A rest day?! Do I have to!?

So I have had a couple of friends recently want to start putting on muscle and they have been coming to me for advice on how to do this. These are all very active people who did a lot of exercise and kept really fit. Generally, they have followed my advice and the programs I have written for them, but I seem to hit the same sticking point with them. They don't want to take a rest day. They keep wanting to train every day, because the harder and more you work in the gym, the bigger you will get, right? It feels good to make progress and I want to keep going!

Let me just say it, rest days are absolutely vital. There are no two ways about it. Whether you are doing weights training to build muscle, cycling long distances or any kind of regular training, you need to let your body rest. 

When you do serious exercise, particularly heavy weights, you are tearing muscle fibres. These are small tears and it is these tears that promote muscle to grow back larger and stronger. It's only if you give them time to repair that this will happen, though! One if the symptoms of overtraining is a plateau in your results. This is because you don't give your muscles the time they need recover and repair. If they don't have this time, they won't repair properly and won't increase in size. So, if you are trying to increase in mass, you need to give your muscles time to recover from all that hard work you are putting them through. 

The other reason rest days are a must is to prevent injury. If you don't believe me, check out my shiny new surgery scars on my shoulder. These came about from overtraining and not taking rest days. One small injury a I got while ago got incrementally worse over time, as I was in the gym or rowing 7 days a week. If you don't give your body the chance to heal when it needs to, small injuries may get worse over time, without you even realising. It's better to take that day one to make sure your are good, than having 5 months off for a shoulder reco and losing all your gains!

Now a rest day doesn't need to be a zero exercise day. If your main exercise is lifting weights, then go for a jog or a swim that day if you can't sit still. If you're a cyclist, get off the your bike and just play a game of football. Just make sure you ease back on it for at least one day a week.

Top four morning snacks

My morning snack is probably one of my favourite meals. I look forward to it from the moment I leave the house in the morning. Here are a couple of my favourite go to snack that are high in protein and health for you! 

 

Cottage Cheese: cottage cheese has huge amounts of protein in it and very little fat. Best served with some fruit. Chop up some banana or add some berries to add to it for a great healthy snack!

 

Tuna and Vitawheats: Full of good fats, high in protein and easy to have with you when you are on the run. Add a little low fat cheese if you have trouble getting your needed calcium intake.

 

Almonds, pumpkin seeds and walnuts: Literally the go anywhere snack. Throw them in a ziplock bag and you can have them anywhere. Full of protein, filling and a great source of healthy fats

 

Greek yoghurt: Much like yoghurt, it's packed with protein and low in fat. Add fruit and oats for a quick and filling snack.

 

What are your go to morning snacks?

Eat the rainbow

In my journey to improve my fitness, I have done a lot of reading and talked to a few experts. One of these was a really cool sports nutritionist who loved fixing the eating habits people who played a lot of sport, but were clueless about food. That was certainly myself! Of all the advice she gave me, one thing she said to me stuck out the most. That is, I should ‘eat the rainbow.’

I have already written about carbs and how we should eat coloured carbs, rather than white ones. This was part of what she was trying to get across. The other was in the veggies that we eat.  She kept writing me these eating plans with ‘100g of veggies’ or ‘salad’ in them and I kept asking which veggies and what salad!

In the end, she gave me a list of about 40 veggies that I could just pick and choose from, but her instructions were to make it colourful. Basically, this way to ensure I mixed up the nutrients I was consuming. Yellow capsicum is great for Vitamin A and C. Red capsicum is full of beta carotene, as are carrots. Mushrooms are full of protein.  Spinach is full of iron and magnesium. But rather than learning all of this, she suggested I just cycle through a number of them, but always have multiple colours. This way I would always be providing my body with a variety of nutrients. 

My nutritionist told me, I should never have less than 4 colours on my plate. Just having red and green (ie meat and salad) was not sufficient.

So when you are making your dinner this week, see if you can make that plate as coloured as possible. Post a picture of your most colourful meal this week on the Facebook page. I’d offer some kind of prize, but I don’t have anything substantial. The winner will get mention by me and the admiration of others!

4 underestimated bodyweight exercises

So I am a fan of bodyweight exercises. A lot of people underestimate them, but I think there are some great ones that can be just as effective as weighted exercises, particularly if you are working a muscle group for a second time that week. They are also good to hit that fatigue point as a final exercise on that group. Here are a couple of my favourites:

Push-ups: I've written about these before. They are the go anywhere chest exercise. When they get easy, you just do more! Try putting your feet up on a box for some extra work on your shoulders and the top of your chest.

Pull-ups: Do yourself a favour and get a pull up bar for your doorframe. These exercises are amazing for your back and also work your biceps. Try them one handed for a real burn to the bicep.

Dips: Feel those triceps burn! Lean forward a little while doing them to work in your chest.

Leg raises on a bench: A great way to work your lower abs and hip flexors. The V is the new abs and this is certainly one way to work it! Hang your butt over the edge of the bench and keep your feet from touching the floor for a real stretch. If you want to work your upper abs too, lift your lower back off the bench every alternate rep.

Try these out this weekend. You can get a good workout without having to add in weights!

Level Up! +20 to motivation.

Those of you who know me, know I’m a little bit nerdy. In the past I was a bit of a gamer. Those who know me will also agree that I am a little competitive. Ok, maybe a lot competitive. With all of that, though, it took me quite a while to find a way to motivate me to go to the gym day in, day out.  

Until I found Fitocracy.

Fitocracy is a smartphone app that lets you record what you do in the gym, on the field and pretty much anywhere you do some kind of exercise. So, what? I have an awesome notebook to write down everything I do.

What attracted me to in the first place were two things. Firstly, Fitocracy gives you points for each thing you do. The harder you work, the more points you get per workout. As you are awarded points and complete workouts, you level up. Perfect for the nerd at heart or the gym-goer who wants to compete against themselves. Secondly, it records the weights, times, reps, etc for all your exercise, so you don't have to remember what you were up to last week. You can also pre-program a work out with weights, sets and reps before hand and then you have it all planned in your phone at the gym. 

Once you are onto it, you can then add friends who can see what you do, ‘prop’ each other for a good work out, comment on their awesome set and congratulate them on that new PR they just hit. There are also all kinds of challenges and awards you can attempt. I recommend not starting with the advanced widowmaker, 

This app was one of the turning points for me in getting fit. All of a sudden I didn’t have to compete against the massive guys in the gym lifting more than me or the runners who streaked past me. I could challenge myself to get a certain number of points per week, compete with friends and interact with a whole community of ‘fitos.’ They say you join Fitocracy for the level up, but stay for the community. And it’s not just for the gym. I love my rowing contacts there as well!

I know this post just sounds like one big ad, but I can’t emphasise how much this app helped me on my journey to getting fit and I like to share what works for me, in case it might work for someone else. If you already have a foolproof way to stay motivated and record all your workouts, keep at it! If not, click below and check it out. Sign up on the website, then download the app and sign in. Let me know when you do and I can put you in contact with some cool people on there I know. 

You can find Fitocracy here

Right now you're level one. What level will you be next week?

Now where is that chocolate?

Do you get that chocolate craving when it’s been a long day? That overwhelming urge to reach for that block as a way to de-stress? I know I do. It hits on a Wednesday about 2pm.

Do you know what it is your body is craving when you feel that? What it actually wants from the chocolate?

Chocolate is high in magnesium. It can also be a good source of antioxidants. So if you want to beat your chocolate cravings, here are a few suggestions of what to swap it for to meet your bodies needs!

Seeds and nuts: Pumpkin seeds, almonds, sunflower seeds, cashews, walnuts are all high in magnesium. They are also really easy to store on your desk or in the cupboard in an airtight container, as their shelf life is long. Almonds are my personal favourite and they are also high in protein, so will keep you full. Just grab the unsalted variety for all of the above.

Baby Spinach: Do you get that craving at the same time every week? That Friday afternoon desire for chocolate? Preempt it by throwing in some spinach in your lunch. It has huge amounts of magnesium and plenty of other essential things your body needs.

Bananas and Figs: Both are tasty, both are healthy and both have high levels of magnesium. They are tasty and a little sweet, so could knock out that sugar craving too if you get both at the same time.

Green Tea: Packed with antioxidants and is something you can only drink slowly, assuming you make it hot. Just the time taken to make and drink it may help relieve that stress by stepping out of the situation for a while. 

So when you go shopping this weekend, grab a couple of these healthy options and try them out. When that chocolate craving hits, try a cup of green tea and a something from above!