Muscle recovery is just as important for muscle growth as pumping iron in the gym. When you lift your muscle tissue and energy stores are broken down and depleted so it is vital that you plan muscle recovery time between muscle building workouts, get plenty of sleep and fuel your body with muscle recovery nutrients

Top 4 tips for muscle recovery:

Rest your muscles for Muscle Recovery

It may seem obvious but getting plenty of sleep (7-8 hrs per night) and allowing your body to rest and rebuild muscle tissue between training sessions in one of the most effective methods for muscle recovery.   Try also to avoid training the same muscle group on consecutive days.  This will allow for faster recovery by giving each muscle group plenty of time to recover and grow..

Active Muscle Recovery 

Active muscle recovery uses low-intensity activities to help get blood circulating to the muscles and to help reduce muscle pain on rest days or in between intense training sessions.  Including active muscle recovery activities like biking, running on the treadmill, swimming or low intensity rowing into weekly training routine will help your muscles recover and grow faster.

Take a Muscle Recovery Supplement Daily

To speed recovery and get you ready for your next training session sooner you should be taking a muscle recovery supplement like glutamine. Glutamine supports the maintenance and repair of muscle tissue, energy production and increased exercise performance to help you get better muscle results in the gym.

Stretch for Muscle Recovery

Stretching is the one part of most guys training that is often ignored.  However, stretching can actually speed your muscle growth, relax muscle tension and decrease next day soreness, meaning you can get back to the gym faster.  Research shows that stretching straight after you have trained a body part may help to increase muscle mass and shape the muscle as this is when the muscle is most “pumped” and under tension.  You should include both active and static stretching into your routine. Hold each stretch for a minimum of ten seconds.

These 4 recovery tips will help you get muscle results faster and prevent injury.

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If you’re just going through the motions and making mistakes with your ab exercises it’s time to fix the mistakes and your chiseled six pack will come.  We asked personal trainer Robert Hammond how to get abs and for the Top 6 Ab Exercise Mistakes that he sees in the gym.  Make sure you’re not guilty of one (or more) of these 6 common ab workout mistakes.

Best Ab Workout Mistakes To Avoid

Ab Workout Mistake #1: Too many ab crunches!

Crunches are definitely not the most effective ab exercise. Crunches focus on the rectus abdominis and only work your core in the sagittal plane. If you think you are crunching your way to awesome abs, guess again – it’s time to mix up the exercises in your ab workout routine.

Ab Workout Mistake #2: Incorrect Ab exercise technique.

Positioning your feet under a bar or having a mate stand on them whist performing sit-ups focuses the workload on your hip flexors (Iliopsoas, Sartorius and Rectus Femoris) and this is not effective, nor is using momentum to perform the sit-up. Abdominals should be trained in slow, focused movements, feeling the ab muscles contract, and holding that contraction.

If you are unable to complete an ab sit-up without assistance, start off on a swiss ball as this will reduce the load and help you learn the correct ab exercise technique. Do not allow the ball to move underneath you and complete slow, controlled movements focusing on contracting your abs

Ab Workout Mistake #3: Not utilising different planes of motion during ab training

Rectus abdominis are NOT the only ab muscles present in the body, therefore training in one plane is not going to work the entire abdominal muscle group. Include frontal and transverse planes as well as sagittal.

Rectus abdominis is trained in spinal flexion. Offset this movement with a combination of spinal extension, isometric/stabilization, lateral spinal flexion and spinal rotation exercises. Do not forget your back! The erector spinae muscles run along the spine and provide a primary movement function in back extension and are often overlooked in ab workouts.

Ab Workout Mistake #4: Training abs prior to your workout

Never train abs prior to your workout. Your core is critical for stability during exercise and for protection against injury. By training abdominals prior to a workout, you are fatiguing them and therefore putting yourself at greater risk of injury.

Ab Workout Mistake #5: Ab muscle over training

Abdominals do not require daily training. Treat your abs as you would any other muscle, training them hard for 8-15 reps, focusing on the ab muscle contraction, and holding it. 15 minutes is sufficient time for training abs, and allow your ab muscles a few days of recovery before training them again. 2 non-consecutive ab workout days per week is enough.

Ab Workout Mistake #6: Forgetting about your ripped diet

Training your abs is NOT the critical element for getting “ripped abs”- Diet IS.  Remember abs are made in the kitchen! Gym-goers often ask why they have not seen a difference to their waist line after training abs for an extended period. Training abs will not give you the flat stomach or ripped 6-pack you’re looking for if you have a layer of fat covering them. A high protein clean diet, no alcohol and increasing your HITT cardio will fast-track you to seeing your abs. If you need convenient source of protein try this recommendation for the best tasting protein powder or if it help with your workout intensity check out our review on the best pre workout powder.

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