How Can You Use Nutrition to Manage Post-Workout Muscle Inflammation?

Whether you prefer jogging, Pilates, or a full circuit workout, getting physical feels great and is great for our health. However, there is a downside–the muscle soreness afterwards. However, there are some things you can do to manage and even prevent that aching feeling.

Post-workout muscle soreness is a result of your muscles doing more activity than they’re used to, which leaves microdamage, or tiny tears in your muscle tissue. Even ordinary activities like strenuous housework can cause aches and pains. Usually, soreness occurs when:

• You’ve undertaken a new activity;
• You’ve increased the intensity of a workout;
• Your muscles have undergone “eccentric” contractions (in other words, the muscle has been shortened instead of lengthened, as in doing bicep curls or running downhill).

Although your first impulse may be to apply heat to your sore muscles, that’s not necessarily the best way to go. Icing the area indirectly will give you the best and quickest relief and will help reduce any inflammation. Later on, you may wish to apply heat to help blood flow to the sore muscles.

A good way to help prevent muscle soreness is to incorporate a cool down period into your workout. Stretching before you begin a workout can cause damage to your muscles, but some gentle aerobic exercise at the end of your workout will help your muscles stretch out and gain more flexibility, making soreness less likely. Also, this cooling down period helps to increase the circulation to your muscles to speed up tissue repair. Check out these heart healthy habits.

Original Glutathione Formula™ (OGF) can be a helpful supplement if you want to increase your physical activity level. During an aerobic workout, you quickly burn through your body’s store of the antioxidant glutathione. Without sufficient glutathione, your muscles produce lactic acid, which can aggravate muscle soreness. OGF supplies the building blocks necessary for your body to produce more glutathione as needed, so it may help you avoid that next-day soreness for pain-free workouts and increased satisfaction with your fitness routine.