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Fitness
Any weight control program should aim to set realistic
individual goals when increasing or decreasing weight. Spot reduction Part I
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| Exercise… Just
do it There is a lot of hype around these days as to what is the best way to lose weight, which little quick fix can we find on the evening current affairs shows this week, what fabulous piece of equipment can we buy on the morning shows this month, yet our society continues to become fatter and unhealthier. I just want you to realize that there are no quick fixes! You have to move daily. You have to eat healthy. From there you just have to refine these principles: You must perform resistance exercises to build and maintain muscle aswell as strengthening your bones. You must perform some high intensity cardiovascular exercise to increase your physical fitness. You must walk more, because we all sit on our bums far too much every single day. So, don't look for the latest gimmick, just exercise sensibly and eat a range of healthy fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans and lean meat, chicken and fish. |
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| Spot reduction
Part I Firstly I would like to apologise for the disappointment you are about to feel when you read this article. A lot of people are under the impression that you can reduce the body fat on certain parts of the body through particular exercises that target that area. Let me assure you, this is most definitely not the case! I can understand why some people may have this thought, due to the many pieces of equipment sold on television that are marketed to reduce the waist line or thighs etc, simply by using one piece of equipment..….Wow, they can do that! Really! I believe there are even some personal trainers out there that promise this as well. Imagine the disappointment when their client loses weight off their shoulders when what they have been focusing on is squats….. Let me tell you again, there is no method known to man at this point in time that makes it possible to spot reduce the body fat on one area of your body! Body fat will disappear from wherever on your body it so chooses to. This will be determined by your natural body shape, genetics and hormones. I think the 2 most common examples are 100's of sit ups to trim down that waist line, or my personal favourite, "I do loads of squats so I can trim down my butt". I'm not sure if you realise it, but working out a muscle tends to make it bigger or more toned, not smaller. And if it's not reducing the body fat in that area, what do you think happens to the measurement… It gets bigger! The basis of any weight loss program, should be to speed
the metabolism, generating a greater calorie burn, resulting in fat loss. All body parts should be worked out relatively equally. That means we squat as often as we push up. We crunch as often as we bicep curl. We dip as often as we chin up. Happy training! |
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| Spot reduction Part II
Although everyone agrees with me when I say there is no such thing as spot reduction, I still get asked if we can do exercises for certain body parts which just happen to be the fattest parts of their body. Well, here are some tests to prove it. I have adapted this information from an article on PT on the net quoting studies from "The journal of applied physiology" and "The Annals of internal medicine" Firstly, 13 males performed 5000 sit ups over the course of 27 days. Their body fat was tested showing that they lost equal amounts of fat from their abdomen, glutes and upper back, but they only worked their abs… Secondly, a group of women performed only leg exercises for 9 hours each week. They lost 2.6kg of fat (measured by DEXA). 1.3kg from their abdomen, 1.27kg from their arms and 0kg from their thighs, but they only worked their legs… Thirdly, a group of world class tennis players who obviously use one arm more than the other everyday, had their arms tested for size and body fat. Their dominant arm, was bigger due to muscle growth, but the bodyfat was identical... Lastly, does your dominant arm have less bodyfat than the other? But you use it more everyday... |
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| What causes a stitch?
We all know what a stitch feels like, but why do we get them? After doing my research, I would have to say that it is still a slightly grey area, but I can certainly give you a reasonable idea of why you get that stabbing pain in your right side. A stitch may be caused by your organs pulling on ligaments that attach your gut to your diaphragm. These ligaments support your stomach, spleen and liver. Jolting exercise such as jogging,, especially down hill will cause these organs to pull on the ligaments and create stress on the diaphragm. Shallow breathing will hold the diaphragm higher and will increase the risk of stitch, so taking deeper fuller breaths should help alleviate the incidence of a stitch as it will allow the diaphragm to fill and lower to give some relaxation to the ligaments. A stitch may be avoided by allowing atleast 2 hours between eating and exercise. Only consuming water before exercise is recommended as sugary drinks take longer to empty from the stomach. Having a tighter abdominal wall will help to hold the organs in place thus minimizing the amount of movement and reducing the stress on the ligaments. If you do get a stitch, the best way to over come it is to bend slightly forward and breathe out through pursed lips. This position lowers the diaphragm and the pursed lips tighten the abdominal wall. If this doesn't alleviate the pain, simply slow your intensity or stop until the pain eases. If the pain is intense, lay down and elevate your hips. If the pain is persistent and does not ease when the exercise ceases, see you doctor. |
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| Are you training correctly
for your goals? When undertaking an exercise plan, the first step is to establish your goals. The next step is to assess the most sensible way to reach those goals. I see so many people in the gym training in the same manner as a body builder. Now this is fine, if your goal is to look like a body builder, but is that your goal? If the guy in the corner is performing seated bicep curls to make his arms look bigger, does that mean you too should perform seated bicep curls? Do you want big arms? Or is there something more effective for you? If your goal is to lose weight, then you should be trying to use as much muscle mass at the one time as you can handle. This will ensure you are maximizing your time, by burning as many calories as possible. The least effective exercises if you are trying to lose weight, would be machine weights. These machines tell your whole body to switch off apart from the muscle group that is moving the weight. Besides that, why do you need to sit down at the gym. Didn't you sit down to eat breakfast, to get to work, at work, at lunch, to get home from work, whilst you had dinner and after dinner on the couch? I think you can see that you sit down enough, so when you get to the gym to carry out your weight loss training, please don't sit down. Here's a few simple exercise combinations to get you burning calories more effectively. Try doing a lunge with a bicep curl, try a squat with a shoulder press or instead of chest press machines or dumbbells laying on a bench, try doing push ups using your own body weight. Remember, the lighter you get, the easier they become. |
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| How many calories can you burn
walking? If you find running too hard and you think it's the only way to lose weight, think again! Everyone knows how to walk, right? A brisk walk can actually be relaxing and if you do it with a friend, you can still maintain conversation. Bonus! Walking at 60 - 70% of your maximum heart rate is ideal for fat loss. Such an intensity is high enough to increase the metabolic energy cost of your walk, causing your body to create more mitochondria. These are the energy burning sites in your muscle cells. Putting it simply, this boosts your metabolism!!! Walking in this zone is comfortable enough to sustain for 45 mins to 2 hours and by adding atleast 4 of these walks into your exercise program each week, you will boost your calorie burn nicely! Try this quick calculation: If you multiply each minute that you walk by each pound of your bodyweight, then multiply that number by 0.036. This will tell you how many calories you will burn on your walk. Example: A 60kg person walking for 60 mins will burn 285 calories. 60 x 2.2 = 132 pounds 132 x 60 mins = 7920 7920 x 0.036 = 285 calories Remember it has to be a brisk walk. Around 4 km per hour. |
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| Why do we train the way we
do? I would like to give you a few brief explanations to help you understand exactly why it is that we do certain things with our training. I hope that with this understanding, you will make better choices and not go blindly into the gym relying on the pieces of information you have been given. You can actually understand your training and make up your own mind about what is best. Firstly, I would like to tell you why I am writing this article. I watched as a regular gym goer (an obvious fat loss trainer) made his way to the gym for his morning workout whilst downing his low fat high sugar berry yoghurt from the salad shop near the gym. I have seen him do this quite regularly and thought to myself "I wonder if he knows he is sabotaging his workout with that yoghurt? Does he understand why his waistline doesn't go down? Because he is supplying the high glycemic carbohydrates to fuel his workout and immobilising his fat cells. Or is he one of the many that are not sure of the technicalities behind weight loss?" I am aiming this article at a fat loss trainer, as most of you are. What is the most effective weight loss mechanism? Our metabolism! The calories that are burned while our body carries out it's own internal functions. Why do we train in the first place? We want to burn calories. Calories are a unit of energy that we receive when we eat food and if that energy is not used, it will be stored as fat. Why do we train aerobically? Aerobic training increases fitness levels, helps our health and most importantly for most, it burns calories. It burns calories at the time of training and during the recovery hours after the training. With the chronic changes that effect our blood and organs, we will speed our metabolism. Why do we train weights? Weight lifting gives us more muscle tone and being stronger helps us in everyday life. We burn calories during a weights workout and in the recovery time after the workout, but the most important reason is that more lean muscle mass creates a faster metabolism by needing to use more energy to support the newly created muscle mass. Why do we walk? Most of us don't move enough! We wake up, drive to work, sit at our desk and then drive home to have dinner and go to bed. We need more movement in our lives! Don't you wonder why we are a population that is getting bigger and bigger? When we walk, we increase our heart rates to a level that will burn more calories, but those calories are predominantly fat calories as the heart rate is still low enough to make energy without too much trouble. For more info refer to April's newsletter. Why do we eat regularly? When we eat regularly, our bodies need to process the food, thus speeding the metabolism. If we leave large gaps in between meals, our body may think it is starving and it will hold onto the food we put in, not knowing when the next meal may come. Adding food regularly, we eliminate this problem. Why do we eat more protein and less carbohydrates? Protein is the building block of the body, our growth and repair rely on the amino acids that are found in protein. Carbohydrates give us energy. If you consume too much energy without burning it away, it will be stored as fat. High glycemic carbohydrates will spike your blood sugar levels causing insulin to be released into your blood supply which will immobilise your fat cells. Putting it simply, don't expect to use any fat as energy for the couple of hours after eating high glycemic carbohydrates. Most of the population eat far too little protein and far too much bad carbohydrates. Why do we train our abdominals? Our abdominal wall gives support to our spine! If you can strengthen your abdominals, you will have less chance of back injury. If you are very lean, training your external abdominals will give you the six pack look. Why do we stretch? Tight muscles can cause injuries not only to the muscle itself, but to the joint that that muscle crosses and/or affects Why do we rest? Our bodies need rest to avoid over training. With too much exercise, our body may start to panic and go into survival mode and hold onto the fat as an insurance for itself as it doesn't know how much more training is around the corner. Our muscles need rest to recover from the workout that we have put them through, so that they can repair themselves grow stronger to accommodate the overload that we put them through with each workout. |
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| Walking and Running?
It's not versus, it combining them. A lot of you are doing extra running instead of your walking thinking that this is better for you. My aim with this article is to clarify how they both have different effects on the body. It is really quite simple. When you work at a low intensity your main fuel is fat. When you work at a high intensity your main fuel is carbohydrates. Our heart rate has a direct affect on what we use to fuel our bodies. At a low heart rate, we use predominantly fat as our fuel. When you are sitting at your desk, you are using fat as your fuel. The thing is, you aren't using enough fat to make any difference to your weight. With a brisk walk, your heart rate should rise from about 60 beats per minute to about 60-70% of your maximum. At this level, you are still using fat as the main fuel source and it is high enough to make a big difference. Once you get your heart rate up above 70%, you need to make energy a lot quicker. Fat is actually quite hard for our bodies to convert into energy, so our bodies need something that will convert to energy quicker. This is why we now tap into the carbohydrate stores. Carbohydrates are the easiest thing to convert to energy. We still use some fat at this level, but the ratio of fat to carbohydrates is smaller. Running or other high intensity exercise should never be neglected as it burns more calories and it increases our fitness levels. But, the main calories it burns off are carbohydrate calories. This is great because it stops those carbs from being stored as fat, but we need the walking to tap directly into the fat stores. Another factor to consider is that our body will not allow itself to burn out. So if you are constantly performing high intensity exercise trying to burn as many calories as possible, there is a strong chance that it will have the opposite effect and we will hold onto the fat, because our body panics and thinks it might starve. Now combining the right amount of high intensity exercise with regular walks, will provide the right formula for your body to effectively lose weight. |
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| The confusion over sit ups
Do you want a flatter stomach or a six pack? But aren't they one in the same? If I do loads of sit ups, won't I get a flatter stomach? If I do loads of sit ups, won't I get rid of that stubborn fat on my stomach? So much confusion about abdominal training. Everybody has a different opinion. But who is right? Well, just have a think about this. The transverse abdominus is like an internal corset. You activate it by drawing the stomach inward. What does a garter belt do? It pulls the stomach area tight so it gives the appearance of a smaller waist under your clothes. What if you could educate your transverse abdominus to activate properly so that the muscles had more "tone" thus giving the stomach a flatter appearance, just like a corset. The rectus abdominus flexes (bends forward) your trunk (torso). This is the action of a sit up or crunch. The rectus abdominus is the six pack musculature. The rectus abdominus is an external muscle like a bicep or quadricep. Wouldn't that mean that a big rectus abdominus will increase the size of the waistline. Be it ever so slightly, it is still an increase. Don't get me wrong, training the rectus abdominus is still just as crucial in any training program as training the triceps or hamstrings. The abdominals stabilise the body during all exercise. All movement originates at the core, so a stronger core means a more stable torso meaning stronger more controlled movements. The core also protects the spine. Now that should be the first and foremost goal of an exercise program, so that the spine is not injured throughout the training that will follow in the weeks, months and years to come. Have I confused you yet? I think I confused myself! The fact is, all core training is very important, but none of it will remove the fat from your stomach, no matter how many sit ups you do!!! Sorry! |
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