Tips for Workouts, Sore Muscles, and Pain

~~~~~~~Workout Tips!~~~~~~~~~

Everyone's body works differently, but there are several tips that I believe everyone can benefit from when trying to maximize your workouts.

1. Sleep

Sleep is important for healing your body and keeping you healthy. If you are only sleeping 4 hours a night, you are not getting the most out of your workouts. I like getting between 6.5 and 8 hours of sleep per night. Also, I find that I sleep better if I am in bed before 11:00 PM. If I go to bed later than that, I don't get a good night's sleep and I am cranky and tired the next day. I love the sleep motion feature on my FitBit that lets me know if I am restless when I sleep.

2. Water

Drink water before, during, and after your workout. Not tea. Not coffee. Not juice. Water. When you sweat, you are losing lots of water and your muscles need that water to start the repairing process after your workout. If you drink sodas, you need to drink even more water because they are full of sugars and sodium that can dehydrate you if you don't imbibe the H2O. If you don't like the taste of water, add a few drops of juice into your water to lightly flavor it. (Lemon, pomegranate, orange, and apple juice work well for this purpose).

3. Warm Up

Always warm up before you start your workout. Make sure your muscles, joints, and bones are ready for your workout. Examples of good warm ups: Walk before you run. Do some plies, leg lifts, relevees, and small kicks before a ballet class. Do some light stretches and/ or cardio work before lifting weights.

4. Cool Down/ Stretch

After your workout, make sure you stretch/ cool down. This will keep you from having muscle cramps later. I make sure to stretch my calves and hamstrings because I tend to get leg cramps more than arm and back cramps or pains.

5. Eat Fresh Fruits and Veggies

These are so much better for you than a protein shake. They contain many more vitamins and minerals and are full of water, all things you need to replenish after a workout. My favorites are: Apples, Bananas, Watermelons, Pineapples, Beans, Peas, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Carrots, and Oranges.

6. Take Rest Days

It won't do you any good to work the same muscles every single day in the same way. Let your muscles rest so they can repair before your next workout and you can build muscle and strength.

~~~~~~~Pain and How to Deal With It~~~~~~~

I have tight muscles and tendons in the backs of my legs. As a child I couldn't even touch my knees, let alone my toes. I have to be very careful when I work out that I stretch and warm up properly or I will have horrible cramps in my legs when I go to bed at night. I always start to cramp when I hike, so I make sure to stop and stretch my legs after about ten minutes of hiking to keep them from getting too bad.

I also have a bad ankle from breaking my leg when I was thirteen and several sprains I've had falling down stairs and off of sidewalks (I realize that I sound like a klutz, but I really have fallen down a lot). When I hurt myself, I wear and ankle brace and ice it to get the swelling down.

Best ways to help muscle pain/ cramps
1. Take a hot bath with Epsom salts and soak the pain away.
2. Drink a lot of water
3. Eat a few bananas
4. Use Absorbine, Bengay, Salonpas, Tiger Balm, Icy Hot, or some other form of pain cream, patch, or liquid.

For pain from injuries: RICE
Rest- healing will be done faster when you rest
Ice- get the inflammation down so blood can flow better to the injured tissues to commence healing.
Compression- Also helps with swelling and support of the area
Elevation- Elevate the injury to reduce pain

If all of that doesn't work, take an ibuprofen and go to sleep.

~~~~~~Specified tips for Ballet~~~~~

If you take care of your body, it will take care of you. I find this is true in regards to ballet.
Take care of your feet after class, so they will be ready for the next class: cutting toenails, bandaging and/or lancing blisters, taking care of your calluses.
Eat in time to digest before class so you won't slosh around as you dance.
Drink lots of water after class so you replace what you sweat out.
Sleep well so you won't be tired and hurt yourself in class.
Tiger Balm and AbsorbineJr works the best on sore muscles after class.
Go to class regularly to workout the soreness, and you will have a constant low level of soreness instead of a huge amount every few days.
Keep your shoes and clothing patched up and without holes so you don't get friction blisters.

Those are my tips. This is what I do to keep myself out of pain or reduce the pain that I am in. Let me know if you have any other tips in the comments below.