What To Do Right After a Joggling Workout

When you joggle as often as me, you are always looking for new ideas on what to do right after you’re done with a training run or a race to keep your legs feeling fresh & injury free. Heck, it would be nice just to prevent soreness. Here is a good routine suggested in the most recent Runner’s World (Sept 2008). It’s actually quite similar to what I naturally do anyway.

After Your Workout

1. Drink something. The first thing you should do is restock your body’s liquid level by drinking water or a sports drink. Personally, I like to have Gatorade.

2. Change your clothes. Putting on dry clothes is the next thing you should focus on. However, you should also towel dry yourself before putting on any different clothes as residual sweat might sully the new clothes. I have to wait about 10 minutes before I stop sweating after a workout. The other advantage of changing clothes right away is that your partner won’t give you glaring looks as you drip sweat on the wood floors.

3. Eat something. According to experts, eating something right after a workout is best for digestion & nutrition. My choice of a 100 Grand candy bar is probably not best, but it works for me. Just make it some kind of carbohydrate.

4. Stretch. After about 30 minutes, you should stretch. I’ve never been a big believer in stretching but it does feel good anyway. I particularly like to follow a brief yoga routine. The Yogamazing video podcast is a great resource for this. And it’s free!!

5. Sit in an ice bath. An ice bath taken 45 minutes after a workout will help cool you down and prevent injury & soreness. These really work but I find they take some getting used to. Usually, I’ll soak in a bath with my gatorade, candy bar and an episode of The American Life playing in the background. It’s relaxing once you get over the shock of the cold water.

6. Take a nap. Nothing helps a long run recovery like a short nap in front of the TV. I like to put on an episode of Girls Behaving Badly or watch the Cubs game as I drift into la la land.

There you have it. Follow these 6 steps and you’ll feel much better after a long joggling run.

Have I missed something? What do you like to do to recover from working out? And what do you do with your smelly wet clothes?