Do you get sore after hard weight training or even cardio? Are your muscle constantly feeling fatigued? Do you even have to skip some training sessions because you haven’t fully recovered from your last intense workout? If so, the problem isn’t your workout! Read on to learn a few of the best things you can do with your diet and supplementation to alleviate soreness after working out.

1. Protein is King!

You hear a lot in the news and in magazines about how important protein is for a healthy body. This goes double for people who train hard in the gym! In simple terms, protein is what allows your body to rebuild itself after a workout. When you lift weights, you break down your muscles, and your body needs the amino acids in protein to rebuild those fibers bigger and stronger than before.

The best sources of protein come from animals – meats, poultry, fish, eggs, and a little bit of dairy are the best ways you can get plenty of lean, tasty protein into your diet. If you are experiencing frequent soreness after working out, trying adding a few eggs and a few more ounces of meat and yogurt into your daily diet. I promise, you will be amazed at the results!

2. Amino Acid Supplementation for Quick Results

For the most part, there are no quick fixes when it comes to fitness, weight training, or diet. However, there is one thing you can do that just might alleviate some of your soreness within days! Supplementation with amino acids, and specifically those called branched chain amino acids, can have dramatic effects on your recovery from weight training. Without getting too complicated, these acids have been shown time and again to “tell” your body it’s time to repair muscle tissue, fast!

Adding 40-50 grams of branched chain amino acids into your daily diet will allow you to alleviate and soreness and recover in record time. You can work out more, or you can just feel better when you’re not working out! Personally, I can’t seem to train too much or too hard when I am using this supplement.

3. Don’t Avoid Your Healthy Fats!

You probably know by now that eating fat is NOT what makes you fat. However, I have also found that eating the right sources of fat relieves my soreness and helps me recover faster from intense weight training. Some of the best fats to eat for getting rid of soreness after working out are Omega 3 fish oils, fats from nuts, salmon, and even some saturated fat from red meat!Saturated fat is not an inherently bad nutrient as long as you get it in proper proportion with unsaturated fats. The fats you get from lean red meat (which you should be eating!) are good for you in moderation.

4. Stretching for Recovery

When most people stretch, they do it as a warm-up for hard training. While this is a good thing to do, you should definitely stretch at other times, as well! Aggressively stretching your muscles when they are warm and pumped up with blood can help stretch the fascia, or film, that surrounds them. This gives them room to grow, and it also helps a great deal with soreness. I have noticed that when I consistently stretch after lifting, I still get sore, but the soreness goes away within hours, not days!