Ice or Heat for Sore Muscles? Workout Recovery Q&A

Nikkiey: What's up, you guys? We are here at Restore Hyper Wellness in Exton, Pennsylvania, and I have a fun video for you today. Since we're here doing our recovery post-training session, we're going to do a recovery Q&A. I'm going to answer some questions we get a lot around recovery, and that's what this video is going to be about today. So enjoy.

Ooh. My brain goes right to a story and experience. Some signs of overtraining are basically when your muscles are so contracted. Let's say you did biceps. It's really hard to straighten out your bicep. It's almost like your bicep just stays flexed. That's a really good sign that you probably pushed a little too hard in your arm workout.

Legs, same thing. I've experienced this. I've had rhabdo three or four times. It's basically where your body can't filter out the lactic acid fast enough, so it kind of just sits. Your kidneys have a really bad time filtering it out. Whenever I experienced that, my quadricep muscles were literally in a flexed state the entire time. It was very hard to walk. If you touched my legs, I would freak out. So those are some signs of overtraining. The other sign of overtraining is that you're just extremely exhausted, almost like a foggy brain. You can't find the words, can't find your thoughts the next day.

Ooh, my favorite question. Okay: what should you eat after you work out? It should be a protein and a carbohydrate source, and you want to eat it within at least 30 minutes to an hour after training. There is that window that you don't want to be out of. Give your body the replenishment it needs as soon as you can. Just remember, like I always say, you break down muscle in the gym. You build it in the 24 to 48 hours after your workout by what you choose to eat. So the sooner you can get in the foods that help start the recovery process, the better.

Like I said, protein and carb. What I love to do is a protein shake or a protein smoothie. I'll put unsweetened almond milk, water, protein powder and fruit in, and I'll blend it up in my Ninja Bullet that I got for Christmas. Thanks for the gift. That's what I'll have immediately following my workout.

Some other options: I'm always going to go with a protein shake, because the way I think about it, say you're going from work, you can put a blender bottle in your bag with the protein powder and just add water. Then you could have a banana with you, or some rice cakes, or white rice, or anything fruit-wise, and you'll be able to scarf it right down afterward. Or if you're an early morning workout person, a protein shake is a really easy thing to get to, or egg whites are the equivalent of that.

All in all: protein and carb. And you want that protein and carb to be a fast-digesting food source. So a whey isolate as opposed to a whey casein. Whey isolate is going to help you digest faster, as opposed to casein, which is used more like a meal replacement. It takes longer to digest. And carbohydrates that are simple carbs get digested faster and will help replenish your glycogen stores faster, since you just depleted them while you worked out.

Why would you want to do that? Why would you want to basically destroy all of the progress you started to make while working out? Can you enjoy a drink every now and then? Absolutely. But I wouldn't go work out and then say, okay, I'm going to go to happy hour with my friends every single day, or four days a week. You're not going to see the progress you want while living that type of lifestyle. So I wouldn't encourage that.

Okay. What would you use for muscle soreness, ice or heat? And the answer is... sorry. Hold on. It's negative 160 degrees, you guys. But think of it like this. If you have a broken bone, if you have a broken anything, you always want to use ice to help with swelling. If you have muscle soreness, your best friend is going to be heat. But when you're in the cold, like I am right now, it helps with inflammation. Muscle soreness is more so heat. So being here right now helps with inflammation I may have accrued from a leg day or anything I've just worked out. So again, ice is for broken anything, and muscle soreness is heat. I think I just said that, right? Ice, broken. Heat, soreness. I hope that makes sense. I'm probably just cold right now.

Whoa. Whoa. But it feels great.

Okay, another tip. Say you go into a cold pool, or you go into a chamber like I'm in right now that is freaking negative 160 degrees. If you're in the cold and you're shivering, you're not in control. So you want to try to get control of your breathing.

Three, two, one. Oh my God, I forgot how cold that was.

Do I prefer cold therapy or hot therapy? It depends on the given day. I do love experiencing discomfort and being uncomfortable, and I would challenge anybody and everybody to have that experience, because there's so much you can learn about yourself while enduring something that is uncomfortable for you, whether it's strength training, getting into cold therapy, or being underneath a heavy barbell and pushing through.

I love that aspect of cold therapy because it's you versus you in the moment. You could go into the chamber and puss out after X amount of time and not go for the full time that's recommended. Or you can suck it up, go for the entire time and be uncomfortable, and then come out and realize that was a short period of time, just like being underneath the weights. Pain is only temporary. The discomfort is only temporary. But the results you gain from it are tremendous.

There are some days where I would love to just go into the sauna and spend 45 minutes there. It's comfort. You feel great. Although I do have to say, when you're in there 45 minutes, there actually is a level of discomfort you hit at around minute 35, for the last 10 minutes. When I was in there two or three weeks ago, I was like, f***, get me out of here. But then it's a mental game at that point, because you could puss out, or you could stay and muster up the courage to finish it out. So I muster up the courage.

So there's discomfort in both. This is only 10 minutes, and it feels great. But the sauna is 45 minutes. So it depends on the day. I love discomfort, so there are days I love that, and there are days where I just want to feel warm. It just depends on the day.

All right, last question, you guys. Would I recommend Restore Hyper Wellness? That is a big fat hell freaking yeah. This place is the bomb. Highly recommend it. If you're from the Exton area, come and check it out. Or if you have one local to you, go check it out. It's well worth the visit. If you're from the Exton area, you can get a 20% discount on your first services using the code Nikkiey20. So it's a no-brainer to at least come and check it out.