Well given my recent learning of things the hard way (low blood sugar bad. Eat before working out) I was wondering if there were any other simple revelations I was missing out on.
I checked out the Mayo clinic, and they suggest eating carbs before, either a small amount about an hour before or a larger amount 3-4 hours before.
Wikipedia’s sports nutrition page suggests carbs right after workouts, both aerobic and anaerobic, for glycogen replacement.
I’ve also heard that carbs should be avoided right after workouts because they immediately cut fat metabolism.
I have a few goals. From most important to least important, here they are.
- I want to reduce my risk/delay the onset of such negative health consequences as diabetes, heart disease, and (heh) cancer.
- I want to get the most out of my workouts, and that means not fainting in the middle of intense exercise.
- I want to retain and expand my flexibility.
- I want to gain muscle mass. Okay, well, really, strength first and showy muscle mass a close second.
- I want to lose fat. I’m currently just above the unhealthy range for % body fat. Ideally, I’d like to be solidly in the middle, or towards the low end (for vanity’s sake).
What I’ve been doing is this:
- about 20 minutes of stretching. (I’ve heard that randomized studies indicate that this increases, not reduces chance of injury, at least while running, but flexibility is still important to me).
- about 30-60 minutes of lifting. 2 sets, 8 reps.
- Upper body days: lat pulls, dips, bench presses, military presses, various rows, biceps, triceps. lateral shoulder raises.
- Lower body days: (mostly machine), leg press, leg curl, leg extension, the leg squeezing and leg spreading things that I don’t know the names of.
- Both days: 20 V-ups, 30 side crunches, each side, 30 legs up cruches, 20 back extensions.
- 30 minutes of cardio, more often than not, I do this on the elliptical cross trainer. Sometimes I run instead. Very, very rarely, I do the bike.
So all you fitness experts *cou
There’s a lot more advice available than is justified by actual science.
If you are fainting during your exercise, you can drink some Gatorade or similar sports beverage while you exercise. That will provide instant sugar to your bloodstream, which is what you need. Don’t wait until you faint, start drinking the Gatorade when you get to the gym. Or, eat a Power Bar or similar item on your way to the gym.
It is better to stretch after the workout, not before. Or, do your stretching at home on non-gym days. Immediately before the gym workout you should be warming up for at least 10 minutes with some full-body low-intensity aerobic exercise, such as jogging, elliptical, or rowing.
I wouldn’t combine a 30-minute aerobic exercise with a weight-lifting session. That’s asking your body to focus on two goals at the same time. Do aerobics 3 times per week. Do weight-lifting once or twice per week. Warm up similarly for each.
This is all my $0.02. Take it or leave it, as you will. 🙂
If you’re running out of energy mid-workout, but not feeling winded or like you’re at muscular failure, you probably need to eat more beforehand. Sugar, and other simple carbohydrates, are the devil here. Saturated fat and heavy foods, also the devil. I usually eat a Clif bar, or something.
Immediately after exercise, drink water and/or a sports drink. After your stomach is happy with that, eat something. This is the one time when sugar isn’t the devil, because it shouldn’t spike your insulin, and should replace the energy stored in your muscles. This is critical for workout recovery.
Consider a light warmup before stretching. Stretching cold muscles can increase the chance of injury. I’ve never heard of a study finding that stretching warm muscles would increase the chance of injury. Post it if you can find it?
Make sure to spend five minutes cooling down after exercise, especially after heavy exertion. Light stretching, walking, whatnot. Hell, walking while drinking the previously mentioned post-workout water.
Consider bumping up to three sets. I don’t have a scientific basis for that one, but it’s pretty standard in my experience.
Consider doing more than eight reps for lower-body work. 12-18? Again, no scientific basis.
The hip thing pushing out is seated hip abduction. The other is seated hip adduction, I think.
I’ve also heard that carbs should be avoided right after workouts because they immediately cut fat metabolism.
Unless you have a scientific source, I’d probably ignore that.
How many days a week are you working out? How long at a time? Doing weights then full cardio may limit the amount of good you’re able to get out of the cardio.
Choose one weight loss, mass building. The mentality for those two goals are, typically, opposed. For mass building you take in more calories and for weight loss you take in less. Typical thought on this is to cut weight first because you see the most dramatic differences that way. When you start to build mass you don’t just build muscle, you put on fat as well (unless you do a strict subsistence eating regime but those are very difficult to maintain discipline on.)
Vary your workout or you will plateau quickly. This is a great resource for a multitude of exercises. Pick the specific group of muscles you want to work and then browse exercises.
As to eating carbs after working out it’s true – they are a primary energy source in athletes so if you are training a great deal simple carbs will be the majority of what you eat during training phases. In a foundation building phase, such as you would be in now, you would want about 2.5 to 3 gram per pound of body mass carbs.
Fat in take should be about 12-30% of your daily intake, avoid saturated fats, vegetables sources are good: avacado, nuts. Fish are good sources as well. (Though you should only eat fish once or twice a week.)
Basically pay attention to portion control and look at what you eat and you should be fine to build a foundation. That should be for about 3 months. Then you would enter a Preparation period of training for whatever sport/activity you are looking at doing.
In my experience, stretching helps flexibility more if you do it after a workout than before. (Doing it after a warmup would probably work just as well; I just don’t have the patience.)
back when i had to see a physical therapist i asked him how to lose body fat (because i have oh so much) and tone up (i’m assuming that you actually want to tone rather than bulk up, because the desire to gain weight and lose it simultaneously is a little schizo). i now have a visible 6-pack … take or leave that for whatever it means … at least that his advice worked for me.
the salient points of his advice was to:
1. cut out fat in the “easiest possible” way (meaning, don’t stress out over cutting out every possible source of fat, but don’t eat stuff loaded with it either).
2. do my exercise in the morning before eating because my body would have to use its energy stores (i.e., fat).
3. give each muscle group 48 hours between workouts to repair and build (meaning do a cardio day, then a muscle day, and back and forth).
4. drink a fat-free protein shake for breakfast after working out (protein helps build and tone muscle mass). make sure that is whey protein and not soy … apparently too much soy protein is bad for men because it contains estrogenic compounds. he said the science on this was mixed, but that whey protein was just as good as soy either way, and you might as well avoid soy if there is a question about it.
finally, i have to say that stretching is important. don’t do it cold, do an easy warm up first. then stretch when you’re done with your workout. not stretching enough landed me in physical therapy so do yourself a favor and ignore all this “don’t stretch” nonsense that’s out there.
Regarding your cardio work. I used to concentrate on getting my heart rate up thinking that I would burn more fat that way but then I overheard a conversation at the gym that changed everything. Whoever it was suggested that if you want to burn fat, keep your heart rate down in the fat burning range which, for me, meant keeping it somewhere around 115 bpm. The difference has been quite amazing. I’m “middle-aged” so that range may be considerably different for you but, in any case, it worked for me. While I still do a few high exertion workouts, the low intensity sessions have had the desired effect of burning fat. I always do at least 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week on top of my weight training program. My intention is not necessarily to build a lot of muscle mass but to stay toned and reduce fat and so far it’s working.
Here’s my three cents (much of which is just echoing everyone else’s sentiments)
– I want to reduce my risk/delay the onset of such negative health consequences as diabetes, heart disease, and (heh) cancer.
Cardiovascular fitness is key when it comes to delaying/avoiding many of these chronic disorders. This isn’t to downplay the benefits of weight training, which are significant, but of the two, increasing cardiac function is more beneficial. With regards to diabetes in particular, diet can also play a role, although individual genetics will determine if certain diets are especially bad. (I would need to know more about your family medical history)
– I want to get the most out of my workouts, and that means not fainting in the middle of intense exercise.
Eat something! If your main goal is aerobic exercise, a sports drink 15-30 minutes prior (or during) is ideal. If your goal is anaerboic/muscle gain, a protein source (usually a protein shake) 30 minutes prior and immediately after is ideal. The tricky part is not to have TOO much before a workout, or else you can feel bloated or have trouble digesting.
– I want to retain and expand my flexibility.
People seem divided on this topic, because the studies are consistently changing. The consensus seems to be that stretching is much better AFTER a weight workout. It also allows your muscles to have a gentle “cooldown” period. The main argument against stretching extensively before a workout is probably more applicable if your hitting the weights hard and heavy. Think about it : if you’re doing a long stretch session, you’re introducing strain and micro tears and if you launch into trying to pump out your one rep max bench press right after that… well, badness will probably happen.
* I want to gain muscle mass. Okay, well, really, strength first and showy muscle mass a close second.
* I want to lose fat. I’m currently just above the unhealthy range for % body fat. Ideally, I’d like to be solidly in the middle, or towards the low end (for vanity’s sake).
As folks have said, these two goals are diametrically opposite. For the first, you need to consume more calories than you burn (also, there may be difficulty getting the calorie/protein content you need with a vegan diet… a topic for another post), while the latter goal requires that you burn more than you consume. It’s best to choose one goal for now. Also, I have found that planning out a “Year Long Fitness Calender” (eg. “I’ll do cardio hardcore for 3 months, then 6 months of hitting the weights hard, then etc. etc.) is actually not that great because if you get de-railed from your schedule, it saps motivation to change gears and try something new. But that’s just me.
Toning and fat loss are two goals that go hand in hand better. If possible, I would modify your workout regimen to 3 days a week, splitting the upper body workout into 2 days (eg. back/chest on one day, shoulders/arms on another) Then do 3 sets of 12-15 reps – this is considered ideal for toning and keeping a more aerobic aspect to your weight workout. Also, try to keep the weight portion to under 45 minutes (30 minutes if possible), giving you more energy to work the cardio harder.
In an ideal world, you would do cardio first thing in the morning to ensure maximum fat burning… having resolved to do this myself for the last 10 years without actually having done it once, I sympathize if that’s not your thing. Cardio after weights is a close second for fat burning (both rely on the depletion of your muscle glycogen thereby forcing your body to use fat preferentially. The tricky thing here is obviously if you’re sipping on a sports drink the whole time, you’re not burning fat… you’re burning the sugar you’re eating).
I’ve rambled a LOT more than I intended. My advice is tailored more for the “fat loss” program. The workout regimen would be very different for “cardiovascular fitness” or “muscle gain.” Also, diet is key, obviously (see above comment about “burning more calories than you take in.”)
Hope this helps a little. Feel free to shoot me specific questions.
Then again, forget all I’ve said and take this wonderful advice from that fabulous movie, “The Devil Wears Prada.”
“You look so thin!”
“Really? It’s for Paris. I’m on this new diet! Well, I don’t eat anything and when I feel like I’m going to faint, I eat a cube of cheese. I’m just one stomach flu away from my goal weight!”
Yeah, disease is an excellent weight loss regimen. Given the way my intestines respond to peppers, I don’t even have to go with stomach flu. I’d just have to eat lots of green peppers. Pity I can’t stand the taste. =)