Tag Archives: resistance training

Post Workout Meals Are Not Optional

by admin on 27. Dec, 2009 in Uncategorized

A post workout meal can maximize the time spent in the gym so that you will be more likely to get the full benefit of your strenuous workout. The post workout meal is the paramount meal for anyone trying to gain weight or get toned in the gym. It cannot be skipped.

Besides being hydrated, you need protein and carbs. You do not need fat. Try to have the meal in 5 or 10 minute window of time after the workout. Set a maximum time limit of 30 minutes. Make sure the meal has between .15 and .25 grams of protein per pound of body weight you have. Get a calculator if you cannot figure out how to do this. Make sure the carbohydrates are long-chain, complex carbohydrates that have plenty of fiber so that your blood sugar doesn’t plummet after a tough workout. If you’re in a pinch, use a ready-made workout shake with plenty of sugar and protein. Time is of the essence so don’t wait an hour to sit down at a restaurant to get your post workout meal. If need be, make your meals ahead of time in bulk at the end of the week and take some in tupperware with you when you work out. You don’t want to be caught after your workout with the munchies.

If you have to choose between carbs and protein after a workout, go with protein. Some people think carbs have a neutral or negative effect after a workout. This is because the intake of protein after a workout is shown to increase protein synthesis, and you cannot have your muscles grow without sufficient protein synthesis. Furthermore, taking in carbs after a meal can interfere with the production of growth hormone that accompanies resistance training. The insulin is a counterweight or counterbalance to the growth hormone so it may actually slow down muscle building. When you eat carbs, insulin levels shoot up. That is why it is good to eat long-chain, polysaccharide-rich, complex carbohydrates like mentioned above.

Finally, there is one more reason not to eat carbs in a post workout meal. When you don’t eat carbs, your body taps into its fat stores for energy. If you’re low on carbs, your body will burn fat in place of energy so that it does not run out of steam. This will encourage your body to lose weight.

Therefore, if you’re into losing weight or building muscle, it simply doesn’t make sense to incorporate carbs into the post workout meal. However, a post workout meal is absolutely vital to get your body repaired after a strenuous workout. The jury is still out about the content of the meal, but the necessity of the meal is established by renowned bodybuilding experts all over the world.

You can even make your own protein shake with bananas, whey protein, strawberries, raspberries, and yogurt just by purchasing a blender and buying frozen berries and protein powder. You can start getting big today. It’s easy and fun to grow in muscle and tissue.

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The man’s world stretches a bit more: This time, into Aerobics

by admin on 23. Dec, 2009 in Weight Loss Work Out Plans, Work Out Plans, Work Out Programs, Workout Everyday

Ain’t no more a Ladies Only zone providing voyeuristic pleasures and eye-candies at times; the latest invasion by men has taken the aerobics scenario by storm. However, aerobics just prove to be the garnishing on the main food, so if you were thinking bidding goodbye to hardcore resistance training, then come back to the ground. At best, aerobics sets up the atmosphere right for resistance training. That translated, aerobics helps the muscles to warm up and loosen and saves them from damages, which might result from exposing them suddenly to insane intensities. But if you think that it’s the women’s regime you need to follow, you can’t get more wrong. Aerobics is not all about spandex and stretches; it has undergone many a beneficial transformations.

A good aerobics workout depends on an open mind; else fitness through it can never be achieved. The exercises are devised to burn fat primarily, thus exposing the muscles lying underneath. Aerobics have shown to initiate the process of burning calories more effectively, which is triggered further and sustained by the resistance trainings. So the proverbial concept of – one thing sets of another- truly applies here.

The reason why aerobics has risen to prominence with men has its roots in a fatter look many of them possesses. Resistance training develops the muscles all right, but that’s under the fat, while not burning it significantly. Besides, the intensities at which resistance trainings burn fat is often unendurable by most men and several factors like lack of time, or lack of energy contributes to it. Aerobics, on the other hand, is all about free movements i.e. it’s only your body weight that you’ll be using, thus enabling you to go for lengthier sessions without feeling drained. However, you do not start off with a two-hour long aerobics session; you slowly increase the time over a definite period, suitable to your system.

But then again, if you think of doing the aerobics and hitting the weights right away, you shall be wrong again. There must be at least an eight-hour gap between the two; else, you shall lack the energy to lift the heavy weights. That would contradict the very basics of resistance training and you won’t see much development with your muscles. At the advanced stages of resistance training (when you have shed considerable amounts of fat), this is, however; permissible (but only for warm-ups), since your system is accustomed to the intensity you’ve bestowed upon it all this time.

So burn fat, increase stamina and develop the muscle mass in galore, for now you have the correct proportions of sensible actions served to you on a platter.

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Goodbye, fat burning zone myths: Burn fat the practical way

by admin on 21. Dec, 2009 in Weight Loss Work Out Plans

Myths say that a fat burning zone on the cardio equipment (e.g. a treadmill) is most effective when the workout is less intense. A tempting concept that everyone attempts until one day the truth shows up in broad daylight. This gets a thin-lean-wannabe chill out and read magazines in the time he or she is supposed to sweat it out. The bottom line is: Fat burning zone is a concept that has serious flaws. Watching the fat melting down while you stare at the TV is possible only when global warming reaches its heights.

So let’s get down to the facts – burning fat in higher percentages is inversely proportional to working out at lesser intensities. If lighter workouts translated to burning more of the accumulated fat, you would do that while you are at rest. On the first place, you wouldn’t have got fat only. The only way to an effective fat reduction is by burning the calories, which, by no means is possible sitting on your couch. And burning the calories is proportional to physical activities.

So get off of your treadmill and stop quitting after the aerobics are over; they are fine as long as you want to warm yourself up for the next BIG things. Without a proper resistance training regime (preferably in a super set / circuit form) featuring intense work periods with short resting periods, burning fat effectively stays a ludicrous concept.

If you still are not convinced, then let’s talk logic. Assume yourself being exposed to a story of blood and gore everyday; while on the first day you loathe it and even suffer some sort of nervous breakdown, over time, you get used to the intensity of the graphical details and after sometime, you grow used to it. The body behaves in a similar manner; it requires higher degrees of shock to keep the fat burning. Else, it adjusts itself and things go back to the square one. Resistance training provides that shock, since intensities increase over the sets and the body struggles for energy. It burns the calories from fat for obtaining the required energy and that continues even during the resting period. A steady workout like cardiovascular exercises never provides this afterburner mechanism. Moreover, resistance training comes with the benefits of cardio-s and aerobics bundled into it; a heart rate record of a post-superset resistance session proves that. Therefore, as long as you do not show symptoms of hypertension or heart-related disorders, sticking to a cardio/aerobics regime is not going to shower you with benefits, simply because they fail to make all the 600 muscles of the body work properly in any given 3 dimensional plane.

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