Introduction
There are many people out there that want to be healthy and exercise as much as possible in a given time period. That said, there are immense questions about how much physical fitness you can perform in one day before it ends up turning into a negative for you and your body.
This has brought up a very important question, is it okay to play basketball after working out? While everybody can end up being different in this category, the generalization is that you can absolutely play basketball after you are done working out. You might feel a little sore or you might be unable to fully gain muscle due to the energy you are expending, but it is completely healthy to participate in both throughout a one-day span.
Your Appetite Will Drastically Increase
Once again, we must say that every single person is different. Everybody has different bodies that affect different things that they do in their everyday life. However, it is a general assumption that working out and then going to play basketball will wind up increasing your appetite. Some say that it can double, though that is more of a loose term for how much hungrier you can be after spending so many calories in a short amount of time.
For a good number of people, an increased appetite is the least thing on their mind when it comes to this topic. After all, you can simply burn a tremendous amount of energy throughout the day and then still feel successful in the work that you put in. An increase appetite is really one of the few things that can be tagged on with working out then doing to play basketball immediately afterwards. The same goes if you play basketball first, and then decide to head into the gym and crank out a good workout.
Better To Play After Working Out Than Before
Some people have stated that it is actually much better for you to work out before playing basketball, and not the other way around. From their previous experience, it was mentioned that doing cardio extensively before working out kills a good chunk of your immediate energy. That energy being drained rather quickly during basketball usually results in a lackluster workout at best. Most times, you might not even feel like heading into the gym and really putting your best foot forward in there. If you attack it the other way around, you’ll be able to crush a strong workout in the gym before saving some immediate energy for the courts right afterwards.
There are a few online sites that suggest eating protein could potentially help fix the problem of you losing immediate energy when playing basketball before working out, though this is likely another situation where everybody reacts differently to it. For some, protein can probably help them boost through it with ease. For others, they might not even need protein to be able to pull this off.
You Might Not Play Well
Just because it is perfectly possible for you to play basketball after working out, doesn’t mean that you will actually go and play great. In fact, there might be a high chance that you struggle early on due to the energy expended on your body ahead of time.
A good example of this would be if you did a tremendous amount of arm workouts in the gym, then decided to head down to the court. By the time the ball gets into your hands, your jump shot will feel significantly different than it normally would. You would either feel your arms be noticeably weaker, or noticeably stronger. This can result in a complete airball, or a shot that is so off target, it just clanks off the backboard. As you can imagine, this type of inconsistency could lead to a poor outing, but it isn’t the end of the world if you’re out there playing for the fun of it.
Spacing It Out Could Work For You
Of course, there is a possibility that spacing your workouts and basketball games out could help you. What I mean by this is that if you truly want to play basketball on the same day that you worked out, you could take some time in between the two to recover before getting right back at it. Some recommend that you could wait around five hours after working out before hitting the courts.
There are people that would benefit even more from this solid wait time in the middle of these two workouts, and people that could feel even more exhausted when doing so. Or you could stretch it out even further and work out early in the mornings before playing basketball later in the evenings. Most of the time, with issues like this, it is truly best to figure out how your body feels on a daily basis.
It’s A Personal Decision
There really isn’t one definitive correct way of working out and then playing basketball straight after. I mean, there’s usually not a definitive answer for losing weight in general. Every single person is different in how they lose or gain weight, and how much time it takes to do so. Even the recovery process is all different due to the different body shapes, amount of physical exercise each individual performs, and so many other variables on top of that.
The best advice would be to test a few different methods out straight away, and really try to determine what you feel is the best for yourself. Maybe working out then playing basketball straight away feels better than waiting five hours. Maybe not playing them on the same day at all helps you grow and get stronger. At the end of the day, all that matters is that you are keeping yourself healthy, strong, and growing while doing something that can keep you happy throughout the day.