What to Drink After a Workout

Chocolate Milk

Why? Because it easily hydrates your body and helps in feeding your body nutrients it needs in order to recover from your workout. It gives your body appropriate amounts of protein, calcium, healthy fats, and whey protein and carbs as well. It’s like Gatorade, but better. It also helps your body restore muscle glycogen as well. What’s not to love?

Coconut Water

Thinking what to drink after a workout? Try coconut water! In fact, you can drink it before your workout session as well. So while coconut milk has a lot of fat in it, coconut water is completely free of that fat. It has high amount of potassium and when you compare it with the potassium levels in sports drinks, you’ll be surprised to know that you’re getting a lot more for your money’s worth. For those of you wondering, potassium is good for you because it helps in muscle relaxation, as well as maintaining your body’s water balance.

Green Tea

With zero calories, this drink should be your newest bff. Everybody knows that green tea consists of powerful antioxidants which help to break down the fat in your body, as well as free radicals which help fight muscle soreness and inflammation. Certain green teas out there in the market claim to effectively burn fat, but know that there’s no conclusive science that backs that claim up. Avoid them if you can. And know that drinking green tea over an extended period of time has shown to reduce the possibility of heart diseases greatly.

Cherry Juice

Did not see this coming, did you? But the truth is, cherry juice is extremely good for your body because it provides the body with a high dose of antioxidants. A UK study published in the journal Nutrients claims that cyclists who ended up drinking cherry juice showed lesser signs of oxidative stress and had lesser inflammation than those who drank other drinks. Cherry juice helps in:

• Quicker healing of muscles

• Less muscle damage

• Less muscle pain

Vegetable Juice

If you’re still unsure about what to drink after a workout, then opt for the tried and tested vegetable juice option. Try and make these juices at home – they’re fresher and have less harmful chemicals than the readymade ones available in the market. Vegetable juice is concentrated with vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients that can do your body a LOT of good. Also, seeing how the average American eats less than half the recommended serving of vegetables in their daily diets, it would be good to drink vegetable juice even if you’re not working out like a maniac.

Soda

Soda isn’t good for you. Period. Give it up. I mean, it’s literally the first thing your gym instructor will tell you if you’re trying to lose weight or gain muscle. Why? Because soda is nothing but flavored concentrated sugar; and tell me again how drinking pure sugar along with 100 chemicals is actually good for your body?

Sugary sports drinks

Don’t buy into the hype and false marketing. The “sports drinks” will fill up your body with more calories than you burned during your workout. And you don’t need to be smart at Math to know that this is the opposite of what you should be doing, especially if your aim is to lose weight.

Alcohol

Hydration is important when you walk out of the gym because you sweat a lot after your workout. This is exactly why alcohol should be avoided – it’s a diuretic, meaning it dehydrates your body. If you really have to drink something, opt for a mocktail, at best. No cocktails allowed.

Sports Milks

What to drink after a workout? Definitely not these “sports milks”. They are nothing but fancy containers that fill up your body with artificial sweeteners, loads of calories, and poor quality oils and processed proteins. And did any of these words sound good to you? No? That’s because they are good for nothing, except helping you gain a lot of bad fat and cellulite.

Caffeine

Your body has already pumped after an intense workout. Adrenaline is flowing through your veins and the last thing you need to do is to add caffeine to your body. That’s like adding oil to a fire. And much like alcohol, caffeinated drinks do not hydrate the body in any form or manner.