A workout a without a warm-up and a cool down is like eating a meal without a glass of water.

If you come back from the gym with aching muscles and feeling absolutely drained, here are a few things that might help you to retain your energy level.

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Warm Up to the Workout

A warm up unlocks tight muscles and helps your body to adapt to the exercise. It improves blood flow to the heart, increases muscle temperature and makes muscles more workable.

The warm up also protects your muscles from immediate strain of a heavy workout. The heart rate and the respiratory rate needs to be elevated in order for you to workout effectively.

If you don't warm up before your exercise routine, you are bound to feel lethargic during exercise.

So don't skip the steps, exercise, or the 10 minutes of light walking that you are asked to do by your trainer.

Also Read: Get the Best from Your Treadmill

Stretch it Out

Do you often skip boring stretches and jump straight to action? Remember next time when you do so, you are prone to some serious injury.

Stretching heals muscle soreness and relaxes them. It might be easy to do but is beneficial in maintaining muscle elasticity. Without stretching your muscles will not grow or get toned.

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You can't work tired muscles. If you are used to a sedentary lifestyle, stretches help your body to loosen up.

After every weight training exercise you do, appropriate stretching needs to be done. For example, after you work on the back muscle, you need to do the back stretch for at least 15 seconds, so that the workout has the right effect.

If you directly start doing the set of exercises without stretches, your muscles will remain sore and you are likely to suffer an injury.

Just as you need sleep to rejuvenate from a tiring day of work, in the same way your muscles need a few good relaxing stretches to get back to work.