Reducing Exercise-Induced Inflammation: Tips for Faster Recover
If you're a regular exerciser, you've likely experienced exercise-induced inflammation, leading to muscle soreness and pain. While some inflammation is necessary for muscle repair and growth, excessive inflammation can hinder your fitness progress and even impact your overall health. In this article, we'll dive into what exercise-induced inflammation is, how to notice the signs, and, most importantly, how to reduce inflammation in the body.
What is Exercise-Induced Inflammation?
Inflammation is your body's natural response to tissue damage, and exercise-induced inflammation is no exception. When you exercise, your muscles experience small tears that cause inflammation. This process is necessary for muscle repair and growth, but too much inflammation can cause muscle soreness and other health issues.
Signs of Exercise-Induced Inflammation
It's normal to feel soreness after exercise, but there are some signs that you should take a break and rest your body. Some of these signs include:
- General sense of fatigue
- Increased muscle soreness
- Difficulty sleeping
- Unusual pain and stiffness
- Burnout
- Night sweats
- Elevated heart rate upon waking
- Swelling and heat in muscles
If you experience these symptoms, you must take a break and let your body recover fully.
Exercises that Cause Muscle Inflammation
Several exercises can cause muscle inflammation, including:
- Running - Eccentric muscle contractions, which occur during running, trigger a pronounced inflammatory response.
- Cycling - Long-distance or intense cycling can cause mild, localized inflammation that presents after a weighted or sprinting session.
- HIIT - Intense exercise such as HIIT elevates levels of stress hormones in the body, which can lead to inflammation.
- Weight Training - Microscopic muscle damage occurs during strength training, especially during the lowering phase of repetition, causing inflammation to rise in the short term.
- CrossFit, powerlifting, and Olympic lifting - These exercises can cause inflammation and tiny micro-tears in your muscles. When adequate rest isn't achieved, weight training can cause undesirable muscle inflammation.
- Low-impact exercises - Although less likely to cause inflammation, low-impact activities like walking or swimming can still lead to muscle soreness if done at a high intensity or for a prolonged period.
Reducing Inflammation in the Body
Reducing inflammation means training gradually to give your body time to adapt to more intense exercise. Preparing for your workout by warming up, fueling with carbs and electrolytes, getting enough sleep, and staying hydrated are also great ways to reduce muscle inflammation. One way to aid your recovery is using CBD, which has proven to help support recovery from exercise-induced inflammation. However, it's essential to make sure you choose high-quality CBD products to avoid any harmful side effects.
In conclusion, exercise-induced inflammation is a normal part of muscle repair and growth. But, excessive inflammation can hinder your progress and even lead to health issues. You can reduce inflammation, recover faster, and achieve your fitness goals by taking care of your body with proper rest, nutrition, and recovery methods.
