If you’re going for heavy weights in your gym sessions, your ability to go heavier could be impeded by a lack of wrist and forearm strength (behave!). Improve your grip strength by doing Hammer Curls and Wrist Curls with dumbbells or an EZ bar. Another effective exercise is the Farmer’s Walk, holding a towel with a weighted plate threaded through it. For a demonstration, click here.
Cardiovascular training is vital to maintaining overall fitness and well-being. However, an unfortunate occurrence for many regular exercisers is the dreaded cold and upper-tract infections. Fight the flu by taking 3mg of Vitamin C in divided doses through the day (you can buy it in powder form). Also, suck on zinc lozengers and take a vitamin B6 supplement. If you’re ill – take a break! Don’t stress your body out by exercising through it. Taking a couple of days off will be better for you in the long run.
The last thing you want to do after a taxing workout is starve yourself. So here are some nutritious snacks that will replenish your energy levels without increasing your waistline:
- Banana sandwich
- Oatmeal biscuits
- Rice cakes with fruit spread
- Grapes and oranges
- Muesli
- A baked or boiled potato
- Maltodextrin drink (250ml)
- Fruit squash/soft drink
Want to snack BEFORE your workout? Try these 45 minutes to an hour before you hit the gym:
- Banana
- Apple
- Bagel with low-fat cream cheese
- Rice cake with fruit spread
If you’re new to exercise and you’re unsure about how to structure a resistance program, bear the following in mind:
- Always begin with a warm-up and stretches for the whole body
- Start off with 1-2 exercises per body part
- Work larger muscles first (chest, back, legs) and leave smaller muscles for the end (biceps, triceps, shoulders)
- Work opposing muscles together (chest/back, quads/hamstrings, biceps/triceps)
- Try an upper-lower-upper-body sequence (as above)
- Leave abdominals until the very end
- Finish with a cool-down and stretching
- Try not to let your routine go on for longer than an hour
Many people like to use the 1g per kilogram of bodyweight rule when calculating how much carbohydrate and/or protein to consume for a healthy diet. For a rough guideline, however, these are the daily vital stats for an average 2,000 calorie diet (slightly higher for men):
Carbohydrate: 250g
Protein: 50g
Fat: 70g (of which no more than 20g saturated)
Fibre: 18g
Sugar: 50g
Salt: 6g (for men and women)
Water: 2-3.75 litres (for men and women)
You will need to increase all of the above if your day is very active.
Those of you that participate in regular sport will be familiar with plyometric drills. This type of exercise is essential to improving agility and power – two things that are crucial to explosive sports such as rugby, hockey, football etc. Some drills you can try out in your garden, in a gym or on a sports field:
- floor speed ladders (back straight, drive with arms not legs)
- low hurdles (look straight ahead, drive with arms)
- sprints and sprints in-between cones (pump arms backwards and forwards)
- ‘S’ or snake running (lean into curves)
- triangle hop (land on forefeet, hop the shape of a right-angled triangle)
- backward running (slight backwards lean)
- explosive push-ups (push up and clap)
- jump squats (jump into squats, or alternate lunges)
If you are one of the many people who suffer from knee problems, try to minimise your high impact training. Instead, opt for low impact activities like swimming, aqua-aerobics, walking or cycling on a recumbent bike. To strengthen your legs without affecting your knees: get a partner to hold one end of a towel (or thread the towel through a weighted plate). Holding the other end and drag it backwards. Strengthening your thighs is an important part of rehabilitation after suffering from Runner’s Knee.
Exercise/workout videos are useful, but not sexy or funny. What is sexy and sometimes unwittingly hilarious is exercise in a music video! Here are my all-time top five music videos featuring gratuitous and sweaty muscle-flexing. Prepare to laugh and be in awe simultaneously:
