WHY YOU NEED TRAINING BREAKS

 

There are times when you absolutely are unable to train e.g after an injury, when you're on a long haul trip or when the environment is just not conducive for training. Contrary to common knowledge, these breaks are actually beneficial to your long term fitness, even though it may not feel as such when you return to the gym.

 

 

In general. After 8-10 weeks of continued training, you should give yourself a whole week off to fully recuperate.

 

Training breaks are important for the following reasons:

 

1. Physically, this will help the body heal any minor strains, sprains, tears, and joint pain you may have or are on the road to having. Some people may fear they will "de-condition" if they take a week off. Trust me you will not. It takes around 3-4 weeks of total inactivity for your muscles to start atrophying, or breaking down muscle tissue. In fact, I guarantee that you will come back stronger and more refreshed than ever.

 

 

2. Now that we understand the physical benefits of taking a week off, there also is the recovery of the nervous system. Again, after a good 8-10 weeks of hard training, and hours on the cardio, your nervous system also takes a beating. Many times over training is do to a lack of recuperation of the nervous system. You may find yourself tired, weak, irritable, getting sick easily, and even losing your motivation to exercise. These are all signs of a much-needed break to avoid burnout. This will lead to better more focused workouts, leading to greater results.

 

3. You get to spend more time with family. In these busy days, it's easy to neglect to spend time with your family and others who are close to you. This creates an emotional deficit over the long run which can be remedied by taking a few days off your evening training schedule to spend quality time with the family and friends.

 

 

However, its important to eat clean and healthy during your fitness break, as the fact that you're taking a break from training does not imply your taking a break from nutrition. Clean eating helps fuel your muscles, aiding muscle recovery and general well being.

 





 



CAN TOO MUCH CARDIO MAKE YOU FAT?

Culled from fitness bloggers

 

So, everyone who reads my blog knows that I love to exercise. I suppose you could say I am a little addicted. I can’t live without it. But that isn’t such a bad thing right? What’s wrong with keeping yourself active and healthy? However, I was surprised to find that too much exercise can actually be a bad thing for those of us who exercise for weight loss. That’s because too much exercise can actually cause our bodies to store fat rather than burn it.

 

 

A recent study showed that too much cardiovascular exercise at too high an intensity can cause the body to become depleted and worn down and this can actually slow the body’s metabolism as we go into survival mode. This means that our bodies will try to hold on to our fat stores rather than burn them. In such situations its not uncommon to actually lose muscle and preserve fat. Not what we want!

 

So how can we ensure that we are exercsiing in a way that will ensure we burn fat not muscle?

 

1. Firstlly make sure that you enjoy exercise. Keep the workouts at a level that ensures you still enjoy what you’re doing. If you work so hard that you begin to totally dread every new workout and feel drained, chances are you are doing too much. It doesn’t have to be pure agony for you to derive benefit.

 

2. Make sure that you add resistance training to your workout regime at least twice a week. Too much cardio and not enough resistance can cause your body to stop burning fat effectively. This can be in the form or weights or just by using body weight exercises. Using our muscles and building them ensures that we don’t lose muscle.

 

3. Try to reduce cardio if you are pushing yourself too much. 2-3 cardio workouts a week of 30-45 minutes at moderate to high intensity is sufficient for most people.

 

4. Try using intervals as a way of breaking up your workouts. You can speed up your metabolism and burn fat whilst spending less time exercising. Replace long runs on the treadmill with short 15 minute interval circuits to help boost your metabolism.

 

5. Ensure that you get plenty of sleep. This helps your body to repair and recover from the day’s stresses and strains. Look at ways to reduce your stress if you have trouble sleeping.

 

6. Eat a healthy balanced diet and don’t cut out food groups or starve yourself. Sensible eating and portion control ensure that you eat a balanced diet that will give you all the energy your body needs.

MARRIAGE AND WEIGHT GAIN

We all see it, a fit and sexy single guy or girl gets married and in a few months gets the spare tire, love handles, pot belly, turkey arms, etc.(If you doubt me, look up your parents pre wedding pictures.)  

Kim +Kanye, 20 years on??

Unfortunately, a recent study revaled that weight gain constitutes the biggest relationship peeve for most couples.

The biggest culprit is the change in lifestyle that happens after marriage. The reason for this is simple; when a person is single, they feel the need to look sexy and attractive, so they adopt lifestyle choices such as dieting and exercise. With marriage and the attendant adjustments however, couples tend to slack off on healthier choices. Your partner may even encourage less-than-healthy habits. "When you're combining lifestyles, sometimes the less active one wins out," says Cheryl Forberg, RD, nutritionist for The Biggest Loser and author of the cookbook Flavor First. for instance when your guy wants you to skip your morning run to sleep in with him, it's easy to roll over and give in.

You don't have to get like this!!!

There's no need to fear, research shows that couples that work out together have a 94% chance of sticking with their fitness programmes. Couples can motivate themselves toward a healthy lifestyle while sharing some emotionally beneficial quality time. In order to do this however, the couples should identify activities which they mutually enjoy. Activities which couples can enjoy together include:

1. Dancing: 

Take a Latin dance class or alternatively, head down to the hippest dance club in town and break out some moves. Avoid too much alcohol and drink lots of water while youre at it (You wouldn't want to do something you'll regret later on!!).

2. Martial Arts

 Taking a martial arts class together helps the couple build a healthy respect for each others physical abilities, in addition they can work out together and provide mutual support to each other in the process.

 

3: Swimming:

 This low impact and enjoyable activity can provide hours of quality and healthy entertainment to the couple, as well as being a wonderful prelude to some bedroom activity (*wink*)

 

4. Biking:

 You and your partner could take a nice bike ride and enjoy the environment together reminiscent of how you hung out with your siblings when you were young.

   

 

HOW MUCH OF AN EDGE WILL SUPPLEMENTS GIVE YOU?

 

A lot of people have asked me about the benefits or otherwise of taking supplements. As a general rule, I do not push supplements as they can be easily abused, with dire consequence.

Supplements are becoming extremely popular in the fitness industry and much of the public are being misled by what certain supplements can do. Nutrition will always come first and give far greater results than any array of supplements ever could. Supplements are given their name because they do just that: supplement an already well put together nutrition plan.

However, it is not always possible to get all the nutrients you require only by eating and if you're the busy kind, you  may find it difficult to eat a meal every few hours. In such a situation, smartly selected supplements may be beneficial to keep your metabolism going, it'll help you build muscle, and help you fight fat. Supplements are also beneficial to  people who find it hard to build muscle; for such people, supplements can provide a source of valuable protein. 

So my advice is to look honestly at your goals and ask yourself whether you need to supplement your diet. If you believe you need a supplement, look for one that closely matches your fitness goals. But be careful not to take too much within a day, as the long term abuse of supplements may cause damage to your kidneys. Remember that supplements are just that, they are meant to supplement your diet and should not act as substitutes for a good diet. 

 

(DE)TRAINING AND ITS EFFECTS

I just picked up the weights after taking a two week break to recover from an injury sustained during training; and it feels terrible. My joints feel like someone poured sand between the surfaces, each inhalation feels like I’m taking in molten lava instead of oxygen, I’m as stiff as the Tin man, and let’s not even go near how my muscles felt after the first session.

Haven’t you ever wondered why you feel weaker, get exhausted quicker and generally feel like crap when you resume exercise after a break of a few days or weeks? That’s the effect of Detraining (sounds like a legal term, doesn’t it?). This is the gradual loss or reversal of the beneficial effects obtained from exercise after a few weeks of not exercising.

For exercise to be effective, it has to be performed regularly with increasing levels of intensity. This has the effect of convincing the body that it is facing an external threat and forces it to develop speed, muscular and cardiovascular endurance, agility, strength, and flexibility.

Therefore, when we reduce intensity levels, or even cease exercising entirely, our bodies revert to lower fitness levels. This is because your body feels like the threat posed by the external stimuli which required you to grow stronger, move faster/longer or become more flexible, has passed and it is no longer required to remain at the earlier fitness level.

While the specific effects of conditioning require at least 4-6 weeks of consistent training to see, deconditioning/ detraining occurs relatively quickly. You start to detrain within 1 week of reduction or cessation of exercise.

In order to combat the negative effects of detraining, it is best to maintain usual exercise intensity during exercise and strength workouts, when the number or length of workouts is decreased. In other words, if you can only train for 10 mins a day as opposed to the 20 mins you were used to, you have to reduce your rest periods and ensure that each repetition is performed with perfect form.

Try to exercise at least 2-3 times a week, this will keep your fitness levels fairly steady and minimize the effects of detraining. Strength gains can be maintained by including one or two strength exercises in each workout as opposed to waiting for a particular day to perform strength exercises.

Fitness is not a one off thing, it’s a lifestyle.