Training requires a lot of willpower. In as much as you want to achieve peak physical fitness, the journey will not always be smooth or easy.
There are days you will lack the motivation to exercise. Add muscle fatigue to that and the effort you need becomes even greater.
What is Muscle Fatigue?
Muscle fatigue is part of fitness. Regardless of whether you are a professional athlete or a nonathlete just starting to exercise, you are likely to experience muscle fatigue as a side effect of your exercises.
Muscle fatigue is the inability to produce the force necessary for movement due to a lack of energy or exhaustion.
In some cases, muscle fatigue can inhibit free movements as you may experience some muscle pain.
Activities like going up stairs become laborious. It is especially common for people that do not exercise regularly as well as those who overuse their muscles.
While those that do not exercise regularly have the highest probability of experiencing muscle fatigue, even professional athletes who exercise regularly can be casualties.
That may be due to a change in their training routine or overworking their bodies. The body then tries to adapt to the changes in your fitness regimen resulting in fatigue.
The key to overcoming muscle fatigue is allowing your body to recover well after a workout. Sometimes the desire to achieve our fitness goals pushes us so hard that we forget to give our bodies time to recover.
The end results blind us to the need for us to allow the body time to rest and rejuvenate. With proper handling of our bodies, we will be able to maximize performance while minimizing fatigue.
Triggers of Muscle Fatigue
Generally, you will experience fatigue more under certain conditions. One major factor is age.
As you grow older, you become more susceptible to fatigue as your muscles also age. This is one factor that you will not be in a position to control.
All you can do is manage the fatigue.
You can also experience fatigue due to lack of rest and sleep. Our bodies need time to rejuvenate. If you deny your body sufficient time to rest and repair muscles, then you are bound to suffer from fatigue more frequently.
Poor food and water consumption habits also increase the probability of suffering from fatigue. Your body needs proper nutrition for it to function optimally.
If you are exercising, you need to pay special attention to what you consume and how you do it.
Lack of sufficient water or the necessary nutrients in the body will expose you to fatigue. You need to replenish what your body spends during workouts for you to maintain a healthy balance.
When you are ill, your body’s response and functionality reduces. You may find it harder to perform ordinary activities. Illnesses expose your body to fatigue and even a little exercise may become an uphill task.
Some medication may also inhibit muscle activity, causing fatigue. Changes in your exercise regimen can also lead to fatigue.
Some exercises are more intense than others are. As you graduate your workout routines, you are bound to experience more exhaustion.
Before your body adjusts to the new workout level, you will experience fatigue as your body is experiencing more stress than it is used to.
As you keep pushing your limits, you will have to be prepared for the fatigue that accompanies such efforts.
Strenuous activity always leads to exhaustion, which reduces the force that facilitates muscle movement.
Symptoms of Fatigue in Your Muscles
Muscle weakness is the earliest observable sign of muscle fatigue. However, there are several other symptoms, which include:
- Trembling
- Soreness
- Muscle cramps
- Localized pain
- Muscle twitching
- Weak grip
- Shortness of breath
These symptoms should help you identify cases of fatigue. Challenges in performing normal daily tasks should be a sign that you need to consult a qualified professional.
A persistence of these symptoms may be an indication of an underlying problem that may require medical attention.
Overcoming Muscle Fatigue
We all want less pain in our lives. Fatigue hinders us from going through our daily activities smoothly.
Thus, it is necessary that we manage fatigue so that it does not interfere with our lives. We can choose to stop exercising and avoid the pain that comes with fatigue.
However, that will be a loss to our bodies and our health. Working on our recovery after workout therefore becomes our solution to fatigue.
Recovering From Muscle Fatigue
During exercises, we tear our muscles. Our bodies require time to rejuvenate and repair the torn muscles.
Thus, we need to have a post-workout routine that allows our bodies ample time to recover.
We also need to take in sufficient amounts of nutrients to facilitate the recovery process. Without recovery, our efforts will yield little gains as fatigue will be a constant problem.
How to Speed Up Post-Workout Recovery
You can boost your recovery after workouts by focusing on three key areas that have an impact on how your body functions.
You need to pay attention to your diet, hydration and rest. Thus, the factors that can help you recover faster anchor on these three areas.
Proper Nutrition
As you may already know, food is your body’s fuel. You cannot have the energy for anything without food.
For someone that exercises, a balanced diet is critical. Your body needs nutrition to replenish what it uses constantly.
Fatigue may be a result of poor nutrition as the body may be getting less than it may require for rejuvenation.
Always ensure you maintain a good balance of carbohydrates, proteins, fats and vitamins.
Proteins are an especially important component of your diet. The body needs proteins to repair torn muscle tissue.
Insufficient amounts of proteins will mean that your body will not be able to repair tissues, causing fatigue.
You also need energy to facilitate muscle movement. Without the energy, muscle motions will be a tedious task.
Thus, carbohydrates are very important as they provide the body with the energy it requires. Carbohydrates help to maintain the glycogen levels in the muscles.
Good Meal Schedule
While food is important, how you take it is equally important. If you are engaging in workouts, you should have a good eating schedule that allows you to maximize on what you eat.
Always avoid working out on an empty stomach. Similarly, working out on a full stomach is not recommendable.
Ensure you have a light meal or a snack two hours before your workout. You should also eat within an hour after your workout.
Having a good meal schedule ensures that you have the energy you need during workouts and your body can repair and refuel the muscles after the workout.
A key thing to note is that using supplements after workouts can help you recover faster.
Post-workout snacks that contain carbohydrates and proteins will go a long way in boosting your recovery.
Sufficient Hydration
Proper hydration is important before, during and after workouts. Dehydration is one of the major causes of muscle fatigue. It reduces performance and negates your efforts in keeping fit.
Some people may feel that they need to take fluids only when they feel thirsty. However, that is a wrong approach as it is likely to lead to dehydration, and subsequently fatigue.
As you work out, your body expends water in form of sweat. You need to replenish the lost water so that your body continues to function well.
Water in the body helps to get rid of unwanted chemical substances. It helps in the transportation of harmful substances out of the body.
Insufficient amounts of water will therefore lead to an accumulation of harmful substances in muscle tissue, leading to fatigue.
You should always ensure you have enough fluids throughout the day. Water should take priority, but you can also have sports drinks.
On average, you should drink about 125-250 ml of a sports drink rich in electrolytes every 10-20 minutes.
That will help replenish the water and nutrients you lose as you sweat. Keeping your body well hydrated will help you improve your body’s recovery after exercising.
Sufficient Rest
In your workout schedule, there is a need to have sufficient time for rest. You need breaks in between workout sessions as well as rest days.
The rest gives your body time to rejuvenate before you pick up your exercises again. The amount of time is relative and depends on several factors.
Age and fitness levels play an important part in determining the amount of rest you need. A younger, fitter person will likely need less time for rest while an older or less fit person may require more time for the body to rejuvenate.
Regardless of the underlying factors, you should always ensure that you allow your body enough rest so that it has time to reenergize.
Insufficient rest will result in exhaustion, which will hinder your progress. Monitor your performance to determine any drop in fitness levels.
That may be a clear indicator of the need to rest more.
Enough Sleep
For quicker recovery, the body needs prolonged periods of little activity. Sleep provides the body with the time it needs to repair torn muscle tissues and rejuvenate.
Your body will secrete growth hormones as you sleep, to facilitate tissue growth and repair. That will boost your recovery and allow you to continue with your workout schedule without fatigue disrupting you.
During workouts, your body produces cortisol, a catabolic hormone. This stress hormone contributes to fatigue.
As you sleep, there is increased blood flow, which enhances recovery. Deep sleep is especially good as it allows your body to release growth hormones that are key to the recovery process.
In general, ensure you get between 7 and 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep to aid your recovery.
Stretching
A good way to boost your body’s recovery after a workout is to stretch. Stretching relaxes your muscles and reduce the fatigue.
They relieve the pain that you may experience because of fatigue in your muscles. Stretching after a workout increases blood circulation. It also helps the body cool down.
Massage
A massage will help you relax. It also helps improve circulation, thereby improving your recovery.
There are different types of massage that you can employ. You can use foam roller exercises or self-massages. That will help ease the tight muscles without costing you so much.
Ice/Cold Bath
An ice or cold bath reduces muscle soreness and enables the muscles to recover faster. You may also use contrast water therapy or ice massage to work on your muscles as you cool off from a workout.
The cold bath, ice bath or contrast water therapy aims to dilate and constrict blood vessels to allow muscle tissues get rid of waste.
Building Your Endurance
You need endurance in your workouts. While working out, as the respiratory muscles begin to tire, your body will start redirecting oxygen from the muscles in the limbs to the diaphragm muscles. That can result in fatigue.
To avoid that, you need to build resilience by increasing your aerobic workouts gradually. Increase your lung capacity so that you are able to accommodate intense workouts easily.
That will boost the oxygen levels in your blood, preventing a buildup of lactic acid in the muscles. It will help increase your recovery.
Good Choice of Exercises
The fatigue you may be experiencing may be due to a poor combination of exercises. You may be having muscle imbalances due to incorrect movement patterns.
As part of your efforts to improve your recovery, you need to have a regular workout program. There is a need to modify your exercises to suit your body strength.
Your body mechanics are important in avoiding or reducing fatigue. Choosing a good exercise combination will increase efficiency in how the body burns energy.
That would facilitate better recovery after workout.
Muscle fatigue reduces performance levels for your muscles. In some instances, it makes movement painful and labored.
Most of the time, the symptoms should not be a cause for alarm. However, if the symptoms persist, you need to seek help as that may be due to some serious underlying problem.
You can suffer fatigue due to several reasons. It might be due to your diet, water levels in the body or even the amount of rest you are allowing your body.
A change in exercises can also result in fatigue as your body adjusts to the changes.
It is important for your body to have rapid recovery. That will allow you to overcome the fatigue and allow you to get on with your workouts without disruptions.
For quicker recovery, you should ensure sufficient hydration at all times, a proper diet, a good meal plan, enough sleep time, enough rest in your workout regimen, and sufficient nutrition in your food.
Final Thoughts
Taking good care of your body will ensure it recovers well fast. You will be able to avoid or minimize the inconveniences of fatigue.
In managing fatigue, it is important to listen to your body. If you have been overworking your body with strenuous exercises, you may need to tone down a bit and then gradually develop from there.
Periods of rest are not a loss to you as they are part of ensuring your body functions well even as you develop your fitness through exercise.
Workouts require a strong will and motivation, but listening to your body also ensures you avoid unnecessary injuries.
