Smoking and alcohol abuse have long gone out of fashion, now most people prefer a healthy lifestyle. Some choose proper nutrition, others choose sports. Both the first and the second do the right thing. A sedentary lifestyle is a direct road to apathy, depression and a bad mood. To feel good, you need to balance the diet, and do not forget about physical activity. Strengthening health and increasing stress resistance are reasons to do sports.

But before you go in for sports, you need to know how to prepare for classes, what clothes you need to buy, what pre workout you should and should not take before activity.

How to dress for a workout

What do you think about when choosing what to wear to a workout? About appearance (after all, in the gym, where handsome men or women will train side by side with you, you want to look attractive)? About convenience: the main thing is that nothing interferes? Or about what kind of clothes will suit your type of fitness and maybe even increase the effectiveness of your workout?

Ideally, if about everything at once. After all, everything is really important: technology, convenience, and beauty! Do not forget about the right underwear and shoes.

How to dress for a workout for a girl

A summer morning walk in the park can be combined with sunbathing – choose short shorts and a sports top for this. Pay special attention to shoes: do not try to run in sneakers designed for walking around the city. In the assortment of all sports brands there is a huge number of special running shoes in all possible colors – it will not be difficult to choose what you like exactly. A baseball cap is great for keeping out the sun.

For cardio and light weight training, choose the simplest things that will not constrain and restrict your movements. A special sports top made of high-tech material, combined with leggings and lightweight sneakers, will allow you to control every movement and see the work of the muscles.

The ideal suit for yoga or pilates is leggings and a short sports top, over which you can put on a T-shirt if you want to warm up your muscles as quickly as possible at the beginning of your workout.

It’s not worth showing imagination in choosing models and cuts for sportswear: it’s better to focus on something concise and not defiant, but bright colors and unusual prints are welcome. Let your form please both you and those around you.

If it’s cool enough in the gym, then in addition to leggings and a top, take care to buy a sports jacket: let it be simple enough so that unnecessary details do not interfere with the exercises. The ideal option is a jacket with a zipper, so that it is convenient to take it off when you “warm up”.

How to dress for a workout for a man

An obligatory element of a sports look is a T-shirt. It is worth picking them up in such a way that the clothes smoothly fit the body, but do not hinder movement. Checking if the T-shirt is suitable for training is very simple: bow in front of the mirror in different directions.

A hoodie or sports jacket is considered by many to be an extra purchase. This is not true! Even on a summer evening, it is dangerous to immediately leave the hall to the street – the chance of catching a cold is too great. You can’t freeze in the club either: it’s better to put on a sweater for a warm-up period, stretching, or while exercising on a simulator that stands right under the air conditioner.

When buying T-shirts, pay attention to the seams. Ideally, if they are external. But in any case, the seams should be flat, soft, not have bumps. Great option – seamless T-shirts. Yes, they do not look as stylish as we would like, but they certainly will not cause discomfort.

Men can pick up long shorts or leggings. The latter are good for their elasticity: in them, even lifting heavy weights, you don’t have to worry that the clothes will simply burst at the seams. Long, and even wider trousers in the gym are simply dangerous: they can catch on the protruding parts of the equipment, and either lose your balance or injure your neighbor.

An important piece of equipment is socks. Sportswear is never made from 100% cotton. Synthetic fibers are required: thanks to them, the socks do not slip, and they remove moisture well. It is very important that the seam is thin and flat: this way you will definitely not rub your fingers, which is especially common with novice runners and athletes.

Here are some tips on what to avoid when going to the gym:

• Natural cotton items. Yes, natural fabrics breathe well and feel comfortable on the skin, but, in addition, they are very wrinkled and do not dry well, so you will literally sweat drenched with intense exertion.
• Inappropriate shoes. For each type of activity, you need to choose your shoes: believe us, you can’t do yoga in running shoes, and tennis shoes are hardly suitable for ballet classes.
• Unsuitable underwear. Incorrectly selected sports underwear can not only cause discomfort, but also harm your health, so choose it responsibly. Another tip is to change your sports bra every 6-9 months.
• Big headphones. Not only large headphones will interfere with your exercise, the rhythm of the music may not match the rhythm of the exercise being performed, and the loud sound will distract your neighbors on the treadmill.
• Wide clothing. Firstly, because of wide clothes, you will not see in the mirror whether you are doing the exercises correctly, secondly, you can simply catch on something with a trouser leg or sleeve, and thirdly, if you exercise in free yoga clothes, then, when performing inverted poses, it will ride up and cause you inconvenience.

When is the best time to exercise in the morning or evening?

What do you want to achieve from visiting the gym? Everyone knows what they want and you are no exception. Properly chosen time for training contributes to the accelerated achievement of the final result.

Gaining mass and burning fat are the most desirable goals that have stuck in the minds of many people who have decided to work on themselves, choose good pre-workout and change for the better.

Fat burning

The human body is designed in such a way that after waking up, the blood sugar level is lowered, and the metabolism is accelerated.

If you train at the beginning of the day, then fat will become the main source of energy, not carbohydrates. Therefore, in the morning you will be able to burn much more fat than during an evening workout.

If you exercise before breakfast, your body will lose more calories than after breakfast.

But we must say that doing on an empty stomach, you will have a lack of strength, therefore, you will quickly get tired. Therefore, do not overload your body, otherwise you will drive it into a state of stress.

Thus, morning sports will be much more effective if you decide to lose weight. But the training process must be approached wisely and correctly calculate the load.

Mass gain

Evening workouts contribute to a set of muscle mass and an increase in strength indicators. As you know, hormones such as testosterone and cortisol have a strong influence on muscle mass gain. If testosterone promotes muscle growth, then cortisol, on the contrary, destroys muscle fibers.

Testosterone levels after evening workouts are much higher than after morning workouts. The level of cortisol, known as the stress hormone, on the contrary, is much lower in the evening than in the morning.

Therefore, exercising in the evening, it is likely to gain muscle mass much faster than exercising in the morning.

If you sit in front of a computer all day and lead a sedentary lifestyle, then at the end of the day you need to stretch your body. In this case, evening training is the best remedy for muscle atrophy. Physical activity will increase testosterone levels, improve blood circulation and help keep muscles in good shape.

If you are engaged in physically difficult work associated with constant travel, active movement and weight lifting, you will not have the strength for an evening workout. Therefore, morning workouts are the best choice for you. By exercising at the beginning of the day, you are guaranteed to cheer up and activate brain and muscle activity. The main thing is not to overdo it in training, otherwise you will not be able to effectively cope with work responsibilities.

Warm up before workout

95% of visitors to gyms and fitness rooms, having barely had time to change clothes, proceed to what they consider to be the most effective part of the training: working on devices for physical exercises. Don’t repeat their mistake! People who skip preworkout warm-up sometimes do not even suspect how important functions it performs. This independent complex of special exercises mobilizes the body before the upcoming loads, warms up the muscles and carefully prepares the athlete’s ligamentous-articular system.

A warm-up can include light articular gymnastics before Body & Mind classes, dynamic stretching before cardio training, or light cardio before a strength training.

Warm-up performs the following tasks:

• toning the cardiovascular system in order to quickly fill the muscles involved in the exercises with blood;
• stretching muscles and tendons to avoid injury
• smoothing increase in heart rate up to 100 beats per minute
• creating an adequate mood for the upcoming workout

To put it simply, the result of the workout and the absence of undesirable consequences, such as muscle pain after exercise and injury, largely depend on the warm-up.

What to eat before a workout

You can eat a full meal 1.5-2 hours before class. If the gap is smaller, during the workout, not the muscles, but the stomach will actively work. If your daily routine does not allow you to eat strictly by the hour, training is approaching, and you understand that you haven’t eaten for a long time, you can eat a banana before going to the gym. It is quickly digested and rich in nutrients. Also, nutritious muesli bars will help you out in this case.

About an hour before training, you can have a snack with something carbohydrate (do the so-called carbohydrate load). But in general, when compiling a diet, you need to focus on your fitness goal. Those who want to dry out and those who need to gain muscle mass will have to eat differently.

How much to drink before a workout

We often forget about drinking water before training. But this is no less important than to quench your thirst during and after class. The correct drinking regimen before training will help to avoid dehydration, because of which we get tired more and faster. This is especially important if you are waiting for an intense workout. But do not drink 500 ml at a time, this is wrong. It is better to measure out about 300 ml and sip them a little over an hour.

Tune in to the result

The right attitude is also very important. Studying through I don’t want to, you will get much less pleasure and benefit than if you come in the mood for productive work. Just decide that sport is an integral part of your life. Do it not because it is fashionable, but because you cannot live without it. Find your type of fitness and the best time for it. For someone, a morning run will bring tremendous pleasure, and for someone, an evening strength lesson in the gym. And there is no need to overpower and break yourself.

Just a few simple but mandatory rules – and your training will bring you the maximum benefit!