Home Workouts vs The Gym

A lot of people have preferences either to working out at the gym or at home, others do both. Here I will try to help you decide which is the best for you.

We'll start with the gym, this is generally perceived as the best option. It has the most equipment, including many more weights and machines than someone would most likely buy for home use. However it also has some downsides. It can be very intimidating to a beginner, especially the free weights section, as it feels like people will judge you or laugh at you for not going hard enough or not lifting heavy weights. This can increase the risk of injury greatly and may discourage you from coming back again. Although it has the best equipment, you also have to share it with other people, so it can be hard to stick to the workout you want to do if the gym is busy, or even get to do any of the exercises you wanted to at all. Furthermore, gyms can be far away which is often an inconvenience and membership is often expensive, which can put people off massively.

On the other hand, home gyms are convenient, they have no closing time, and you have all the equipment to yourself (assuming you have any). There are masses of exercises you can do with just your bodyweight, which are great for fitness, toning, beginners and recovery. If you want to, you can buy some equipment, such as dumbbells, a portable pull up bar, a barbell, etc for about the same price as a month or two's gym membership. Home workouts, therefore, would suit the student, or busy lifestyle that wouldn't be able to travel to the gym. However, this means that you are limited in the muscle gains you can make (if this is your target), as you would have to buy new weights every time you wanted to progress, for most this would probably be a happy compromise for the amount of money saved, just because you won't be a body builder doesn't mean you can't get in killer shape from home (plus you can watch tv, films etc. in your lounge whilst working out). I have heard of gamers that are trying to get in shape doing short workouts in between games or even doing as many press-ups as they can between the time they die and respawn.

However, going to the gym and working out at home do not need to be mutually exclusive. It would be a very smart idea to get a gym membership and then have a couple of dumbbells and an exercise mat at home for those days when you can't make it to the gym, or just to supplement your gym routine. 

If you are going to get a gym membership, then you should go 2 or more times a week, in order to get decent value out of your membership. This doesn't mean that you have to go and do weights or hit the treadmill all the time, there are lots of other facilities (pools, courts, sports halls etc) that you can also utilise, and therefore get better value for your money. 

You can't go far wrong with either, if you're a total novice then try a few exercises at home so that you know what you're doing and what your body is capable of before joining the gym. If you're after massive muscle gains then the gym is probably the best bet, but you can still gain muscle and get in shape for a lot less money at home.

 What I'm trying to say is that, everyone has specific goals, and specific circumstances. If you don't want to or can't join a gym, don't. Just be sure to make sure you workout at home. Try to work out which is best for you, whether it's home, the gym or a blend of both. 

As Always, Good Luck.

How to Rehydrate Properly

After an intense workout, you're going to be sweating a lot. As everyone knows, this means you have to drink something in order to rehydrate yourself. But how? Most people don't really think about this, as they assume that as long as they're putting liquids into their body it must be rehydrating you properly right? well I'm going to show you that what you drink during and after workouts can greatly change how effective you rehydrate yourself.
If you don't rehydrate yourself, you will stay dehydrated (which everyone knows is dangerous).

 Now there are two main options here, just water or a sports drink eg lucozade. These both have their limitations.
Drinking a lot of water at once (as you would be tempted too after a hard workout) can rehydrate you fairly effectively.  However, water absorption is dependant on ions and nutrients being absorbed aswell, if these are not present, then water is not absorbed. Meaning that not much of what you drink is actually absorbed and just passes through your body, resulting in delayed rehydration.

This is where sports drinks claim to come in. They do contain these nutrients needed for effective water absorption. However, they often also include high glucose. Glucose has been shown to actually reduce water absorption in levels present in most sports drinks.
So what should you drink?

The best way of rehydrating yourself is to drink water with the nutrients needed for effective water absorption, without the glucose. The most important ion involved in water absorption is Sodium, which is in salt. So what you should do is put 1 tablespoon of salt into a cup of water. Then put one tablespoon of that salt water into the drink you'll take with you to your workout, this is all the salt that you need to put in, as not a massive quantity is needed to have a big effect on water absorption. If you forget, or don't have time to do this. The next best alternatives are to sip normal water. This means that the water can be distributed by the body, and doesn't have such an effect on the nutrients in your body. If you must by a sports drink, then try to find the one with the least glucose.

For what to eat after a workout please see my previous post, Why you Should Always Eat After a Workout,

As always, Good Luck.

Why You Should Always Eat After a Workout

It is well known that you need to burn more calories than you take in, in order to lose that body fat. A lot of people think that this means a crazy workout scheme and starving yourself. And while that can be an effective way of losing fat, it can also be dangerous.

Once you've finished your workout your body goes into what is known as a catabolic state. This means that it is breaking down your energy stores in order to make enough energy available, in the absence of food. The problem with this is that, when your body is in this catabolic state your body will begin to break down protein (muscle) as well as fat in order to make enough energy available. Therefore if you workout really hard and then don't give your body the nutrients it needs, you will start to break down the muscle that you just worked so hard to build, instead of your unwanted fat. 

So you should have a decent, low fat, high protein meal within 40 minutes of working out, however the sooner the better. This makes your body realise that it needs to keep breaking down those fat stores, but it doesn't need to get desperate and start breaking down protein. A lot of people often take a protein shake to the gym with them, this is a great way of quickly replenishing your body with the supplies it needs. 

Another problem with not eating after a workout, is that your body doesn't have enough nutrients to repair itself. This means that your recovery time after workouts will be slower, plus you will more sore the next day because your muscles are still tired from the workout. Most importantly this means that your body doesn't have enough nutrients to grow. This means you won't be able to gain muscle, and your progress will be much slower. 

Many people think it is a good idea to workout hard in the morning, before breakfast. This is a VERY BAD IDEA. As I mentioned earlier your body needs nutrients to repair and grow, in the morning you probably haven't eaten for a long time, so your stomach is completely empty. This means that just being awake before breakfast is burning fat. When you add a long hard run or an intense workout, your body will resort to burning muscle much quicker than normal. This doesn't mean that you can't do anything before breakfast, as it would be a waste to ignore this prime fat burning period. What I recommend is a short, nicely paced walk. If you break a sweat, or can't talk normally then you're probably going too fast. You should do this as soon as you can after you wake up. If you have a dog, try taking it for a walk before breakfast and see how you feel after. You shouldn't be awake for more than half an hour before eating, as again your body will start to breakdown that muscle. 

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You should try to get in some high fibre cereal, aswell as a good, low fat source of protein, such as eggs or a protein shake. If you don't eat breakfast, then your body will not function at it's best for the whole day. You will probably end up eating more throughout the day in snacks and other meals that you do have, which would exceed the amount of calories you would take in at breakfast. Ideally, you should eat 6 small meals a day, but we'll get to that in a later post. 

TO SUMMARISE

You should eat within 40 minutes of finishing your workout (the sooner the better), alternatively bring a protein shake and drink that immediately after your workout and then have a large snack when you get home. You can exercise before breakfast but only at really low intensity for no more than 30 mins, and have breakfast IMMEDIATELY. 

As Always, Good Luck

An Alternative to Calorie Counting

Every one knows that most diet plans focus on low calorie intake, which inevitably leads to calorie counting that often involves all sorts of complicated maths and points etc. So here I have an alternative way of keeping your diet in check.

One of the most important parts of your diet is often overlooked by many people, and that's fibre. In a healthy diet you should eat about 30-50 grams of fibre each day. Which I'm sure not that many people often achieve. The benefits of a high fibre diet are that it gives you a much healthier and cleaner digestive system, but a lot of people don't realise that fibre (as well as protein) is really effective at keeping you from feeling hungry throughout the day.

By looking at the amount of fibre in foods instead of the amount of fat or calories etc you only have to worry about one part of the nutrition, instead of all the annoying calculations. Generally speaking, the high fibre foods are often much healthier, as they are often lower in fat and less processed than other foods. A lot of people think of fibre and just think about cereals and bread but all fruit, vegetables, roots, nuts, berries, seeds are high in fibre. By making sure to eat high fibre foods, you will also cut the amount of calories you take in, the amount of fat you take in and also the less processed and preserved your food will be as a result of just choosing high fibre foods.

Two simple changes you can easily make to your diet, that will definitely help you on your way to a healthier and fitter body, are the cereal you eat at breakfast (always always have breakfast) and the bread you buy.

Buy choosing a high fibre breakfast you will feel fuller throughout the day (so you won't feel the need to snack as much) as well as avoiding all the high sugar, processed cereals that won't keep you full for nearly as long. Two great choices would be Weetabix or Fruit & Fibre. Secondly, you should change to brown bread, the more seeds and grains in there the better, not only does brown, or wholemeal, bread keep you fuller for longer than white bread, it also contains less calories than white bread. It often has many other nutritional benefits such as minerals and vitamins, that you wouldn't get from white bread (as that part of the grain is removed).

By making these two simple changes you will easily reach 50 grams of fibre a day (one medium slice of wholemeal bread contains 16g of fibre on its own!)  this will aid weight loss as well as significantly lowering your risk of digestive disorder (irritable bowel syndrome etc) as well as many other diseases (such as coronary heart disease).

As always, Good Luck.