08 Feb Four drinks that will help boost your workout

Everyone should know by now that drinking water is an important part of getting a good workout. You need to drink water before, during and after to avoid getting dehydrated.
Here are four other drinks that will help boost your workout:
1. Chocolate milk – Drinking low-fat chocolate milk after a workout has been found to aid in endurance, building muscle, improving performance and may even help reduce fat.
Researcher John L. Ivy, PhD, department chair of kinesiology and health education at the University of Texas at Austin, has reported chocolate milk appears to have the right combination of carbohydrates and protein to be a healthy post-workout drink.
“When recovering from exercise, two things you want to do is replenish sugar stores in the muscle and turn on protein synthesis and stop protein breakdown,” Ivy told WebMD. “The combination of carbohydrate and protein [found in chocolate milk] work synergistically to do those two things.’
Ivy’s research is published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research and the Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism
2. Green tea – Drink green tea before a workout to get a pep of caffeine that can help you exercise a little longer and harder. Compounds known as catechins in green tea can also help increase fat burning.
3. Cherry juice – If you are going to have a grueling workout or competition, drink cherry juice in the days beforehand. Marathon runners, for example, have reported cherry juice helps reduce pain afterward because of phytochemicals in it that help reduce inflammation.
4. Sports drinks – Sports drinks such as Gatorade can help you stay hydrated, provide energy and replace nutrients lost through sweating.

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.com