- Sleep is the biggest lever, by a distance.
- Refuel — eat enough, get protein in, drink water.
- Move gently the next day rather than seizing up.
- Manage load — don't stack hard days; build up gradually.
- Cold plunges, massage guns and the rest are small extras, not the main event.
This is the practical companion to our complete guide to training recovery. If you want the why behind all of this, start there. If you just want to know what to do after a hard session, read on.
1. Protect your sleep tonight
The most effective recovery tool is the most boring one. The Sleep Health Foundation calls sleep the single best recovery strategy available and recommends 7–9 hours for adults. A hard session followed by five hours' sleep is a half-finished job. If you've trained hard, treat a full night as part of the workout — not optional.
2. Refuel properly
Recovery needs raw materials. After training, aim to eat a normal, balanced meal within a few hours: enough overall energy, some quality protein to support muscle repair, and carbohydrates to top up what you burned. Have water through the rest of the day too — even mild dehydration can make you feel worse than you are. You don't need special products; regular food does the job.
3. Move — gently — the day after
Counterintuitively, lying completely still often isn't the fastest way back. Easy movement the next day — a walk, an easy ride or spin, light mobility — keeps blood flowing and tends to take the edge off stiffness. Keep it genuinely easy; if your "recovery" session leaves you more tired, it wasn't recovery.
4. Manage the load across the week
A lot of what feels like "bad recovery" is really too much, too soon. Alternate harder and easier days, avoid sudden jumps in volume or intensity, and build a lighter week in periodically. Getting the dose right across a week does more for how you feel day to day than any post-workout ritual.
5. The extras — keep them in proportion
Cold water, heat, stretching, foam rolling, compression, massage — some people genuinely find these help them feel better, and that's reason enough to use the ones you like. Just keep them in perspective: they're marginal additions on top of sleep, food and sensible training, not substitutes for them. If a recovery tool is eating time you could spend sleeping, the trade isn't worth it.
A few days of general soreness is normal. But sharp or one-sided pain, swelling, or soreness that isn't improving after several days deserves attention — ease off, and if it persists, see a health professional. The same goes if poor sleep, low mood and dropping performance are showing up together over a couple of weeks.
What doesn't help much
For balance: a big night out undoes a lot of good recovery work, "pushing through" genuine pain tends to backfire, and chasing every recovery gadget is mostly a way to spend money. Soreness, by the way, isn't a scorecard — a session that doesn't leave you wrecked can still be highly productive. For more on that, see DOMS explained.
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- Sleep Health Foundation — sleep as a recovery strategy; 7–9 hours for adults. sleephealthfoundation.org.au
- healthdirect (Australian Government) — exercise and strength-training guidance. healthdirect.gov.au
- Better Health Channel (Victorian Government) — physical activity and recovery. betterhealth.vic.gov.au