Posts Tagged ‘Deepak Bhangu’

Recovering from Exercise

It’s January, your News Year’s Resolutions have probably been set in stone for now…and you are ready to hit the gym to try and get rid of all the visible signs of over indulging during the festive season.

Before we get going allow me to go through the workout you would have been mentally preparing in your head over the past few weeks and then I will then I will be covering what you should be doing…

Your Mental Plan of Action

For a few weeks now you will have been mentally preparing your workout and setting the intensity levels that you will be working out to in January.

This is all great but too much focus on the intensity of your workout could be where you potentially go wrong and will also determine if you will be consistently training over the weeks and months to come.

You will already have painted a picture of going all out on the treadmill, cross trainer, rower, lifting life threatening amounts of weights etc… and sweating bucket loads during the process!…However, this is the opposite of what you want to do…and here’s why…

Your body may have been used to exercising on a consistent basis and overtime would have developed a high level of tolerance to exercise and the recovery process would have also been pretty efficient after intense workouts.

Even after a few weeks of not exercising the conditioning of your muscles will not be to the same tune as they were a few weeks ago.  “So what does this mean for your workout?”…it means we have to cut back on the intensity for a good few sessions.  By doing this you will reduce the amount of muscle soreness but more importantly it allows you to exercise again the following day with less soreness.

Muscle Soreness Can Affect Motivation Levels…

By exercising too hard straight away you will find your motivation to get back into the gym is overcome by muscle soreness and even if the will power is there to exercise the lack of muscle flexibility and soreness limits your performance levels whilst exercising.  This is also how injuries can be picked up. 

Recommended Plan of Action

For the first few weeks I would recommend you concentrate on consistency rather than intensity.  It is better to get into a routine of exercising 3 times per week rather than taking part in 1 hard training session and then spending the next 4 days to recover and then repeating the process.  There is very little benefit in this routine.  You will find as you exercise more frequently, your body is quickly getting back into it’s normal routine and your muscles tolerance levels to exercise is improving which in turn means your recovery process is also allot quicker. “Remember Health & Fitness is for life, it’s not going out of fashion so let’s start slowly and positively”…

There are additional steps you can take to help the recovery process and that is to feed your muscles with its natural properties which are water and protein. 

Always stay hydrated as this can help maximise your training effort…remember muscle tissue is made up by 70 to 80% of water and about 25% protein!
Additional resources can also be protein shakes, this is a great way to supply protein to your muscles straight after your workout!

Conclusion…

So there you have it, start off slowly, concentrate on exercise consistency rather than exercise intensity (to begin with), drink more water, consume more protein and one last thing that we haven’t touched on yet is to try and get 8 hours of sleep as inconsistent or heavily disturbed sleeping patterns can also reduce recovery times and can also cause weight gain!

Christmas Do’s & Dont’s

Yes it’s that time of year again when the weather takes a turn for the worst, fitness becomes less of a priority and the festive foods take over!

While it’s very easy to get caught up with the cold weather, snow and generally jolly moods, let’s not forget to keep focus on the well being of our bodies.

This may sound like hard work given all the elements we are facing but in actual fact it’s not really that difficult.  If you can sustain 30 minutes of cardio/resistance training per day that will see you through the month of December very nicely.

The trap you don’t want to fall into is going to work and finding yourself eating the cup cakes and other goodies in large trays that your very generous peers have left.  This will result in you eating nothing BUT SUGAR for 8 hours and this will continue for weeks because the next day another friendly peer will also bring in some festive yummies.

Then there will be after hour drinks and bar nights resuting in late dinners and so forth…and you will casually smile and accept what is going on because its Christmas!…Well it’s not quite Christmas, it’s the “lead up” to Christmas but you will only be more than happy to tell yourself that it is…

Now before we tackle the do’s let’s just quickly get the do not’s out of the way first as I like to end on positive and lighter notes…

Do Not…

- Do not starve yourself during the day so you can over indulge on snacks, goodies and Christmas diners

- Avoid sitting at your desk and snacking for 8 hours on cakes and goodies that your work peers have bought in!

- Separate yourself from your nearest and dearests December habits, they may not want to look after themselves as well as you do

- Avoid late night diners and going to bed straight after

- Do not get drunk on every given opportunity & avoid “one for the road”

- Do not be bullied into eating and drinking more because friends and family members are saying “go ooooooon……you know you want to”….it’s a trap!

Do…

- Drink plenty of water during the day, this will help release toxins from your body

- Do try the odd cup cake but don’t get excited and get caught up in the moment and find yourself elbow deep in tray full of assorted cakes!

- Continue to eat 3 regular meals during the day

- DO 30 MINUTES OF CARDIO/RESISTANCE TRAINING EVERY DAY

When I say cardio I am talking about going for a jog, swimming, skipping cycling any fitness activity that will have your heart rate up for at least 30 minutes.

Not only will this help you burn calories but it will keep your mind, body and immune system fit during the month of December…this will not only keep you active but it sets you up nicely for your New Years Resolutions.

Resistance training could be body weight exercises such as push ups, sit ups, squats, lunges etc…these exercises will help keep your muscles remain strong, supple, flexible, toned and well conditioned! 

Other advantages to 30 minutes of exercise per day is it keeps your immune system finely tuned resulting in you minimising your chances of catching a cold/flu and other airborn viruses that tend to pop up during the colder temperatures of December.

 I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe and wonderful “Lead Up” to and Christmas

Deepak Bhangu
Head of Operations & Personal Trainer
Musclemadness