Your body needs time to recuperate after a workout, whether it be strength training or endurance exercise. With so much emphasis on the “meat” of the workout and getting the most out of it, it’s easy to neglect recuperation. Muscles also repair and remodel during the recovery time after a workout. That’s when change takes place, not while you’re working out. Men and women both need enough recovery time, but are there any gender differences?
What Happens During Exercise Recovery?
Strength training damages muscle fibers. During recovery, the body’s healing powers kick in. As repair kicks in during the post-workout period, muscles add new myofibrils, the contractile elements of the muscle, so that it gets stronger and the muscle fibers get thicker. Muscles rely on amino acids from protein to build themselves up. Training the same muscles too soon can interrupt the repair and growth process.
Muscle cells require time to restore their energy stores regardless of the type of training, whether it be strength or endurance. Glycogen is the storage form of glucose. A vigorous workout depletes muscle glycogen reserves and causes you to feel tired. A carbohydrate-rich post-workout meal helps replenish those glycogen reserves. So, regardless of the sort of workout you undertake, your muscles require time to recover and the resources to synthesize new muscle glycogen. The more intensive the workout, the longer the recuperation period.
Workouts also deplete fluids and electrolytes. That’s why drinking fluid is an important part of the recovery process. If you feel tired or have a mild headache after a workout, it may be because you’re still dehydrated. A good measure of whether you’re drinking enough fluid is the color of your urine. If it’s darker than pale yellow, you need to drink more fluid.
Sleep also helps with muscle recovery. Getting enough sleep helps release hormones that are responsible for cell repair, such as growth hormone. Additionally, quality sleep decreases cortisol, a catabolic hormone that can weaken an individual’s immune system and break down muscle tissue. Growth hormone also stimulates muscle growth. By boosting the uptake of amino acids into muscle cells, it promotes tissue repair and growth. Additionally, it promotes muscle growth by releasing insulin-like growth factor 1, or IGF-1.
Gender Differences in Muscle Recovery
Now, that you know WHY recovery is so important, are there gender differences? An interesting study published in Frontiers of Physiology looked at this issue. In the study, trained men and women between the ages of 18 and 35 did a muscle-fatiguing workout. The workout consisted of barbell back squats at 80% of one-rep max. The participants did 5 reps and 5 sets, including an extra set to muscle failure. What they found was that women required more recovery time than the men did. However, the women achieved higher degrees of peripheral fatigue relative to the men.
Researchers in another study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research invited 30 healthy men and women to strength train. Each participant performed eight sets of ten rep biceps curls with a 10RM load. Peak torque was measured before, immediately after, and on days 1 through 4 after the training.
Women May Need More Recovery Time after Strength Training
Women’s peak torque took longer to recover after the workout than men’s. As a result, women regained strength more slowly than men, although delayed-onset muscle soreness did not differ between the sexes. The participants in this study did not train for six months before the trial, although the individuals were not novices to strength training.
This study suggests that women may need more recovery time after a strength-training workout than men. However, there’s some evidence that the muscles of women who train regularly recover faster. It makes sense. If you train regularly, your muscles build up some tolerance to the stress placed on them. This study would suggest that when women are untrained or haven’t trained in many months, their muscles may not recover as quickly as an untrained male’s or a trained female’s.
Realize that recovery is as important as how you train for strength gains and for optimal health. Interestingly, research shows that trained women experience less muscle damage and recover faster than trained men. But untrained women who are new to exercise need more recovery than men.
Why do men’s muscles recover faster than females when both are untrained? According to some studies, males have a more dramatic and rapid inflammatory response to strength training. Surprisingly, the inflammatory reaction provides a trigger that initiates recovery. As a result, women who experience delayed inflammation in response to training experience shorter muscle recovery. Interestingly, women’s muscles may be more fatigue resistant, although men’s muscles have a higher power output relative to a woman’s.
The Bottom Line
Whether you’re male or female, your muscles need time to recovery after the stress of strength training. How much recovery time depends on how hard you work out. The general rule is don’t train the same muscles again until 48 hours have passed. However, if you lifted intensely or did a high volume, you may need an extra day of rest.
Make sure you’re focusing on the basics of recovery too: nutrition, sleep, and stress management. It’s not enough to just work out. You must also support your body in a way that helps your muscles grow and become stronger.
References:
- Poloquin Group. “How Men And Women Recover Differently From Training: Tips To Get The Most Out Of Workouts”
- Flores DF, Gentil P, Brown LE, Pinto RS, Carregaro RL, Bottaro M. Dissociated time course of recovery between genders after resistance exercise. J Strength Cond Res. 2011 Nov;25(11):3039-44. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e318212dea4. PMID: 21804429.
- Recovery in Training: The Essential Ingredient. Jonathan N. Mike, M.S. and Len Kravitz, Ph.D.
- Front Physiol. 2018 Oct 23;9:1480. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2018.01480. eCollection 2018.
- Critchfield, B. & Kravitz, L. (2008). Fatigue resistance: An intriguing difference in gender. IDEA Fitness Journal 5(6), 19-21.
- Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2004 Dec;287(6):E1125-31. Epub 2004 Jul 27.
- Radaelli R, Bottaro M, Wilhelm EN, Wagner DR, Pinto RS. Time course of strength and echo intensity recovery after resistance exercise in women. J Strength Cond Res. 2012 Sep;26(9):2577-84. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e31823dae96. PMID: 22037095.
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