Why You’re Not Recovering Between Workouts (And How to Fix It)

The essence of physical fitness is usually encapsulated in the concept of progressive overload. In theory, whichever areas you’d like to get stronger in, if you repeatedly challenge yourself in those areas, and increase weight and resistance as often as you need to in order to sustain the difficulty posed by that challenge, your body will recover, adapt, and return in a stronger form.

In practice, things aren’t always that straightforward. You may go through long stretches of time during which you repeatedly break down your muscles, and return to training only to find that you’ve stagnated, or become weaker.

Undoubtedly, these outcomes are counterintuitive to the expectations of training, and they force you to draw one conclusion: You’re not recovering adequately from your workouts. So why aren’t you recovering in between your workouts as well as you should be? Here are five possible reasons, and what you can do to fix each one.

1. You’re not getting enough sleep

In the world of fitness, we often think of “rest” as simply the time we spend away from an exercise setting or not actively exercising. While there is some truth to that, the ultimate form of rest is sleep, during which your body and mind and body both receive their optimal levels of repair.

Notwithstanding the fact that muscle protein synthesis is actually higher during the day, it is during sleep that much of the crucial restorative work occurs in your body. This includes the release of hormones like testosterone and growth hormone, which increase muscle strength and size, and also the reduction of inflammation, and the clearing of neural fatigue. 

If you’re finding that your muscles aren’t increasing in size and strength at the rate you expect, and you’ve been burning the midnight oil, it may be that your lack of sleep is causing hormonal dysregulation. To counter this, you should try to get at least seven hours of sleep each night.

2. You’re not eating enough protein

If your muscles are feeling sore and fatigued several days after they’ve been trained, or don’t seem to be functioning optimally, your protein intake is one of the first things you should assess. 

Training in general — and especially resistance training — creates microtears in your muscle fibers that require the amino acids available through protein in order to be rebuilt for subsequent workouts. Without sufficient protein in your diet, you’re repeatedly tearing down your muscles without giving them what they require to rebuild themselves efficiently.

If your muscles feel sore for an extended period of time, or it feels like they are tending to grow weaker rather than stronger, try increasing the protein content of your diet and see if the problem reverses itself.

3. You’re not eating enough carbohydrates

Carbohydrates have gotten a bad rap as a macronutrient that is all too often discarded by people who are told that they must eliminate carbs if they want to maximize the rate at which undesired weight is lost. While this can be true of some carbohydrates, and particularly excessive sugars, carbohydrates are essential to the muscle growth and muscle repair processes. 

First, your muscles rely on carbohydrates to produce muscle glycogen, which is a source of instant energy for your muscles. Low-carb diets have been shown to contribute negatively to strength and power production during training. Furthermore, when carbohydrates are absent, your body will break down muscle protein for energy, which is obviously counterproductive to your ultimate goal of muscle growth.

These factors can lead to a gradual accumulation of muscle fatigue over time, which can only be solved by adding carbohydrates back into your nutrition plan to the tune of at least 150 grams per day.

4. You’re not eating enough dietary fat

It wasn’t all that long ago that the general public had a critical misunderstanding of how dietary fat operated. In summation, it became a popular belief that body fat — or adipose tissue — was only created through the consumption of dietary fat. Because of this poor understanding of biology, many people eliminated fat from their diets completely, leading to several side effects that can contribute to poor recovery from workouts.

First of all, dietary fat is essential to the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins. This includes vitamin D, the lack of which contributes to muscle fatigue and body aches, and which also hinders muscle contraction. This is bad enough, but dietary fat is also required for the replenishment of testosterone, which is mandatory for maximal muscle growth and post-workout recovery.

To make sure your body is running smoothly and recovering from its efforts in the gym, you must include some dietary fat in your nutrition plan simply to ensure optimal nutrient absorption and the ongoing replenishment of vital hormones like testosterone.

5. You’re low on key micronutrients

There continues to be a segment of segment of gym goers and fitness enthusiasts who will say they don’t care about the details of their nutrition plans “as long as I hit my macros.” While macronutrients are important to both training and recovery, shortfalls of key micronutrients can reduce the likelihood that your muscles will be restored in between workouts.

In addition to the aforementioned vitamin D, the B vitamins, vitamin C, iron, zinc, and magnesium all play vital roles in processes ranging from energy production and nerve function to tissue repair, blood cell formation, oxygen transport, and testosterone production. Deficiency in one or more of these vitamins and minerals can impair your recovery process, and prevent you from maximizing your workout potential.

If you’re unsure about whether or not you’re consuming sufficient quantities of these micronutrients, and you suspect that this might be the reason why your workouts aren’t progressing, you are encouraged to seek a more balanced and diverse range of foods, and also to invest in a multivitamin.

Getting real about recovery

Fatigue and soreness can be routine features of an ordinary training cycle, but if they linger for too long, they’re likely a sign of something far more pernicious and damaging that’s going on in your body. Fortunately, the remedy is often something as natural as modification to your sleeping schedule, or a reconfiguring of your diet. However, if you attempt these changes and the problems still linger, you are advised to consult with a trusted physician.

Summary

1. There are several reasons why your muscles might not be recovering efficiently from training, most of  which are correctable by dietary or lifestyle changes.

2. If you’re not getting adequate sleep, you are limiting the ability of your muscles to benefit from the growth initiated by testosterone and growth hormone.

3. Failing to consume enough protein will prevent your body from optimally repairing that damage that your muscles incur during exercise.

4. A shortage of carbohydrates in your diet prevents the restoration of energy to your muscles, and causes your body to break down muscle protein, which hinders muscle growth and repair.

5. Not consuming enough dietary fat can prevent the absorption of vital micronutrients for muscle growth, and also inhibit your body’s ability to produce hormones essential for growth.

6. Failing to diversify your micronutrient content can cause you to omit vitamins and minerals that aid muscle growth and repair, which has a limiting effect on your recovery.

7. For the most part, problems with muscle recovery can be overcome through a balanced nutrition plan where all three macronutrients are well represented, and key vitamins and minerals are acquired in the necessary quantities.