By Conor Mc Hale
Planning on working out? Here are a few simple guidelines to help keep you exercising safely and effectively.
Dos…
Hydration
In order to function properly the body needs to maintain hydration. An active person requires at least 2 litres of water and it should be spread throughout the day. It is important to regularly drink before, during and after exercise to avoid dehydration and to ensure your training performance isn’t negatively impacted.
Diet
To get the most out of your exercise routine you need to eat a healthy, balanced diet. So no extreme calorie restrictive diets, no fad diets, no gimmicks. Eat a varied diet, with as many different types of food as possible, get plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables (at least 5 a day) and don’t be afraid of carbs. Carbs provide the body with its preferred source of energy, and the brains only source of energy. So if you are embarking on an exercise routine where you’re going to be putting your body through extra activity it really doesn’t make sense to eliminate carbs from your diet. Generally it is more to do with the quality of the carbs and the quantity you eat.
Overload
This refers to the exercise principle that in order to see development and improvement in a fitness context, you must first overload the system. So if you are lifting weights to build muscle size eventually you will adapt to the stimulus (weight training) and so will have to find some way to alter your routine in order to overload the muscle in question. The most obvious way to do this is to increase the weight you lift, but you could also add extra sets, exercises or reduce the rest in between sets.
Progressive Overload
To reduce the risk of injury you should add progressive overload by increasing the weight by small amounts. Don’t run before you can walk, add a couple of kgs and gradually build the weight up as opposed to throwing on an extra 10 or 15 kgs at a time just so you can rush into lifting big heavy weights.
Adequate Rest
Adequate rest is an important part of any well designed exercise program. The body needs to rest and recover from the stress placed on it from your training and if you deny your body the rest it needs you run the risk of overtraining which can result in injury. Aim for 8 hours of sleep at night and give yourself a minimum of 48 hours before you retrain the same muscle group when weight training.
Don’ts…
Forget to warm up
Don’t be tempted to forego a proper warm up in order to jump straight into the main part of your session. The warm up is an important part as it helps gradually bring the heart rate up to the training heart rate, prepares the muscles and joints for the effort ahead and reduces the risk of injury. Generally speaking, 5-10 mins is a good duration and the intensity should be gradually increased over the duration. The warm up should ideally be something similar in movement to the main part (e.g. warming up for a session of squats by doing squats with light weight and high reps) and should involve the same muscle groups and joints as you will be using in the main part. In other words, don’t warm up for an upper body session by cycling.
Overlook stretching
Just as a good warm up is important, so too is a cool down at the end of the session. A cool down can last 5 -10 mins and should consist of some stretches. This will help reduce stiffness and will lower the risk of injury, as well as improving flexibility. Hold each stretch for 30 seconds and only stretch the muscles you’ve worked during your session. Never stretch cold muscles, as you run the risk of injury. Ease in and out of all stretches and don’t bounce or use jerky movements. If you were doing a cardio session you could gradually reduce the intensity to bring the heart rate slowly back down to resting level and then do some stretches.
Follow fad diets
Diets that excessively reduce your calorie intake will work initially because you are burning way more calories than you are taking in. The problem is that, in the long term, they also impair the body’s ability to burn fat effectively. In the absence of a sufficient amount of food, your body will have to breakdown your muscle mass in order to fuel itself. By losing your muscle mass your body will then burn fewer calories at rest. And what happens when your fad diet results in the desired weight loss? You come off the diet and start eating normally again but now you don’t have the muscle mass you used to so you’re not burning as many calories at rest as you once did. Ultimately, the weight piles back on.
Drink Alcohol
A heavy drinking session can impair the body’s ability to build muscle for several days afterwards. Also, beer contains a lot of calories and these are empty calories with no nutritional value. So if you are serious about building muscle, losing weight or burning body fat you need to keep the alcohol to a minimum, or better yet cut it out altogether.
Sacrifice technique
In order to exercise safely and effectively you need to perform exercises with the correct technique. By keeping to the technique you will target the correct muscles and will reduce the chances of injury. It’s important to remember, lifting big, heavy looking weights may look impressive to others but if you need to sacrifice the correct technique to do so than it could do you more harm than good.
So, there’s just 5 dos and 5 don’ts of fitness training. Keep these in mind and you’ll be reaching your fitness goal in no time!
