Cultura, Técnica, Seguridad
Recovery After a Walk
Introduction
Tired after a long walk? We share with you some rest techniques that help the body recover quickly.
Make it progressive
Before you sit down to rest, take a walk! As you slowly rest, you adjust your pulse, body temperature, and muscles to a natural resting position. On the other hand, when you have a sudden rest, your body prevents blood from flowing through your legs, and it can also cause dizziness. It is enough to walk 5-10 minutes for the body to adjust to a state of rest.
stretch
Extension exercises lasting 30 seconds help the circulation of blood through the body. If you want to reduce muscle pain as much as possible, one of the best ways to do this is to stretch your muscles. This also has the benefit of improving flexibility, and range of motion. The stretches will need to be directed toward the areas of the body that are most worn out after finishing.
Eat within 45 minutes
Studies show that the sooner we eat, the sooner our body recovers. But there are two different things going on here, and they are worth separating: protein and carbohydrates do not solve the same problem.
Protein, if the effort was very demanding on your muscles. If the hike had a lot of elevation gain, you carried weight, or you came down technical terrain, start there: protein is the raw material your body uses to repair the muscle fibers you just punished.
Carbohydrates, if the hike went on for hours. When the day was long, what ran empty is the tank. Carbohydrates restore glycogen, which is how muscles and the liver store energy long term, and that is where the next day's energy comes from. On multi-day hikes this stops being a detail: taking care of your glycogen is what lets you head out again tomorrow.
And there is a gap almost nobody notices: hours can go by between your last meal on the summit and your first one back. Coming down, packing up the gear, driving, getting home or finding somewhere to eat. The afternoon slips away without us realizing. One energy bar in that window makes an enormous difference.
Hydrate yourself
Although it is true that we tend to drink water during a hike, most people still end up with a water deficit by the time they finish. That tendency gets worse in cold weather and at high elevations. Studies show that muscle repair can decrease by up to 50% when muscles don't get enough hydration.
There is a limit worth keeping in mind: the body can only process around one liter of water per hour. Drinking more all at once speeds up nothing. So what matters is not the amount but how well that liter is used, and that is where electrolytes come in: they are what keep the water working inside your body instead of passing straight through.
The problem is that in very hot areas our sweat rate can exceed that liter per hour. No matter how disciplined we are about drinking, sooner or later we build up a deficit: the body simply can't replace what it loses at the rate it loses it. And you can tell: it's that thirst that is still there right after you drink, the one that follows you to bedtime and feels almost like anxiety. Once you reach that point, hydration is no longer a matter of one glass, it's a matter of the next few hours.
Massage your muscles
Massage has been cited as the primary tool for reducing hypersensitivity in muscles. Best of all, you don't need to hire a professional service, you just need to massage yourself with a foam roller or even a tennis ball. It is recommended to massage a muscle area for a minimum duration of 30 seconds
.Heat and cold: each one does a different job
Heat and cold are not for the same thing, and choosing wrong is the difference between helping yourself and getting in your own way. It's worth being clear on this before you head down the mountain.
Heat encourages blood flow to sore muscles. It relaxes, loosens things up and gives the body the circulation it needs to do the repair work. It's what you want when you finish tired and sore but with nothing swollen. It ranges from the simplest option to the most elaborate: a warm wet towel over your legs, a long hot bath, or if you have access to one, a sauna, a steam room or a jacuzzi.
Cold helps with inflammation. It brings swelling down and calms sharp pain. It's what you want if you twisted something, if a joint came back hot and swollen, or if the effort was especially punishing. Here what works is cryotherapy gel packs, getting into a river at the end of the hike, or an ice bath if you want to go all in.
The short rule: unless you have inflamed parts of your body, heat is the way to go.
sleep
If you only take one point from this list, make it this one. Sleep is what makes everything else work: it's when the body recovers physically and your mind does too.
A basic rule to understand it: in the early stages of sleep, the deep ones, is when your muscles begin their repair; in the later ones, REM sleep, is when we recover mentally, and also when we dream. That's why sleeping only a few hours doesn't just leave you tired: it leaves the repair half done and your mind still loaded.
And sleeping well takes preparation. What helps most:
- Get to bed properly hydrated.
- Don't eat a heavy dinner.
- No exercise in the two hours beforehand.
- No screens or bright light; if you can, use warm-light lamps.
- Relax mentally: five minutes sitting in silence, switching your brain off, make an enormous difference.
- A room at around 23 °C (73 °F).
- And there are cases where white noise helps.
