Do you ever feel that, despite your best intentions and efforts, a gym or track session simply didn’t go as well as you wanted it to?

Perhaps you couldn’t lift that barbell as many times as you normally could, or you didn’t quite achieve your normal run time.

It may be the case that you haven’t perfected your nutrition; a hugely important factor in recovery from any form of vigorous exercise.

We wanted to look into how recovery can be accelerated so you can hit the gym or the track that little bit quicker, helping you reach your fitness goals sooner and more efficiently.

To do so, we chatted to Dr Marc Bubbs, Nutritionist and author of the bestselling book Peak, to give you an insight into how simple nutritional tactics can immensely improve your recovery.

The base of the pyramid

“Nutrition plays a fundamental role in exercise recovery,” says Dr Bubbs. “When you ask the best experts in the world you actually see sleep, nutrition and mental emotional stress at the base of the pyramid.”

So, if you’re getting enough sleep and your mindfulness is good, (easier said than done!), you need to focus on nutrition to get that extra boost to your recovery speed.

The building blocks of nutrition

Dr Bubbs suggests that there are three basic nutritional building blocks that athletes of any level should always make sure to adhere to.

“The biggest fundamentals from a recovery standpoint are: ensuring that you get enough total energy, (eating enough calories to offset the exercise and activity demands of the day); getting enough protein, (are you eating enough protein based on your bodyweight); and the last is carbohydrate intake.”

Work out how many calories you need per day: Healthline

Work out how much protein you should eat: Healthline

Work out how many carbs you should eat: Men’s Journal

Whilst making sure you get these three things right isn’t easy, once you’ve nailed it down, you’ll be in a good place to start building other things into your diet.

“It’s difficult these days to navigate everything we see on social media and online because there seems to be advice in every corner, and often this advice is conflicting,” says Dr Bubbs. “So, rather than getting stuck into dietary strategies, you just need to nail how many grams of each of the fundamentals you’re getting.”

Working your way up the pyramid

The base of the nutrition pyramid needs to be really solid before you can start looking at building on top of it, as Dr Bubbs explains:

“Once you’ve got these things consistent and in place, you can start looking at other areas to support recovery. Things like cherry juice and creatine can reduce Exercise Induced Muscle Damage (EIMD), which helps you get back into the gym that little bit sooner and maintain that progress throughout the weeks and months so that you can hit those goals that you’re chasing.”

See Dr Bubbs’s blog on EIMD for more.

TLDR

Dr Bubbs’s advice is to make sure your basic nutrition is near perfect. Once you’ve worked out how to do this in the long run, then it’s time to start building on this base to improve your recovery time.

Recovery aids like supplements are useful, but only if you’re treating yourself well at a base level. If you can work out what your own body needs nutritionally and stick to it over time, you’ll be able to add extra recovery aids in to further improve your recovery time.

See a private practitioner

If you’re experiencing pain, you can see a private practitioner and sort the problem out quickly and efficiently with Oryon Connect’s trusted practitioners. We work with private GPs, Physiotherapists, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeons and more, offering appointments with a consultant for only £250, which includes a follow-up appointment.

Call us on 020 7042 1881 to find out more or visit our website.