You would think that a power-packed workout is only achieved after high intensity weight training and a tiring cardio session. So, you tend to neglect the warm up and the cool down sessions that enhance the effectiveness of your workout.
A workout a without a warm-up and a cool down is like eating a meal without a glass of water. If you come back from the gym with aching muscles and feeling absolutely drained, here are a few things that might help you to retain your energy level.
Warm up to the workout
A warm up unlocks tight muscles and helps your body to adapt to the exercise. It improves blood flow to the heart, increases muscle temperature and makes muscles more workable. The warm up also protects your muscles from immediate strain of a heavy workout. The heart rate and the respiratory rate needs to be elevated in order for you to workout effectively.
If you don't warm up before your exercise routine, you are bound to feel lethargic during exercise. So, don't skip the steps, exercise, or the 10 minutes of light walking that you are asked to do by your trainer.
Stretch it Out
Do you often skip boring stretches and jump straight to action? Remember next time when you do so, you are prone to some serious injury. Stretching heals muscle soreness and relaxes them. It might be easy to do but is beneficial in maintaining muscle elasticity. Without stretching your muscles will not grow or get toned.
You can't work tired muscles. If you are used to a sedentary lifestyle, stretches help your body to loosen up. After every weight training exercise you do, appropriate stretching needs to be done. For example, after you work on the back muscle, you need to do the back stretch for at least 15 seconds, so that the workout has the right effect.
If you directly start doing the set of exercises without stretches, your muscles will remain sore and you are likely to suffer an injury. Just as you need sleep to rejuvenate from a tiring day of work, in the same way your muscles need a few good relaxing stretches to get back to work.
Feel the burn
If you're lifting weights everyday and not feeling any amount of heat or tension in the muscles, there is definitely something wrong. Either you have got the movements wrong or the weights are not right for you.
If you have been asked to do a certain number of repetitions with a specific amount of weights, stick to that. Don't increase the number of repetitions in order to tone up faster because there are chances you might land up having undesirable weight loss around the bust and the hips.
Breathe the right way
Slow continuous breathing is essential to maintain the oxygen flow in the body. Every exercise has specific in out breathing patterns that you must follow. So, you need to concentrate on your breathing, this will also help you to exercise better and enjoy the workout.
If you don't breathe correctly you will be out of breath in between the exercise and will not be able to finish the required amount of repetitions. Inadequate breathing will require you to take too many breaks between each set of exercise that you do, therefore reducing the effects of that exercise.
Sip on Water
Sip on water between your workout sessions but don't drink too much water. When you finish your cardio session, you will extremely drained out and thirsty, but don't gulp down a lot of water at one go.
Too much of water interferes with weight training. You might feel bloated in the stomach. After you have completed your workout, drink at least half a bottle of water. Your body needs to replenish it's water content after giving out water through sweating.
Cool it Down
If you walk out from the gym without cooling down you might feel dizzy and uneasy. Exercising increases your heart rate and your body is geared up for some sort of rigorous physical activity and suddenly if you stop the work out; you are trying to push the body back to a normal mode. Five minutes of cool down in the form of slow walking or relaxing on the floor brings the body back to a normal heart rate.
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