There is always a lot of confusion on how to do a proper workout. There are 5 important parts of your workout: the warm-up, stretching, weight workout, cooldown and post workout meal.
It is always important to warm up and then stretch when you walk into a gym or basement. Your muscles will stretch or rip if they are not warmed up since you are putting stress on your muscles every time you workout, and this is not a good thing.
To do a proper warm up, you should use all of your muscle groups. Do not warm up by doing hard cardio for half an hour as this will tire you easily for your weight workout. For a warm up, the best machine is an elliptical trainer. The elliptical trainer will allow you to use all of your muscles, is low impact and forces you to focus on your balance so you can get focused on what the workout will bring. Do a muscle warm up for about 5 – 10 minutes and not a high intensity but rather medium intensity so you only break a little sweat and get your muscles warm.
Afterwards, get some water and do some stretching; stretch all your muscles that you will be working out and training that day. Find some good stretches and spend 5 – 10 minutes stretching and focusing on your breathing, this will ensure you that you have good stock of oxygen in your system for your weight workout so that you will always have your energy up.
Get a drink after some stretching and start your weight workout. I will not go deep into details on the sets and reps as this is preferential. During your workout, make sure that you are waiting 1-2 minutes in between sets and take in water when necessary. Too short a workout and you won’t have time to really hit your muscles hard enough and too long you will have little energy at the end and you also risk not being able to recover between workouts.
After your workout, it’s a good idea to stretch again, as stretching will allow the muscles to stop cramping, increase blood flow throughout the muscle and relax you before you leave the gym.
It is important to remember that you do not make gains in the gym; but you make strength and mass gains while your body recovers with proper exercise and rest. Diet-wise, one of the critical things that you can do after a workout is take in lots of carbohydrates to replenish the lost energy during your workout. Some people have the option of CREATINE or a sugar drink, which may be expensive but if you are only trying to replenish the lost carbohydrates, then take some sugar in water.
About an hour after your workout, you can take in some protein, but some people try to get the protein even earlier and some try to get a double-sized meal an hour after a workout. It’s all preferential, in all actuality. People can’t afford energy drinks or protein drinks, nor can some people stomach in large amounts of food.
Follow these simple steps to get better results, have a better workout, recover better and an even better healthier time in the gym.
My name is Debra Anne Stephens and I am a health and fitness writer and researcher. I have written about alternative weight loss programs and products such as
Green Tea Weight Loss and alternative skin care products like
Eye Cream and
Mineral Makeup.
