Three: Bring your shoulders to your ears and hold for 5 second. Release and hold for 3 seconds. Repeat as many times as desired. This helps loosen those sore and stiff shoulders.
You can find full stretch/yoga routines on YouTube by yoga YouTubers.
Just keep in mind not to overdo it—too much physical activity isn’t always good, so listen to your body. Your goal should be feel refreshed afterward rather than exhausted. If you start feeling pain or discomfort during or after an exercise session, ease up on how often or how long you stretch.
2) Sports Massage
Sports massage is a holistic therapeutic approach that incorporates techniques from different modalities, such as athletic training, physical therapy, orthopedics, trigger point therapy, manual lymphatic drainage and shiatsu. Sports massage has many benefits for those who practice a sport professionally or recreationally. Often after a match or a training session athletes will experience some type of muscle pain or inflammation in their body. This is due to micro trauma on muscles and connective tissue while performing an activity repetitively over time. When you have an injury your body produces inflammatory mediators in order to repair damage at a cellular level. Injured tissues have high concentrations of these chemicals which cause swelling, stiffness and pain in injured areas. By using massage therapy, we can reduce these biochemical reactions by increasing blood flow and lymph flow to damaged tissues to promote healing. Massage also increases oxygenation at a cellular level which assists in removing waste products from exercising muscles thus helping them recover faster.
3) Diet and Recovery
It takes more than a couple of hours at the gym or a few miles on your run for muscles to grow and recover, which is why proper nutrition after an intense workout is essential. The general rule: consume protein and carbs immediately after working out, followed by a balanced meal within two hours. Additionally, electrolytes like potassium, sodium, calcium and magnesium aid in post-workout recovery; try bananas or pickles for replenishing these minerals. Drinking plenty of water will also help flush out toxins released during exercise—plus, it’s vital to good health. Exercising regularly does wonders for our well-being—but soreness shouldn’t be part of that equation. Once you feel tightness setting in, take action fast with these tips.
My favorite protein packed foods as a vegetarian:
Quinoa
Lentils
Garbanzo Beans
Stay tune for dishes I have made! '
Make sure you take care of you. Even if working out or working bent over a laptop for hours help you in some form, take care of your body so that it can continue to take care of you.