7 tips to make workouts more efficient and more enjoyable
Masha Vorslav
Olivier is coming up towards the end, and we decided to collect useful tips that will help those who exercise with “you” to remain in an acceptable form, and improve those who are actively working on it.
Correct start
Let's start with the basics. Everyone knows that the body needs to be prepared for intensive exercises, but many do not see the difference between warm-up and stretching. Before training, it is the first that requires basic exercises such as hand-waving, jumping, push-ups and squats for at least five minutes. It is impossible to stretch unheated muscles, but after a workout it will be useful to stretch - the “hitch” on the stretching elements is based on.
Pre-workout chocolate
Chocolate is generally a good friend of an athlete (bitter, of course), we'll tell you about it. In 2011, The Journal of Psychology published the results of a study: the epicatechin contained in bitter chocolate delays the onset of fatigue - at the metabolic level, increasing the number of mitochondria ("cell energy stations", remember biology?). In short, a couple of squares before training helps to train a little longer.
Non-alcoholic beer after training
If you like to skip a glass of beer from time to time and at the same time do not ignore training, happily press your hand and want to share the good news: non-alcoholic wheat beer is useful for athletes. Confirming this study was carried out for three weeks at 277 participants of the marathon, half of which drank 1.5 liters of beer per day. It turned out that polyphenols contained in it in large quantities reduce the likelihood of inflammatory processes that the body is exposed to after such a serious test as a marathon - the probability of getting sick, for example, a cold drops by a third.
And chocolate milk
Another proof that the bitter chocolate - all head, brought to the University of Connecticut. To do this, four runners after 45-minute runs with a fast pace drank 450 ml of low-fat sweet chocolate milk, and the other four - carbohydrate-containing sports drinks. Post-training biopsy showed that the first muscles tend to recover faster and they accumulate more glycogen, which also contributes to better health after exercise.
Improved performance
Spend time in the hall with a double (ok, more) benefit can be, if you follow two unobvious advice. First, you need to perform exercises that affect several muscle groups (lunges, barbell, strap for example), and not one - you will rather get in shape, and not just pump your biceps. Secondly, to maintain balance, the body has to strain, so if you hold the weight on one shoulder during a lunge or squeeze only one dumbbell from the shoulder, it will work harder.
More weight
Strength training does not make pitching out of a "normal" person, unless he makes additional, spoiling health efforts. Do not be afraid to add more "pancakes" to the bar or simulator - a correctly calculated load will strengthen the bones. To do this, in each approach you need to lift from 60 to 70% of the load that you can withstand - if it is easier, then choose a weight with which you can repeat the exercise from 8 to 12 times.
Sports drinks not after exercise
In order to sweeten sports drinks like Gatorade act (in part), they do not even need to swallow. It works like this: during the time that sugar is in the mouth, areas of the brain associated with the sensation of pleasure already have time to activate. Therefore, those who want to increase their stamina should drink sports drinks during a workout (not earlier than half an hour after it began) - unfortunately, they cannot fill the lack of electrolytes with a rinse.
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