Refueling After Exercise
If you participate in endurance events lasting more than one hour, competitions lasting several hours or high-intensity workouts that exhaust your body, refueling your body post exercise is very important.
The following suggestions will help you replace solid and liquid foods:
1. Understand Why Your Body Needs Refueling.
During exercise the body breaks down tissues and uses energy (primarily carbohydrates) contained or stored in the blood, liver and muscle. If you exercise more than once a day, replenishing lost energy in the muscle is crucial to ensuring that your subsequent workouts are productive.
2. Learn Why Fluid Replacement Is Essential.
The harder and longer you exercise, the more fluid you lose during workouts. If it is extremely hot or humid, keping hydrated can be even more difficult becuase you sweat more and get overheated more quickly. Replenishing lost fluid after workouts - in addition to staying well hydrated during exercise - is essential for keeping your body working at its best.
3. Calculate How Much to Drink.
It is recommended that you drink 600 to 1,200 mls of fluid (2.5 - 5 cups) per hour during exercise. After exercise, drink 2-3 cups of fluid per half a kilo lost in sweat. Weigh yourself before and after your workout to get an idea of the amount of fluid lost through perspiration
4. Figure Out What to Drink.
If your exercise session lasts less than 60 minutes drink water. If it goes longer, use a four- to- eight-percent carbohydrate sports drink. Sports drinks can be a good choice after endurance exercise becuase they can be more palatable than water, increasing the tendency to rehydrate, and they can help replace lost electrolytes.
5. Identify When to Refuel With Carbohydrates.
If you exercise at a modest intensity for 30 to 60 minutes three to five times a week, you can maintain adequate carbohydrate stores by eating a balanced diet and staying hydrated during and after exercise. If you train harder or longer at one time or exercise more than once a day, your muscles need to be refueled with carbohydrates immediately after exercising and again at the next meal or snack. This practice can ensure that carbohydrates stored in the muscle i.e., glycogen) are consistently replenished.
6. Choose a Type of Carbohydrates.
Carbs in liquid form (e.g., juices or sports drinks) can be easier to digest than carbohydrate-rich solid foods and are less likely to interfere with normal eating patterns. If you prefer solid food, however, you can eat something as simple as a sports bar (along with water).
7. Understand Why You Need Protein.
Protein is an important building block for muscle. It also assists in the production of blood plasma and hemoglobin, which supply oxygen to working muscles. Several studies suggest that mixing protein and carbohydrates after activity can enhance the insulin response, which encourages resynthesis of muscle glycogen.
8. Know How Much Protein to Eat.
Most experts recommend eating carbohydrate and protein in a ratio of 3:1 or 4:1 after exercise. An example would be two servings of vegetables and one serving of grain for carbs, plus one serving of meat for protein.
9. Realize When You Need Sodium.
Several hours of exercise in even a cool climate can result in sodium losses. Because the typical Western diet contains 4.5 grams of sodium per day, this is generally not a problem. However, when you exercise excessively in high heat, sodium losses can be as much as 10 g per day. Under such circumstances, you need to replenish stores by consuming foods that contain significant amounts of sodium. (While some potassium is also lost during sweat, potassium stores in the blood and muscle are usually well miantained during exercise.)
10. Learn What Foods Contain Sodium.
Sodium is found in some sports drinks and in many foods, particularly processed foods like soups, canned sauces and frozen dinners.
Correct Breathing Technique
Proper breathing technique is extremely important during training. Breathing supplies oxygen to the muscle cells, which is essential for muscle contraction, and helps deliver energy and build the muscle. make sure to exhale when you lift the weight and inhale when you lower or return it.
Should You Eat Before Or After Exercise?
If you exercise at 6am, should you eat breakfast before or after gym? And if you go to gym after work and only get home after 7pm, when must you eat supper?
Different levels of exercise
To answer queries about the timing of meals before or after exercise, it is necessary to differentiate between top, elite athletes and 'the rest of us' who do exercise, but certainly not at the same intensity or for long periods lasting a number of hours.
We also need to differentiate between the goals of exercise - in the case of elite athletes, they exercise to hone their performance, to shave a millisecond off their sprinting time, to 'make weight', to build specific muscles etc.
It is, therefore, logical that an elite athlete, who is either practising strenuously and/or competing, needs to have a very specific meal and beverage programme worked out for his or her specific needs.
For 'the rest of us' who go to the gym at various times of day or night, or go running or cycling, there are certain rules that can be applied to the timing of pre- and post-exercise meals.
Early morning
Many people get up very early in the morning to fit in a gym session or a run before they go to work. The question is if they should eat anything before they exercise or not?
The basic principle is that anyone who has eaten an evening meal at about 7pm, spent the evening doing various things and then slept for seven or more hours, will probably have fasted for 11 to 12 hours by the time he or she gets up in the morning.
After such a prolonged fast your blood glucose levels are very low, which will in turn influence how much exercise you can do, how well your brain works and how tired you will feel for the rest of the day. It is, therefore, essential that everyone should eat something on awakening to boost blood sugar levels.
It is not necessary to eat a large and complex breakfast, but you do need to eat a light balanced meal or snack before you start the day.
Examples of meals that will boost your blood sugar and activate your brain include:
· breakfast cereal or muesli with milk or yoghurt, honey or brown sugar, a piece fruit and tea or coffee
· fruit with yoghurt, tea or coffee
· wholewheat or rye toast or seedbread with cheese, peanut butter, a boiled egg or jam, tea or coffee
· smoothies (made with milk or yoghurt, fresh fruit, honey)
· Sanitarium Up&Go Liquid Breakfast Cereal
· an energy bar with a hot beverage
(Use fat-free milk or yoghurt, and fat-free cottage cheese if you are trying to lose weight.)
Any one of these breakfast examples will give you more energy when you exercise early in the morning.
Mid-morning
Once you have had your small breakfast to activate your brain and blood sugar, and done your exercise, you will probably need another snack during the morning to sustain you till lunchtime. If you go to work, pack a second breakfast snack for 10 a.m.
This snack could consist of any of the above-mentioned foods, or additional sandwiches (use protein fillings such a lean meat, tuna, cottage cheese or egg), fresh or dried fruit, nuts, fat-free yoghurt, or cheese wedges, energy bars or instant oats with a handful of raisins.
Evening meal
Those individuals who do not exercise early in the morning before work, but rather pop into their gym or go for a run after work, also often experience problems with supper. They may feel full and satiated after exercise, or be too tired to still prepare a meal. It is, however, just as important to eat something after exercising in the evening as early in the morning.
Eating after exercise will help your body to replenish its energy stores or glycogen in the liver and muscles, which get depleted during exercise and thus prevent you from feeling tired and washed out.
A tip is to have an energy drink just before, during and/or after exercise such as Energade, Powerade or any one of the many energy-booster bars or drinks (they should consist mainly of carbohydrates, not proteins). This will help your body replace its glycogen stores.
Also wait until the satiating effects of exercise have worn off before you eat a meal at night.
If you are tired after a long day at work followed by a strenuous bout of exercise, then make something simple and fast, or cook ahead the day before you go to gym.
Examples of light, easy post-exercise meals are:
· instant or regular pasta with canned tomato and onion sauce - add a tin of drained tuna (canned in water) if you are extra hungry
· instant or regular pasta with an instant sauce and feta or grated cheddar cheese
· cottage cheese with fresh fruit and vegetables
· drained tuna with fresh salads and fruit
· lean cold beef cuts or cold chicken with salads and fruit or pasta or rice (boil the day before and just reheat)
· ready-to-eat dishes from your supermarket, such as pasta with sauce or meat or fish with vegetables
· healthy take-aways such as filled pita or grilled chicken with salad
If you are well organised you can also cook double quantities on the days when you don't go to gym. Store the meals in the fridge for the next day when you know you will be tired and rushed.
Eating before and after exercise is an important facet of your routine, so take a little time to plan how you are going to achieve this. It may require you to buy a few additional foods (instant cereals or muesli, fruit, vegetables, prepared meats or salads, cottage cheese, ready-to-eat or take-away meals etc.) or cook ahead of time, but it will be worth it over and over again.
If you make plans to eat before and after exercise, you will feel much more energetic and be able to exercise without falling asleep at your desk or passing out with tiredness or getting irritable because your blood sugar levels are rock bottom.
Overtraining - Guidelines for Awareness & Avoidance
Whether a professional athlete or a novice gym goer, overtraining can affect us all if we do not take a sensible approach to our training and learn to listen to what the body is telling us.
The major point being, that if you don’t build in recovery your body will no heal and adapt, therefore you will not improve and will likely get injured or sick. In addition to rest, you must sleep and eat well.
Initially you may become very sore following workouts. This is a natural process since you are causing microscopic destruction to muscle and tissue cells which causes swelling and release of pain triggering substances. This cycle may not peak until 2-3 days following the workout, producing “delayed onset of muscle soreness” or DOMS. This is often a natural part of training. To reduce soreness and speed recovery, stretching and light intensity exercise – especially similar to the type of exercise that caused the pain – will help.
At this point I would like to make clear that you DO NOT need to get sore to have achieved a good workout! Don’t get caught in this trap. Over time the body adapts to the workout your doing and is unlikely to get sore. However this can be a trap!
If the body recognises it is being pushed to its limit it will not be receiving enough time to recover; therefore it releases hormones to inhibit pain. So a downward cycle is created – as the body inhibits pain and the athlete keeps pushing hard he/she causes the body to keep inhibiting any pain. The cycle continues until the athlete pushes to the point of injury or sickness.
Always remember to train in a progressive, safe and intelligent manner. Be aware that the harder you train and the higher your level of fitness, the more recovery you need. AS with all aspects of life – balance is the key!
A final point, remember the stress of a workout is relative to the condition of your body prior to the workout, amount of time to recover, nutrition, sleep and emotional stress.
Classic symptoms of over training:
· failure to improve – plateaued or reduced performance
· Loss of appetite
· Increased resting heart rate (more than 5-10 beats per minute)
· Reduced sexual drive
· Increased irritability
· Decreased motivation
Three simple questions to ask each morning upon waking:
1. Am I motivated to get out of bed?
2. Do I need to urinate and is my urine steady and clear?
3. Is my weight consistent?
Pay careful attention to the signs of overtraining and ask yourself the three simple questions each morning.
Finding Time to Workout
So you think you don't have enough time to go to the gym???
If this sounds familiar, your not alone. This is the reason people most often cite for not sticking to a regular exercise programme. However, considering the fact that in the average NZ home the television is on for nearly 6 hours a day, it's difficult to believe we don't have enough time to workout. And when you consider that you can maintain a good level of fitness by jogging only 30 minutes four times a week, not having enough time becomes a less acceptable reason.
That said, it is true that we are all under increasing time constraints. Despite the convenience of the information age, we all seem to be getting busier and busier. So, here are a few tips to help you find time to squeeze workouts into your hectic schedule:
1. Become a morning person. Studies show that people who exercise regularly in the morning are more likely to stick to exercise regimes. It's a great way to energise yourself for the day, and you're much less likely to have things come up.
2. Change your lunch hour into your "workout hour". Rather than go for lunch with your co-workers, go outside for a jog or quick workout during your lunch hour. If you don't have shower or change facilities, maybe take a brisk walk instead.
3. Schedule in your workout in your appointment book or daily diary as you would a meeting etc.
4. Increase intensity while decreasing duration. If you only have 20 minutes to workout and therefore cant complete your usual 40-minute routine, don't despair. Just increase the intensity of your usual workout or run for a shorter amount of time. The workout will actually increase your endurance and muscle strength while saving time.
5. Workout a few times a day for short periods of time. Sometimes it's much easier to find two or three 15-minute periods of free time throughout the day rather than one 30-45 minute period. Studies have proven that people who run three times a day for 15-minute durations reap practically the same physical benefits as those who run just once for 45 minutes.
6. Buy fitness equipment for your home. You do not need to spend a fortune on the convenience of a home gym. This can be especially helpful if you have children at home and cant leave them.
with every week consisting of 168 hours, it's difficult to believe we can't spare two of those hours to ensure our physical as well as mental health. By setting aside time to exercise, you'll feel energised, be more efficient and therefore actually save time in the long run.
Interruptions to your Training
While your programme is the blueprint for taking you from where you are physiologically to where you want to be, like every journey there are roadblocks or detours along the way. There is also more than one way to get to your final destination.
Your programme is written with a specific goal(s) in mind, however there is always a little guesswork involved and it should not be regarded as cast in stone. If you waiver from it don't get discouraged or be tempted to give up, as quite often, lost time can be made up (within reason).
Illness:
If you have been crook and you have needed to see a doctor then you should resume training under his/her recommendation. If you just had a cold, once your resting heart rate (RHR) has returned to normal, maybe complete two days of low intensity training and, if you find this manageable then continue your programme as if you had no break.
Injury:
If you have had to stop your programme due to injury you must resume your training under strict supervision of your doctor or physiotherapist. Taking it upon yourself to resume training may aggravate the injury and you may lose even more time.
Holiday:
If you lose up to two weeks training due to holiday or other commitments your training programme can be picked up again at the appropriate point, as you probably will have lost little or no fitness during that time. After three weeks lost training, do not try to make up more than one or two missed training sessions as you will not have enough rest and recovery days to allow your body to adapt to the exercise. Complete two days of general low intensity training then pick up the programme as if there had been no break. After four or more weeks lost training you should consider starting your programme again.
How Does Weight training Burn Fat?
While not as many calories are burnt weight training, the potential effect it will have on your body composition and rate of metabolism are significant. Weights (and other forms of resistance training) promote the development of lean muscle, boosting your fat burning potential. This is because muscle is the most metabolically active part of your body, burning up to three times as many calories as any other type of tissue.
Vary your workouts
After a while, your body adapts to the workout and the training effect you originally had begins to slow down and plateau. You must constantly change your workouts to minimize this adaptation which can eventually lead to staleness. Vary the volume and intensity of your workouts to minimize this type of plateau effect.
Why Women Need Weight Training
Again and again, research has shown that women who maintain a regular, moderate strength training program enjoy a long list of health advantages. Some women still fear that weight training might bulk them up in unfeminine ways; however, as women of all ages realize the benefits of resistance training, negative attitudes about women in the weight room are rapidly fading.
Here are 10 important reasons why women need to take strength training seriously:
1. You'll Lose More Fat Than You'll Gain in Muscle. Numerous weight training studies involving thousands of women have been conducted and have never had anyone complain about bulking up. In fact, research shows that the average woman who strength trains two to three times a week for eight weeks gains 1.75 pounds of lean weight or muscle and loses 3.5 pounds of fat. Unlike men, women typically don't gain size from strength training, because compared to men, women have 10 to 30 times less of the hormones that cause bulking up.
2. Your New Muscle Will Help Fight Obesity. As you add muscle from strength training, your resting metabolism will increase, so you'll burn more calories all day long, notes Westcott. For each pound of muscle you gain, you'll burn 35 to 50 more calories daily. So, for example, if you gain three pounds of muscle and burn 40 extra calories for each pound, you'll burn 120 more calories per day, or approximately 3,600 more calories per month. That equates to a loss of 10 to 12 pounds in one year!
3. You'll Be a Stronger Woman. Studies indicate that moderate weight training increases a woman's strength by 30 to 50 percent. Extra strength will make it easier to accomplish some daily activities, such as lifting children or groceries. Most strength differences between men and women can be explained by differences in body size and fat mass; kilo for kilo, women can develop their strength at the same rate as men.
4. Your Bones Will Benefit. By the time you leave high school, you have established all the bone mineral density you'll ever have--unless you strength train. Research has found that weight training can increase spinal bone mineral density by 13 percent in six months. So strength training is a powerful tool against osteoporosis.
5. You Will Reduce Your Risk of Diabetes. Adult-onset diabetes is a growing problem for women and men. Research indicates that weight training can increase glucose utilization in the body by 23 percent in four months.
6. You Will Fight Heart Disease. Strength training will improve your cholesterol profile and blood pressure, according to recent research. Of course, your exercise program should also include cardiovascular exercise and flexibility training.
7. You Will Be Able to Beat Back Pain and Fight Arthritis. A recent 12-year study showed that strengthening the low-back muscles had an 80 percent success rate in eliminating or alleviating low-back pain. Other studies have indicated that weight training can ease arthritis pain and strengthen joints.
8. You'll Be a Better Athlete. Research has found that strength training improves athletic ability. Golfers, for example, significantly increase their driving power. Whatever your sport of choice, strength training may not only improve your proficiency but also decrease your risk of injury.
9. It Will Work No Matter How Old You Are. Westcott has successfully trained numerous women in their 70s and 80s, and studies show that strength improvements are possible at any age. Note, however, that a strength training professional should always supervise older participants.
10. You’ll Strengthen Your Mental Health. A Harvard study found that 10 weeks of strength training reduced clinical depression symptoms more successfully than standard counselling did. Women who strength train commonly report feeling more confident and capable as a result of their program.
Water Works For Weight Loss
Nothing quells the appetite like water, loss and lots of water. Start out with two large glasses in the morning and carry a bottle or sipper with you to work or where ever you go. Yes, you will have to make more frequent bathroom trips initially but this subsides as your muscles act like sponges so it is worth it. Drink your daily intake of water before your evening meal, if possible, so you're not up half the night going to the bathroom.
Water not only fills you up and lessens your appetite, it prevents those hunger cravings we all encounter when our blood sugar drops and we reach for the bikkies, sweets, ice cream or other high-calorie snack type foods. Water also flushes out the system, rids the body of bloat and toxins and brightens up the complexion.
Six Tips on How to Stick with your New Year's Resolution
1. Focus on positive self-talk. Congratulate yourself every time you take a step towards your resolution goal.
2. Avoid berating yourself if you should fall back or break a resolution. Just brush yourself off and start over again.
3. Stick to your resolution by considering it a promise to yourself, not a test of willpower.
4. Avoid situations that put you in temptation's path, meaning if you're on a diet, don't go to Burger King!
5. Keep notes in prominent places so that you see them every day, reminding yourself of your resolutions.
6. Be realistic. Make sure your plan is a realistic one that can fit into your lifestyle. Will you really have the energy to go out for that evening workout? Make changes as easy and convenient as possible
Supervised Workouts Improve Results
New research supports the benefits of hiring a qualified personal trainer to help you attain your fitness goals. Twenty men ages 18 to 35 were placed on a 12-week resistance-training program. Half the group trained unsupervised and maintained their own workout logs. The other half received one-on-one supervision with a certified personal trainer.
In addition to keeping track of their workouts and charting their progress, the trainers provided spotting and advice to participants and made sure training loads were increased progressively. Unsupervised participants made changes to their programs using the same principles and were self-motivated.
Both groups achieved significant strength gains; however, the supervised group also made significant improvements in body mass, fat mass and fat-free mass.
Researchers suggest that the trainer encouraged participants to use and tolerate greater training loads, thus eliciting greater gains than those who self-selected their training loads.
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