With all of the recent negative press given to body supplements, it makes good sense to be cautions about using different nutritional supplements as a part of your body building efforts. Whey protein has been lauded as a safe, natural and simple supplement. It’s use has become popular for those genuinely interested in good health through physical fitness and body building. The importance of adequate protein levels in the body cannot be ignored. Since protein is used up when exercising, body builders must prevent muscle deterioration by maintaining protein levels. Naturally, building additional muscle mass will also require adequate levels. Whey protein is a substance that is drawn from milk. That’s right, plain old cow’s milk. Whey is known to be a byproduct of cheese and, until the recent discovery of its health qualities, was discarded. In fact, scientists now know that what was once considered junk is actually rich in the amino acids which help build muscles and promotes good health. As we know, protein is found in other basic foods such as meat, vegetables and grains. But, thanks to the research that has been done, we now know that whey protein is accepted by the body better. As a result body builders and other athletes can usually expect better results from whey protein than from other sources of protein. This high quality and natural product is also useful for other people who may be on special diets, whether they are for weight loss, food allergies, or even for diabetics. Remember, high quality protein is essential for optimum health…not just for body building. Use of whey protein can help others heal quicker and recover from illness quicker. As always, be sure to check with your health professional before implementing whey protein or making any other changes in your diet or routines. Like anything else, too much of a good thing can be harmful, so be sure to use it in moderation.
Tag-Archive for ◊ exercise ◊
Have you ever berated yourself because you didn’t exercise yet again today? Have you felt that creeping guilt in the back of your mind when you climb into bed knowing you didn’t follow through on your workout plan? Well, it’s possible that you are not at fault. You may just be acting like a normal human being. Take a moment to imagine how it feels to be… 1) In a hot, sweaty gym full of people who are grunting through their routines, sweating all over the equipment, and strutting their bodies around in front of the mirrors. OR 2) Rounding a curve in the trail with a light breeze gently caressing your skin in the soft evening air. How about the difference between… 1) Running around an oval track gasping for air and feeling your lungs burning. OR 2) Racing up and down a soccer field fully challenged by the game and having a blast with your friends. It’s not difficult to decide which choices would be more enjoyable to most people. Our culture has taught us to suffer as we exercise. “No pain, no gain” has been the mantra for years. The only problem is that for most people, “pain” is not a daily choice we’re willing to make. The natural human tendency is to do things that are fun, things that feel good. Forcing ourselves to do miserable exercise routines goes directly against our own nature. An easy way out of that trap is to play more. Find ways of moving the body that are wildly fun or rewarding to the soul. Dance around your house. Take a nature walk. Fly a kite. Go to the park with the kids and play some tetherball. Make the choice to move every day because it’s fun and feels great. Choose to move because it make you feel healthy and strong and vibrant. You’ll find you’re getting a lot more “exercise” without even thinking about it in that way. Life is meant to be an enjoyable journey not an endless round of suffering. Choose to have more joy and you’ll feel the difference in your body and in your spirit.
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If you’re not sure what a cattle prod is, here’s the goss: it’s an electricity-charged rod that Australian cattlemen use to persuade cattle to run up ramps and into road-train trailers. Quickly. It’s the sort of thing that can change their lives. Instantly. And it’s the sort of metaphor many of us caught up in this overweight world would like to apply to our own lives. And improve them overnight. The reality in the world today is that there are many people hoping to transform their lives. Wishing. Most people in the Western world are overweight, and the zap required to change it seems to be missing. Every year we just get fatter, and more indolent. Oh, some get obsessed with dieting and losing weight, but others don’t seem to care. And neither will achieve what they want. If that seems a little harsh, consider this one fact: we were born to live a life of joy and vitality. If you are obsessed by pain or a void, how can you possibly enjoy life? It’s just not possible. Yet, if you bring pleasure to yourself, you stand a good chance of bringing joy to those around you as well. The aim is to feel good … inside, and outside. Just shedding a few pounds can be enough to add years to your life and make those years much more enjoyable. Just acknowledging that excess weight reduces stamina, stresses joints, and causes illnesses – including heart disease and diabetes – is a great first step. If you decide to start each day with the intention of eating better and getting just a little exercise – one day at a time – you will find life becoming much easier than you ever expected. These five steps are simple changes, but they can add up to a virtual cattle prod with the power to change your life: 1. Turn on your biological engines in the morning with a big glass of cold water. Whenever you feel like it during the day, have another. Water really is a wonder-fluid. It can also help to reduce hunger pangs! 2. This one is remarkably powerful for those who tend to potter about first thing – eat your breakfast within an hour of getting out of bed. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but a lot of overweight people wait until they get really hungry before eating breakfast – which means that they probably then eat too much. So eat early, and eat small. 3. Eat at least two pieces of fresh fruit each day – that’s two pieces about the size of an apple, not two grapes! Fruit is a great source of nutrition and fiber. Try for at least two different fruits so you get a variety of benefits. 4. Try to eat a salad every day, and try for at least five servings of vegetables. When you feel the urge to snack, switch to celery or carrot, or some other appealing veggie. 5. Fried foods and sweet things should also be put out of reach whenever possible. Even if the oil is drained away from fried food, there is still a lot of hidden oil to add fat and calories. And sweet means sugar, which means calories… and many other nasties as well. So it’s really just a matter of changing a few habits. Yes, I know, easier said than done! But try this: start keeping a food diary. Write down what you eat when you eat it – and check the result at the end of the day. You may be shocked! It’s often just the incentive to get back on track! A full program to turn your life around also has to include how you spend your day. By definition, couch potatoes are fat – so get up and go for a walk. The latest dietary and exercise advice is that you should enjoy at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week. That can include the physical version of activities you normally do in a day anyway – bike riding instead of bus riding, stair-climbing instead of climbing into an elevator etc. Just think about your own day, and you’ll soon find lots of ways you can replace ‘easy’ with ‘healthy’ ways of doing your normal tasks. Perhaps the most important part of the entire deal of putting a cattle prod to your life and regaining the vitality you deserve, is simply to make the decision to do so. Start with small goals, stick to them, and delight in how much easier it gets every day.
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Slow metabolism is frequently blamed for excess weight. The good news is we no longer have to be the victim of slow metabolism. We can actually be the creator of our metabolism. Knowing how your body works and using that knowledge to achieve your health and fitness goals, will get you results sooner with less frustration and aggravation. My goal is to help you get the most from your effort and see results. How your metabolism works. Metabolism is the speed at which your body burns through food. As you get older, your metabolism decreases and you don’t require the same number of calories as when you were younger. The rate the metabolism decreases as we age is determined by the amount of muscle mass we have on our body. Greater muscle means higher metabolism. If you’re over 40, you probably aren’t as active as you used to be. You aren’t playing sports or chasing kids around the house. If you don’t use your muscle, you’ll lose it. Digestion process burns calories. I teach my clients to eat 3 meals throughout the day (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and then an additional 2 to 3 healthy snacks between meals. Many of us have been conditioned to think that if we eat less, we will weigh less. The opposite is true but we must be careful to eat quality instead of quantity. There is the thermic value of nutrients — the actual calorie burning properties of nutrient digestion. This means that healthy, balanced eating offers a metabolic advantage. Eating is thermic or produces heat. Since a calorie is a measure of heat, balanced eating equals more calories expended. Keep aerobic exercise moderate. Believing that aerobic exercise is the secret to burning fat is only half-correct. Too much aerobics subject us to a repetitive catabolic state where it literally is eating up muscle tissue. You can burn fat anytime you are in an “aerobic state.” If you are sitting and reading this article, you are in an aerobic state. You are in an aerobic state anytime you are meeting demands for oxygen. This is why proper nutrition and weight training is critical to maintain and build muscle. You can burn fat while you sleep with lean muscle mass. I use aerobic exercise to keep my heart, lungs and circulatory systems healthy and use weight training to burn calories and keep my metabolism healthy. Muscle is metabolism. As we age, we begin to lose muscle. This is called muscle atrophy. The key is to preserve muscle to fight fat and keep your metabolism healthy. The muscle you have on your body is in direct correlation to the number of calories you burn at any given moment. Muscle doesn’t know age. You can maintain or build muscle at any age with weight training. I believe training with weights is more important as you get older because you are typically less active and your muscle will get soft from lack of use. Dense muscle mass is key to having a strong and healthy metabolism. If you would like more information on how to increase your metabolism, send Linda an email and write “maximize your metabolism” in the subject line. Build muscle, eat 5 – 6 small meals a day, and keep your aerobic activity moderate. For more information and tips on exercise, go to http://www.easyexercisetips.com
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1. Go for a walk even when the weather is really cold – your body has to work overtime to get warm and you may burn up to 50% more calories than you would on the same walk in summer! But remember, go a little slower until you get warm and keep up the hydration. 2. If you find it hard to get motivated to exercise in winter…just think of spring and how much harder it is to get back into shape rather than maintain your fitness throughout the winter. 3. Be aware of tendonitis and stress fracture if you don’t exercise in winter and expect to pick up where you left off after a whole winter with no exercise. 4. Instead of picking up a cup of hot chocolate to keep yourself warm, try a herbal beverage. 5. Gain an interest in indoor sports as opposed to cycling and jogging outdoors. Don’t forget that swimming at an indoor pool is an option for a great cardio workout! 6. The cold air and indoor heaters can dry out your skin. Make sure you drink at least 8 glasses of water each day and use moisturizers throughout winter. 7. Buy some indoor plants to soften up the dry atmosphere caused through heating. Indoor plants give off moisture and oxygen and the colours will brighten up a dull day outside. 8. Caught a cold or flu? If the infection is above the neck (nose, throat) you could be OK to complete a low intensity workout. However, if you have symptoms that are worse than an average cold (chest congestion, muscle aches), exercise will only make you worse and delay your recovery. Rest is the best medicine. 9. Wear the right clothes when exercising in winter. Polypropylene is the perfect fabric to wear underneath a tracksuit, which will provide great insulation but minimise moisture loss. Gore-Tex is a fabric used widely for providing protection from the rain and wind. 10. Feel like sitting on the couch with a video and snacking on a cold, wet day? Reach for a protein bar or packet of soy nuts instead of high energy, high fat snacks.
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When I work with my clients, one of the key elements that I incorporate into all of our workouts is INTENSITY. In my view, intensity is the most critical aspect of any exercise regime and can mean the difference between someone who reaches their goals and someone who doesn’t. Increasing your workout’s intensity will stimulate your body to burn more calories and induce a greater cardiovascular response. It will also allow you to have a more time efficient workout. If you are looking to burn fat and become more toned, then increasing your exercise intensity is critical. Many people have the misconception that if you workout at a higher intensity you will no longer be burning fat since you will be in your “cardio zone”. Whereas, if you keep your intensity low for a longer duration you will burn more fat since you will be in your “fat burning zone”. Let me clarify this for you once and for all. By training at a low intensity (<70% max) it is true that you use fat as your predominant source of fuel. While exercising at a higher intensity (>75% max) your main fuel source is carbohydrate but you will ultimately burn more calories. And since 1 pound of fat is equivalent to 3500 calories, the ultimate goal is to burn as many calories as possible to create a negative energy balance! One of the best ways to achieve this intensity is through the use of full-body compound circuit training (strength training) in conjunction with interval training (on the cardio equipment). The benefit of full body compound training is that since it utilizes more muscle in any given movement you burn more calories. The intensity of the workout also means that each exercise becomes more challenging as your heart rate is sustained at a much higher level. Here are a couple of benefits to following an exercise program combining circuit training and interval training: 1. Intervals and circuits vastly reduce boredom. Traditional steady state cardio training and/or weight lifting can become quite boring. Interval training and circuit training offer more variety and excitement to your workouts. 2. Interval training increases post-exercise energy expenditure (calories burned following exercise) more than steady-state exercise, which means that more fat is burned. After intense exercise, the body needs extra calories as it works to repair muscles, replace energy stores (i.e. carbohydrate) and restore the body to its normal state (e.g. reduce heart rate). As this can take many hours, you will keep on burning more calories long after the workout is over. In fact, research shows that metabolic rate is higher for several hours following interval training compared to steady state exercise. 3. Interval training burns more calories. As an example, 30 minutes on an Elliptical machine using a steady state program will burn roughly 292 calories, whereas 30 minutes of intervals will burn approximately 584 calories! Here is a sample workout that will leave you huffing and puffing: Warm-up bike, treadmill, elliptical, rower 5-10 min Circuit (45 seconds for each exercise, with 15 seconds rest between exercises) 5-7 min Lunge walks with lateral raises Plank (on stability ball) Squats with medicine ball shoulder press Push-ups Side Bridges Reverse Pull-ups Burpies Interval Training (cardio equipment) 20 sec @ 100% : 40 sec @ 70% x 5 5 min Repeat Circuit and Interval 3 times Total Workout Time: 45 – 60 min If you would like to experience what an intense workout feels like then please inquire about the revolutionary Fitter U MP3 personal training program! For a fraction of the cost of regular one-on-one training, this proven MP3 program will ensure you get to your fitness goals in less time! Written by Yuri Elkaim, BPHE, CK. Do not reprint without permission. © 2006 Total Wellness Consulting.