If you are serious about looking and feeling great you will make your workouts count. You will load up a carefully curated playlist, fight your busy schedule to get to the gym, and resist every urge to skip those one or two exercises you never seem to find comfortable.
Here are five rules that you should follow in order to improve your results exponentially, as suggested by nutrition experts. These will help you learn when and how to fuel your body in order to meet your fitness goals.
Run Hungry…
The majority of people who go to the gym want to either bulk up or slim down. Lowering your body-fat percentage is the best way to achieve either of these goals, and the best way to lower your body-fat percentage is to work out soon after waking up.
…But Fuel Your Muscles to Give Them a Lift
Kaufman recommends eating 30 grams of carbohydrates before a workout in order to maintain energy levels and optimize effectiveness.
According to Kaufman and Santoro, if you want a lot of energy for your workout, you should have whole-grain pancakes 3-4 hours before and either a banana, fruit smoothie, or oats half an hour before.
Stay Away from Sports Drinks
Kaufman says that people who drink sugary drinks like Gatorade or Vitamin water after short workouts are doing it wrong. She says that these drinks often have more calories in them than what's actually being burned off, and that they're only necessary if you're working out for an hour or more. Kaufman says that it's best to drink water to ensure you're not consuming more calories than are being burned off.
Remember to Refuel
It is important to have post-workout nutrition to maintain fitness goals, according to Santoro. Pre- and post-workout nutrition are the two most important meals of the day. This is because it helps replenish glycogen levels, decrease protein breakdown, and increase protein synthesis and the ability to build muscle. Kaufman recommends following resistance-training exercise with an egg-white omelet or Greek yogurt. She advises that people consume at least 10 to 20 grams of protein after a weight-training regimen.
Don't Out-eat What You Burned
The majority of the calories we burn each day, around 70 to 75 percent, are used for our “basal metabolic functions.” This includes keeping our heart beat going and making our fingernails grow. When we use a lot of extra energy, such as when working out, our bodies signal that it needs more fuel by making us feel hungry and our stomachs rumble. Lisa Jubilee, MS, CDN, says that when this happens, we should only increase our calorie intake by 20 to 30 percent of what our calorie tracker says we burned. She reminds us that we would have burned some of those calories simply by sitting around. See below for a list of Fitness Experts' Go-To Post-Workout Snacks that won't make your calorie intake for the day skyrocket.
Now that you know how to increase your workout results by three times, read on to find out the mistakes you need to break during your next gym visit.
You Don't Fuel Your Workout Properly
Before working out, it's helpful to eat certain foods to ward off fatigue. However, some foods can make your workout less effective. For example, fatty foods like nuts and avocados take a long time to digest. If you work out soon after eating them, your body has to compete with itself for blood supply, which can result in diminished exercise performance and muscle cramps. It's also not a good idea to skimp on carbs before working out. Taking in too little of the nutrient makes it difficult to make it through a long, intense workout. To find out what the best fuel is for every type of workout, check out The Best Fuel For Every Workout.
Your Cardio Plan is Out of Whack
Cardio workouts offer many benefits including boosting heart health, burning calories, and helping people to relax. However, not all cardio exercises are equally effective. Staying on a treadmill or bike for too long can actually lead to a loss of lean muscle mass, which in turn slows metabolism and makes it harder to burn fat and lose weight. To get more fat-burning benefits from cardio workouts, people should incorporate high-intensity, total-body resistance training into their exercise routine.
You're Recovering the Wrong Way
Although it may not seem like it, recovery and rest are just as important as working out. If you don't give your body enough time to relax between sessions, it will start producing cortisol, a stress hormone that causes fat storage and increased appetite. To avoid this, vary your workouts so that you aren't using the same muscles consecutive days. This lets your muscles recover without reducing your workout schedule.
Do Some Dynamic Stretching
If you want to have an effective workout, stretching before is important. Ilana Kugel, co-founder and creative director of Koral Activewear, explains that stretching warms up the muscles and protects against soreness afterwards. Without stretching, your whole workout could be less effective.
dynamic stretching is very important as we age because it can help prevent stiffness and soreness.2 Always warm up your body before exercising to have the best and most safe workout possible.
Use a Foam Roller
Foam rolling is a exercise trend that is being talked about by many celebrities and trainers. It has many benefits for the body such as increasing circulation, stimulating the lymphatic system to remove toxins, and making muscles look and feel better.
According to Lauren Roxburgh, who is a specialist in Structural Integration and resident alignment guru at Goop, it is best to use the tool before working out for best results. Roxburgh explains that doing this will “awaken and prepare your body for movement.”
Eat and Drink Wisely
Some experts recommend eating and drinking before working out, while others caution against it. However, recent studies have found that if meals are chosen wisely, working out can be more effective. It is important to stay hydrated during exercise by drinking water regularly and listening to thirst cues. Some trainers also recommend drinking coffee before working out, as the caffeine can help improve performance.
scientific research suggests that eating carbohydrates close to working out can improve your endurance. Mack recommends options such as chicken, fish, or Greek yogurt with a carbohydrate like sweet potato, rice, or beans. If you want some extra energy, she also suggests adding coconut oil for a dose of MCTs (medium-chain triglycerides).
Try a Supplement
Numerous studies have found that taking pre-workout supplements containing caffeine can be an effective method for boosting energy before you exercise.
While supplements can help with things like fatigue and concentration during workouts, they haven't been shown to have a big effect on body composition. So if you're thinking about trying a supplement, it might help your attitude, but don't expect it to change your body a lot. Make sure to talk to a doctor first to see if it's a good idea for you.
The ingredients in Legion Pulse pre-workout are designed to get you hyped for your workout by providing energy and focus. The all-natural formula includes L citrulline malate, beta-alanine, caffeine, and L theanine.
Get Enough Sleep
“Sleep is one of the strongest determining factors for a successful health routine,” says Monica Jones, NASM-certified personal trainer and performance enhancement specialist. “At our core, sleep affects the release and balance of neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin (often referred to as the ‘happy hormones'). While these processes are handled at the cellular level, brain and bodily function strongly affect our ability to perform physical activity.”
According to Jones, sleep is the key to a good workout because it affects your mood, energy levels, and ability to focus, which can all contribute to a more successful workout.
You should get seven to nine hours of sleep every night.
