It is regular to really feel some ache or soreness after a exercise. However how a lot is an excessive amount of, and extra importantly, how do you get reduction? NPR’s Life Package helps you construct out your post-workout restoration routine.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
It is tempting to go straight from a exercise on to the following a part of your day, however spending a while in your post-workout restoration can scale back your possibilities of getting injured and mean you can get extra out of your fitness center session, which means you may hit your health objectives quicker. Life Package producer Margaret Cirino has extra.
MARGARET CIRINO, BYLINE: Anna Cockrell did not suppose a lot about her exercise restoration in faculty, however as soon as she began to, she noticed her greatest health enhancements but.
ANNA COCKRELL: I can run quicker. I can run farther. I can do extra. But it surely comes with the caveat of – I’ve to heat up higher, and I’ve to get well higher.
CIRINO: Cockrell is an expert monitor and subject athlete, and she or he’s coming off of her finest season thus far. She gained a silver medal within the 400-meter hurdles on the 2024 Paris Olympics. Cockrell shares her restoration routine – all the things she does between exercises to reap the largest advantages. First…
COCKRELL: I believe it is a very unhealthy concept to go straight out of your final rep to your automobile.
CIRINO: …No matter you do, do not skip your cooldown. Scientifically, the cooldown is the place your physique first begins its restoration. Dr. Natasha Desai is a sports activities drugs physician at NYU Langone. She says that if you calm down, you are bringing your coronary heart fee down slowly, in order that your physique can redirect blood move to the proper locations.
NATASHA DESAI: Since you at the moment are not exercising and you do not want all that type of diversion of blood move to your muscle tissues, and it’s good to redirect the blood move to your organs and digestive system and issues like that.
CIRINO: Once you skip a cooldown, Dr. Desai says you possibly can expertise post-exercise hypotension, or an enormous drop in blood strain. You may really feel dizzy or low vitality. So do not go from the toughest motion of your day to sitting on the sofa. Attempt a light-weight stroll or jog on the treadmill, for instance.
COCKRELL: So in the event you’ve bought an hour to get your exercise in, take into consideration spending 10 minutes cooling down. Pondering of that as, like, my exercise shouldn’t be full till I calm down.
CIRINO: Cockrell additionally likes to weave in little moments of stretching throughout her free time.
COCKRELL: It actually can simply be turning on the TV and stretching when the advertisements come on. Like, OK, I’ll sit, and I’ll contact my toes for this entire 30 seconds. I’ll get on the bottom and get in a lunge.
CIRINO: Equally vital for recovering nicely – the way you gas. Jeremy Ford is a sports activities dietitian and nutritionist on the College of South Carolina. He goes by the rule of thirds.
JEREMY FORD: So it might be a 3rd of protein, a 3rd of carbs and a 3rd of fruits or greens. By following a plate like that, it makes it quite simple to cowl your whole bases from a restoration perspective, but additionally simply type of a rule of thumb for if you eat meals normally.
CIRINO: However proper earlier than your exercise, give attention to getting in simply digestible carbs.
FORD: We need to be considering of meals that can provide our our bodies vitality.
CIRINO: Assume applesauce, peanut butter, Rice Krispies treats. It’d take some trial and error to search out the meals your physique responds to finest. For Cockrell, recovering nicely is as a lot a victory because the exercise itself. In moments when her exercises really feel unhealthy, she likes to inform herself this…
COCKRELL: So I could possibly be salty that I used to be at the back of the pack as we speak, however a 12 months in the past I might have been means at the back of the pack, and as we speak I used to be in putting distance. So, like, a win is a win (laughter).
CIRINO: Possibly the win is that you simply returned to the fitness center after a while off or that you simply did a cooldown for the primary time. When you accumulate sufficient of these small victories, the wins get greater and greater. For NPR Information, I am Margaret Cirino.
SHAPIRO: Life Package has much more episodes about find out how to get extra out of your exercises. Go to npr.org/lifekit.
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