SJ Desk
ith increasing pollution, bad food habits and a busy lifestyle, we all know how important workout is for us in modern times. Regular exercise not only helps to keep your weight under control but also puts illness at bay. It has thousands of other benefits if not millions, for instance, regular workout can enhance your memory by supplying more oxygen to the brain, it helps to uplift your mood by venting out the accumulated stress, it helps to provide you with constant energy throughout the day along with a sound and proper sleep at night. But merely engaging in an exercise is not enough, it is also equally important to do things in the right way or else workout can do more bad than good. We bring you a list of things that you should keep in mind while doing the workout, in order to obtain optimum benefits from your efforts.
Never Shun Warm Up and Cool Down
In today's world, people are generally running out of time and as a result, many of us don't want to add those extra few minutes pre and post-workout to warm up and cool down. But by doing so we are actually doing more harm than good to ourselves. Warm up and cool down are low-intensity physical activities. While warm-up helps us to prepare ourselves mentally as well as physically for a rigorous exercise, cool down assists us to bring our body conditions like the heartbeat, blood pressure, and temperature, etc. back to normal. They even help us to avoid and prevent any muscular injury. Adding stretching to your workout regime after warming up is also a good idea.
Don't Fail to Keep Yourself Hydrated
Your body is made up of 70% of water for a reason. While doing moderate to heavy exercises, your body loses water in the form of sweat and hence it is very important to replenish it. Drinking the required quantity of water assists your body to remain hydrated, before, during and post-workout. Water not only helps in maintaining the body temperature but it also aids in transferring the required nutrition to various parts of your body. If you are not adequately hydrated, you won't be able to give your 100% during exercise. Just like a vehicle can’t work without fuel, our body cannot function without water. So consume water generously as it will keep your energy level constant throughout.
Avoid Taking Hollow Calories
In order to maintain a salubrious lifestyle, you need to avoid junk food on a daily basis. If you take junk food, which is mostly fat and sugar, pre-workout, it will give you a sudden boost of energy but will not last long and would make you worn out and weary in between your work out. Moreover, after taking these low nutrition and high-fat diet, you will feel nauseated while doing high movement exercises like jogging, swimming, and aerobics, etc. If you take such food post-workout, you are depriving yourself of the nutrition that is required by your body to recover and heal after a good workout. It’s always a balance between your food habits and physical activity that can help you reach your desired physical fitness goals.
Don't Underestimate the Importance of Proper Rest
Giving your body ample rest is as important as the workout, in order to get into your idol shape. During your workout, your tissues get damaged. When you give your body rest, it recovers itself from the damage and helps to strengthen muscles and adapt to your routine. If you won’t give your body a rest day, you will subject your body to a continuous breakdown, without giving it time to heal which might make you feel depressed, irritated with reduced performance and even prone to injuries and other health conditions. Not just one should emphasis on taking a rest day, but also on proper sleep as many researchers have suggested that a lack of quality sleep can lead to an increase of stress hormones and a decrease in the mending of tissues and its development.
Always Use Proper Attire and Footwear
While doing exercise, you should always feel comfortable. Your body turns, twist, stretch and move in all directions while you exercise. So the clothing should be chosen carefully. A tight non-stretchable attire can offer you resistance, making your workout difficult. Wrong clothing can even affect your body posture while you workout, which can result in injury and cramp. Especially during the summer, you need an attire that can absorb sweat and are made up of soft materials, for a wrong choice can lead to rashes, itchiness and other skin infections. The same goes for our feet, as it works throughout the day, carrying our body weight and losing moisture. You don’t want to torture them anymore and provide them with proper cushioning and safety while doing workouts.
Proper Breathing While Workout
While doing workout especially when lifting weights, your focus should always be on proper breathing. One should slowly and gradually inhale air through the nose instead of taking in a rapid and robust gasp. Same goes for exhaling, as we should steadily breathe out instead of breathing out forcibly. Proper breathing helps to transfer adequate oxygen to your muscles while training. Initially, you have to manually work on the breathing part while doing workout but slowly you can train yourself to naturally breathe in the right way while being engaged in physical activity. While lifting a weight, you should breathe in and while coming down you should exhale. A small set of yoga exercises can also help you in finding the right rhythm of breathing pattern while workout.