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Pre & Post Workout Shots You Can Try At Home

pre & post workout shotsWhether you’re working out indoors or outdoors, hydration is imperative throughout a workout and especially before and after! Since you’ve been working out at home all this while, here’s how you can improve your hydration game to the optimum benefits on your performance and outcomes of exercising with these pre & post workout shots! 

Pre & Post Workout Shots For Home! 

1. Shot of Beetroot Juice for Pre Workout
Beetroot Juice is a supplement with a high nitrate content, that is said to improve physical performance secondary to nitric oxide, which is a component of human blood that helps dilate your blood vessels and aid faster blood circulation, as to provide greater oxygen supply. Supplementation or dietary ingestion of nitrates is known to reduce oxygen requirements during exercise and reduce VO2 max (which indicates better stamina). In measures of time taken to reach exhaustion, beetroot juice showed an association with a fatigue delay effect and exercise performance enhancement.

A short term supplementation with beetroot juice may reduce VO2, giving an ergogenic effect, at less than or equal to VO2 max intensity that makes it possible to enable increased time-to-exhaustion. In addition to improving efficiency and performance, chronic supplementation with beetroot juice may improve cardiorespiratory performance as well. Consumption of Beetroot juice should be initiated in a period of 90 minutes before athletic effort, since the peak value of nitrates occurs within 2-3 hour after ingestion. At least 6-8 mmol of nitrate i.e. juice of 5 medium sized beetroots intake is required to observe an improvement in athletic performance.

2. Shot of Amla Juice for Post Workout
Amla Juice is a reservoir of Vitamin C and essential electrolytes that are of utmost importance for post workout recovery. Post workout is an immunocompromised state where the body is concentrating more on muscle recovery and storage. This makes it imperative to supplement with immune boosting nutrients and electrolytes that may be lost due to sweating, right after a workout session.

Supplementing with amla juice has shown to reduce infection rate in athletes and heavy working out individuals. It also lowers down duration of muscle soreness significantly, which aids early mitigation of muscle cramps. Vitamin C being an antioxidant, reduces inflammation in the body, which is a common after effect of exercising. Chronic supplementation with amla juice is shown to build stronger immunity and improve gut health as well as strengthening the respiratory system.

Intake of amla juice should be initiated within 20 minutes of finishing physical activity as that is when the recovery and restorative activities of the body begin. Juice of 4 medium sized amlas ensures the supply of adequate amounts of Vitamin C and electrolytes.

We hope these pre & post workout shots help you get the most out of your exercises! Do let us know your experience in the comments below. For more on workout out and fitness, check out Healthy Reads or tune in to LIVE sessions by experts on GOQii Play. 

To get these tips directly from your GOQii Coach, subscribe for personalized health coaching now: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

#BeTheForce 

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How To Create A Full Body Workout At Home!

Create A Full Body Workout It has been over a year since I wasn’t able to visit the gym or go for my swimming classes. To continue being active, I had to plan a full body workout at home! A full body workout can provide overall toning and help you achieve your goal – whether the goal is to gain strength or to lose weight! A full body workout doesn’t require any machines so it’s a routine you can follow anywhere. 

How You Can Plan A Full Body Workout At Home 

To begin with, I divided my workout into three parts – Stretching, Abs and Cardio. Let’s see why these are important. 

1. Stretching
There are many benefits of stretching regularly. It not only increases your flexibility but also corrects posture, reduces stress and body ache. I believe this is a must during a lockdown, especially for individuals working at home as continuous sitting hours affect posture drastically. So stretching should be an important part of your routine. Stretching before a workout prepares the muscles for an activity. It improves performance, blood circulation, blood flow to the muscles and reduces muscle soreness.

Types of Stretching include:

  • Dynamic: Usually done before an exercise to get your muscles ready for movement 
  • Static: Done after exercise to reduce risk of injury 

Stretching exercises include: neck stretches/rotation, shoulder stretch, arm stretch, chest stretch, stretching your wrists, standing stretch, ankle flex, etc. 

2. Core Strengthening
After getting in a few good stretches, I begin with core strengthening because with long sitting hours, I’ve observed my belly growing in size. To curb that, my full body workout also includes core strengthening. 

Abdominals or Abs are that part of the body which help in generating power for functional movements. To avoid injuries that may occur from day to day activities, it is very important to keep the core of the body strong and flexible.

There are varied benefits of core strengthening. It is not just about reducing belly fat. Some of the benefits of training your core include: 

  • Balance and stability to the body
  • Improved posture
  • Helps in alleviating back ache
  • Better performance in sports and related game activities
  • Strong core is very important for women during pregnancy
  • A strong core minimizes the chances of injury caused by undue stress on some parts of the body
  • Core strengthening leads to muscle strengthening and this, in turn, leads to bone strengthening

Some simple exercises for core strengthening include:

  • Forward Crunches
  • Reverse Crunches
  • Bridge
  • Plank variations- Front plank, side planks, plank walk
  • Air cycling 
  • Leg pull-in/push-out

3. Cardio 

Eventually, I increase the intensity of my workout by including a few cardio exercises. Cardio exercises are aerobic exercises of long duration (more than 3 minutes at a stretch). It works on your cardiovascular strength (heart health), stamina and muscular endurance. Examples of these exercises are walking, brisk walking, jogging, running, swimming, cycling, stair climbing, etc. In lockdown or while self-quarantining, I include spot jogging, spot cycling, jumping jacks, march pass and stair climbing to my daily routine.

Few Things To Keep In Mind While Planning Your Routine 

  1. Workouts should be developed around a person’s age, goals, nutritional strategy, free time, etc.
  2. How much time can you devote to exercise? If you can do an hour a day, that’s fantastic. But maybe you have a wife or husband, three kids, a dog, two jobs, and no robot butler… then maybe you only have thirty minutes, twice a week.
  3. Break up your workout! According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), if you accumulate three 10-minute bouts of exercise throughout the day to a total 30 mins of exercise, then that is as effective as someone who does one 30 mins bout of exercise

How to Build a Full Body Workout? 

Now comes the tricky part—putting all this together. 

  1. Full-body workouts should be fairly simple! Always begin with a dynamic warm-up and finish with a cooldown.
  2. Add a variety to your exercise routine by including one new exercise every week to avoid boredom
  3. As a beginner, you can start your full body workout slowly and once you get used to the routine, you can increase the intensity for better results.
  4. Rest is also required to ensure complete recovery of the body. So do not forget to give one day rest to your body – it deserves that! 

Finally, the favourite that I never miss doing is Surya Namaskar! At least 1-10 rounds depending on my workout. Surya Namaskar postures are a good blend of warm-ups, asanas and burn out. It helps to tone and shape the body and it also improves body function, improves flexibility, strengthens muscles and helps beat stress. Add this to your routine to stay active always and it’s best done in the morning hours. 

Hope this article helps you plan and create a full body workout at home. If you’re not sure where to begin, check out Healthy Reads or tune in to live classes on GOQii PRO where our experts will guide you on correct form, posture and make sure that you are guided well and motivated. You can book a class now from the GOQii App. 

To get these workouts and tips directly from your GOQii Coach, sign up for personalized coaching now: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr  

#BeTheForce 

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Top 5 Effective Workouts For Weight Loss During Lockdown

effective workouts

Visiting gyms, joining classes for yoga and zumba have become troublesome because of the COVID-19 lockdown. With limited options, it is natural to get bored and stumble back into a sedentary lifestyle. Don’t put on all the weight you’ve worked so hard to lose. We have some effective workouts to help you lose all that unhealthy weight. 

5 Easy and Effective Workouts To Lose Weight

1. Walking/Running:
There’s nothing better than running outdoors – the fresh air and all but the problem is that the lockdown prohibits anyone from stepping out… so how do you do it? There are many ways, in fact, it is easier if you have a treadmill. If you don’t, try spot jogging and taking frequent breaks in between your work from home schedule to walk around the house and unwind. 

2. Jump Rope:
Do you want that sleek, slender body? Jump Rope is your answer! It is one of the most underrated yet effective workouts. If you’re new to this, start with a 2-5 min warm up, then do the traditional rope skipping with 30-50 reps. Then, you can run up and down your building stairs, do the rope again for 30-50 reps and end with a cool down. It is high intensity, low cost, doesn’t consume time and is still one of the most effective workouts for weight loss.  

3. High Intensity Interval Training:
As the name suggests, it is periods of High Intensity exercises coupled with Low Intensity exercises/rest. The aim for HIIT workout is to target 80% of VO2 Max (Max Oxygen Consumption) for maximum results. 

Your typical HIIT session can be: 

  • Warm Up
  • Lunges for 1-2mins at a stretch
  • Walk/Jog in place for 30secs
  • Pushup for 1-2mins
  • Walk/Jog in place for 30secs
  • Squats for 1-2mins
  • Walk/Jog in place for 30secs
  • Abdominal Crunches for 1-2mins
  • Walk/Jog for 30secs
  • Cool down

You can add more exercises and modify the exercises as per your fitness levels.

4. Weight Training:
Yes, this might be impossible since most of us don’t have dumbbells and other gym equipment at home but that shouldn’t pose much of a problem. You can still use your daily household equipment as weights. For instance, water bottles filled with water as dumbbells or a bucket of water for your deadlifts. In fact, you can also use your own bodyweight. The key idea here is to undergo a process called Hypertrophy of the muscles, wherein the body increases the size of the muscles and reduces the fat around it. Weight training helps in burning fat 24×7 as opposed to burning fat only during the workout. A beginner can start with 20 reps + 3 sets of deadlifts, squats, lunges, bicep curls, etc.

5. Boot Camp:
This is one of the most intense and effective workouts which alternate between aerobic activities of sprinting/running along with strength exercises and drills. It simultaneously works on your endurance and strength. 

You can start a typical routine as: 

  • Warm up
  • 1 min each of Push ups, Lunges, Pull ups, Crunches, Buttkickers, spot jog
  • Repeat the exercises 
  • Cool down.

To make things easier for you, you can find all the above effective workouts for weight loss on GOQii Play. You’ll be guided by fitness experts in LIVE sessions. More so, you can also subscribe to GOQii and get tips, guidance and motivation from a certified GOQii Coach. 

We hope this article helps you choose your workouts and lose weight during the lockdown. Do leave your thoughts in the comments below. For more tips on fitness, do check out Healthy Reads within the app as well. 

Stay home, stay safe, get active and #BeTheForce 

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