It is quite relieving to hear that sugar can contribute to your workouts. Since we all love to have sweet treats every time, chances are great for us to end up with certain severe health issues like diabetes. And we hear it ever since we started to look forward to achieving fitness. But, there are times when you will get benefited from sugar rather than it harming you. You might be thinking that would only happen in your dreams, but let me tell you, it is true. You can enhance your workout by taking sugar or sugar contained foods. Let’s find out how.
Sugar Helps You After Your Workout
Though the sugary treats are rich in calories, they will not be enough for you to fulfill your need for carbohydrates. Besides, taking them more often will slow down your progress to achieve fitness too. However, if you prefer to have it once in a while, it will benefit your workout, and assist you to enhance muscles. And many athletes are getting benefited from this trick.
Carbohydrates are a main source of energy that contributes a lot to every bodily function. There are three general categories of carbohydrates too.
- Simple carbs: these are sugars, and if you take them, they will quickly get digested to provide you with the needed energy. They include raw sugar, fruit juice concentrate, brown sugar, corn syrup, etc.
- Complex carbs and Fibers: sources of fiber include fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, and whole grains.
If you are following a workout routine, you also have to follow a suitable diet with a good balance of protein, carbs, fats, and other nutrients. And this plays a great role in letting you reach your fitness goals.
The workout you follow requires a carbs booth before and after you perform it. So if you take simple sugar in between your workout, your moves will benefit you even better. But never forget that this will benefit you only if you are following a particularly intense workout plan and the volume 0f your training is high.
Benefits Of Taking Sugar During A Workout
- It enhances your muscles: your muscles are in need of carbohydrates whenever you work hard with them. Taking sugar can fulfill this need of your muscles instantly.
- It will provide your muscles with enough glycogen: glycogen is a necessary component to fuel your body. When you indulge in high-performance activities while working out, taking sugar can help you to fill in the gap of glycogen.
- You will feel more energetic: if you feel exhausted after a set of a few deeper moves, you can take sugar to resolve the issue. Because the glucose contained in sugar will do the job to energize you.
How Does Taking Sugar Can Help You
If you are so excited to hear the benefits of taking sugar, don’t be so happy about it. We know the practical issues brought by excess use of sugar. So, don’t take it as an opportunity to satisfy your sweet tooth every now and then. But you have to be selective and control your sweet cravings.
As you take sugar, it will stimulate a hike in insulin levels. If you purposefully raise the levels of insulin, around your workout schedule, you can have a more efficient recovery to reach better fitness gains. When a sudden rise occurs in your steadily leveled-up insulin, it will allow you to get recovered from post-workout injuries of muscles. This happens because insulin will help your muscle cells to get more nutrients at a time.
The Best Sugar Sources To Take Before Working Out
Now you might have decided to try taking sugar as it can stretch its helping hand towards you to reach the best results after your workouts. But you need to select simple sugars as they are ideal for you.
So the right choice before you is glucose. The foods that contain glucose are:
- Fruits
- Bread
- Pasta
Once you take these foods, they would directly get into your bloodstream to give you rapid effects.
Another great choice of sugar that you can also take prior to your workout is fructose.
The food sources of fructose include:
- Honey
- Fruit juices
- Table sugar
- HFCS: such as candies, pastries, sodas, and other processed foods.
Sugars are indeed good sources of energy for both your body and mind. You can take it to enhance your workout sessions without any doubt. But it is important to watch out for the quantity of the intake as you will get in trouble with that. You also have to put your attention to ensure that the sugar you are taking is natural. The added sugar or the artificially made sugar is entirely different from natural sugar, and it will only harm you and bring the opposite result of your goal to gain fitness.