Getting back from a long bike ride, long run, or intense swimming session? You know that muscle soreness is coming! What can you do to speed up the recovery from your exercise? Whether your training is cycling, running, swimming, or another form of exercise that got your muscles working hard, tart cherries may be able to help you in the post-workout recovery process.
That’s where THIS JUICE comes in!
Tart cherries and tart cherry juice have been shown to minimize or decrease muscle inflammation. In relation to muscles and exercise, studies show that tart cherry juice:
- Reduces inflammation so it helps alleviate muscle soreness more quickly
- Improves muscle recovery after exercise so it helps to speed up recovery from your workout
Tart cherries vs tart cherry juice
You’ll get more jam-packed nutritious benefits with a higher level of antioxidants from tart cherry juice concentrate like this as opposed to whole cherries like these because of the higher concentration found in the juice. You would have to eat a lot more cherries to match a seemingly smaller portion of cherry juice. But that doesn’t mean to discard the thought of eating cherries! Cherries are still a good choice when selecting fruits at the grocery store. There are also tart cherry supplements like these.
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Research studies, tart cherry juice, and endurance athletes
There have been studies performed by cyclists and runners that indicate the benefits of drinking cherry juice —
Research: Muscle recovery of cyclists after an intense training workout
Cyclists who drank tart cherry juice in the days leading up to their intense training session, on the day of their training session, and the days following their training session, compared to cyclists who didn’t drink any cherry juice, seemed to show a cycling advantage. Among the benefits shown from drinking the cherry juice were better efficiency while cycling and less muscle inflammation. Read more about this research. (Study published: Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism.)
Research: Muscle recovery of runners after a marathon race
Runners who drank tart cherry juice in the days leading up to their marathon race, and also on race day, showed less muscle inflammation following the marathon than those who didn’t consume any cherry juice. This also would mean that the runners who drank the cherry juice needed less recovery time following the race. Read more about this research. (Study published: Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports.)
Take action! Include tart cherries in your post-workout recovery
As a part of your post-workout routine, you are already taking in fuel immediately after your workout to gain the maximum benefits from your workout, right? 🙂 Well, consider including tart cherry juice as a part of your post-workout recovery drink or snack!
Make it a cherry smoothie recipe
After your next workout, make a cherry smoothie for a quality post-workout recovery drink! Below are 2 suggestions using this basic smoothie recipe as a guide. The first suggestion is if you’re using whole cherries. Frozen cherries work the best here so you won’t have to deal with the cherry pit! The second suggestion is based on using cherry juice.
Follow the smoothie recipe referenced above, but switch out the peaches for cherries. Drop the peaches, and instead, if you are using:
- Whole cherries: Add 1/2 cup of cherries to the recipe instead of the peaches, and the rest of the recipe keep the same
- Cherry juice: Double the amount of pineapple or add a half of a banana, depending on whether you prefer a more pineapple or banana taste. Then substitute the milk for the cherry juice. You will still get a good amount of protein from the yogurt. Alternatively, instead of getting rid of the milk altogether, go for half milk and half cherry juice.
When it comes to making any type of smoothies for your post-workout enjoyment, experiment away! Since much of it is personal taste, and everyone has a different level of liking for the taste of tart cherries, you may want to go for a little more or a little less in the amount of cherries or cherry juice in your smoothie.
Make it a cherry yogurt recipe
Another quick and easy post-workout recovery drink or food is to make your own version of cherry yogurt. This is even quicker to make than a smoothie.
Mix together plain Greek yogurt with cherry juice, and you have yourself a quality post-workout snack! (Opting for vanilla yogurt instead of plain yogurt would add more flavor.) Depending on the consistency you like, as well as how much cherry flavor you want, you can make it more yogurt-like by adding less cherry juice. Or by adding more cherry juice, you create a more drinkable form of the cherry yogurt. Either way, a delicious cherry post-workout snack!
Add the cherry juice to the yogurt and mix in small increments, so you can taste as you go, and see the consistency as you go, to determine if you want to add more cherry juice.
Note: Greek yogurt is mentioned because of the thicker consistency (and more jam-packed protein!) which is helpful if you’re adding liquid to yogurt. You can also give it a try with regular yogurt as well, but it will become a thinner consistency more quickly which means less opportunity to add a higher amount of cherry juice.
Make it a trail mix recipe with cherries
For hikers and backpackers, add dried cherries like these to your trail mix!
Tart cherries as part of a well-rounded lifestyle
Of course, tart cherries and tart cherry juice alone will not make your training or exercise program whole. To gain the maximum benefit of adding tart cherries to your life, it is best that it be a part of a well-rounded lifestyle.
Where to buy Montmorency tart cherry juice
For where to buy Montmorency tart cherry juice… RIGHT HERE! 😉
HAPPY TART CHERRY RECOVERY!
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