Guest Blog written by Jamie Roy
Physical activity is essential for children and teenagers; they are at an age where their body is still developing. In particular, it provides various health benefits, including a healthy heart, strong bone development, better weight management and reduced chances of developing diseases.
This is why schools have mandatory PE lessons to ensure that students get the optimal physical activity they need each
day. These lessons also help them learn various lessons while ensuring their health improves.
Daily exercise has been proven to enhance their studying by enabling better focus, resulting in better grades.
However, there are certain things that students should do after their PE lessons to ensure optimal recovery and hygiene. These are not always obvious to them as they may not be advised about what they should do after these lessons. Not to worry, we have you sorted out. Therefore, we will discuss what they must do after PE class ends. Let’s dive in.
Cool down the body
When you exercise, your body temperature rises due to physical activity and needs to cool down gradually. Therefore, you should do light exercises of lower intensity, like walking around after running. If you stop exercising too suddenly, you may feel dizzy, which will be troublesome for you for the lessons you have to attend later on.
Cooling down will also ensure that there is less muscle soreness too and lower stress. You should also rest after to let your muscles recover and heal.
Stretch
Stretching after physical activity ensures you do not feel sore after a workout. This is because after you cool down, the muscles in your body begin to contract, which can restrict your movement and cause soreness. Stretching your muscles after will ensure that your body returns to how it was before the workout, which means a better recovery and flexibility. It is recommended to do at least a few minutes of stretching, which you should do for major muscle groups.
Hydrate
There is no need to explain how essential water is. When you exercise or take part in physical activity, you lose water in the form of sweat. Sweating is healthy, but you must replenish your body’s water supply. This is where drinking water helps. You can also drink various sports drinks, but these may have too many calories that are only needed for athletes who do intense workouts. We recommend drinking two or three glasses of water after your PE lesson.
Shower
A shower after physical activity is needed as it ensures your body’s cleanliness afterwards. A shower washes away any dry sweat and body smells that may be unpleasant to you and everyone else. Dried sweat can also cause skin irritation
which will cause you to be uncomfortable the rest of the day. However, it is recommended that you shower with cold water after.
A cold shower reduces muscle inflammation, meaning you will feel less sore after your lesson ends. After your shower, we recommend wearing clean clothes as your workout clothes will be sweaty. These clothes are more liable to grow germs and bacteria while also smelling bad. After putting away your gym clothes, we recommend cleaning your hands and drying them with a towel or hand dryer. You can also put some deodorant on to ensure you smell nice.
Eat a snack
Eating the right snack after your PE lesson will ensure that you can regain your energy while aiding in recovery. However, this does not mean you should eat junk food because it gives energy. Junk food has a lot of calories, resulting in your
workout being fruitless as you regain the calories you lost or more.
Instead, eating healthy snacks containing carbohydrates and proteins would be best. Carbohydrates will energize you, while proteins will help you build and repair amino acids vital to your muscles. For example, eating fruit or a granola bar afterwards is a good idea.
To sum up
Physical activity is essential for children and teenagers as it provides various health benefits and ensures that they are fit. This is why schools have PE lessons that ensure that students’ daily fitness needs are taken care of. While these lessons are beneficial, it is essential to do some things after to ensure they are clean and recovered. We have looked at all these things that ensure that their body recovers optimally and that they are clean. In this way, you will be nice and fresh, ready to resume your lessons in school.
