by admin | May 30, 2022 | Fitness
Reasons You’re Not Losing Weight
Losing weight is hard. We get it. But sometimes it seems like no matter what you do, the number on the scale just refuses to budge. You might be doing everything “right,” but still not seeing results. Don’t worry – you’re not alone. Many people struggle with weight loss, even when they’re following all the right steps. So what’s going on? Let’s take a look at some of the most common reasons you’re not losing weight…
You’re Not In A Caloric Deficit
Now, the first and primary reason you’re not losing weight, is that you are not eating in a caloric deficit! Eating less food than your body requires to maintain its body weight is the most fundamental principle of weight loss, which you can’t get around. Not with fasted cardio. Not with keto. Not with morning workouts.
If you’re not eating in a deficit, you won’t lose weight. Simple as that. “But I was counting my calories and still, the number on the scale didn’t move even a tad bit!” Well, that simply means you are not in a deficit! Remember that calorie calculators give just an approximate number and more often than not, people tend to overestimate their activity levels or underestimate their caloric intake, leading to an energy balance different than what the calculator says is a ‘deficit’.
So stick to the weight scale and aim to lose up to 1-2 lbs per week.
You’re Snacking Too Much
In fact, not eating in a deficit is the only reason why you aren’t losing weight, but the truth is that there are many other things (reasons) that can keep you away from eating in a deficit. The second most common one is that most people on a diet snack too frequently.
And that’s normal, because eating in a deficit inevitably increases your cravings for certain foods, and you start snacking more often, somewhat unconsciously. This leads to an extra couple hundred calories that get you back to your baseline caloric intake, and out of a caloric deficit.
You’re Slacking!
Losing weight is demanding on both the mind and the body. Oftentimes, people on a diet feel like they’ve done a good job for a couple of days in a row and then cut themselves some slack, as a form of a ‘reward’ for their work well done. During these periods, those same people would lose track of their plan and indulge in a variety of foods.
And the truth is that even one or two days of slack can totally ruin a week of hard work, especially, if you’re eating in a surplus. So, remember to always stay on track!
You Are Not Active.
Last but not least, most people are simply not active enough to have a caloric deficit become an easy task! Let’s be real here for a second – The modern-day lifestyle is too sedentary! At best, people on a weight loss diet will go to the gym for an hour, a couple of times a week. Pair less activity with an abundance of food and there you have it – You are out of a deficit and deep into a surplus again!
Final Thoughts
The next time you’re tempted to blame your slow weight loss on a “slow metabolism,” remember that there’s just one factor at play – Whether or not you are in a caloric deficit! So here’s our best advice – Stay active, eat satiating foods, avoid excessive snacking, and don’t slack!
Stick to the basics.
by admin | May 30, 2022 | Fitness
How To Lose Weight & Keep It Off | Part 2 – Training
Training during the weight loss phase is one of the most important factors to consider if your goal is to lose weight healthily. One important mention is the fact that during a period of weight loss, you lose not only fat, but lean body mass as well. This includes muscle tissue, organ tissue, bone tissue and technically everything else except fat.
Why you SHOULD Train During Weight Loss
Carefully managing your weight loss period across the aspects of nutrition and training is essential for minimizing those lean body mass losses. Especially when it comes to training, this is what will actually give a reason to the body to retain its muscle mass. Think of it this way – If you use the muscles, that directly tells the body “we’re going to need this!”.
This in turn will favor muscle protein synthesis and when paired with good nutrition, it will also minimize muscle protein breakdown. The end result? A healthier period of weight loss, during which you have increased mood and energy for all your physical and mental activities. Now let’s see the MOST IMPORTANT considerations when approaching training.
What type of training should you choose?
Generally, when it comes to training for fat loss, many people think of extensive, low-intensity cardio sessions. And though that type of exercise helps you burn more energy and make it easier to create a caloric deficit, it is not optimal for the retention of lean body mass. Resistance training is one of the BEST tools you can use for that purpose, but you can still add cardio sessions, after resistance training.
Overall, your goal with resistance training would be to train each muscle group once every 72-96 hours. Now let us tell you more about the separate aspects of your workout.
Training Intensity
During a period of weight loss, you subject yourself to a deficit of energy, meaning that you are below your body’s maintenance needs. This lesser amount of energy implies that you might have suboptimal recovery after a workout. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t train it all, but rather, you should manage your training intensity.
Training at moderately high intensity can help you avoid suboptimal recovery and can be realized in a couple of ways:
- Use moderately heavy weights
- Don’t reach failure
- Don’t overexert
In doing all of this, you will ensure that there is a good stimulus, but also enough energy to recover from it.
Training Frequency
When you workout, you practically break down muscle proteins and then, re-build them to improve the performance and appearance of your muscles. Since recovery isn’t instant, you’d need to grant a sufficient time frame before training a given muscle group again. This would generally be around 48-96 hours, which would allow for good recovery and increased performance.
Training Volume
Besides training intensity and frequency, you also have to consider the number of sets and repetitions that you’ll be doing for each body part. For the general trainee, doing 5+ challenging working sets per muscle group trained in a workout, is the best approach, given that you exercise each muscle group twice a week.
The widely accepted effective training volume forms at 10-20 working sets, per muscle group, per week. Of course, if you are a beginner or intermediate, you will be in the lower range of that spectrum. The more you advance, the more you increase sets, reps, and weight.
When To Train?
Alright, you have a workout plan in place but what is actually the best time to train when the goal is losing fat? Will fasted training in the morning maybe produce more results? Well, at equated caloric deficits, training timing won’t make a big impact on total amount of fat lost, HOWEVER…
The more energy you have available before a workout, the better you will perform and thus, the better the end result will be. Furthermore, your body runs a biological cycle that is intricately connected with the Day & Night cycle of the Earth. As light goes through your eyes, it gives a signal to the brain, which in turn releases serotonin.
Serotonin makes you feel awake, alert & energized. By afternoon, you would already be a couple of meals into your day (plenty of energy), and will have a good amount of serotonin produced. If you look closely, the period between 2 and 5 pm is when you feel most alert and active.
Conclusion
Using resistance training as a tool to optimize your fat loss process, is one of the best practices for any individual looking to get fit. Your workouts should consist of a good number of challenging working sets, that should not be taken to failure, due to the fact you are in an energy deficit. Ultimately, your best bet would be to do these workouts in the afternoon, but this can be adjusted to your schedule.
Combining an adequate approach to training & nutrition will allow you to create sustainable results, that will give you health in your older years.
by admin | May 30, 2022 | Fitness
How To Warm Up Before A Workout
Have you ever gotten deep into an intense workout, only to experience a sharp pain in a certain joint or tendon? Well, if that sounds familiar, odds are that you have not warmed up well and have thus increased your risk of injury. In this article, we’re going to give you insight on how to properly prime your body for a workout, in order to maximize your output and minimize the chance of injury.
What Happens When We Train?
When you are working out, what you’re doing is activating certain muscles and systems in the body that make it possible to provide energy and force for the movement/exercise you’re doing. In the case of weight training, you’re activating your muscle fibers and your central nervous system, along with the cardiovascular system and energy pathways that grant sustained energy for muscular contraction.
From that point of view, the goals of a warm up are the following:
- Activating the muscle fibers
- Activating the central nervous system
- Gradually increasing heart rate
- Gradually increasing respiratory rate
Stretching Before A Workout
Many people consider stretching to be one of the most important elements of your warm-up routine. However, the truth is that stretching can actually be COUNTERPRODUCTIVE to your workout, due to the fact that it RELAXES the muscles. That is to say that if you just stretch before a workout, you won’t really improve your strength output.
What You SHOULD Do Instead
Now, of course, we are not telling you to ditch stretching altogether, but instead, try to also FLEX the muscles after stretching. This is what we refer to as dynamic stretching, which involves both parts of the muscles’ range of motion – The stretch and the contraction. The combination of these two phases, will allow you to prime the muscles for work, by activating the muscle fibers and stimulating the central nervous system.
On top of that, once you get into the exercises, you can start off with up to 3-4 warm-up sets, where you gradually increase the working weight.
Try This Warm-Up Routine
With the goals of priming your entire body for an intense workout, there are a couple of logical steps to take.
- Do some cardio
To warm up the body, get the blood flowing and increase your heart and respiratory rates, low-intensity cardio is one of your best bets before a workout. Do up to 5-10 minutes of slow-paced cardio, such as jogging, rope jumping or cycling. Remember though, don’t overdo cardio before a workout, because that can rob you of energy for your heavier lifts.
- Do Dynamic Stretching
As we already mentioned, dynamic stretching is one of the best practices to include in your warm-up. Make sure to get each joint through its entire range of motion, by activating and then stretching the muscle groups attached to that joint.
For instance, if you’re training your chest, open your arms out to stretch the chest, and then push them towards the midline of the body to contract even the deepest fibers of your chest muscles. This will grant sufficient activation for you to move into the warm-up sets of your first exercise.
- Do Warm-Up Sets
After you’re done with your general warm up that consists of cardio and dynamic stretching, it is time to get into the actual exercises. For the first couple of sets, start off with a light weight (i.e an empty barbell) and with each set, gradually increase the weight, until you reach your working weight.
Though light, try and do those warm-up sets more explosively, as that will further activate your nervous system and muscle fibers, thus granting better output for the working sets. For instance, if you can bench press 70 kg for 10 repetitions, do the following pyramid:
- Set 1 – Empty bar, 15 reps
- Set 2 – 30 kg bar, 15 reps
- Set 3 – 50 kg bar, 10 reps
After the third set, you can bump the weight up and start your working sets, where the goal is to be near failure at the last repetition.
Conclusion
If you cold-start a car and instantly start running it into the redline, odds are that something will eventually break, faster than it would if you waited a couple of minutes for the car to warm up. The same goes for the body – If you’re planning to go through an intense training bout, you are better off gradually priming all the systems and tissues involved in this training activity.
The best way to do so, is to create a warm-up routine that consists of cardio, along with stretching and flexing of the musculature, after which, you can gradually move into your heavier exercises. THIS is how you prime the body for peak performance, without risking the chance of injury. What is YOUR favorite warm-up routine? Let us know in the comments below!
by admin | May 29, 2022 | Fitness
How To Train For Strength
When physical development is at stake, you just cannot ignore strength as a fundamental physical property to develop. Especially if you are in the game of weight training, developing proper strength is essential towards optimizing progress in the long term. In this short article, we’ll give you insight on how to structure your workout plan for the goal of developing strength.
Understand Rep Ranges
One of the most important things to do before creating your workout plan, is to understand rep ranges. That is, understanding what the body does and how it is stimulated under different loads. In weight training, we generally have two types of rep ranges:
- Powerlifting rep range (1-5 reps)
- Bodybuilding rep range (6-15+ reps)
The powerlifting rep range is where you exert the most amount of force by activating the fastest muscle fibers. This is the rep range where you create stimulus for the development of maximum strength, as well as explosiveness. If you’re looking to gain strength as much as possible, THIS is the rep range you have to work at.
The bodybuilding rep range on the other hand, is still a zone of high-exertion, but it is not nearly as close to your maximum strength capabilities. This rep range creates a stimulus for the development of strength endurance, while maximum strength gains are a secondary adaptation.
Chasing looks? This is the rep range to be at for the most part.
NOTE: It is always a good choice to combine both rep ranges, but have the balance in favor of the one that reflects your goal most (i.e if you want more strength than looks, do mostly 1-5 reps)
Choose The Right Exercises
When it comes to strength development, exercise choice is a crucial element of the process. This is because, well, some exercises are simply not suitable for high exertion, heavy loads and one rep maxes. Just think for a second, how stupid would it look to attempt a one-rep max on the vertical lat pulldown machine?
For the most part, you should resort to free-weight, compound exercises, whether you’re strength training in the 1-5 rep range, or bodybuilding in the 6-15 rep range.
Those exercises are namely:
- Bench presses (flat/incline/decline with dumbbells or barbells)
- Squats
- Deadlifts
- Rows
- Overhead presses
- Lunges
All of these movements engage multiple muscle groups all at once, which ultimately allows you to lift really heavy weights, thus creating the best stimulus for strength and muscular development.
Working Volume
Using the appropriate strength exercises, within the goal-appropriate rep range is crucial, but how much should you actually do?
Training volume is basically the total amount of weight lifted in a given set, exercise or a workout and is measured using this formula: Weight * Sets * Reps = Volume (i.e 100 kg for 2 sets of 10 reps = 2000 kg volume). Now, since we all have a different level of training and ability to adapt to new stimuli, there is no such thing as a concrete, optimal training volume.
Instead, you should follow these general rules of thumb:
- As a beginner, start off with ~5 challenging working sets, per muscle group, per week
- As you advance, bump that up to 8-10 sets
- After some time, go up to 15-20+ sets
By starting with a low number of total sets, you will get to know more about your threshold, recovery and adaptation capabilities. Through time, you will increase the total number of sets, as well as the weights used, leading to stimulus for more progress, over time. This is applicable for both rep ranges (1-5 reps & 6-15+ reps).
What About Rest Times?
If you’ve lifted heavy weights at some point of your life, you know how demanding it is to do that. By nature, high intensity (heavy weight) is strenuous for the central nervous system and the muscles. For this reason, taking proper rest between sets is crucial, if the goal is to maximize performance from set to set.
Generally, if you’re training in the 1-5 rep range, rest times may vary from 4 to 15 minutes, depending on the level of exertion – The higher the exertion, the longer the rest. Oppositely, if you’re in the bodybuilding rep range of 6-15 reps, about 3 minutes of rest in between sets will be sufficient.
As to rest in-between workouts, you should allow each muscle group to rest for 3-4 days before smashing it again with heavy weights.
Conclusion
Strength development is at the core of your overall physical development, as it places a solid foundation that improves your potential in the long run. If your goal is to develop maximum strength, utilize compound movements in the 1-5 rep range, with plenty of rest between sets. On the other hand, if you want to gain some strength but more strength endurance and muscle mass, the 6-15 rep range is the ballpark.
Ultimately, your best bet would be to combine both rep ranges and favor the one that resonates more with your goal. This will allow you to create a more functional, better overall physique.
by admin | May 28, 2022 | Fitness
Is Fitness Just A Big Fad?
The Revolution Of Trainees If you’ve been following along with the trends over the past few years, you may be wondering if fitness is just a fad. Everywhere you look there are people talking about getting fit, and it can feel like an overwhelming and sometimes impossible task. Even more so, right now there are more people than ever, training in the gym or other places!
So is there something to this global awareness of fitness, or is it just another fad? Is it worth investing your time and energy into training, eating well, and recovering?
In this article, we’ll answer just that, but let’s start with the fundamentals!
We, As A Species
If we go beyond fitness trends, protein & pre-workout powders, and fitness clothing brands and dive under the human skin, we’ll find something amazing. Beneath all the layers of the fitness industry that may make the fitness lifestyle seem unattractive, there is something this industry is entirely based on… Us.
Under our skin, we have a community of trillions of cells, that form different systems, all of which have one single goal – To help us move, thrive, and survive. And frankly, moving is the primary, most natural thing that our species has been doing for hundreds and thousands of years. Because of the multiple environments our species has endured, we’ve developed various types of tissues and mechanisms.
We can run for hours on end, but we can also do short, power-burst activities like sprints. All in all, each and every one of us have 24/7 access to a complex biological machine that is not just functional, but also amazingly beautiful.
Big City Life
Now, our species has been alive for quite some time, and as we said, for the most part, humans have lived to survive, in various environments. Nowadays, however, this is completely taken away from us – We live in big cities that don’t require nearly as much movement to meet basic survival needs like eating and drinking water.
Besides, most of our food products are highly processed, containing a variety of health-harming substances. With all of this in mind, it is fair to say that though very convenient, the current lifestyle most of us lead, robs us of our natural fitness. And really, as we’ve mentioned before, fitness is something natural, that we’re all supposed to have and enjoy.
The Global Awareness
Now, we may not really consciously consider all of these factors, because the comfort zone is, well, really comfortable! However, the body is not the mind and the mind is not the body. The human body, as a separate entity (or a community as we called it), KNOWS that it has to move and that the conscious mind it’s ruled by has to take care of it!
This is perhaps why many of us often get the urge to do some kind of training activity, start a new diet or even completely overhaul our lifestyle. More often than not, however, those tend to be unsustainable and we fall back into the same patterns. Nevertheless, those who do find the way to make fitness habits sustainable, will reap enormous benefits, including but not limited to:
- Improving physical health
- Becoming more capable in daily life
- Powerboost mental health
- Enjoy life to its fullest extent
- Look better naked.
This is why fitness is a big thing – It has too many benefits and it’d be a huge miss-out to NOT do it. Because after all, everything in life stems from mental and physical health, and fitness is just helping you take care of those!
Final Thoughts
It would be naive to think that fitness is just a fad and will eventually go away. The truth is, people have been striving for physical perfection since the beginning of time. And as long as there are regular people who want to better themselves physically, mentally and emotionally, fitness will always be in demand.
So if you’re on the fence about whether or not to start working out, we say go for it! The benefits are well worth the effort, and you may find that you enjoy it more than you thought possible.
So what are you waiting for? Get started today!
by admin | May 27, 2022 | Fitness
Is Cardio a waste of time or a useful tool?
Since the dawn of the fitness industry, cardio has been used by bodybuilders and novices to achieve one goal – decrease body fat percentage. It is not a secret that many athletes want that six-pack and the first thing that is associated with nice-looking abdominal muscles is cardio…
However, is cardio really that useful for dropping these extra kilos or is it just a waste of time? Well, today we are going to find that out, but first…
What is the price of cardio?
Though cardio may offer a variety of benefits that can help us get closer to the ultimate goal of burning extra calories and losing weight, there are hidden costs to it… So let’s have a look at those!
Cardio is time-consuming.
We live in a world where everything moves fast and if we are not adaptive, we may fall behind. Putting these extra 30-40 minutes after training is something not many people could afford. Students, working adults, pregnant women, and entrepreneurs are managing their schedules very strictly and don’t have any spare minutes.
We know for sure that our time is our most valuable asset, so we should spend it wisely. Furthermore, time spent on cardio is NOT the only price we pay.
Cardio right after strength training decreases our performance.
Our anaerobic work (weight lifting) suffers when we combine it with aerobic work (cardio) In other words, doing cardio right after our strength training is NOT a good idea. These are two different types of stress for our body and they require the adaptation of two different types of muscle tissues.
We want to be as efficient as possible. That’s why we shouldn’t be doing cardio right after our weight lifting session. But does this mean that cardio is bad for us and we shouldn’t be doing it at all? Let’s find out in the next paragraph…
Should we totally exclude cardio from our training?
It really depends on our goals. For instance, if you are trying to lose some body fat for the summer because you want to look good on the beach, then cardio might not be necessary.
Walking 10k steps per day or adding some other aerobic work such as swimming, running or cycling is a great way to increase your physical activity. However, if we are preparing for a bodybuilding competition or a photoshoot, then cardio might be able to come in handy.
“But you said that cardio right after training will make our progress in the gym suffer.” Yes, and the solution is simple.
You should split the cardio from your strength training!
Simply, do cardio a couple of times per week when you are NOT having a weight lifting session at the gym. If you are very busy on your rest days, you can try doing cardio in the morning and then have strength training in the evening. If your goal is to lose body fat as fast as possible, leave cardio for the last couple of weeks of your plan. Keep your physical activity high and progressively add cardio if you feel that you’ve hit a plateau.
Things to keep in mind:
- Strength training burns more calories than cardio
- HIIT training burns more calories than cardio and requires less time
Takeaways:
Cardio is NOT a magical tool that makes you lose fat. It is just a tool to increase your physical activity and burn more calories. Cardio could be used to manipulate our calorie consumption. In other words, you could eat your favorite cake IF you have burned some extra calories this day (via cardio)
Focus on progressing on the compound movements in the long-term and walk more. Take the stairs, instead of the elevator, park further away from the supermarket. Implement cardio ONLY if it gives you pleasure and you can afford to spend your time on the cardio machines. We hope that this article helped you understand some important information on this “magical” thing called cardio.
If so, feel free to spread the love by sharing it with a friend who might need to read this.
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