If you are working hard to reach your fitness goals, you might struggle to reach them if your post-workout habits are not quite as healthy as your training sessions. So, what are the post-workout mistakes you should avoid? The following factors are some of the key things to avoid.
1. Under-training:
You need to train enough to get the results you are looking for. Training once a week will not lead to significant results. You need to consistently train at least three times a week.
2. Overtraining:
Training too much is as bad as not training enough, if not worse. Your muscles need to recover in-between workouts. If you don’t let your body recover you will not see great results, as it’s when your body is recovering from exercise that your muscles and nervous system are growing stronger. It is likely that you will only achieve 70% of your potential by overtraining, and there is a strong possibility you will get injured or sick.
3. Sleep Deprivation:
It is important to get to sleep by 10 p.m as this is when your body is focused on body repair. Also you should aim for at least eight hours of sleep a night, as the body focuses on psychological repair from 2 a.m to 6 a.m. If you are tired it is impossible to have a truly amazing workout. And if you are tired it is very easy to eat the wrong types of food. So get to bed on time.
4. Protein Deficient Diet:
Your body needs protein to recover from your training session and help build more muscle. You want to have protein at every meal, including breakfast. It is very easy to be deficient in protein if you are eating a diet of cereal for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, and pasta for dinner. Look carefully at what you are eating and ask yourself if you are getting enough. If you are training the minimum amount of protein you need daily is 1g per kilogram of body weight. So if you weigh 60kg you need 60g of protein a day.
5. Highly Processed Food:
The food you are eating has to be of the very best quality so you can get the most out of your training sessions. The very best quality is organic unprocessed natural foods. These foods have the most nutrition and least toxins. If you are eating foods where the ingredients sound like something out of a chemistry lab, you are not doing your body any favors.
6. Dehydrated Body:
If your urine is darker than straw colored you are likely to be dehydrated. This is a disaster for your training as even a 1% level of dehydration will have a significant impact on your fitness. Make sure you take a bottle of spring water with you when you are training. Also, aim to drink at least 2 liters of water a day.
7. High Stress Lifestyle:
If your life is highly stressful it would be very difficult for you to achieve great fitness results. The body prioritizes dealing with stress over body repair. When the body is under stress it releases a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol breaks down muscle and promotes fat storage. Find ways of reducing your stress load; maybe take up qi gong or tai chi.
8. Not the Right Balance of Macro Nutrients:
Everyone has a different balance of macro nutrients (protein, fat, and carbohydrate) that works most efficiently for their body. For example, some people can tolerate very little carbohydrate without packing on the pounds whereas the next person can eat a great deal more carbohydrate and be in perfect shape. You can find out what the ideal combination of fat, protein and carbohydrate is for your body by completing a metabolic type questionnaire.
9. Emotional Eating:
Another mistake is to view food in an emotional way, rather than in a more rational manner. Many people eat certain foods to make them feel better; or comfort eat. If you can view food like fuel for your body that is much better as you would eat when hungry and stop when slightly full.
10. Binging on Alcohol:
Binging on alcohol is a big no-no when it comes to training. I have trained with a hangover and I can tell you that it is simply a waste of a training session, you may as well not bother. Alcohol can also pack on the pounds as its high in calories with no real nutritional benefit. Alcohol is also dehydrating which is stressful on the body, which negatively impacts on your fitness session. If you want to go out and socialize, I would strongly suggest having a sensible limit on the amount you drink.
11. Skipping the Stretch:
Many people skip stretching after their workout which is really stupid as stretching is important to bring down your stress hormones. Stretching also helps your body recover after your workout by minimizing the muscle stiffness you can get after a workout; which means you can train sooner rather than later.
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