Sometimes, you will be sore. Whether it’s a little stiffness from heavy squats, or full-blown inability to descend stairs from last week’s leg-fest, exercising with intensity will occasionally result in lingering muscular discomfort.
Fortunately, we have ways to manage that discomfort and help you get back in tip-top shape as soon as possible. Here are some tips for alleviating soreness:
Cool down
A proper cool-down is always important, but it’s particularly important after a workout that you suspect will result in more soreness than usual. Once you’ve gotten your breath back, continuing to cool down with low-grade movement like walking and leg/arm swings will help your body start to flush away the lactic acid and other soreness-causing waste products that have built up in your muscles.
Keep moving
When you’re feeling sore, movement is important. Legs that are creaky will feel better after a walk or some easy movement in the pool. Shoulders that have stiffened up will improve if you do a few minutes of arm circles and easy stretching. The key here is to go through as much range of motion as possible, and to keep the intensity very, very low.
Drink water
Water is essential to pretty much every process in your body, including the processes that rebuild your muscles after a workout and heal your soreness. If you’re feeling sore, paying extra attention to your hydration will help your body recover more quickly.
Eat a hearty meal
Soreness is your body’s way of telling you that it working overtime to recover from an extraordinary or novel stimulus. This is why you’re often more sore after a particularly long workout, or one involving high repetitions of a new movement, etc. In other words, if you’re sore, it means that your body is having to do more rebuilding of muscle and other tissue than it usually has to do after a workout. So help the process by giving your body plenty of high-quality materials to build with: protein from meat and nutrients from veggies.
Have a banana
Soreness can sometimes be caused or worsened by a deficiency in potassium, and one of the easiest way to get potassium into your body quickly is to eat a banana. A post-WOD banana can help to keep your soreness minimal.
Manage inflamation
Inflammation is your body’s natural reaction to the damage that exercise does to your muscles. Too much inflammation, however, can slow the healing process. You can manage your inflammation in the short-term with painkillers such as ibuprofen, or you can help your body minimize inflammation on its own by taking fish oil daily (whether or not you’re sore).
Change the temperature
Alternating cold and heat on your sorest areas can help increase circulation and alleviate soreness. One way to do this is to apply an ice pack to the sore area for 10-15 minutes, then switch it out for a hot pack for another 10-15 minutes. Another way is to take a hot/cold shower, in which you turn the water up as hot as you can tolerate for 30 seconds (don’t burn yourself) before turning it down as cold as it can go for another 30 seconds, and then repeat the process for about 5 minutes.
Soreness is an unavoidable part of life as a CrossFitter. With the proper tools, however, you can minimize your soreness and help your body recover quickly.
Foundation
Practice and progressions:
Pistols
Handstand walk
WOD
2 Rounds for Time:
Run 400m
Handstand walk 15m
Run 400m
30 pistols
Cap: 20 min
