First and foremost, many people are not aware of things to avoid when they are working out. As a result, they are not able to get the most benefits they could when they are working hard during their work out. So, to maximize your benefits, when you are putting in all that effort, do the things described below.
Warm up
First, warming up helps prepare your body for aerobic or strength training activity. Indeed, a warmup gradually revs up your cardiovascular system by raising your body temperature and increasing blood flow through your muscles. Furthermore, warming up may also help reduce muscle soreness and lessen your risk of injury.
Stay Hydrated
Second, good hydration means getting the right amount of water before, during, and after the workout. By the way, water regulates your body temperature and lubricates your joints. Also, water helps transport nutrients to give you energy and keep you healthy.
On the other hand, if you are not hydrated, your body cannot perform at its highest level.
Now, some people would prefer to drink carbonated water instead of plain water. That is perfectly acceptable as long as the water is only carbonated.
Do not Waste Time
Third, you may only have budgeted a limited amount of time for your workout. While, breaks, to let your body recover, are part of the workout, spending longer breaks, means less time for working out. Consequently, you cannot achieve as much as you could have if you were more focused in the limited time you allocated for the workout. Moreover, if you continue this pattern, your interest in working out will disappear over time.
Do not Overdo
Now, over-exercising can lead to hormonal imbalance or changes in testosterone and cortisol (our stress hormone). As a result, overdoing workouts can cause overeating. Also, the body can begin to burn muscle instead of fat. So, overdoing workouts can compromise training sessions and cause your body to hold onto or gain fat, particularly abdominal fat.
Get Your Post-Workout Nutrients Soon After the Workout
Next, to understand how the right foods can help you after exercise, it is important to understand how your body is affected by physical activity. In fact, when you are working out, your muscles use up their glycogen stores for fuel. As a result, your muscles are partially depleted of glycogen. Furthermore, some of the proteins in your muscles also get broken down and damaged.
So, after your workout, your body tries to rebuild its glycogen stores by repairing and re-growing those muscle proteins. Therefore, eating the right nutrients soon after you exercise can help your body get this done faster. By the way, it is particularly important to eat carbs and protein after your workout. In fact, doing this helps your body by:
- Decreasing muscle protein breakdown,
- Increasing muscle protein synthesis (growth),
- Restoring glycogen stores, and
- Enhancing recovery.
Maintain a Healthy Diet
Next, good nutrition is an important part of leading a healthy lifestyle. Furthermore, combined with physical activity, your diet can
- Help you to reach and maintain a healthy weight,
- Reduce your risk of chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer, and
- Promote your overall health.
Avoid Steroids
Now, steroids like exogenous testosterone can help you build big muscles and increase your strength. However, they can also cause acne and breast tenderness. Also, long term steroid use can cause serious adverse effects on the cardiovascular system, fertility, prostate, lipid metabolism, and insulin sensitivity.
So, if you just want strong muscles, get them without using steroids.
Do not Use too Many Machines
A sports club has, many, different kinds of exercise machines. Some provide cardio workouts like the treadmill, ellipticals, spinning bikes, to name a few. Others are used for building muscles and strength. Still others, provide functional exercises like balance, stretching, etc. In fact, it is almost like being a child in a candy store.
However, instead of using many of these machines, have a plan on how you are going to achieve your goal. So, what is your goal. Is it to get a cardio workout or is it to build muscles? Or, maybe you have issues with your balance.
Whatever your goal, use machines that help you meet that goal. However, you should avoid using every different type of machine that can help you with the goal. Depending on the goal, you can focus on a handful of machines.
Or, you can have a specific goal on some days of the week and use a few of the machines that help you with that goal. And, you can have another goal on other days of the week where you use another set of machines. For example, your goal could be cardio on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, where you use the treadmill, elliptical, or spinning bikes. And your goal could be strength training on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday where you use strength training machines.
Furthermore, your goals can change. In which case, you can swap out machines you were using with new ones that help meet your new goal.
Get Enough Sleep
Most of all, it is important to get the recommended amount of sleep, which is 7 to 8 hours for most people. Indeed, sleep is vital for cementing muscle recall linked to body movements. And, together with muscle repair and growth that happens during sleep, this allows for overall improved workout performance. Furthermore, the exercise-sleep connection works both ways where your workouts help you get a better night’s rest.
Be Consistent
Finally, one way to maximize the benefits of your workout is to stick to a consistent plan. For example, instead of cramming a week’s worth of workouts during the weekend, try to schedule 30 minutes of workouts each day. Furthermore, the 30 minutes of workouts do not even need to be done all at the same time. In fact, you can try breaking them up into two 15-minute workout sessions.