How to prepare for your workout and how to take care afterwards

How you prepare yourself for the workout and how you take care of yourself after raises lots of questions. Questions such as just are you rested and fuelled, also how you take care of yourself after the workout is over, do you refuel with the right food and give yourself recovery time. Preparation and aftercare will determine whether you build muscle and burn fat or whether you will break more muscle and make it harder for the body to lose fat.

Preparation

The preparation to a workout is as important as the aftercare. To prepare the body well, you need to eat well and have a rested body. This assists in preventing injuries so you can get the most out of your workout and a well fuelled and rested body will give you optimum results.

It is essential to drink plenty or water before, during and after exercise to prevent dehydration. Drink enough water to lubricate your muscles before the workout. Think of your muscles as a sponge. A dry sponge doesn’t work well but a sponge that has enough water is going to be more effective. A muscle that contains enough water will be flexible and be able to move in the correct range of motion. A dry sponge is not flexible and you can’t move it without it breaking.

During the workout, you will sweat, this is the water cooling your body and getting rid of the toxins. You must replace the water after the workout. Some smart watches will estimate how much sweat you produce, it’s quite interesting to know that you need to replace that plus more to lubricate the muscles again. My smart watch tells me that in a 45 minute cycle class I can lose up to 900ml of water. That means I have to have 900ml of water in my muscles/body to lose, then I have to replace it by drinking 900ml plus more to make sure there are no dehydrated muscles and I’m not feeling thirsty. You will lose electrolytes as well so in a hot humid environment it is recommended to replace those electrolytes as well. There are loads of replacement products on the market, such as Staminade, Gatorade and Hyrdrolyte.

Warm up properly. streetefit online classes always has a 5-10 minute warm up which allows the body to increase in temperature and stretch the muscles ready for a workout. Warm up exercises are done slowly and using large range of motion exercises to increase the blood flow and temperature of the muscles. A good warm up will slowly increase your heart and breathing rates

Wear appropriate clothing that is comfortable and wear shoes to protect your feet in streetefit’s Strength and Conditioning classes. Comfortable clothing may be a pair of shorts or leggings, a Tshirt or tank top or crop top. Find a pair of shoes which gives support to your arches, especially if there is some high energy cardio involved your feet need the support to prevent injury to the them.

Eat a small snack or meal which contains low energy carbohydrates and protein at least an hour before class. This is a whole topic in itself. Suffice to say, low energy carbohydrates take time to metabolise therefore giving extended energy. A protein source helps your body recover and repair itself. Protein is important as it plays a crucial role in the body’s functions. Other reasons why protein is important include building and repairing muscles, bones and organs. Many enzymes and hormones in the body are made up of protein. These help regulate the body’s metabolism. Some proteins help move and store nutrients such as iron, oxygen and glucose. Other proteins assist the immune system’s function including antibodies that fight infections and diseases. When carbohydrates and fats are not available, the body can break down proteins to use as an energy source. This is crucial in fuelling the body after exercise as you want to use protein to repair and assist the recovery of the muscle. Muscle burns fat so you need to have sufficient muscle to burn the fat. Protein will keep you feeling full and satisfied longer. When you feel satisfied you won’t reach for the sugary calorie laden foods.

Listen to your body, mostly we’re full of energy but occasionally, that energy is not there. Adjust your class to suit you, try a lower impact option or an easier move. Don’t push yourself if you don’t feel up to it, go slow and easy to prevent injuries. If you’re not feeling the energy and feeling sluggish your body is telling you that something is not right, you may be coming down with a cold or other virus. Sometimes just sitting around creates tiredness, so think about how you are feeling then assess to see whether you may be getting sick or you’ve sat around all day and your body is relaxed. There are times when you least feel like a workout, you feel amazing afterwards.

After a Workout

After a workout you must rehydrate, replace the fluid you lost and double it. See above for more information about the importance of hydration.

streetefit Online classes includes a cool down with stretching. It is essential to let the body cool down – decrease body temperature, breathing rate goes back to normal and the heart rate slows down. Stretching is also of great importance as helps the muscle get rid of the lactic acid, bringing oxygen into the muscle and lengthen the muscle to allow it to increase flexibility and to repair and recover. Our cooldown and stretching is around 10 minutes.

Sleep is not over rated. While you sleep your body recovers and repairs. On average, you should be getting at least 7 – 8  hours of sleep. If you have a smart watch you can monitor your sleeping patterns.

Monitor your body, if you haven’t exercised for a while you may feel sore and tired. That is normal, your body will take a few days to adjust to the new routine. Muscle soreness is the microscopic tears in the muscles. This microscopic tears will heal in around 48 hours. Drink plenty of water and rest. Stretch the muscles gently and your body will respond well.

A bit more on what a workout does to your body. It does stress your body. However, this stress is not bad. The workout you just did in streetefit’s Online Strength and Conditioning class is designed to build and maintain muscle. To do that, the workout breaks down muscle tissue microscopically and the rest and recovery phase will repair and rebuild the muscles. You must refuel your body as a priority. You can’t burn body fat and the muscles can’t repair and recover the muscles without the correct nutrients.

So many times I hear people say that they do lots of exercise and are wondering why they are not getting the body that they want. I ask them to think about how often they train, what actual training do they participate in and then what do they do afterwards.

There are syndromes called Overtraining and Under Eating. These undermine all the hard work you do.

Briefly, overtraining occurs when you exercise too much or too intensely without allowing your body enough time to recover. It can lead to decreased performance, increased risk of injury, fatigue, mood changes and a weakened immune system. If you experience any of these you may need to reassess your exercise regime. Joining streetefit online classes will not allow you to overtrain. Even if you take on the package with extra weight sessions, the whole program is designed with safety and health in mind.

Another part of Overtraining is Under eating. How many of you cut calories, cut carbs, eat ridiculously small meals and wonder why you are hungry, putting on weight, feeling grumpy, hormones are out of whack?

Under eating after exercise can impact your body as badly as overtraining.

Some consequences include decreased recovery. You need to provide your body with the correct nutrients to repair and recover to slow down muscle soreness and speed up the recovery. Others include decreased muscle growth, decreased energy, decreased performance, an increased risk of injury.

Metabolic Precision Nutrition will help you eat for the way you train and you will have a body you are proud of. It’s important to fuel your body at the right time after exercise. This is called the metabolic window. You eat a balanced meal that contains high and low energy carbohydrates, protein and an omega source. Each meal inside and outside the window has this omega supplement. In our country we do not eat fish for every meal. We lack omegas 3, 6 and 9 which allows our bodies to function properly. The metabolic window is a three hour window where you eat for the way you exercise then once that three hours is up you change the carbohydrate portion to just low energy carbohydrates.

Conclusion

To get the most out of a workout you need to prepare for the workout by having enough water and fuel, warm up correctly, wear appropriate clothing and listen to your body.

After a workout is just as important. You need to cool down and stretch the body to pre workout status, replace the fluid you lost, refuel your body using the Metabolic Precision program, get adequate rest and sleep to avoid overtraining and under eating.