Fitness and training

Fitness and training 

In this blog, I will be talking about how you should train at the gym and the rules of getting fitter and stronger by training the correct way. I hope this post helps those who are struggling with exercising at the gym and how to do train correctly throughout the week.

Training and the rules of training

At the beginning of every training session, you must always perform a warm up. This prevents the likeliness of injuries from occurring during exercise as it warms the muscles up which makes them pliable (stretchy). The warm up could consist of static and dynamic stretches. Static stretches are stretches that you do when standing on the spot whereas dynamic stretches are stretches you do when moving.
 

Most people think training the same way every day is going to help them to become fitter and stronger, that isn't true. Doing the same exercises every time that you go to the gym will make you bored but also it will only work on the same areas of your body. You should set different days to work on one part of the body. For example; Mondays could be leg day and Tuesdays could be your pectorals and Thursdsy can be your arms and Saturday can be your back day. By setting yourself days to work on different parts of the body will allow you to work on that specific body part and therefore you will not do the same activities everytime you go to the gym to train. If you play a sport, you can train in the gym and different aspects/skills and techniques in that sport. This will allow you to become better at the sport that you do. Also by setting days that you train and days of rest, it will allow you to rest to allow adaptations to occur to your body so you become bigger and stronger. 

When you train at the gym and your sessions become easier for you, you should steadily increase the amount that amount you are doing. This is called progressive overload. By steadily increasing the amount you are doing in your training sessions, this will allow you to become fitter and stronger and this ensures that you are working at your full potential in these sessions. Never give up!

At the end of every training session, you must perform a cool down. This is because when you are exercising waste products such as Lactic Acid is produced. If this isn't released from your body at the end of training, it will cause you to ache the following morning. Cooling down at the end of each session will allow you to get rid of waste products from your muscles which prevents you from being achy in the morning.

What to consume after training?

The best thing to consume in your diet after each training session is protein. This is because it repairs the muscle tears that occurred during exercise and it allows adaptations to occur making you become bigger and stronger.

Also, you must consume water which replenishes the water that you lost from your body by sweating during exercise. This keeps you hydrated but it also replaces the water that you lost from your body during exercise.

I hope that these rules helps some of you to become fitter and stronger. Please comment down below letting me know what you think about this post but also comment on what you would like to see in the next post of this series.

Natasha 

Being healthy (Energy balance)

Energy balance

Energy balance is when a person balance’s energy intake with the amount of energy they release during exercise. A person is in energy balance when the amount of energy they take in as food and drink (energy input) equals the amount of energy you expend (energy output). They will neither be losing or gaining weight.

If someone eats a lot of food but does no exercise, they will gain weight. This is called positive energy balance. If someone does a lot of exercise and doesn’t eat a lot, they will lose weight. This is called negative energy balance. They will need to intake the correct amount of calories and exercise for a certain amount of time to keep the energy intake and output balanced. They will also have a balanced diet and they will get healthy. This is called neutral energy balance. This means that they are getting enough exercise for the amount of food they intake.
Positive energy balance is when the energy intake exceeds expenditure; this is when weight is gained.
Negative energy balance is less than the requirements, the additional energy required will be drawn from the body’s fat reserves therefore weight will be lost.

Positive energy balance

This is positive energy balance. This is because they are eating a lot of calorific foods but not doing any exercise. This means that they will gain weight.

Negative energy balance

This is negative energy balance. This is because he is eating a lot of healthy foods which don’t contain of many calories and he is exercising a lot. This can cause the body to lose weight.

Neutral energy balance

 



This is neutral energy balance. This is because she is eating an equal amount of nutrients in her diet and exercising enough which releases the energy that she has put into her body so that she doesn't lose or gain weight.  

 

I hope that you have enjoyed reading this post, please stay tuned for the next episode of being healthy. Feel free to leave comments down below telling me how useful these episodes have been to you.

 

Natasha

Being healthy

How to be healthy!

Many people around the world want to be healthy but one mistake is that they either eat too healthy and don't consider about working out or it maybe the total opposite. You have to balance your calorie input with your calorie output. By this I mean that you should balance what you intake in your diet with the amount of exercise that you do. This will prevent you from loosing too much weight or putting too much weight on.

What nutrients should you intake?

There are 7 nutrients that you should consume to have a healthy lifestyle.

As you can see from the diagram above, these are 7 food groups. The 7 nutrients are:

• Carbohydrates
• Proteins
• Fats
• Fibre
• Water
• Minerals
• Vitamins

These nutrients come into 2 categories, these categories are macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients are nutrients that we have to intake a large amount whereas micronutrient we must intake but we should consume a less amount of these.

Macronutrients

As I have stated earlier on in this post, macronutrients are the nutrients that we need to consume more of in your diet. By consuming these in your diet, this will allow you to have a balanced and healthy diet. The macronutrients are: carbohydrates, proteins and fats. The image below shows how much you of each macronutrient you should consume in your diet a day to have a balanced and healthy diet.

Referring to the pie chart above, you can see that carbohydrates is the largest percentage (55-65%) consumed in your diet daily. This is because carbohydrates is the first source of energy when you exercise. It is released before proteins and fats when you start exercising. Carbohydrates like pasta are filling therefore you don't need to have a large proportion on your plate unless you train in your sport (such as swimming) most for so many hours with breaks in between each training session that day. Many people like to carbo load. Carbo loading is when they consume carbohydrates in their diet like a week or 2 days before a big sporting event. This gives them energy every day to train preparing them for the upcoming event. By carbo loading 2 days before the event, it will allow them to store the energy in their body for the big day. You should at consume carbohydrates in your diet at least 24 hours before exercising for a long period of time.

 

You should also consume 25-30% of fats in your diet. This is because it is the second source of energy that is released during exercise and it keeps you going during the middle of your sport because it is like a fuel (providing you with energy until the middle of exercise). There are 2 types of fats which are saturated fats and unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats are the good fats whereas saturated fats are the bad fats which increase your cholesterol levels in your blood. This can then lead to your veins and arteries. You should consume some fats in your diet to make it a balanced diet but you shouldn't consume too much saturated fats compared to unsaturated fats.

 

Lastly, you should intake 10-15% of proteins in your diet. The best time to eat proteins is after exercising and training. This is because they repair the muscle tears that are caused during exercise but also it allows the adaptations to occur. By this, I mean that it make your muscles become bigger and stronger during your rest period. You will see adaptations occurring after your rest days where you don't do any training. However, as proteins are the third source of energy, you should consume proteins before exercising for a long period of time. This is because they allow you keep going as it provides you with energy until the end of an event.

 

Fibre and water are also macronutrients but you don't need to intake as much of them as we do of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Fibre prevents you from becoming constipated as it clears your bowel system. Water is needed in your diet to keep you hydrated and it replenishes the water that is lost through exercising by sweating. Your body consists of 70-75% of water.

 

 

Water also carries essential vitamins and minerals around the body. It also helps to reduce the amount of waste products such as lactic acid that is being produced during exercise.

 

Micronutrients

Micronutrients are the nutrients that we need consume less of in your diet. It isn't essential to consume loads of these in your diet every day.

The micronutrients are: vitamins and minerals.

 

 

You need to consume vitamins in your diet to have a healthy diet. You need to intake vitamins in your diet because it helps organisms to do their job properly. There are 4 vitamins that are vital to have in your diet. These vitamins are: A, B, C and D. You need vitamin A for good vision because it makes our eyes healthy so that we have good eye sight so that you are able to see in light and dark. We need vitamin B for the production of energy and it also helps to reduce your stress levels. This allows you to produce energy easily so that you don't get tired out quickly during exercise. It will also help to reduce your stress levels so that your stress levels are average so they aren't too high or too low causing different symptoms from occurring to your body. You also need vitamin C in your diet because it helps you to have healthy skin. This helps with different problems such as spots and having dry and unmoisturised skin. The last vitamin you need in your diet is vitamin D. This is because it helps to keep your teeth and bones strong and healthy. Vitamin D reduces the risk of getting osteoporosis in the future because it absorbs calcium in your bones.

It is vital that you consume minerals in your diet because it helps with the delivery of oxygen to different parts of the body. This is because it helps with the formation of red blood cells so that they can take the oxygen around the body from your bloodstream. It is important that you consume some minerals in your diet so that you have a balanced and healthy diet. Iron and calcium are examples of minerals that are needed in your diet. Iron is responsible for haemoglobin as it helps to deliver oxygen from your lungs to other parts of the body. If you have too little haemoglobin in your body, it causes anaemia. This is because your body lacks in the amount of iron. Calcium is an essential mineral needed in your body. This is because it helps keeping teeth and bones strong and healthy. This also prevents you from getting osteoporosis in the future. You need to intake minerals to stop you from becoming fatigue during exercise and sport. By consuming calcium in your diet, it helps you to continue with exercise for a long period of time as the red blood cells are delivering the blood around the body to the different muscles. Minerals also help to keep the bones healthy during training and competition.

Vitamins are minerals are micronutrients because we need to have this nutrient in our diet but we don't need as much of them as we need of the macronutrients. 

I hope that you enjoyed reading this post, I will be making a series of posts on how to stay healthy. Stay tune for the next episode of being healthy. Please feel free to give me feedback on this post.

Natasha