No one spends hours in the gym, drenching with sweat for so-so results. Every person works peak-high to get 100% results. Now there are two ways of achieving the desired workout results; one way is to work hard and the other is to work smart. While some people spend extra hours in the gym to get desired results, some achieve the same in record time. Hint; we are not talking about fat-cutting teas and supplements. What we recommend here are some diet tips and workout tricks which will help you make the most of your efforts and fetch desired workout results.
Here are 7 incredible yet simple things which will help you enhance your workout results. Keep reading…
1. Lift weight
If you think that cardio is all you need for weight loss, you are mistaken. Practicing only cardio slows down your metabolism and makes weight loss harder. While cardio supports weight loss, the process can work faster if you include weight training in your program as well. Resistance training helps you shed those extra pounds and it promotes lean muscle mass as well. Lifting weight helps you lose weight when your body is at rest. Therefore, you must include some weight lifting and resistance training in your program. It will help you attain your goal faster.
2. Listen to music
Listening to some motivational tracks can fire up your workouts. And when it comes to recovery post workouts, music again comes to your rescue. A research showed that people who listened to slow music after workouts recover faster. Music boosts serotonin and dopamine levels in the body. Both these foster recovery post-workouts.
After you return from the gym, play some light and relaxing tracks, they will lower your blood pressure and heart rate and help you come back to normal faster.
3. Load up on some carbs
While some people think that carbohydrate loading is only required before a marathon or a super-intensive sport. However, your body needs carbs even when your workout program is not that intense. Carbs are the primary fuel of your body and giving up on them can prevent you from working out to the best of your potential. They allow you to engage in high-intensity workouts which will help you perform better, gain lean muscle mass and lose fat much faster. Even if you are hitting the gym in the morning, have a bowl of oatmeal or a toast to fuel you for the workout session.
4. Take breaks
High-intensity interval workouts help you burn more calories. Such workout plans, with periods of interspersed exercise with low-intensity intervals have better cardiovascular benefits and induce weight loss. People who engage in a 20-minute interval workout, with exercises like burpees, pushups, lunges and squats burned as many as 15 calories in one minute. To begin with, perform four reps for 20 minutes; take a break of 10 seconds between the reps and then workout for four minutes. Take a one minute break and then repeat the same for four rounds.
5. Drink coffee before workouts
Your trainer may ask you to drink a cup of black coffee before hitting the gym. There’s a reason for this. Black coffee has a very high content of caffeine and this increases your metabolism. As a result, you end up losing more weight during the day and during your workouts. Coffee before workouts helps your body use fat cells as an energy source instead of glycogen. Besides this, it suppresses your diet and stops you from eating too much. Besides this, coffee before workouts can make you less vulnerable to muscle pains and it enhances your performance as well.
6. Drink chocolate milk after workouts
Low-fat chocolate milk helps you recover much better and much faster after workouts as compared to other beverages. It has a carb and protein content of 4:1 ratio.
While proteins promote muscle repair, carbs make up for energy loss during workouts. Soon after a high-intensity workout try to drink a glass of chocolate milk.
7. Eat proteins before sleeping
Proteins are required for muscle recovery after workouts and for best results, this shouldn’t stop even after you have gone off to sleep. For this, eat foods rich in casein proteins, a slow-digesting protein which continues protein synthesis in the body even after you have gone off to sleep. Have Greek yogurt or cottage cheese before going off to sleep for optimum results.
