Skip to main content
#goals

Eating nutrients such as essential fatty acids and proteins, or even just bathing in warm water can help the healing process and soothe sore muscles.Martin Barak/Unsplash

You exercised hard yesterday, but today, your muscles are crying out in protest. Forget planning your next workout: You can't walk down stairs without wincing What can you do to speed up your recovery?

Resist the urge to stay in bed. Doing any kind of light movement that gets your blood flowing will help, says Matt Nichol. "Any pain-free movement that you do is going to beget more pain-free movement," says Nichol, a former nutritionist and conditioning coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs who is now an independent trainer. "So if it hurts going up and down stairs, but you can walk on flat ground, you should walk on flat ground as much as you can."

As co-founder of the company BioSteel, Nichol admits he's biased in his endorsement of nutritional sports supplements such as the kind his company makes. But, he says, regardless of whether you get them through supplements or naturally through your diet, nutrients such as essential fatty acids and proteins can help the healing process. "It's always important to make sure you're getting enough protein, but specifically when you're exercising rigorously at the gym," Nichol says.

And the old-school remedy of taking an Epsom salt bath has stuck around for good reason. Nichol recommends adding two to three cups of Epsom salt to a tub of water that's hot enough to soak comfortably in for about 10 to 15 minutes. Simply bathing in the warmth is soothing itself; the magnesium of the Epsom salt is believed to provide added benefits by getting absorbed through your skin to help reduce muscle pain.

So once your stiffness and soreness begin to subside, at what point can you get back to working out again?

"It's understanding the difference between discomfort and pain," Nichol says.

That difference can be difficult to recognize, he adds. Feeling some muscle tightness or discomfort when you're exercising is probably fine, but if it's hampering your daily activities outside the gym, you've probably gone too far.

"Some people have been told or do feel like 'no pain, no gain,'" he says. "But that's really a fallacy."

Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

Interact with The Globe