Are you determined to follow your workout plans and achieve your goals? Do you think you have all it takes to stay devoted day in day out? Well, that’s great. It means that much of your workout is done if you are ready to power through even the workout routines you find most uncomfortable.
According to nutrition experts, merely showing up at the gym every day is not enough to give you your dream body.
Here are top 6 tips on how to make your workout routines more effective.
Stay Hydrated
Water is an essential part of exercising especially if you are looking to lose weight. The body is made up of 60% water and the lack of it can lead to multiple complications including energy loss. It is recommended alongside protein shakes but if you want to lose weight, water alone should be taken regularly before and after exercising.
Staying hydrated is so important that just a 2% decrease in body fluid can reduce performance by up to 20%. Water also helps in moving waste products from the joints and muscles, increasing flexibility and reducing pain during workouts.
Diet
Fuel your body with healthy carbohydrates and whole grains about 2 hours before you hit the gym. A healthy diet will have a positive effect on your body by improving your energy levels and maximising the burning of fat.
Start your workout with stretches
Stretching is the one way to make your body flexible. As a beginner, you will find that you exercise better when you do stretches before working out.
Dynamic stretches like abdominal stretches, trunk rotations and side bends can help prepare you for a workout.
Don’t smoke
Smoking significantly reduces the effect of exercising in so many ways. The more you exercise, the more your body uses up the oxygen in your body. Smoking is known to reduce the oxygen levels in the body. This happens when the carbon dioxide in the cigarette binds with the haemoglobin of the red blood cells.
Smoking also causes an increased airway resistance while the chemicals in tobacco like nicotine and carbon dioxide affect the lungs and the blood. If you cannot resist smoking, get a vaping set. It provides the same satisfaction that traditional cigarettes give with minimal health risks.
Don’t out-eat what you burnt
We need about 70% of our calories for normal metabolic functions like breathing, heartbeat and hair growth. When we are working out, we tend to exert the body so much that it calls urgently for a refuel of body energy. But some people eat as much as they can once the work-out induced hunger descends upon them. This will only mitigate the progress you are making.
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As a rule, only increase your calorie intake to about 20% of the number of calories you lost.
Watch your rest and recovery periods
How you recover from your workout is just as important as the routine itself. When people are motivated, they tend to go overboard with intense workout without giving their body any chance to recover. As a result, your body starts pumping out cortisol (stress hormone) which increases your appetite.
This doesn’t mean you should take days off after one day of intense workout, just don’t overdo it; and make sure you get enough rest afterwards.
Conclusion
When it comes to working out, working smart is a lot better than working hard. With the tips listed above, you can achieve more by doing less. Limit your workout to about 40 minutes no matter how much weight you want to lose.
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