How to Speed Up Muscle Recovery Over 50 (Recover Like a 20 yr old)

When you’re young, after a workout, you can go to the pub. Watch a game with friends. Head home after, and the next day, be no worse for the wear unless you ended up drinking too much, but no thought of muscle or joint pain.

Now us, older guys we go straight home from the gym or in my case, I workout at home, eat and head to bed. The next morning, when we get up, we’re reminded of our workout.

The difference is over 50; We may have lost muscle mass, our joints have incurred damage or arthritis, and our circulatory system may be compromised, supplying less nutrient-rich blood to our muscles and slowing waste removal.

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4299735/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5623674/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6341249/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697134/
https://journals.lww.com/acsm-healthfitness/fulltext/2013/07000/exercise_and_fluid_replacement__brought_to_you_by.3.aspx

Today, we’ll look at ways to speed up our recovery, starting with something called the repeat bout effect.

If you’ve been training for a while, you’ve experienced this. After your first workout on a new program or if it’s your first time working out in a long time, you’ll have more muscle damage after the first session and less and less on the following ones because the muscle adapts to protect itself from future damage.

the more active you are, and the more you use those muscles in day-to-day life the less muscle damage you’ll experience when training. This is another reason why many over 50 need more recovery time than someone younger; they aren’t as active.

Active recovery can be done post-workout to aid in flushing out lactic acid and encourage blood flow. You can cycle, do callisthenics or swim anything that is low intensity for 5 to 10 minutes

Active recovery can also be done on non-workout days to relieve stiffness and improve blood flow. Again, this shouldn’t be intense. It could be a walk or cleaning the car.

Foam rolling has been shown to reduce the effects of delayed onset muscle soreness or DOMS

One study I read had them foam roll after 10 sets of squats. They did this right after and again 24 and 48 hrs later, each time for 20 minutes in 5 different locations on the legs and glutes.

Finding “foam rolling effectively reduced DOMS and associated decrements in most dynamic performance measures.”

Foam rolling isn’t something I do, but it would certainly be worth trying. I use my massage gun on areas that are sore and tight. Some areas are more susceptible to damage than others, such as calves and hamstrings.

The research on massage guns and recovery really isn’t there, but they have studied massage, with a meta-analysis published in 2017 finding, “ massage therapy after strenuous exercise could be effective for alleviating DOMS and improving muscle performance.

An interesting thing we can do with recovery is compression clothing; they did a study where the participants did squats, lunges, and calf raises with a slow 4-second eccentric or lowering phase while giving them a small electric pulse to intensify the contraction. After comparing their recovery with the control group, the researchers “recommended athletes wear compression tights for faster recovery, particularly after intense exercise with a pronounced eccentric aspect.”

water and hydration are the unsung heroes of recovery.

The American College of Sports Medicine recommends “drinking 16 to 20 fluid ounces 4 hours before exercise, hydrate according to your thirst during exercise and drink 16 to 24 ounces of fluid for every pound lost post-exercise.”

One of the best supplements to help us with recovery is creatine
Protein, sleep, including naps, and when you should and shouldn’t use cold water immersion