Roll on the lipids

Lipids, guys and girls is another word for fats if you didn’t know already. There are a few different types of fats such as phospholipids, sterols and triglycerides. Structurally they differ between each other and this in turn has different effects in the body.

So when we exercise what macro nutrient do you think gets metabolised? Carbohydrates, fats or proteins? Go on think …

They actually all play a part in metabolism! However, we are actually talking today about fats/lipids being metabolised! There are many people out there who still think that fat is bad for you, it causes this disease and that one and oh yes….makes you fat! Well fortunately that isn’t the truth about fat at all as fat is the second most abundant property in our body after water. Fat is a vital component of cell membranes, it helps with biochemical reactions and also acts as an energy source. It also acts as subcutaneous insulation too which helps us keep body temperature regulated.

During exercise, again lots of us think that only carbohydrates are the source of energy used for energy metabolism. However, there is a hell of a lot more fat stores than carbs. On average in an adult body there is something like 100,000 Kcal of fat stores which is around 50 times fore than carb stores! Guess we are all fat then ! But we know now that it doesn’t work like that – FAT DOES NOT MAKE YOU FAT! So now that’s cleared up, back to what I was going on about…if we have that many Kcal of fat then there is no way on this planet that we will not be using that for metabolism! There are different ways of achieving lipolysis. During exercise IMTG (intramuscular triglycerides) which are located within the muscle itself gets utilised. Type 1 fibers have more stores than type 2 which makes sense as these fibers are more fatigue resistant than type 2 bad boys!

Depending on intensity of exercise the body uses different amounts of fats and carbohydrates. During exercise our body can use up to 70% of IMTG to fuel our workouts. These IMTG stores have been proven to be important even during rest after exercise bouts to restore ATP sources and the structural integrity of our system. During rest and low intense exercise in trained and untrained individuals, fat is the most used source of fuel and as intensity increases the body switches to carbohydrate usage. This is why Forest Gump could run for 3 years at a slow pace because he was using his fat stores. If he was sprinting then that would mean carbs would be his main source and we already know now that our body doesn’t store that much of carbs, he would have burned out probably after 6 months! All I am getting at people is that if you want to do exercise at a low intensity then you will be using fat, mainly IMTG to fuel our workouts.

However fat stores are still  used during higher intensity workouts as well! Fat utilisation is a great way of extending workouts and producing ATP for energy. People only think of carbs and high sugar digestion prior to a workout but there have been studies and from personal experience that having a fatty meal a few hours before a workout can actually generate the same amount of energy as opposed to eating high sugary foods before a workout. The body uses short and medium chain fatty acids a lot quicker than long chain fatty acids, so having foods such as coconut and milk can benefit you in your workouts. The good thing with short chain fats are that they don’t need that much time being broken down in the intestines, they get absorbed by albumin and gets down straight to the job no messing about. If you are looking for more examples then look for foods high in butyric and caprilic acid and they’ll do the job! So guys and girls if you want to stuff your gob with good fats prior to a workout then that is fine. You will still perform well at your workouts. Howevverrrrr, remember people these are fats not sugary carbohydrates so that means it will still take the body a bit longer to digest so give it at least an hour or so prior to a workout. An example would be to have a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter and a glass of milk, now you could get away with having that 45 minutes before a workout just for a bit of energy as the body will store that in your muscles and use that essentially as energy for a BIG SESSION!

The rate of lipolysis increases significantly during mild to moderate intensity exercise meaning that the amount of fat used for energy increases exponentially. Usually when carrying out weight training sessions, VO2 max levels won’t really go up past 70% obviously depending on what you are doing  but in general VO2 max is between 55% – 75% which is prime time for fat utilisation. This is why lots of gym goers now have switched to fatty foods to improve their muscle tone, body composition and even strength! There have been times when even carrying out high intensity sessions such as boxing or cross fit, eating a fat meal 2 hours before can seriously benefit your energy levels in sustaining ATP sources for a prolonged period of time! Now guys before you bash me with things like carbs are the main source for high intense workouts, let me just reiterate – carbs are definitely beneficial for high intensity workouts and they will always be like that, that is just the way our body works. But I am offering an alternative especially for those who are looking for reducing body fat and maintaining muscle tone – eating fats especially short and medium chain fatty acids will definitely benefit your workouts!

So there above is a little about fat metabolism and why it can be beneficial for your workouts without going too much in to the sciency part which would bore you all! Have a read of this blog and it might some of you find other alternatives for fuel. Because let’s be honest how many of us are bored of eating the same foods? Probably most of us and this is why it is important to try new things and what better than trying other foods which will still benefit your workouts and metabolism. So get going and get some FAT!

 

Myth Buster – Crunches for core

Maybe it’s the wrong time of year to talk about this kind of stuff but I’m going to run my mouth now for a good few minutes.

Now lots of you out there must think that doing crunches all the time is the best way of improving your core. I mean obviously, if your stomach is hurting after a million crunches then naturally you must think ‘yay I’m getting those abs of steel!’

I can tell you now that if you didn’t do all those crunches everyday you can still achieve a strong core! Your core is your foundation and doesn’t matter what shape you’re pulling whether sober or not your core will be working to stabilise body movements! This just means that your core is working in a multi directional way rather than constantly in a ‘bending’ manner as you would do in a crunch situation. Always carrying out flexion based exercises such as crunches can actually cause more damage than good as you are putting a lot of stress on to your spinal ligaments and eventually they will lose their elasticity and become a lot less efficient in their work. Basically what I’m saying is that if you annoy your tissues they’re going on strike – bye bye spine!

Like I said before your core is a multi directional system and it only makes sense that if you challenge it in different ways you will benefit a lot more. By carrying out big compound moves such as squats and press ups you will be stabilising and improving core strength and endurance. You’d be surprised that how much your foundation is functioning when carrying out press ups! Not only that, but by doing compound exercises you are working many other joint systems in tandem which all relate back to core stability. Lots of fitness experts strongly believe that your core stability ranges not only from your abs but to your upper and lower extremities. These peripherally active stabilisers all help your foundation and in turn your central foundation helps peripheral stabilisers. To put all this in 1 sentence – Your joints help each other to stabilise and carry out optimum functional movement. That would have been much easier to type!

So if you guys and girls are wondering now what kind of exercises you can do for improving the core then here are some:

1.Boxing or a form of martial arts
2. Compound exercises such as deadlifts, squats, chin ups, press ups,
3. Power based exercises such as clean and press, snatches, Kettle bell swings
4. Dynamic bodyweight movements such as hand walks, bear crawls, spider walks, burpees
5. Single leg exercises such as single leg deadlift, single leg shoulder press, and single leg jump squat

Now there is no excuse to try some of those exercises listed above out. Who knows you might enjoy some of these and progress on to more challenging exercises. Now don’t these exercises sound more interesting than doing lots of crunches again and again and again! Keep the workouts different and vary the exercises to keep tricking your body and you will find it a lot more beneficial.

All this talk about core and exercises is fun and interesting especially when you actually try them out but remember if you do suffer from chronic back pain with or without leg pain then you should adhere to an appropriate programme given by a trainer qualified in this area. Yeah don’t be going on and swinging kettle bells left right and centre if you do have back pain. Don’t worry you’ll get there after an appropriate programme. Like I said before having a strong core can be brought about with a variety of exercises but the most important part is to achieve this without any excess pain or discomfort!

Myth buster – Eating late at night leads to fat gain

I’m getting straight to the point for all of you out there who are on the road to fat loss and tell you right now that eating past 8 pm does not lead to fat gain! Without even jibbering on any more, here is your answer…but I will continue to jibber and explain why it won’t lead to fat gain…

Let’s get a little bit sciency for a bit 😀

The human body is an amazing piece of kit, it’s so amazing that it can even tell the different type of calorie that you are digesting. It can recognise how to use proteins, fats and carbs and segregate them in specific ways in order to allow the body to function optimally. When we talk about energy expenditure, our body utilises energy derived from carbohydrates first, then fats and last of all protein. It does it this way because in order to carry out a specific task the body needs the simple sugars which turn in to glucose, pyruvate and so on to produce the action. Simple sugars are constituents of carbohydrates and therefore our body utilises carbs first prior to fats and proteins. Fats when broken down tend to be used for lower intensity work and the body likes to hold on to this for more than just energy production. (If you guys want to know more about the uses of fats then have a look at my previous entry which I must have done months ago talking about fats and its benefits). Obviously the body doesn’t want to use protein for obvious reasons and for all you gym hunks you definitely know why!

So at this point you might be thinking ‘eh? how does this help with fat loss and eating late at night?’ Well now we know a little bit about the different energy sources we can talk more about eating.  When you eat any type of food your blood sugar level rises – the body does not like this increase and so it tells the beta cells from the pancreas to release insulin to carry the extra sugar from the blood and store it in either the liver, fat cells or muscles for later use. This is completely natural and whatever time of day you eat, this will happen. However, the only thing you can control is the type of food you have. If you are munching on gummy bears and smarties whilst watching ‘The avengers’ then your blood sugar levels will spike due to the large increase of sugar, but if you eat more fibrous foods such as oats then there will be a much more stable sugar level and this will create much less stress for the pancreas to sort out the blood sugar levels. Now what you find when eating simple sugars or smaller chained carbs is that due to the high release of blood sugar levels, more insulin will be released to deal with it causing a serious low in blood sugar levels which in turn causes you to feel hungrier a lot sooner. But eating more fibre does the opposite – because there is a steady sugar level and a steady release in insulin you will not be feeling hungry for a long period of time. So see it all depends on what you eat and WHEN you eat!

Enough of the science, let’s get down to business…

So what happens if you feel hungry after eating your dinner at say 7 or 8? Well think, first of all have you drank enough water? How was your activity levels during that day? What did you eat for dinner? All these questions should be crossing your mind to rule out the cause of hunger. Now if you have eaten healthy, trained well and drank a sufficient amount of water and you are still hungry then that is your body telling you that it needs energy. So ladies and gentlemen what do you do? … you EAT!

Starving the body or preventing it from consuming calories for energy is a detrimental process not just for fat loss but for your internal systems too. If you think that just because it’s past 9 at night that you cannot eat well then you are completely wrong! Limiting the body from energy when it wants it will only cause the body to hold on to fat stores rather than releasing them for energy and this in turn causes more fat to be deposited in your adipose tissue. This is a survival system backdated from thousands of years ago where we could go days without any food and because of this the body has developed a safety system so when it is in need of food and food is scarce then it will hold on to fat stores and not let go of them. So in order to shred the fat you want to feed the body – backwards eh!

QUALITY OVER ANYTHING! Remember that – so when you are feeling a bit peckish at night time remember it’s the higher fibre, healthy fats and proteins that you want to consume rather than the simple sugars. The fats will help to keep your sugar levels stable and keep hunger at bay not to mention increase the metabolism of fat burning cells. The fibre will help stailise blood sugar levels and improve digestion and even help to carry protein in to cells for metabolism. Protein last of all helps curb hunger pangs and keeps you fuller for longer and increase the metabolism of fat by increasing body temperature.

So remember, eating late night does not lead to fat gain, if it did then lots of athletes, gym junkies and fitness gurus would be walking around with a balloon in their stomach. Some people even eat a bowl of porridge late at night if they have an early morning gym session so they know that their liver has enough glycogen stores for the bout of session in the morning. If you are training early morning and physically cannot stomach an early breakfast or even a snack then yes you can eat breakfast the night before such as a bowl of oats or cottage cheese with some fruit or even peanut butter sandwiches. This energy will simply be used for that gym session the morning after.

So always remember, if you are hungry then listen to your body and ask yourself questions regarding this onset of hunger. Also remember that fat loss is a combination of increasing activity levels and eating well so if these are in check then it’s no problem what time you eat provided there is quality over anything else.

I hope that this has cleared the air for some people as I know that I always get asked frequent questions regarding eating after a set time. So if you do feel that hunger creeping in then yeah crack on and have something to tie you over – this will also help you sleep better at night 😀

Munchies before or after a workout ?

A lot of people ask the same question – ‘To lose fat do I eat before a workout or after?’  Now the most probable thing you guys must think is ‘Surely after a workout!’  But why think that?  Is it because you are consuming less ‘calories’ and working out on an empty stomach will shift more fat?  Well let’s find out 😀

I’ll get straight in to it … It does not matter if you eat before a workout or save it for after to lose fat.  So that should ideally answer your question but I will elaborate more, please don’t get bored…

Let’s look at both sides of the coin; Heads – Eating before and Tails – Eating after only

Heads – Now eating before a workout can have many advantages such as you stock up on more energy for your workout and therefore are able to workout for a greater intensity or a longer period of time. Also eating a snack consisting of fat such as coconut water will actually stimulate your fat cells from releasing glycerol in to your bloodstream to use as a fuel source. It’s great isn’t it – Eating fat to BURN fat! Saying that, even if you munch on a banana or a few dried raisins prior to a beasty session, the amazing sugar formulas within these foods will help not only stimulate the release of sugars in to your blood stream but also act as an alarm clock for your brain! Ever wondered that when you are tired you crave sugars?  Yea that is because your brain wants sugars to give it some energy, it may also need minerals such as chromium to help stimulate the organ. Chromium is extremely important for glucose metabolism, growth, insulin and cholesterol regulation.

Also if you are feeling hungry and thinking to yourself that you have a workout in an hour or so, please do eat something! Don’t think that starving yourself and then working out will make you lose fat as your body is more inclined to hold on to it as a safety mechanism. So this is a good time to eat so make sure you have a nice little snack, yea it can be a small bowl of oats, or a pot of Greek yoghurt, or even a scrumptious smoothie which I keep raving about. Remember people, when you are hungry it is your body telling you that you need food for energy, so listen to it and feed it. Just like a baby – You wouldn’t starve a baby (I hope not!) then why should you do it to yourselves. Go grab a snack and enjoy it and you will find that your workouts will not only be a lot more intense but more enjoyable too.

Tails – Eating after a workout can be as affective as eating before a workout. I find that if you don’t eat before a workout provided you have had a sufficient meal a couple of hours before you should have enough energy to fuel yourself through the workout. Advantages of eating after a workout is that if you are heading for an early morning class and just don’t feel hungry or haven’t got time to eat something then you can always drink a glass of water to help that feeling of fullness and then carry out your class. This way of working out is very common for the early risers or people who exercise in their lunch times as they don’t have time to eat prior to a session. Having a munch after a workout can be still as important as before because it’s this time period that you are actually feeding your muscles to make them grow and promoting fat stores to be used for this process. Ideally because you haven’t gobbled up any snacks prior to a workout, you would want to focus on sugars and protein. The protein is for obvious reasons and the sugars act as protein transporters and glucose storage in the liver and muscles for future bombardments!!

So from the 2 sides of the coin, we can see that it doesn’t really matter when you eat for fat loss. Think of it more of what you are eating on a general bases because that is what will really count for fat loss and not whether you eat before or not! You need to remember that muscles and the liver stores energy, vitamins and minerals. The liver can store more than 4 months of vitamin D and can house a lot of glycogen which can be utilised as energy. Also triglyceride within adipose tissues are present for another source of energy. Protein turnover and fat metabolism is dependent on the quality and quantity of your foods throughout the day. You need to eat clean before and after a workout to feel the effects so don’t feel pressurised and think which one works the best. Your body is like a skip – you keep chucking stuff in there like old carpets, bottles. computers, your siblings and then you call the skip people and they take it away to empty it, and then you can have it back to throw some more family members in there. Well your body is just like that except you can’t store family in there – You give it the right stuff throughout the day, week, month and year and your liver and muscles will store the essential ingredients for your workouts. That’s the beauty of your body, it is a storage system and it is this energy which will be used time and again.

So the answer to your question guys and girls – No it doesn’t matter whether you eat before or only after for fat loss, what matters is what are you eating throughout the rest of the day. Ooo one more thing to add for fat loss….

EXERCISE!!

Kill 2 birds with 1 stone…or more

Yeah don’t literally try to do this!  It probably won’t happen anyway…

So what do I mean with this statement ? Everyone has heard or used this saying (except the ‘or more’ bit) and it means to make your life easier and more efficient.  This can also be used within the fitness industry believe it or not.  All this means is that you do 2 or more exercises without having a rest in between, and no not supersets, tri sets, giant sets etc but I am talking about combinations!

Combination exercises are basically 2 or more exercises carried out without putting the weight down so the stress is always placed on your tissues.  Example of a combination is a clean and press.  If you break this move down you are in fact doing a deadlift in to an upright row in to an upward rotation of rotator cuffs then in to a squat and shoulder press.  So this is definitely a combination exercise, but people take it as 1 move.  Who would have thought a press up is a combination eh?  Well it is!  You push up which is basically a shoulder press and then let yourself almost hit the floor, almost remember not hit the floor, which is then your plank position.  See it is a combination!

So now you know what a combination exercise is, so why are they so damned good for you?

Stress – Well in order to build muscles and get those washboard abs you want to put your muscles under a lot of stress so they break down, release certain hormones, enzymes get to work bla bla bla and you get newer, bigger and better carved muscles.  Because in combinations you don’t put the weight down in between exercises, you are in fact using muscles continuously adding to the stress factor.

Grip strength – Believe it or not, you performing different exercises in 1 go really does improve your grip strength.  When you lift a weight up, that weight is always moving within your hands which causes tension in those little tendons and muscles within your palms and wrists and this in turn breaks grip.  So when you constantly train your muscles to hold a resistance for a longer period of time then you are in turn improving your grip for the heavier moves such as deadlifts and chin ups.  Remember improving grip strength is extremely important when exercising and even for everyday lives but please use it for good use and not to choke someone out….

Endurance – Let’s be honest, this one is a given.  YOU ARE PERFORMING LOTS OF EXERCISES IN 1 GO WITHOUT REST!  Your endurance levels will increase tremendously, need I say more?

Variety – Now this is a good one to talk about.  The good thing with combinations is that it you can vary whether you want it to be a full body exercise or not.  If you just want to target say your upper body then you can carry out a move such as shoulder press in to a bent over row, so 1 press then 1 row then 1 press 1 row etc etc.  Or you can be a machine and go from a press up to a deadlift to an upright row to a shoulder press to a back squat to a good morning to a lunge then back again !  I’ve just thought of this up on the spot so it doesn’t take a GENIUS to make these up!  That’s why these combinations are efficient because you can make them interesting.  Think of a salad, you don’t just chuck some leaves you found from trees on a plate, no no you make it interesting by adding lots of colours, herbs, flavours, oils, nuts etc.  So the same rule applies with these bad boys, you make them fun and gruelling especially if you’re a PT training your clients 😀  You can go from a press up in to a mountain climb in to a jump squat !  Good luck people 😀

Core – Yes yes this is a massive core workout.  Combinations are usually all free weights or bodyweight related exercises, all which need your core to be engaged so your core will be playing a massive part in this to improve strength, stability, proprioception, dynamic and static neuromuscular efficiency and the list goes on……..

Metabolic training – By killing 2 or more exercises in 1 go, there will be a massive build up of hydrogen ions which in turn causes cramping, inefficiency in muscle contraction and the rest.  Now this acidosis state is actually a good thing, meaning that you are pushing your body to its limits so next time you’ll be able to push further and heavier.  When you experience an accumulation of hydrogen ions, your liver and kidneys want to get rid of the waste products as quickly as possible to allow muscle contraction and when the build up overloads the excretion then you experience cramps, breathlessness and the inability to carry on.  But over time when practising this extremely painful method of training (emphasis on painful) your organs, enzymes etc will work more efficiently to excrete the waste and allow muscles to work for a longer period of time.  Caution though, please do not push yourself so far that you faint, start throwing up or looking white in the face, firstly it’s not a good look and secondly you don’t need to go that far to near death to improve your body!  So please be careful when pushing your limits.

Time saver – Well this is a given, you do lots of exercises in 1 go so you save lots and lots of time in the gym 😀  Don’t really need to elaborate much on this one either.  If you want a full body workout, yea crack on with your clean and press, floor to ceiling raises, etc etc.

Above are a few points why combination exercises are a good way to exercise.  You can either carry out a whole session with these or add them to your programmes.  They are very good ways of training and you can be creative with them.  Remember though guys, when performing these, you can only go as heavy as your weakest exercise, let’s be honest nobody will do a clean and press with 250Kg on the barbell if their max deadlift is 250Kg!  So you need to go lighter with combinations but this way you will be improving your strength and endurance and the rest of the pointers above.  Again with everything else, I am not saying that you all must switch to this type of training and all look like you’re pulling shapes in the gym, but I am saying it is a good method of training.  So if you haven’t tried them already, give them a go or if you have already, then mix it up and try varieties and maybe even go against the time to see how many reps you can do etc etc.  They are good tools to have !

I presume you all know what I mean by killing 2 or more birds now!  So get going and try some of these out!

A burst of energy

Majority of us have had caffeine in some form or another before whether it’s through tea or coffee.  Thanks to our Italians café’s have spread like wildfire across the world!  Even in the UK which is a big tea drinking nation has hundreds and thousands of café’s around, and what do people now opt for?  Yes a latte or cappuccino with extra froth and chocolate powder on top! Mmmm!  So why am I bragging on about coffee, I mean no way am I a barista anymore.  But what’s magical about coffee and teas are the caffeine in them and what caffeine actually does to you.

Many people prior to a workout consume a cup of coffee or even tea because they want that caffeine boost.  Caffeine actually does help improve your workout.  Let’s dig deeper in to our brains shall we ?  When we need to focus on a task, certain brain receptors are triggered which release neurotransmitters such as dopamine which allows us to focus, be alert and generally increases our metabolism.  Now this is the ‘buzz’ we get from our morning coffee before we start a long days work – It’s sort of a legal ‘high’ feeling !  Caffeine works on our dopamine receptors by making them release more and more which increases our attention.  This in turn pumps more blood in to our muscles, increases heart rhythm, lung function and brain alertness and voilà – A burst of energy!  – See what I did there, clever eh!

I have personally tried drinking coffee about an hour before a work out, just a simple black coffee and yes it does definitely work.  The amount of caffeine can vary depending on the coffee bean and type of coffee you consume but there’s around 35 – 65 milligrams per shot of espresso.  Yes it definitely does give you a boost and you will find that your performance will improve.  Since you have caffeine in your system, I suggest that this is the time you carry out your circuit based or metabolic based training as your body will be up for the challenge.  For me it definitely works and I do notice the difference…..howeverrrrrrrr……

Too much of caffeine can be detrimental too!  Yes sorry guys and girls just because caffeine can be good for you does not give you the right do down a pint of it!  Seriously you’ll be bouncing off walls!  The issue with having too much caffeine is that it can cause heart arrhythmia which simply means that the heart either beats too fast or too slow and not in a rhythm.  This in turn can have negative effects on the release of oxygen and nutrients in to your working tissues and prevents your brain from focussing efficiently on the task at hand.  Too much caffeine can cause you to have palpitations and people have had to go to hospital regarding this problem.  Yeh sorry again peeps, 1 or 2 standard cups are fine but don’t go over board with it.  Another issue with lots of caffeine is that you can get addicted to it.  Remember the dopamine stuff we were talking about earlier?  Well as we consume more caffeine, more dopamine is released and we get a ‘buzz’ feeling and as we love this feeling because it keeps us motivated and focussed, we drink more and more and more dopamine is released.  This whole cycle continues until our brain receptors become acclimatised to your caffeine intake and stops making dopamine.  ‘Aww no I feel sluggish and tired today, cannot concentrate and I have had my cup of coffee’ 😦  ‘Ooo I’ll have another one’ 😀 And you feel happy and focused again.  Sooner or later you get used to 2 cups in the morning and then you have another one…etc do you get my drift ?  Simply put – Do not rely on too much caffeine from coffee or else your body will want more and more until your dopamine levels become exhausted!

Now healthier sources of caffeine which you can have before a workout are herbal teas.  Agreed they don’t contain as much as coffee but do come with other nutritious benefits such as antioxidants.  Some herbal teas come with nutrients such as L-Theanine which has been shown to improve alpha brain waves allowing us to stay alert yet relaxed.  Also teas such as green tea increases metabolism and body temperature and provides energy for exercise and it’s cheaper than a coffee!  See I’m saving you money here too.

So whichever drink you prefer which contains caffeine, try drinking it about 45 minutes to an hour before a workout and see how you feel.  People who drink caffeine drinks quite frequently won’t feel the effects during a workout as much compared to people who barely touch caffeine but it will definitely give you a burst of energy.  If you are a frequent coffee drinker, try to avoid it for about 3 to 4 days and then drink a cup of coffee prior to a workout.  You will then notice the difference and feel very energetic.  If you are one who thinks that caffeine helps with your workout then I suggest to drink it in moderation because you won’t to savour that feeling of alertness.  Like I said before too much reliance on drinks such as coffee is detrimental so keep it in moderation.  So give it a go and see if the caffeine helps with your exercises, if not then no problem just carry on the way you are but if it does then why not have 1 cup here and there.

Whilst you’re thinking about caffeine before a workout … please would someone buy me one?

Harness the energy

Today we will be going over a few emotions.  But not to worry I’m not telling you a sad sad story that will make you want to cry in bed!  No no this is very much the opposite.  We will be going over some strong and aggressive emotions.  Sounds scary I bet but again not to worry….

We know that when you start exercising your heart rate increases, more nutrients are delivered to your muscles, more blood diverted that way too and neurotransmitters  such as Ach are backpacking throughout your body.  This is all due to the adrenal gland being put to good use due to the hypothalmus telling it what to do.  The adrenal gland is an extremely important gland as it helps us especially in tough situations.  Years ago and I mean talking before Jesus and that lot, when we were living in the Ice Age if we would come across stressful situations such as being confronted by a big grizzly bear our adrenal glands would secrete hormones such as adrenaline which would in turn increase energy availability to try and get the hell out of there!!!  Good luck trying to fight a bear hero!  This sort of stress relates to the gym, when we lift weights or run or hit the bag, we are put in to stressful situations.  I know it’s not the same as those times but our muscles still need that energy to get through that session.  So the cycle continues – We lift weights, get a pump on, get red in the face like we’re about to kill someone and then once our set is over we relax again and get back to a normal state.  Simple eh!  But still what is harnessing this energy all about?

Ever been angry or violent?  Stupid question of course you have.  Have you ever found yourself losing control of that anger or aggression and find yourself punching a wall – Possible breaking your wrist or throwing your stupid PS3 controller because some idiot is always ‘camping’ on COD?  Yes we all have at some stage of our life become angry or aggressive and occasionally have lost the plot so to say.  Guys and girls…anger is a normal human emotion, so is aggression but it’s about how to control that emotion not to let it lose!  The limbic part of our brain is very hard to control but it can be done!  That is the part which controls emotions if you didn’t know.  When we get angry or aggressive our adrenaline levels are ampt up ten fold which gives us that go to follow things through.  But what happens is that often our other sensitive emotions get suppressed and after that sudden urge we tend to feel bad about what we have done.  So this is why controlling that anger and aggression is a skill which can be learnt.  Don’t get me wrong you will still feel that burst of energy but you’ll control that power and be able to channel it a lot more efficiently than if you just let loose.  Like Denzel said in ‘Remember the Titans’ – ‘It’s about harnessing that aggression’.  He is completely right – No matter what sport you do, or what work out you are doing, you harness that anger and aggression and put all you got in to that specific exercise.

So let’s relate this in to the gym.  You are trying to do an exercise which is difficult and getting flustered about it.  Yea that is fine – use it to your advantage because when you learn to control this strong emotion you’ll be able to focus all that energy in to the move that you are doing or wanting to execute and I guarantee you that you will pull it off!  Take a clean and press in to a press up.  Now that is tough and I know that many people get annoyed or angry because they cannot execute that move.  But take a step back – Control those emotions and tell yourself that you WILL smash through this.  Channel all that aggression, anger, maybe even fear of not doing the move in to each repetition and you’ll come out smiling.  I always tell my clients to focus and control their anger and strong emotions and put it to good use in their work outs.  It works and I have had so many clients being able to successfully carry out their exercises due to controlling that energy.  It takes time, practise and patience but if you are determined you will get there!

Even if somebody has annoyed you earlier on or you are frustrated about something or another – Then use it to your advantage!  Remember – Turn every negative to a positive.  Use that excess energy and put it to good use.  Get to that gym with that rage and blast through your session and you will feel amazing after it.  I remember not long ago I was doing a good little work out and on reverse flies I had hit my knee with the dumbbell – Ooo it hurt!  Anger built up within but knowing this I used that frustration to carry on and actually did more than I thought I would.  When you see a fight erupting on the street with 2 random people – Just look at the 2 clowns swinging randomly – This is out of control aggression and will get you nowhere!

So remember guys, strong emotions bring about adrenaline which brings about a surge of energy.  The skill and the beauty is to harness that energy and channel it to efficient use.  Control your mind is to control your body.  Give it a go and see how you get along.

The fat hormone?

You must be thinking – The fat hormone ?  Is there really a hormone called fat ?? Well the straight answer is – no.  But there are hormones out there which are contributors to fat deposition around our body.  In this blog we shall browse over 1 hormone in particular which leads to fat gain and some of you might have guessed it by now, yes it’s called insulin!

I won’t put you to sleep with the science of it all but insulin is produced in the pancreas by beta cells.  The pancreas is a double functioning organ meaning that it takes part in regulating digestion and controlling blood sugar.  Clever eh!  So anyway, the role of insulin is to stabilise blood sugar levels and how does it do this?  By piggy backing all the sugar which you have ingested and dumping it in your tissues, muscles and fat cells.  So let’s say you have a can of coke or a cake.  They are both high in sugars and this raises blood sugar levels.  The body dislikes this and wants to send it away asap so what it does is chuck it to the muscles and then fat cells.  This is where insulin plays its role and helps stabilise blood sugar levels.  This all sounds easy right?  You eat something sweet have happy hormones flying around for a short period of time and loved that brownie you just ate knowing that your body will take care of the damage.

But this is where it all goes a little lopsided.  The more sugars we eat the more the pancreas has to release insulin and dump it into the tissues and cells.  At first the sugars go in to the muscles and then the rest of the body.  But the problem is that the muscles can only store a limited amount of glucose (shame I know!) and then when they’ve been full up then the sugars head straight towards our fat cells.  This is the main issue with this hormone is that it is very good at taking sugars in to fat cells when you eat a carbohydrate meal.

There are more issues with insulin because once a lot is released, insulin can actually help the liver turn sugars in to fats too which are happily stored away and insulin can also prevent fat from fat cells being broken down and used as energy.  It does this by preventing hormone sensitive lipase from breaking down fat from fat cells and using as energy.  Triacylglyceride is the structure for fat.  It is made from 1 glycerol molecule with 3 fat molecules attached to the back bone of the glycerol.  Lots to take in but it’s worth it!  Before triacylglyceride (fat) enters fat cells, the glycerol (sugar part) has to break away from the fat part  and then when inside fat cells they rejoin.  The enzyme lipase helps this to occur.  However, when we carry out some exercise or do some activity our fat can be used and so they leave the fat cells and act as energy in the blood.  Insulin prevents this action from occurring which is a major downfall to fat loss.  Insulin also helps in the creation of more glycerol (sugar) to enter fat cells and join with other fat structures to make more fats and therefore adding to fat gain rather than the opposite ! Also eating high sugary foods causes an insulin spike meaning that your hunger levels start sooner than later.  Reason being is that insulin wants to get all that sugar out of your blood asap and rushes it to the muscles and then fat cells.  This leads to low blood sugar sooner than later and then you feel that you need to eat again and yes doing this day in and day out 365 days a year will lead to fat gain, insulin resistance and the rest!

These are major issues especially for people who lack physical exercise and eat a lot of sugary foods!  This leads to obesity, diabetes, strokes etc etc and again this is extremely dangerous for people’s health.  Numbers are rising in the Western world especially in places such as the US and the UK and we need to do something about it!  I’m not saying that insulin is evil and out there to get you fat but you need to control the secretion of it.  If we didn’t have insulin at all then we would all be subjected to type 2 diabetes so therefore insulin does have its benefits.  Also without insulin we wouldn’t be able to transport glucose in to our muscles to get big and strong.  Also the brain needs a hell of a lot of nutrients one being glucose to function properly!  So again to reiterate insulin is not Dr.Evil but it’s all about controlling its secretion.

To call if the fat hormone has some truth to it but we cannot rule out its advantages.  If it hadn’t any advantages then our body would not be making it – that’s plain and simple.  The human body is the most advanced out there and we do not make any substances for deliberate harm.  It is only when people take push their body’s to the limits and start to cause self harm !  Not the type where people draw on their skins but internal harm which is far more dangerous!

So the key to maintaining insulin is to have a good diet, ranging from fiber foods, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals.  Try to avoid high sugar foods and implement lots of healthy proteins and fats.  Fats as I have said before (I think) does not raise insulin levels and although protein does it also raises another hormone called glucagon which maintains that even balance in the body.  So therefore you don’t have any insulin spikes.

I’ve gone on about insulin for sometime now but I do hope this helps you understand a little bit more about the hormone.  It is vital that we all take note of it’s uses and don’t take it for granted.  Too much of anything is bad just remember that and you do not want to agitate this hormone!

Relax

If you were the man of steel then this wouldn’t really affect you but if you are a normal human being then take it easy!  Everyone needs a break from their work outs and I don’t mean during your sets or even a day in between but a nice few days off from the gym.  It goes a long way if you rest your body for 5 days to a week every now and then just to let body systems calm themselves down and not to work in overdrive.

Now we all know when our body regenerates, yes it’s when we are resting especially sleeping in the night.  That’s our way of repairing the damage caused by a stimulus and building bigger and stronger muscles.  Now for our muscles to get bigger, satellite cells have to go over to the damaged area and dump a couple of nuclei in them and start repairing the actin and myosin myofilaments by adding some amino acids to the area.  They do their work and voila we have new and improved muscles.  Obviously for this to occur we need good nutrition and rest outside the gym.  So your everyday life may entail you going to work, after work hitting the gym and then going to sleep.  Now that all sounds really good, looks like you are eating well, pleasing your boss, getting 1 step closer to looking like Rocky and having a nice balanced life.  But then what happens when suddenly 1 morning you wake up and you just feel fatigued?  You can barely open your eyes and your body just aches.  You go for a hot shower and you feel fine after that, feeling relieved you head off to work after a good old breakfast.  But again 30 minutes later you feel fatigued again and your mood drops.  You feel agitated, grumpy and tired and don’t want anyone bothering you at work.  What are you doing wrong ?  You have your rest day, you eat well, head off to sleep but still you are feeling like this.  Has this ever happened to you guys ?

This is where you should realise that your body is signalling you to cut back on your work outs and just relax a bit!  It’s gone so far past overdrive that the cells cannot regenerate any quicker and you are just burning away energy.  This can lead to tiredness and great fatigue.  Now no problem as this is only a temporary problem.  All you have to do is give your body a good weeks rest !  It’s not rocket science at all.  Even if you are feeling good the next day, I would still suggest you give it time, even 4 to 5 days of rest.  In this time you can still maintain your healthy eating as this will do you great favours in keeping a positive mind frame, helping in muscle repair and in general leading you a better life.  Rest is extremely important!  We may think that giving 1 set of muscles a 2 days of rest is enough but sometimes it just doesn’t cut it.  Now we are talking about big muscle groups like the legs or chest.  Imagine how long it would take for a full regeneration of these 2 compound sections of your body.  Think of it this way – If a large city was severely damaged by Kryptonian spaceships then how long would it take to rebuild?  (I had just seen Man of Steel last week that’s why I’m talking about aliens).  So anyway back to what I was saying – It would take a very very long time to rebuild that, and that is the same sort of thing that happens in our bodies.  A large stimulus, when subjected to our body can create severe damage and in turn will take a long time to repair.  So this could take more than 2 days or even 3 maybe even 4 days !  I know sometimes that I have to wait a good few days before training a specific body part.  Sometimes even athletes will over reach meaning that they will rest for the required amount of days and then rest some more so they can perform at maximum efficiency.  This gives them great advantage of building bigger muscles at a faster rate.

It’s always a good idea to rest for a good few days, this will help in regenerating your whole body, prevent injuries from occurring and psychologically you will feel better about yourself.  Now remember, when you are on your long and deserved rest period, do not think of exercise and what you plan to do when you get back to it.  Just get away from it and really enjoy your rest.  It’s just like when you want to get away from work and head off for a holiday for a week.  I’m not hinting to go for a vacation away from your exercise and not tell work – that would not be advisable.  But just don’t think about exercising and really have that bit of freedom away from the gym.

So if you are one of those who is feeling a little tired, fatigued or have been hitting the gym hard for the last few months then just have a 4/5 day rest to just calm things down and get away from it all.  It won’t affect your gains at all, it will do you better physiologically and psychologically.  Your body will love you even more by doing that and will take care of you better.