Bodybuilding workout hangover refers to the feeling you potentially can have after a hard day of training. Bodybuilding requires a lot of physical exertion, which at times can leave you feeling fatigued. This hangover is scientifically referred to as "delayed onset muscle soreness" and it can adversely affect subsequent workouts. There are steps you can take to help prevent or minimize the hangover feeling.
Bodybuilding
To build significant muscle mass like bodybuilders do, you must weight train often and at high volumes. Your workout schedule can include up to six days per week, with each session lasting an hour or more. Exercises are completed at high volume, meaning multiple sets or a higher number of repetitions or both. Your muscles must frequently and adequately be overloaded.
Function
During each training session, you break down your muscle groups, causing minor tears throughout the tissue. It's important to also recognize the stress on other body systems, such as your bone and joint structures and your nervous system. Not only your muscle fibers need time to rest and recover, but your nervous system is affected, and your body must replenish protein and muscle glycogen.
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness
Recovery time can vary between individuals, but it's not atypical to be sore, stiff and fatigued the day after an intense workout. Delayed onset muscle soreness occurs 24 to 48 hours following an intense weight-training workout. It is typically associated with muscle weakness, tenderness to the touch and potentially a restricted range of motion.
Significance
To maintain the necessary schedule to effectively build muscle, it's important to take steps to ensure you adequately recover after each workout. If you do not, the fatigue you feel the following day will adversely affect your training performance during the next workout session. Not being able to train at your highest abilities during every workout will affect your results. In addition, your motivation to complete the next workout session is likely to be diminished.
Prevention
To assist in preventing the bodybuilding workout hangover, eat a small meal consisting of both carbohydrates and protein immediately following your workouts. According to Joseph Chromiak of the National Strength and Conditioning Association, your body is better able to absorb protein and carbohydrates shortly after a workout, which in turn increases protein synthesis and reduces protein breakdown, speeding up muscle healing time as well as increasing the ability to put on muscle. It is also important to alternate the muscle groups you work, and never train the same group on consecutive days or in consecutive workouts.
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