Things You Will Never See Me Do After I Exercise

Disclaimer. I am not a fitness professional, and everything that is shared is to be used for informational purposes only and is not fitness advice.

Regular exercise is important for your physical health because when you are healthy, it lowers your risk for certain health conditions. Exercise is not just for people who want to lose weight, and everyone can benefit from it because weight loss is not the only benefit. I started exercising consistently after I graduated high school in 2011 because my physical health was very poor, and I knew I had to make a change before I had a chronic illness, and it was too late. My exercise routine has changed over the years because people change, but I have never stopped exercising. There are a lot of things that I do every single day, such as eat healthy and slowly increasing the intensity of my workout to continue to improve my fitness level. Fitness progress is important to me because if I don’t see progress in my fitness level, I am not going to be motivated to exercise. I do a lot of things every day to continue to see progress, but there are some things that you will never see me do after a workout because it’s either bad hygiene or not healthy, and will not get you results. What shouldn’t you do after you exercise? In this post, I am going to talk about a few things that you will never see me do after I exercise.

Sit in my sweaty gym clothes for hours- I don’t sweat that much if I am lifting weights because I don’t move as quickly as I would if I was doing a cardio workout. If I am walking, I sweat a lot more than I would with strength training because I exercise outside in the sun. Some days I sweat more, and it depends on the temperature because on cooler days when it’s windy, I don’t sweat much. One of the things you will never see me do after a workout is sit in my sweaty clothes for hours, and I immediately take them off after I finish exercising. You can get a lot of infections from sitting in your sweaty gym clothes for hours, and you should be taking them off as soon as possible. I do three shorter walks every day because my physical disability makes it difficult to do one long one, and I wear a new outfit every single time I do it. I used to wear the same outfit every single time I exercise to save laundry, but I stopped doing that because I noticed I was getting skin reactions from sweat. Take off your sweaty clothes as soon as possible because it’s not worth the risk of an infection.

Skip post workout nutrition– When I go on walks, I usually do them after meals and don’t need to eat afterward because my walks aren’t that long and I don’t feel like I need to. If I am strength training, I always have a protein shake after I have finished because my strength training is longer and my body could use a little more nutrition. People sometimes think that you will see progress in your fitness if you are consistent with doing your exercise routine. Consistency is important because if you don’t do your workouts often, your strength will not improve. Nutrition also plays a major role because it doesn’t matter how consistent you are, if you aren’t fueling your body properly, you will not see the results you want. One of the things you will never see me do after a workout is neglect post-workout nutrition because I have noticed a new difference in my workout performance the next day when I skip my protein shake. Don’t neglect post-workout nutrition because it’s just as important as doing the workout. You will not be able to push yourself as hard if you skip post-workout nutrition. If you only exercise for five or ten minutes, you probably don’t need a protein shake afterward, but if you are exercising for an hour or more, you should be fueling afterward.

Skip stretching- People often are consistent with doing their exercise, but when it comes to stretching, it’s not as much of a priority, and often it gets skipped. If you are doing high-impact exercises such as heavy lifting, you should not skip stretching because stretching improves your flexibility and prevents injury. My muscles get tight often because I started walking with a weighted backpack and strength train twice a week, so I stretch twice a day. You don’t have to stretch as much as I do, and if you don’t do a lot of resistance training, you may not need to stretch as much, but stretching should be part of your daily routine. I could not tell you the last time I got an injury during exercise, and I think it’s because I stretch every single day, even on days I don’t exercise. I notice a big difference in my workout performance when I stretch consistently because tight muscles will affect my workout performance. Everyone who is able should be stretching daily, and it’s not just for people who exercise.

Beat myself up over a poor performance- Exercise is hard when you live with chronic pain because sometimes high pain levels prevent you from being able to push yourself harder. Sometimes I break records and completely crush my workout, while other days I am more tired and my performance is terrible. If I had a bad workout, one of the things you will never see me do is beat myself up over a poor performance. I will not punish myself and do extra workouts when my performance is bad because sometimes your performance is going to be terrible, and we need to normalize not crushing every single workout. On bad days, I recognize that I didn’t do my best and try to do better next time. There are a lot of things that can affect your workout performance, and sometimes they aren’t within our complete control.

Take a hot shower immediately after exercising- I shower shortly after I have finished walking for the day because I sweat a lot and want to try to avoid getting an infection. I love a hot shower after exercising, and it’s something I look forward to, but never will you see me take a hot shower when I am still drenched in sweat, and I wait until my body gets back to a normal temperature before I do that. I wait about five or ten minutes to cool down before jumping in the shower because if you are sweating and take a hot shower, it can cause your blood pressure to drop significantly, so you pass out. Don’t take a hot shower immediately after exercise and allow yourself to cool down first because it can be unsafe.

Give myself a high-calorie reward after every workout- There is nothing wrong with occasionally rewarding yourself after a tough workout, but you don’t need to reward yourself with ice cream after every session. People sometimes think that if you exercise that you can eat whatever you want, but that is not true because you cannot out-train a bad diet. Some days you will see me eat a cookie after I have exercised, but most days I won’t do that because I don’t want to undo all the work I just did. Fit people still need to pay attention to nutrition because exercising for an hour does not give you permission to eat unhealthy and neglect nutrition. If you feel like you need it, reward yourself once a week, not after every session.

Fitness does not happen overnight, and sometimes it can take months or even years before you start to notice significant progress. Consistency is important for fitness progress, and there is nothing worse than putting in a lot of hours at the gym and hitting a plateau. It is so important to pay attention to your other habits because sometimes the frequency of your workout isn’t the reason you aren’t making progress, but it’s that you aren’t fueling your body properly and are skipping your stretching routine. There are a lot of things that you will never see me do after a workout because it’s bad hygiene, or will affect my ability to get results, and the whole reason I am exercising is to improve my physical health. Make sure you are engaging in healthy habits most of the time because what you are doing when you are not exercising can affect your performance. What things would you never do after a workout? If you liked this post, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends.

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