Tips and Tools for Muscle Recovery

By

Alex Tyson

After exercise, it’s important to allow your muscles to recover, repair and rebuild. Without muscle recovery, this can impact your ability to continue to train or work out effectively and affect sports performance. Below are our top tips for muscle recovery and why infrared saunas are fast becoming one of the most popular tools for muscle recovery.

Our range of saunas has been created with modern living in mind. They are meticulously crafted, are New Zealand electrically certified and our saunas all come with cabinet, heater and electrical warranties. Here are our top tips for muscle recovery:

Our Top Tips For Muscle Recovery

At Found—Space improving the health & wellbeing of Kiwis is at the core of what we do. We believe taking a holistic approach to your health & wellbeing is essential – this includes a healthy & well mind and body, and as mentioned above recovery is an important part of this. Here are our top tips for muscle recovery:

Stay hydrated: Drinking water helps to support metabolic function and nutrient transfer in the body. Ensure you drink plenty of water to replace lost fluid during exercise and to boost the recovery process.
Rest and relax: Life is all about balance. After straining your muscles, allow time for rest. Your body is an amazing thing with self-healing properties – you just need to give it a chance to do its thing. And, taking time out (especially with our busy lives) is beneficial for both our bodies and our minds. Many athletes also use meditation and mindfulness to help them focus, achieve their goals and stay positive.
Stretch: Stretch before and after exercise to allow your muscles to warm up prior which helps to prevent injury & muscle strain and to aid recovery post-exercise. Warming up and down also helps to reduce lactic acid in the muscles.
Get a massage: Circulation helps your muscles to recover and massage is a great way to activate circulation and relax your muscles…. And let’s face it, any excuse to get a massage is a good one right?!
Have a cold shower: Having a cold shower after your body has been warmed up activates cold shock proteins which can help your muscles to recover faster, reduce muscle soreness and prevent injury.
Sleep: Good sleep is essential for maintaining energy, health and performance but also, while you sleep your body produces growth hormones which are known to promote tissue growth and repair.

Why Infrared Saunas Are An Effective Tool For Muscle Recovery

Using infrared saunas regularly can have so many health & wellbeing benefits. Many top athletes use infrared saunas to maximise their recovery, manage weight and train for competition.

Here is why infrared saunas are fantastic tools for muscle recovery:

Because saunas are effective in lowering stress, this helps to prevent unneeded fat storage and trigger cravings. A healthy diet helps you to maintain performance, have higher energy levels and ensures your body is operating at optimal so it recovers more effectively.
An infrared sauna has been shown to reduce inflammation in the body.
Infrared sauna activates the parasympathetic nervous system which helps us to rest and relax (this also helps to improve sleep).
Infrared saunas can improve blood circulation which helps to move oxygen-rich blood throughout the body, into the muscles & joints and aids our body in reducing inflammation (reducing pain) whilst giving your body the chance to repair and rebuild.
Many find that they tend to drink more water when using saunas regularly so saunas can also help to increase water consumption & stay hydrated.
Near-infrared light has been shown to increase cell mitochondrial efficiency which is can help aid muscle recovery
Infrared saunas are a great way to warm up your body before exercise and warm down post exercise