For bodybuilders, fighters, and fitness enthusiasts alike, recovery is an essential step to improving and meeting goals. The body doesn’t get bigger, stronger, or faster while it’s working out. Instead, it makes sports-specific gains during recovery– as the muscles and nervous system repair in preparation for future stress.
Recovery is not a passive chore of the body, nor does it happen in a vacuum. Post-workout recovery is an active process where the body focuses its energies on preparing for the next set of stressors. This makes how you recover as important as the recovery itself.
While a post-workout recovery routine is essential for everyone who exercises, it’s crucial for those with heavy training loads and high impact exercise. This includes crossfitters, powerlifters, bodybuilders, long distance runners, and martial artists.
Always remember: when overtraining occurs due to poor recovery habits, the body becomes at greater risk for injury and gains are lost.
When considering post-workout protocols and nutrition, it’s important to understand what’s actually happening in your body during downtime. Doing so allows you to take the best measures to stimulate recovery– and improve your performance, make significant gains, and reap the most benefits from your workouts .
The three mechanisms that drive post-workout recovery are muscle damage, decreased substrates, and metabolites (such as lactic acid) building up. If the body recovers efficiently, these mechanisms provide sport-specific gains to handle greater stress with every workout. Let’s look closer at these mechanisms and how they affect you.
Then, we’ll discuss how you can minimize the associated symptoms so that you’re in your most powerful, strongest, and motivated state next time you set foot in a gym.
THE DREADED DOMS: DAILY ONSET MUSCLE SORENESS LEAF EXTRACT
Muscles get bigger and stronger in response to muscle damage. Muscles that undergo lower tensions for more extended periods will trend towards hypertrophy, while muscles that experience higher tensions for shorter periods will stimulate strength.
Delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS, is the result of microtears across your muscles. The tears make the muscles temporarily weaker and issue a healing response, which repairs them and allows them to handle greater stress. However, this soreness is a bane to those working out, making subsequent workouts much more difficult.
SAYONARA SUBSTRATES
The second mechanism by which the body recovers is through replenishing substrates– the scientific word for “fuel”. Substrates equal the energy required to complete a bout of exercise. This energy is almost always carbs and fats, but in highly overtrained individuals it can lead to protein breakdown.
In response to substrate depletion, cellular mitochondria become better suited for burning fat as a fuel source. This decreases reliance on carbs and increases energy production overall.
LACTIC ACID LETHARGY
The build-up of metabolic by-products(aka: waste) in the cells leads to decreases in performance. Basically, the cells become crowded with excess particles as a result of exercise. This hinders the muscles’ ability to contract and causes the phenomenon known as exercise “burn”. This is typical in long-duration aerobic exercise.
The body recovers from metabolic build-up by creating more blood vessels to efficiently transport metabolites to where they need to go. More blood vessels mean better oxygen transportation to the cells and less fatigue overall.
ALLEVIATES MINOR ACHES AND PAINS
The DOMS associated with intense workouts is one of the greatest limiting factors in achieving subsequent workouts. No one wants to be sore all the time. Vivazen’s proprietary blend of herbs is fantastic at relieving minor aches and pains.
INCREASE FOCUS
A heavy workout or long day at the gym can be draining. For many who train before they even go into work, the mental fog post-workout is taxing on their whole schedule. VIVAZEN contains kratom, which helps increase focus and sharpen the mind naturally, without the jittery effects from caffeine and pre-workout mixes.
KRATOM
Replenishing substrates post-workout is a must. During exercise, the body burns through glycogen (energy) stores, which can make you fatigued for the rest of the day. The typical post-exercise drinks and shakes are chock-full of simple carbs, which quickly spike blood sugar.
Not Vivazen; their flavorful shots come with 23 grams of all-natural sugars. Enough to replenish glycogen stores over a long period, and all without crashing the nervous system.
WILLOW BARK
Because the ingredients in Vivazen are plant-based and all-natural, they take hours to be metabolized. The focus and energy from Vivazen shots are not as extreme as the standard post-workout syrup-cocktail. Further, the natural effects last much longer, allowing increased endurance long after a workout.
KRATOM
The all-star in the Vivazen proprietary blend, kratom, has been noted for its effect on the opioid receptors and stimulating effects.
As a plant-based opioid agonist, kratom offers a subtle yet statistically significant decrease in pain. At the same time, kratom increases focus, making it one of the most potent post-workout supplements to take..
WILLOW BARK
Widely used in Europe to treat lower back pain, willow bark is an excellent analgesic (pain-relieving) agent. Studies have noted its effectiveness for musculoskeletal pain.
VALERIAN ROOT
The species Valeriana officinalis, or Valerian root, has long been used in herbal teas as a sedative. Modern science has recently elucidated its abilities to decrease fatigue and muscle pain for those who take it.
CALIFORNIA POPPY
An ancient plant in North and South America, Eschscholzia californica, or the California Poppy, has also been consumed in tea for thousands of years. This study shows evidence for its power as an analgesic and anxiolytic (anxiety-reducer).
PASSION FLOWER
he Passiflora incarnata species is named for its exuberant appearance and powerful effects. Passionflower has been shown to decrease muscle tenseness, fatigue, and anxiety.
