Getting Started with Strength Training

Before you begin flexing your biceps, or start lifting those dumb bells, you need to take care of a few things. For starters, you need to follow a proper routine that suits your needs and more importantly, your body so that you are safe and free from injury. So you must stick to a few basic guidelines that will give you all the benefits of exercising, while keeping all dangers at bay.

Remember to always warm-up and stretch your muscles before and after a training course. This will save your body from aches and pains. Also, never start immediately after a meal. If you’ve had a really heavy meal, start exercising only after a gap of 3-4 hours. In case of a light snack, it is advisable to have a gap of 1-2 hours.

Clothes make a man, especially before you start exercising. Wear comfortable and loose clothes, that do not restrict your movement in any way. It is best to have two layers of clothes instead of one heavy dress. Shorts, top and tracksuit or leotard, tights and tracksuit are the best combinations. A headband is useful both for keeping your hair out of your eyes and for preventing perspiration from running into them (particularly if you wear contact lenses). Also, wear hand gloves to keep a firm grip on weights and to prevent blisters. You also need top pay attention to your footwear. Choose correct shoes, as there is a danger of your feet slipping if you wear incorrect footwear. It is desirable to wear training shoes.

Keep a bottle of salt and glucose handy. This would be of immense help if you feel faint or dizzy. Never exercise if you have any form of viral illness or have been advised rest or are on medication. After a long illness, consult your doctor before you resume your routine.

If you are on a strength-training programme, you need to keep in mind a few tips:

• Exercise till you feel the fatigue in the muscles.
• Exercise the muscle group that you have exercised in one session, only after 48-72 hours.
• Steadily increase the weight against which you are working. If you can do more than 15 repetitions of the given weight, it’s time to move on.
• After every six weeks of training with heavy weights, train with light weights doing different exercises. This ensures that joint stiffeners does not develop.
• Keep changing the order of your training.This helps to stock the muscles.
• Keep your schedule short and sweat not more than 45-60 minutes.
• Do not talk during a workout. Concentrate only on the exercises, so that you learn to do the exercises properly and avoid injury.
• Sip electrolyte water in between a workout. Do not gulp/guzzle water.
• Have a good diet plan, otherwise you may not see the benefits of exercise in spite of working out hard.
• Take adequate rest and get enough sleep, or else you may need to take forced breaks.
• Exercising with a friend or partner is always more motivating. Chances are that both of you will stick on the programme, be able to spot defects in the techniques and hence help each other in avoiding injuries.

A disciplined routine will keep you safe from injury and help you enjoy your exercise.

Top 10 Fitness Myths

Do you believe that your workout should leave you feeling dead on your feet or that running is the best way to stay in shape? Like many other fitness freaks, then you too are suffering from some myths or false beliefs about fitness. It's time you learnt to separate the myths from reality, the facts from fiction and be well informed about fitness.

Myth No 1: A really good workout means that you should be very tired after that.

Fact: This is not true. In fact, you should finish each workout with the feeling you could have easily done a bit more. If you feel too tired this only means that you are pushing too hard.

Myth No 2: Sore muscles exemplify that they are getting stronger.

Fact: Not at all. Sore muscles actually mean that you have damaged or torn the microscopic-sized connective tissue that surrounds your muscle fibre. This soreness may be due to damage to the muscle fibers themselves. Remember, delayed muscle soreness may peak between 24 to 48 hours after the workout.

Myth No 3: Running is the best way to get fit.

Fact: Forget it. There is no one best way to get fit. The truth is that you should do what you like or else you will not be able to sustain it on a long-term basis. This could be running or jogging or even walking. In fact, anything that you enjoy and can pursue regularly will help you stay fit.

Myth No 4: If you are careful you don't need a warm up before a work out.

Fact: This is a dangerous myth! You are actually making yourself extremely vulnerable to injuries by not warming up. Gently stretching out and warming up your muscles before (and after) you exercise is the number one defense against many a sports injuries, including tendonitis

Myth No 5: No pain, no gain.

Fact: Another destructive myth. Pain is a warning signal given by your body that something is wrong. If you feel real pain during a workout, you should never push past it; slow down or stop your workout immediately. However, there is nothing wrong in a slight discomfort.

Myth No 6: The best time to exercise is early in the morning.

Fact: There is no best time to exercise. Timing is a matter of personal choice and habit, convenience and availability. What is important is to find what suits you best, stick to that and make sure that you exercise regularly.

Myth No 7: Drinking water while exercising will result in cramps.

Fact: This is absolutely untrue. You actually need water when you are working out and more so after completing your workout. An increased intake of water will actually help you fight headaches, cramps and a feeling of tiredness.

Myth No 8: Excessive sweating while exercising means you are unfit.

Fact: Not true. Sweating is the body's built in cooling process. While exercising if you sweat more your natural mechanism is working properly and you are on the right path.

Myth No 9: Stop exercising and your muscles will turn to fat.

Fact: What a myth! Do you know that fat and muscles are two different things? One won't turn into the other. What happens is that muscles shrink if you stop lifting weights or exercising. However, if you become fat after that it is probably because you're overeating.

Myth No 10: Sleep extra hours before any hard activity or when you are very tired.

Fact: Sleep is not something that you can store nor does more sleep mean extra energy. Eight hours of sleep is sufficient for an average individual. And simply relaxing is almost as restful as sleeping.

Hopefully you would be better informed about fitness after reading these common myths.

Five Tips for Healthy Eating

Eat to live and not live to eat. That, in a nutshell, should sum up your attitude to food and eating. Do you grab a bite whenever you have the urge to eat or forget to eat when you are too busy? Then it would be a good idea to think through these food rules to get the best out of your meals.

1. Eat regularly throughout the day including three main meals and at least two snacks. This will maintain your blood sugar levels at an optimum level throughout the day. If you miss meals, you will get low blood sugar at some stage. To make up for the missed meals if you go an eating spree that will raise your blood sugar levels. This will lead to a skewed up eating pattern. So eat little and often. Eating sporadically will also affect your metabolism. When you miss meals, your metabolism has a tendency to slow down. This happens because you're sending it messages that food is scarce, so it will attempt to get more from the food you do give it. A pattern of eating where you don't eat much during the day and then hog a lot at night will do just that. Excessive eating in one go will overload your digestive system, putting it in overdrive.

2. Your main meals should get smaller and simpler as the day goes on, ending with a simple meal at night. Follow the saying, ‘Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper.’ Have a hearty breakfast as it sets up your eating habits for the day and kickstarts your metabolism. This meal is essential and should never be missed.

Remember that the majority of energy is used during working hours and food intake should be geared towards fuelling it. But normally we eat very little during the day and then belly-bust (does this sound ok)in the evening. So the energy we are making has nowhere to go. Surplus energy at night, especially fat, is readily stored. In fact, dinner should be eaten a good two hours before sleep to allow for partial digestion.

3. Be organised with the food you keep in the house and what you order in restaurants. What you buy is what you eat, so start by shopping correctly. Plan what you are going to eat, especially if you are on a fitness plan, and stock up the fridge accordingly. It's easy to go off track when you open the fridge and are faced with junk food. When eating out go easy on the oil and spicy curries.

4. Keep a food diary even if it's only in your head. This means that you keep a mental note of what you eat throughout the day. Then you can see when you go wrong and not do it again. Sometimes this helps in overcoming a specific habit that doesn't become apparent until you see it written down. Eating correctly is food management. It doesn't happen by chance, but because you make it happen, and a diary will assist you in your mission. A diary need not take more than three or four minutes a day to fill out and it will help. Food diaries are now smarter, simpler and more effective. Click on to Activekarma’s personalised program - MyDietMate for more details.The program has a smart diary, which helps you not only record yourenteries, but also gives you immediate feedback as well as asesses long term trends

5. Have a balanced attitude towards food management. Don't panic. This may seem like a trivial rule, but it's probably the most important one and at the root of healthy eating. What it means is trying not to fit your life around these or any other suggestions but to fit the rules into your life. Food intake is really about management and balance.

Following these rules will ensure that you manage your food and, in turn, your body productively.

The Components of Fitness

Do you sometimes feel you have reached a plateau and you need a change in your workout routine, but do not know how to go about it? Are you flummoxed whether you should run faster, longer or harder? Do you need to up the pace or can there be other methods of going around it? Should your muscle building exercises be done more often, harder or do you need to increase the weights to bring about a break in the plateau? Where do you go from here?

To answer all these questions, you need to first take a look at the different factors that make up fitness and understand the principles by which each work. Fitness is a global all-encompassing aspect and is dependent on a number of factors. Fitness not only refers to your aerobic (heart-lung-respiratory-circulatory) capacity and efficiency but also to the strength and endurance of your muscles as well as the amount of flexibility you have in your body.

Components of fitness

Mode

This is the manner in which you do your workout. Different modes satisfy different needs in the body. Walking, running, cycling, swimming, step classes all cater to the aerobic component of the body. Yes, these would, in the long run, help in toning up the lower body but they derive their energy from different sources in the body. Or when you want to work your muscles, then you have to do some repetitive movements and specific exercises that will benefit. So when you say you have been working out for so long and you yet haven't gained in muscle growth, what you probably have been doing are exercises for increasing their flexibility!
Ideally, for a well-balanced body, you need to work out all modes to get the greatest benefits. You should also include activities that develop your finer characteristics like balance, coordination and posture.

Frequency

This refers to the number of times you are doing the same exercise. If, for example your routine comprises running once a week, weights once a week and stretch exercises once a week, your total count of workouts is three but the frequency of each effort is only once a week.

Typically (and depending on your goal) you should follow this pattern:

Mode Frequency per week
Cardio-vascular / aerobic exercise 3-6
Muscular strength 2-4
Muscular endurance 3-5
Joint and muscular flexibility 5-6
Balance and coordination everyday
Posture training any and every time


Intensity

Intensity is the amount of work that the body does. It is the percentage of the maximum heart rate (MHR) at which you are exercising. It differs from pace, in a way that the car travels at different speeds. It depends on which gear the car is going at that speed. Say for example, a car is travelling at 50 km per hour in second gear, it has to work at a higher intensity than if it were to travel at the same speed in the fourth gear. The same metaphor can be used for the body at work.

Intensity can be expressed by the training percentage of your MHR. If you are working at a higher intensity, then your heart rate is going to show a reading of anywhere from 75-85 per cent of your target heart rate activekarma

Duration or time

The amount of time a task takes from start to finish is the duration. It does not refer to the amount of time you collectively spent in the gym, warming up, wiping your face and gassing with the boys.

Mode Duration per effort (in minutes)
Cardio-vascular / aerobic exercise 10-60 (not more than that)
Muscular strength 20-60
Muscular endurance 10-60
Joint and muscular flexibility 10-40
Balance and coordination everyday
Posture training any and every time

So why do you need to keep these in mind when you are deciding where you need to go from here?

The reason you constantly need to change all these factors is because the body has a quality of adapting very easily to change. It does not take very long for it to adapt to the kind of good stresses you put onto it. So changing one or any of these factors is necessary to trick it and keep it from getting complacent. The success of your workout depends on changing one factor at a time, not all of them together.

This way you can also expect that the body will work well and reach heights that you never knew were possible. That is the way Olympians fly.

You Can Be Active After 50

When I started taking fitness classes, my first two clients were both 50-year-old. Still going strong, their example of enthusiasm and dedication can be a source of inspiration to any 50-plus looking for it. They clearly believed in the adage that it's never too late to start.

Fifty years ago, exercise did not hold the same meaning as it does today. Was there a need to exercise as much then as it is now? From the stories told by the elderly, life wasn't so cushy then as it is now. Yet somewhere down the line, as life has become more sedentary, exercising to keep up the same levels of activity has become the need for the day, irrespective of what age bracket you fall in.

Modern day city living places great demands on all of us these days and this does not spare even the elderly. Even if they are heading towards retirement or not burning the home-fires as much as they did, these twilight years need to be cherished with fond memories and in good health.

As one grows older, the activity levels are not the same as they used to be. The less the body is used, the less likely it is going to perform efficiently. The body has a certain capacity that allows it to go to great lengths to adapt. When this capacity is not fully utilized, the body slows down and does not function to the fullest. Thus as one grows older, the need to be active grows higher and higher.

Here are some reasons why those in the 50-plus bracket must stay active:

Use it or lose it
The heart is a muscle and just like any other muscle, needs to be constantly worked on to improve its efficiency. The muscles in the body need to be consistently strengthened to delay atrophy and reduce injury. Similarly, the joints need to be frequently lubricated to remain flexible and the nerves need to be stimulated repeatedly to stay alert. Exercise can do all of this and much more.

Keep the brain ticking
Research has enough evidence to show that exercise enhances the mental capacities. It stimulates the mind, quickens reaction time and the increase in oxygenated blood to the brain ensures slowing down of the ageing process.

Psychological Effects
Exercise is known to have a positive effect on moods, behavior, self-esteem and body image. As we grow older, these are the areas, which if strong and positive, will hold us in good stead.

Fight osteoporosis
The ageing process brings about a fall in calcium that leads to the weakening of the bones, bringing about problems like arthritis, osteoporosis, and osteo-arthritis. Any weight bearing exercise will delay this process and make the bones stronger and less resistant to these ailments. Especially with women who have reached their menopause, exercise is highly beneficial and recommended by most doctors.

Fight gravity
The skin and muscles sag as a result of lack of use. But exercise corrects this in all ways. The muscles get taut with use during exercise thus tightening the skin around it.

Build immunity
It is a well-known fact that as we age, our immunity levels reduce, leaving us open to all kinds of illness that can be debilitating. Any exercise can boost our immunity system and fortify the body to fight illnesses off successfully.

Strengthen breathing capacity
The process of airway passages getting ineffectual is almost reversed during exercise, reducing the risk of breathing ailments like asthma, sinusitis etc.

Something to look forward to
Exercising regularly can give you a mission to accomplish, once your life's goals are met. It gives a sense of purpose and achievement as well as a meaning to life in the twilight years. It also provides a platform for a meeting ground where common visions can be shared with others.

What kind of exercises
You may find that starting a vigorous program may be difficult, but the good news is that you don't really have to. If you have already been exercising a fair bit, continuing it may not be a problem. But here a few options for those just starting out.

Walking is the best way to start a program. It is easy to follow through and endure because you can set the pace for yourself. All you need is a good pair of shoes and comfortable clothing. Choose a soft surface to walk on like a mud track to reduce the risk of hurting yourself. Take your partner with you and catch up on all the years you didn't have time to!

Yoga is another very popular method of keeping you in the spring of things. It is highly beneficial as it involves each aspect of your persona: mind, body, spirit and soul. It can rejuvenate like no other program can and is equally suitable for older people and the young.

Practices like Tai chi (an ancient Chinese martial art form, involving slow, circular and flowing movement) Falun Gong (another ancient Chinese practice involving the mind and body), Pilates, Alexandra and Feldenkrais are regaining in popularity in the modern world for the positive effects they have. (The latter three are basically simple mind and body works or exercises that followers believe lead to a feeling of oneness, connectedness and quiet.) They do not require very strenuous efforts and, like yoga, they also involve more than just the body to work. They improve balance and coordination, and are believed to bring about a certain calm and serenity.

So go dare all and get a move on, if you haven't already. Make the twilight years of your life fit and fun. It will be well worth every moment!

What is the best time to exercise?

What is the best time to exercise? This is an oft-asked question related to exercise. Frankly, timing is a matter of personal choice and habit, convenience and availability. The best way around it is to actually work it through for yourself and come up with the best answer, once the considerations have been made. It works differently for different people. Those who have erratic schedules do it whenever they have the time, while others manage to stick to a regular time.

Time can pertain to the time of the day as well as the time of the year. In situations that have constant weather conditions, there is no requirement to modify your program. But those exercising in places with changing conditions need to constantly re-assess their environment and make changes accordingly. This would apply even to those who travel or like to exercise in different situations. There are also some that break up their routine into two and work out both morning and evening, due to lack of time.

Time of the day

There are early risers and there are those who sleep at the crack of dawn. Expecting the former to work out in the evening when the day is almost done or the latter to get cracking at dawn with a routine would seem futile and unrealistic. Examine the type of person you are and then make your schedule accordingly to ensure you stick by it.

The Early-Morning Riser:

The positives:

• Yoga and other softer forms like tai-chi seem to have a calming effect in the morning.
• Whether or not you should do exercises after you have bowel movement depends only on whether you are comfortable.
• Eating a light fruit or drinking tea will not hamper your movement. If it is a heavy meal, wait for an hour and a half before working out.
• Look at it this way: the good deed for the day is done.
• Start the day on a charged note by exercising in the morning.

The negatives:

• Late morning risers may not have enough time to work out.
• Those rushed for time may not find it rewarding enough.
• There are some who are terribly inflexible in the morning and need a very long warm up before starting out.

The Late Risers:

The positives:

• Limbering up for them happens sooner than in the morning.
• Very early morning routines might lead to muscle cramps and pulls due to an inadequate warm up period.
• High powered workouts like Karate Step and Kick boxing are generally better executed in the evening hours.
• Evening hours provide an opportunity to spent pent-up anger and frustration.

The negatives:

• You could be too charged up before bedtime to find sleep
• There should ideally be a gap of Ѕ hour before your exercise and meal time, thus delaying your bed time
• Post-meal workouts are a no-no. The body is too busy assimilating the meal to be bothered with providing blood to the extremities, thus making you feel lethargic rather than energetic.

Duration or Timing

Time also pertains to the duration of each activity. Here is a simple chart to follow:

Type of workout Duration per effort (in minutes)
Cardiovascular / aerobic exercise 10-60 (not more than that)
Muscular strength 20-60
Muscular endurance 10-60
Joint and muscular flexibility 10-40
Balance and coordination everyday
Posture training any and every time


Coping with Seasonal Changes

The Cold outdoors

In extreme cold weather exercising outdoors without proper clothing allows heat to escape from the body and puts too much pressure on the cardiovascular system to work harder to provide blood to the extremities. In the cold, beware of frostbites and hypothermia that occur even in high wind chill conditions.

What to do

Cover the exposed areas of your body to prevent frostbites.
Keep the head covered to save the heat from getting dissipated.
Those prone to asthma should warm up well or avoid exposing themselves to the cold outdoors.
Hot & humid environs

When temperatures are high, profuse sweating leads to loss of body fluids. This reduces the amount of blood returning to the heart, resulting in cardiovascular stress as indicated by very high heart rates. Beware of heat strokes and heat exhaustion during these times.
High humidity (over 60 per cent) when added to high air temperatures, impairs the body's ability to dissipate internal heat. This can also lead to heat strokes and heat exhaustion.

What to do

Thus it is sensible to work at medium to low intensities in warmer conditions.
Wear light, loose clothing allowing air to circulate over the skin's surface
Replace fluids furiously and fast before they replace you!
Air pollution

Regular exercise should be avoided in areas with high levels of pollution.

What to do

Try to work out (if you must) either early in the morning or late evening or on weekends to avoid the effects
Take the option of working out indoors
High Altitudes

At moderate to high altitudes, the blood cannot deliver as much oxygen to the exercising muscles. It takes weeks to adapt to major changes in altitude so be careful.

What to do

Decrease your intensity
Increase warm up and cool down periods
Acclimatize yourself to the new conditions
To wrap up, time and timing is a matter of individual choice and personal preference. What's important is to find what suits you best, stick to that and make sure that you exercise regularly.

Healthy Eating Out

Do you love eating out but at the same time are afraid to do so? Do you think "here goes my diet plan", whenever you go out? Do you also avoid socializing because you are dieting? If you have answered yes to all these questions, then it's time you took a reality check and discovered that eating out can be a happy and healthy experience.


Do you know that:

• No one gets fat from one meal. It takes a number of them for fat to accumulate.
• Eating out once every three weeks is a viable option if you have the self-control to come back on line the following day.
• When you eat a working lunch five times a week it won't work, because you're establishing a pattern which good meals and exercise cannot negate.
• Eating too much and then going berserk on the treadmill the next day leads to tiredness, and endangers your health. Don't do it.

Then should you stop eating out? No. The best solution is to choose restaurants that offer healthy foods and make selections that tie in with what you want to achieve. But if this is not possible, you have to select what you eat with care. Having the odd curry once every two or three weeks isn't so damaging.

Here are some top tips when you eat out:

• Eat smaller portions of fatty foods: If there's something you really want but shouldn't be eating, share it with someone else.
• Ask the waiter not to bring bread and butter to the table: Also ask dressings and sauces to be served separately. That way you can control how much you want to use, or skip them altogether.
• Ask them to reduce the amounts of fattening items: Such as cheese or butter that come with the dish.
• Ask for a starter: If you must have a dish that is rich in fat. And for your main course order something low-fat. Remember that soup and plain pasta are good fillers.
• Serving sizes: These are relevant, so order one serving of meat, fish or poultry, two servings of vegetables and three servings of grains, rice, pasta, cereals etc. By ordering like this, you're much more likely to stay on track.

Cooking styles and methods vary from country to country and cuisine to cuisine. Let's check out the different types of restaurants and see what's on offer:

1. Fast-food outlets
If you eat regularly from these joints, then it will be difficult for you to cut your fat. Fast food joints offer mainly burgers, fries, milkshakes, pizzas etc, which will only add to your calories. Instead, go in for the healthy options -- though limited here -- and eat only salads, fruit juices or fruit salads.

2. British Cafe
The British mainly rely on the griddle or deep-fat fryer to cook a lot of their food. Try to avoid items that are cooked in this way. Instead go in for baked beans on dry brown toast, poached eggs, baked potato with low-fat fillings like tuna, sweet corn or chicken strips with peppers. Another healthy alternative is to have soup, a whole meal sandwich or roll with a salad and lean meat, fish or poultry filling and fresh fruit. Avoid mayonnaise, coleslaw, butter, margarine and sugary sweets and confectionery.

3. Italian restaurant
Italian cooking uses a lot of olive oil, which is healthier in comparison to saturated fat, but it's still fattening. Cheeses like mozzarella and Parmesan are also widely used, especially in pizza. If eating Italian, maximize on the excellent fresh salads available. Ask for dressings on the side or use lemon juice instead. Always aim for tomato-based pasta sauces instead of the cream ones and limit the use of Parmesan cheese. If your favorite pizza topping is Pepporoni, then you would be advised to stay away from it as it has a high fat content. Avoid cream-based sweets like tiramisu. Instead, think healthy and just have a spoonful of fresh fruit.

4. Chinese restaurant
Chinese food is cooked in a wok or a deep-fat fryer. The wok cooks the food quickly, which means that the vitamins are retained in the food. However, Chinese in general is a high-fat type, especially those dishes that are deep-fried in batter. Here too, opt for steamed rather than fried rice and remember that sweet and sour sauce contains a lot of sugar, so don't have too much of that. For dessert, choose the fruit on offer.

5. Japanese restaurants
Japanese food is usually healthy and nutritious. Apart from one or two notable exceptions, most of the food can be ordered easily. Eat lots of Sushi or raw fish, a Japanese delicacy, is low in fat and high in carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. Stay away from the tempura batter-fried dishes as they are rich in calories. Even sake (rice wine) is loaded with too many calories, so it is better to give it a miss and opt for the green tea. You can eat a lot of vegetables as the Japanese use little oil. And finally since they are not known to have a sweet tooth, always go in for the beautifully prepared fresh fruit.

6. Indian restaurant
No Indian dish is complete without adding dollops of ghee in it, which increases the fat intake of the dish. So if eating in a Indian restaurant, be careful to select what you eat.

Go in for boiled rice rather than fried rice.
Eat wheatflour-based chapattis rather than naan (which is heavier as it is made from maida) or parantha to which fat has been added.
Avoid cream-based curries like korma dishes.
Eat little gravy as it has a lot of fat content.
Don't order papads; they are fried and highly fattening.
Order Chicken tikka as it is comparatively low-fat.
Drink water instead of an aerated drink or beer or you may end up with a beer belly.

Follow these tips and find out how eating out can become a healthy and pleasurable experience.