Beginners' Fitness

Beginners’ Fitness THE UK’S N EWEST H EALTH & F ITNESS MAGAZINE!

May/June 2013

www.beginnersfitness.co.uk

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Juice Fasting:

Diet, nutrition and fitness myths!

We test the latest fad diet!

Get a full-body workout in your living room!

• TIPS • TRICKS • ADVICE • WORKOUTS

Our easy-to-follow guide will teach you everything you need to know about keeping fit on a budget

AND MUCH MORE INSIDE!!!

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AMAZING,

“Why I became a vegan” The story of one man’s mission to end his 26-year love affair with animal products... £3.50

FAT-BUSTING, FOOD SUBSTITUTES We show you easy ways to switch out your sugars, butter, pastas and many more for our healthy, energy-boosting alternatives!

Your road to a healthier lifestyle begins here...

In This Issue...

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25 Fitness Myths explained!

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Some of the most common fitness myths, debunked and destroyed!

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Hello, I’m A Vegan

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Student journalist Matt Prong looks back upon his first year as a vegan.

3 Top Detox Tips Rules to live by in order to rid your body of those nasty toxins.

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No Time For The Gym? We show you 10 exercises you can do in the comfort of your own living room...

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8 Amazing Alternatives Healthier substitutes for some of your favourite ingredients!

Juice Fasting - Put To THE Test!

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Student journalist Sam Beales, tries to survive on a diet of nothing but juiced fruit and vegetables fot two whole weeks.

Does he have what it takes?

Beginner’s Corner Taking your first steps on the road to a healthier you?

Beginner’s Corner brings you top tips from the experts to help you on your way.

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Beginners’ Fitness EDITOR’S LETTER Please allow me to be the first to both thank you and congratulate you upon your purchase of this - the very first issue of Beginners’ Fitness. We hope you find it a worthwhile read, and that it’s the first of many purchases of our monthly aids to help you along the road to improving your health, fitness and overall wellbeing.

As a magazine we strive to offer something a little different - honest, reliable advice based around dispelling popular myths and promoting healthy weight loss. Other magazines may offer more attractive “Lose 2 stone in a week” diets, but we feel that it is our duty to promote long-term health and wellbeing, rather than offering quick fix solutions.

Our primary aims are to aid you in regaining control of your health and fitness - an increasingly difficult task in the modern day hustle and bustle of 2013. We will help you to overcome certain stigmas associated with truly beneficial areas of fitness, such as weightlifting, and we will always promote realistic, healthy goals for all our readers.

All that is left is for me to say is thankyou once again for purchasing this inaugural issue, and that we sincerely hope you enjoy all the tips, tricks, workouts and articles we have to offer!

Sam Beales Editor Health In The Daily Grind...

Aaron Hamilton looks at the struggle to stay fit and healthy in the 21st century...

20 Diet a

The truth behind the lies If you’re new to dieting and training, you might unknowingly get stuck reading fitness fiction. Bad advice can make hitting your goals next to impossible.

Health and fitness shouldn’t be just a week-long fad. It should be a life-long pursuit. Each new gain should bring about a slew of new goals: If you lose 20 pounds, sign up for a 5K; if you reach a new squat PR, see what you can do about your deadlift. There’s no end to how far you can take your fitness. The problem for most is just getting started.

As a beginner, you may fall prey to the inconsistencies and falsehoods spread by the uneducated and the untrained. (As if getting off the couch isn’t hard enough!) The best way to go into the fitness world is through the doors of knowledge. If you learn a little before you start, you’ll be much better equipped to deal with setbacks, plateaus, nutrition questions, and training debacles. Although these myth-busting articles won’t necessarily turn you into an Arnold look-alike, they will help you make smart choices and find real ways to meet your fitness objectives.

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Soy Is A Great Alternative To Whey Protein

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I Can Spot-Reduce My Problem Areas

TRUTH: Spot-reduction is not possible unless you go for liposuction. Without such surgery, your body will draw fat from different regions at different rates depending on your genetic makeup.

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My Calcium Must Come From Dairy

TRUTH: You can get calcium from vegan sources like broccoli and sesame seeds, but in order to get the recommended intake of elemental calcium, you need to eat plenty! Dietitians forget that you cannot consume one cup of sesame seeds per day on a fat-loss diet.

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Avocados, Peanut Butter, And Oils Are “Clean” And Can Help You Lose Weight

TRUTH: Healthy fats are an important part of your diet, but having even a 100 percent clean diet doesn’t mean you’ll lose weight. You can be overweight and eat nothing but “clean” food.

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Doing Cardio Before Weights Will Help You Get Shredded Faster

TRUTH: If you run on a treadmill before you hit the weights, you’ll be too fatigued to train as heavy as you can. You need muscle, not miles to burn fat.

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The Only Way To Lose Weight Is By Cutting Out All Carbs

TRUTH: Soy protein has a lower Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score than animal products. It’s not as well-balanced in essential amino acids. It is an alternative. Whether it’s a “great” alternative is up to you and depends on your goal.

TRUTH: The only way to lose the right amount of weight is by adopting a diet that supports your goal, training with weights, and doing some cardio. Your program should include all of these aspects long enough to see a difference. Diet, weights, and cardio— the holy trinity of fitness!

If You Want To Get In Shape, You Have To Run For Long Distances

Big Muscles Are Strong Muscles

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TRUTH: Your fitness success depends upon your goal. If you want to be able to run 10 miles without breaking a sweat, then yes, you’ll have to run.If your goal is fat loss or muscle gain, running for miles and miles may not be the best way to lose

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TRUTH: There’s a difference between training your muscles to be big and training your muscles to be strong. For physique athletes, size and shape—not strength—is the ultimate goal. For athletes, strength for maximum effort is most important.

and Fitness Myths 2

Muscle Definition Comes From Lifting Light Weight For Many Reps

TRUTH: Leanness and muscle definition come from having muscle mass and low body fat. If you train with light weights only, you just won’t build muscle. If you don’t have any muscle mass, you won’t burn much fat.

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You Can’t Gain Muscle After 40

TRUTH: Age does bring wear and tear, but at 40 you’re still a training baby unless you’ve been a competitive professional athlete since you were a teenager. You can gain muscle despite hormonal deficiencies—it just may be a tad harder.

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Fruit Is A Healthy Snack That Can’t Make You Fat

TRUTH: Humans eat food because it gives us nutrients and fuel, but any kind of food, no matter how healthy, can make you gain weight. Fruit has a lot of easily accessible carbs. When you provide your body with easily accessible carbs, you’re basically telling it to stop burning body fat for fuel.

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High-Protein Diets Are Bad For Your Kidneys

TRUTH: Protein taxes the kidneys because they have to work harder to process it. Healthy people without a preexisting kidney condition are fine to eat a lot of protein as long as they drink a lot of water too.

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All Vegetables Are Created The Same,

TRUTH: Vegetables contain different amounts of calories. Some have 12 grams per 100 calories, others have 80 calories. You cannot swap broccoli for turnips without having to recalculate your calories.

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All Protein Powder Is The Same, So It Doesn’t Matter Which One I Use

TRUTH: There are many different types of protein: soy, casein, egg and whey (to name a few). Each of these protein powder types work a little differently, and each kind of protein has a different amount of carbs, fat, cholesterol, and calories.

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Carbs Are Found Only In Bread And Noodles

TRUTH: Wrong. You also find carbs in grains, starches, fruit, vegetables, dairy, nuts, and seeds.

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The More You Sweat, The More Fat You Lose

TRUTH: Sweat has nothing to do with intensity; it’s your body’s way of getting rid of heat. Fat is oxidized inside your body, and it is not going to vaporize because you’re sweating!

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Yoga Will Get You Ripped

TRUTH: Unless you’re doing hot yoga, yoga doesn’t burn many calories because it doesn’t require much oxygen. It also doesn’t stimulate muscle growth in the same way that weight training does. Most buff and ripped yoga bunnies weight train and practice yoga.

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Cleanse Products Will Only Enhance Your Results

TRUTH: Medically, there’s no reason to do a cleanse. Your body has natural ways of detoxifying. If you eat a healthy diet that includes a lot of vegetables., a cleanse is a waste of money.

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If You Aren’t Sore The Next Day, Your Workout Wasn’t Hard Enough

TRUTH: Soreness is inflammation and the chemical response to inflammation. The only yardstick by which you need to measure progress is that of your goal. There are Olympic athletes who haven’t felt soreness in years. Judge your workout by what happens during that workout.

Has Only Negative Effects 20 Caffeine On The Body TRUTH: The problems with caffeine occur mostly because of overconsumption. But with moderate use, caffeine has many benefits beyond that of energy for athletic performance.

“But, people do find Veganism odd... In a world where people eat processed body parts battered, salted and deep-fried, I’m considered the strange one.”

Matt Prong reveals his experiences of his first year as a vegan...

I used to love meat. Nothing would tickle my taste buds more than a pork joint roasting on a Sunday afternoon or a Steak sizzling on a BBQ on a rare sunny day. I was never your everyday carnivore; I would eat it for breakfast, lunch and tea. Mostly slapped in between bread or deep fried.

I wouldn’t discriminate when it came to the type of meat I was devouring; I would dine on swine, chow on chicken and devour duck. If it bled, I ate it. But that has all changed.

After 27 years of meat eating, early last year I decided to stop eating meat. This was for a mixture of reasons.

As I grew older my diet was slowly changing and becoming more vegetable based, I would search high and low for new recipes and would scour vegetarian and vegan blogs. I slowly started to phase out meat, realising that it was not quite as essential as I once thought.

After watching a fantastic documentary, “Food INC”, which is a terrifying expose of the corporate fast food world and reading a book “Fast Food Nation”, the idea of eating meat again turned my stomach. I decided that I did not want to eat meat or any

animal products ever again.

It has been argued that I could have just eaten “ethically” sourced meat and dairy, such as organic.

There is no such thing as ethically sourced meat, all animals are slaughtered. How ethical is murder?

The welfare of animals was something I had always ignored.

I knew that animals were not treated in a “humane” way before being killed for our benefit. Why should we care? They are just animals, right? WRONG. Animals are kept in a cramped and disgusting environment where they cannot move and graze as they would in their natural habitat. Many animals die of diseases contracted because of the filthy conditions.

Animals are rounded up and slaughtered for the pleasure of humans. Despite popular opinion, we do not need to eat meat and dairy. We can get all the nutrients’ we need to survive from plants.

I was reluctant to label myself a vegan as many people’s opinion of them were pantaloon sporting dreadlocked stoners who said “maaaan” after every sentence. I am a vegan, but I do not treat it as a gimmick. It is a compassionate and ethical way of life and I think that speaks for itself.

But, people do find Veganism odd. In a world where people eat processed body parts battered, salted and deep fried, I’m considered the strange one.

When I informed my family about my lifestyle change my Mother was greatly concerned.

“What do you eat?” “I hope you are not hungry” and “where are you getting your protein from?”

It is funny how everybody becomes a nutritional expert every time you mention you do not eat meat!

Another question that pops up regularly is “Don’t you miss meat?” and the answer is always “No not at all. But I miss the convenience of meat”. Another comment is “Vegans and Vegetarians always throw their lifestyle in the face of meat eaters and preach to us”. Not unlike those huge McDonalds and KFC billboards. Or the constant stream of fast food commercials.

Or television shows like Man vs.

Food…

I’m not saying I am a vegan so you have to be. I’m not saying I’m better than you because I don’t eat meat. The facts are there, they cannot be ignored.

We don’t need to eat meat or dairy, so why eat it?

SNAPSHOT Matt Prong, 28, is a Journalism Student at Exeter College.

He lives in Starcross, Devon with his girlfriend Tilly and lists his hobbies as Film, Music and Wrestling.

He says of his vegan lifestyle: “Not only have I lost weight, I feel better than ever, with more energy and an overall improvement in my mood and my sleeping habits. I’ll never go back to eating meat.”

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Cut back on the meat in your diet plan, and you’ll lose weight faster and improve your overall health. People who eat only plant-based foods (aka, vegetarians) generally eat fewer calories and less fat, weigh less, and have lower cholesterol levels than nonvegetarians. according to researchers at the Mayo Clinic. Try simple swaps like substituting a meatless protein—tofu or seitan—for beef in your stir fry

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Don’t sabotage your healthy diet by sucking down drinks packed with enough sugar to set a classroom full of kindergarteners into a frenzy. Try swapping your sugary sweet tea with antioxidant-packed green tea

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Choose whole, unprocessed foods and ditch anything with additives, preservatives or fivesyllable ingredients that you need a chemistry Ph.D to understand. As In Defense of Food author Michael Pollan advises, don’t eat anything your greatgreat-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food

3 Top Tips

Detox your body

On the go..? Work ou

Getting to the gym is not always possible. In fact, as we get busier and more comfort of your own living room. That way you can forget about making excu es that you can do in your living room that will help you burn fat and get tone oven or while you are watching T.V. at night time. Try and keep it going for at

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Jumping squats

Simply squat down on the ground with your left foot in front. Spring up into the air as high as you can go and then land with your right foot in front. Go down as low as you can and then repeat until you can’t do anymore.

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Doorstep calfTip! raises

Simply stand on the step with your heels off the edge. Hold on to something so you don’t lose your balance. Lower your heels down and then push upwards using your calf muscles until your heels are as high as they can go. If you want to make this harder try adding a backpack with some weight or even doing it one leg at a time. This one burns!

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Table step-ups

Stand in front of your coffee table or bench and step up on to it with your left foot. Step back down and repeat with the same foot. Carry out as many reps as you can and then switch feet.

You can increase the difficulty by either going faster or wearing a backpack with some heavy weights in there.

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Superman back Tip!lifts

Lay on your stomach with your toes pointed and your arms up in front of you like you were superwoman flying through the air.

Keep your face down towards the ground. Breath in and then lift your arms and legs off of the ground about one inch and then hold.

Breathe out, lower and repeat.

Don’t try to push this one too far, just do as many as you can.

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Cou

Lay on your bac your head about the couch leg. Gr your hands and so they are 90 d floor. Tense your back into your ch of the motion tilt a final little crunc slowly back dow

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Arm

Simply stand w together and y your side and your legs land three feet apa hands clapped head. Jump ba nal position an keep a flowing too many stop

ut In your living room!

strapped for time it is important to know a few things you can do from the uses and just get to work. In this article we’re going to show you 10 exercised. The great thing about this workout is you can do it while dinner is in the t least 20 minutes if you want to get noticeable benefits...

uch crunches

ck and position t a foot away from rab the leg with raise your knees degrees with the r abs and roll them hest. At the top t your pelvis for ch. Lower them wn and repeat.

my star jumps

with your feet your hands by jump so that d about two to art and your d above your ack to the origind repeat. Try to g motion without ps.

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Chair Push-ups

Place two chairs next to each other with enough room for your torso in between them. Now place your hands on the seat of the chair and assume the push up position with your butt tensed, back straight and elbows back at a 45 degree angle. Lower yourself down until you feel a stretch in your chest and then push yourself back up.

You can make this SUPER difficult by lifting your feet higher and higher on a couch, table or another chair.

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Dictionary crunches

Lay on your back with your feet flat on the floor. Place the dictionary on your chest and tense your abs. Roll your upper body towards your knees and crunch your abs tight at the top of the motion. Lower your body down on the exhale keeping your abs tensed the entire time.

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Shopping-bag curls

Fill up two shopping bags with some items until it is quite heavy for you to hold. Now stand up straight with your shoulders square and your head up.

Tense your biceps and curl the weight up to your shoulder without moving your elbow from its position. As you are lowering the bag breathe out. Repeat with the other arm. Make this exercise more difficult by adding more weight to the bags. Remember to swap the bags over after each set in case one is actually more heavy than the others.

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T.V. shadow boxing

Stand in front of the TV with your hand by your ears in the boxing ready position. Bounce on the spot like a fighter ready for action. When the camera changes angle or focus punch at the TV with your left hand and bring it back to the guard position. Repeat with your right hand the next time the camera changes. If you want to pick up the pace choose a more regularly occurring TV moment or do three punches every time it happens. Try and keep it up for five minutes and see how you go!

8 superhealthy food swaps Stock up on our ultra-healthy alternatives!

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Switch out parmesan for yeast flakes. They contain more protein as well as more fibre, with far less fat. They are also packed with B vitamins.

Raw cocoa instead of chocolate. Just 20g of this stuff contains the same flavenoids as a whole block of standard chocolate, with none of the sugar!

Use cider vinegar instead of balsamic.

It speeds up the metabolism and also delays the release of glucose when consumed with carbohydrates.

Replace your butter with coconut oil to up your intake of “good” fats. Coconut oil also has a much better taste than Fry-Lite for cooking.

Substitute standard flour for ground almond. Great for bulking up stews and curries, it’s also full of monounsaturated fat - useful for staving off cravings.

Soba noodles are a great substitute for spaghetti and contain around half the calories.

Plant compounds also help to balance out your blood-sugar.

Stevia, rather than sugar contains zero calories! Made from plant extract, stevia is also totally chemical-free.

Quinoa has a couscous-like texture when cooked, so is an excellent replacement for rice. Quinoa is also extremely protein-rich,.

G.I (Glycemic index) meaning that you’ll feel energetic for hours after eating a high fibre meal.

Our bodies require vitamins and minerals to produce cells and to function correctly. Pulses are packed full of goodies such as folate, which helps to protects us against heart disease and cancer. In fact, pulses are the very best source of folate available in food. They also have a high amount of potassium which helps to reduce high blood pressure and the risk of having a stroke. Pulses also contain high levels of calcium, which help to main-

Pulses

tain healthy bones and teeth. To top that off

by Matthew Prong

they also contain B vitamins which help with

The benefits of eating pulses are numerous

sausages and milk contain a huge amount

healthy skin, nerve cells and your brain as

and could easily be considered the healthi-

of muscle building protein. Many argue that

well as keeping your digestive system in tip

est food available. They have a high fibre

the quality of protein available from beans

top shape. Pulses really are a super food.

content, which helps to stabilise cholesterol,

and pulses are much higher than that avail-

There are a huge amount of pulses avail-

a high protein content to aid tissue repair as

able from meat.

able on the market, they can help bulk your

well as numerous vitamins that aid our ev-

Beans are also high in fibre or ‘roughage’.

food out and add amazing flavours to clas-

eryday health and wellbeing. Not only are

Fibre helps to keep your digestive system

sic Mexican dishes such as chilli con carne,

they packed with goodness, but they taste

in good health, by aiding excretion of toxins

North African cuisine such as tagine and

awesome too!

and waste lying in the stomach. Fibre can

British classics like lentil soup. Beans are

For vegan weight lifters, beans and pulses

also aid weight loss as it fills your stomach

easily available and very cheap, so whether

are the ultimate protein source. For exam-

and prevents you from being hungry be-

you are a student or retired there are no ex-

ple, soya beans which are widely used to

tween meals. Fibre also releases energy

cuses for not eating these little capsules of

produce meat replacement foods such as

slowly throughout the day as it has a low

goodness!

Juice Fasting Sam Beales tests the Juice Fast diet - consuming nothing but liquidised fruits and vegetables for a period of two weeks...

I am a chubby man. When it comes to exercise and a healthy lifestyle in general, the first 5 or 6 years of my adult life could easily be used as template of “what not to do” for others with sense and a healthconscious nature. After these 5 or so years of boozing, smoking and eating a fairly poor diet, I considered myself something of a lost cause health-wise. Things such as playing for the school rugby and football teams were confined to “distant memory” status and so I carried on, enjoying the student lifestyle and all of the decadence that entails. So it was with a degree of disbelief and a sprinkle of morbid curiosity that I tuned into “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” on Netflix.

This documentary, released in 2010, follows the story of forty-something Australian businessman Joe Cross.

Cross had lived the same lifestyle as me, only for an additional 20 years or so, and…he looked terrible. He was grossly overweight and struggling with a series of medical conditions his doctor ascribed to his poor diet and sedentary lifestyle. My interest was piqued, and as Joe helpfully listed the 10 or so different medications he has to take daily, I popped the lid back onto my tube of Pringles. Maybe now I’ve popped I should indeed stop?

So, what action did Joe Cross

take? Well, quite simple really - he lived on nothing but juiced fruits and vegetables for 60 days. No solid food, nothing except water to drink, and nothing but fresh, raw juiced carrots, broccoli, kale, spinach, cucumber, apples and basically anything else you could conceivably juice. For breakfast, lunch and dinner. Although the film did come across a little bit like one big advert for juicers (Breville’s juicer sales apparently increased by 250% in the wake of the movie!), Cross did indeed look much healthier after his juice fast, and he no

Do you think you could handle this for breakfast, lunch and dinner?

longer had the need for any of his medications. As the credits rolled and Joe Cross jogged off into the Australian sunset, I lit up a cigarette, fired up my laptop, settled into the familiar grooves of my desk-chair and delved a little deeper into the world of juice-fasting...

Juice-fasting has come to prominence in recent years as one of the healthiest methods of fasting around. Although there are many conflicting opinions as to the actual benefits of fasting on the human body, juice- fasting is becoming more and more popular, in the West especially, as a healthy way of losing weight and cleansing toxins from your body. As you are consuming nothing but juiced fresh fruits and vegetables, juice-fasting is supposed to give you all the nutrients your body requires, while “resting” your digestive system, leaving your body free to focus its energies on removing any toxic substances from your cells.

Again, this is greatly disputed by medical professionals. A little blinded by the sheer variety of opinions I encountered online, I decided to find out for myself exactly what effects juice-fasting would have on my body by picking up a £30 juicer embarking on a 14-day juice diet of my own. I decided to keep a diary, charting my thoughts, general mood and weight loss throughout the fast. .

I wake up with a certain degree of trepidation as to what this first day will entail. I’d usually have a breakfast of bacon and eggs or a bowl of cereal but instead groggily juice some carrots, half a cucumber and some apples. The resulting concoction is orangey-brown in colour, and smells of freshly cut grass. It actually tastes rather nice. Quite a refreshing way to start the morning, but I’m painfully aware of the long road ahead. For lunch and dinner I leave out most fruits and juice combinations of spinach, broccoli, carrots and

Day 1

kale with just a little bit of lemon juice thrown in to keep the juice fresh. By around 8pm I am craving solid food, but it is manageable.

Woke up feeling quite light and refreshed but extremely empty inside. I read about the dangers of

Day 2 & 3

having too much fruit juice, due to the high sugar content and decide to stick with my method of having fruit/veg juices in the morning and then only vegetable juices in the afternoon and evening.

I have a slight headache throughout the day and try and combat it with drinking plenty of water.

After waking I stand up and immediately fall back into bed due to extreme dizziness. I realised immediately that this was probably

cause for concern, but felt it was due more to the fact that it had been around 10 hours since my last juice. I went to the kitchen and decided to have an all-fruit juice, both as something of a treat and a way to give me energy quickly. Within minutes of drinking the juice I felt totally fine, but resolved to add just a little fruit to my evening juice, as a way to keep my energy up the next morning. By around midday, I feel fantastic. I manage to get to work and walk around for 6 hours straight, taking regular sips of juice. A few people comment that I look slightly different. I inform them as to the diet I’m doing and get unanimous responses confirming that I’m crazy.

Day 5 & 6

Day 4

I wake up feeling completely fine, and surprisingly full of energy. I was more than ready to rubbish the whole idea of juice fasting, but can’t deny that I seem to feel much better than most mornings. An interesting thing occurred on Day 5, and that is when I stopped feeling hungry altogether. There were no more hunger pangs and it was a very strange feeling, as if my stomach and desire to eat had disappeared altogether. I was a little worried at first, but some quick online research informed me that it was common around this stage in the fast. It was strange that I had actually come to enjoy my fast, and it was no longer a chore to have to drink the juice. I worried that I may have been going insane throughout day 6.

This was the first day where I really started to notice a big difference. I’m fully aware that it can’t be healthy to lose a stone within a week, but also can’t deny that I still feel brilliant.

Most people who hadn’t seen me all week reacted with shock that I’d lost so much weight so quickly. I’ve hit my stride at this point, and I can’t believe I hadn’t tried this sooner.

Days 8, 9 & 10

Day 7

My energy remains high throughout, although it’s still difficult to be around others who are eating and drinking normally. My part-time job at a local supermarket is proving to be more difficult to withstand each day, and I find myself constantly daydreaming about different types of food. The cravings are more mental than physical and I still have no hunger pangs at all. It’s amazing how disconnected you feel from the rest of society, and I began to realise just how many unnecessary calories people put into their bodies throughout the day.

At this stage I’ve lost a fair bit of weight and am feeling inspired to take up a healthier lifestyle. Although my energy remains high I am starting to get fed up with the same vegetable juices each day. Rather than craving food I begin to crave feeling normal again! By day 12, I think I’ve come far enough, and not wanting to lose any more weight this way, I throw in the towel. 12 days without food and about 22lbs lost! But was it good fot me?

Days 11 & 12

Summary The juice fast is an extremely efficient way to lose weight - within the first week I had lost around a stone, and after 12 days almost a stone and a half. However, due to the lack of protein in a juice fast, your total weight loss breaks down as around 60% muscle loss, with just 40% of that weight being fat. This is because, when deficient in protein, your

body then uses your muscles as a primary energy source. For a man in his early-20s such as myself, the fast itself poses few risks, however it is not recommended if you have ever suffered with anaemia, or have ever had heart problems. The shock to the body can put quite a strain on the heart, so it’s always wise to

consult your GP before embarking on such a diet.

My personal experiences of the fast were rather good, and you do go through periods of feeling extremely healthy during it. I’d recommend a 3-day fast to begin with, to ease your body and mind into the fast. Juice fasting is, in my opinion, one of the healthiest fast around.

Health in the Daily Grind

n takes a look to il m a H n ro alist Aa ttempting a st il Student Journ h w s u n s placed o festyle... li rn e d o m at the pressure c ti c alth with a he e h e c n la a b to

by Aaron Hamilton Freelance Journalist and Fitness Enthusiast In modern day times we are continuously reminded of that perfect lifestyle, whether it would be the diet we eat, the amount of exercise that we are meant to do each week, or the amount of sleep needed to keep the wrinkles away. These recommendations are notified daily, through the likes of advertising, the public figures that most people are obsessed with. There seems to be a lot to live up to.

Depending on your financial means and time allowance that you have given yourself for the necessities of a healthy lifestyle, let’s be honest, the majority of us don’t completely comply every year, when the clock strikes 12, with the goals and ambitions to lead a purer existence.

The important thing to note is not to set your goals too high, as realistically, we will probably never achieve them.

Unless you are involved with an industry that requires the continuous work ethic of exercise, due to your work commitments, you will buy that first gym membership go for a few weeks and then pack it all in.

One such individual that has this work ethic, due to his degree of study and future aspirations to become a professional rugby player, is Ben Higgins. Ben studies an FdA in sports science at Exeter College in Devon and

is one step away from getting his personal trainer qualifications. Ben is the perfect example of an individual whose studying and working lifestyle is centred on the absolute perfect healthy lifestyle.

When asked about society’s obsession with keeping fit and the health image that we picture for ourselves at the start of each year, he said, “Most people’s understanding of a healthy and fit lifestyle is completely inaccurate - society itself has provided a picture for everyone to follow, celebrities constantly remind the masses of the unattainable perfect body and you have to remember that everybody’s physique is naturally and genetically unique. If your genetics are in line with the term of body structure of an endomorph, then naturally it will be very difficult to look like a male model, so understanding what your goal can be is the first step.”

As I interview Ben at the sports departments resources centre, I can’t help but notice all the students whose bodies are somewhat sculptured to the perfect image, as most of the students are doing physical degrees. But what if you are not doing a physical degree but doing a more theory based course, where the time you have for physical exercise is limited? I asked Ben “What if you don’t have the time for much exercise?”, and he replied to this question with a shocked expression.

“Everyone has time to do exercise, it’s if you want to use your free time to relax and lounge around or head to the gym for an hour-long workout instead. I have worked with tonnes of individuals in the gym, I have heard all the excuses under the sun, to

justify the reasoning behind not working out or not keeping a healthy diet. You must remember that your diet is the key factor determining if you are overweight or unhealthy”.

“What we eat is what we are” - I am sure you have heard that phrase countless amount sof times. The daily recommended intake of calories according to the World Institute of Health and Fitness is 2500 calories for a man and 1500 for the average woman. Paul Lennon used to be my high school physical education teacher, and I asked him on why there is such an emphasis on the image that one presents to society.

“It’s simple really, to be at a healthy weight your intake of calories needs to be balanced with amount of daily exercise you do - if you indulge yourself in more unhealthier foods but keep the calories down, you won’t particularly look overweight, but your heath will decrease rapidly, our daily percentage of fats is meant to be only 15% but majority of people don’t know this, and go over every day!”

So wait, it’s simple right,? It’s simple to say all these things, but you forget quickly what effort it takes to live a healthier lifestyle.

You would have to get to grips with all your flaws and different aspects of yourself preventing you from having a purer lifestyle.

Anyone can get rid of unwanted aspects of their body; you just have to be prepared to put in the daily grind, even with all the other important day to day activities.

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By Adam Campbell Personal Trainer

Besides the communal urinal trough at a major sports stadium, the gym is the one place where guys worry about what other guys are thinking. No one wants to look like a weight-training newbie—including newbies. But I’ve spent a lot of time in gyms, and the truth is, 95% of guys have no idea what they’re doing—even if they’ve been lifting for years. I’m lucky— my job requires that I talk to the world’s top strength coaches and exercise scientists every day of my life. (I’d prefer to cut it to five days a week, but I’ll take that up at my annual review.) So I’m privy to the latest in cutting-edge training information.

And that means you are, too.

If you’re completely new to weight training, this information will knock years off your learning curve. From now on, the only place in the gym you’ll have to worry about size is in the locker room.

Q: What exercises should I do?

A: Build your workout around compound exercises such as squats, deadlifts, presses, rows, chin- ups, and dips for the fastest muscle and strength gains, as well as fat loss.

BEGINNER’S CORNER

And don’t think about exercises in terms of “body parts”—that’s an outdated approach that often leads to strength imbalances and workouts that train the same muscles on back-to-back days. (For instance, the bench press doesn’t just work your chest, but your shoulders and triceps, too.) Instead, plan your exercises around movement patterns: pushing (bench presses, shoulder presses, squats) and pulling (chin-ups, rows, deadlifts).

Perform an equal number of push and pull exercises, using the recommendations provided in “How often should I lift?”

Do a total-body “push-pull” workout three days a week, or a split routine in which you either do both push and pull movements each session, or push movements one workout and pull movements the next.

Q: How often should I lift?

A: One of the biggest mistakes guys make is trying to move iron five or six days a week. That’s a mentality that was popularized by professional bodybuilders in the ‘80s. Read: Unless you’re receiving regular shipments from a dodgy pharmacy, your muscles need time to recover. So typically, three or four workouts a week is best, depending on your goals.

For adding muscle size and strength, a three- or four-day split routine that works your lower and upper body on

separate days allows you to work both areas intensely while providing the extra time needed for recovery. For instance, you might do a lower-body workout on Monday, an upper-body blast on Tuesday, and then rest for two days before repeating. That gives you three full days of rest between each type of workout. Or you could alternate between lower body and upper body three days a week, working your lower body twice and your upper body once one week, and your upper body twice and lower body once the next.

For fat loss, three total-body workouts is the most effective method. That’s because you’ll work more total muscle—and burn more calories—than you would by dividing your workout into upper- and lowerbody routines. Since you’re working your entire body in each workout, you’ll want to avoid lifting on back-to-back days, resting at least a day between each session.

Q: How much weight should I use?

A: The idea is to challenge your muscles each workout. Most of the time that means using the heaviest weight that allows you to complete each repetition of each set—but no more than that. So the number of reps your workout calls for dictates the weight you use. But you also have to factor in the length of your rest periods. For instance, if you’re planning to perform eight repetitions of an exercise using short rest periods—say, 60 sec-

onds—you’ll have to use a lighter weight than if you’re doing the same number of reps with a longer rest period. (The speed at which you lift and lower the weight matters, too.)

In your first workout, you’ll simply have to use trial and error. If you aren’t able to finish all your planned repetitions, the weight you’re using is too heavy. If you feel like you have a couple of more repetitions left in you on your last set, the load is too light. Keep a training log and indicate whether the weight was too light, too heavy, or just right, so you’ll know what amount to use in your next workout.

Q. Should I eat before or after my workout?

Eat both times. Research shows that eating right before and right after a workout increases the rate at which your body stores new protein—in the form of muscle—and decreases the rate at which it breaks down old protein.

Before your workout: Consume 5-10 grams of high-quality protein—without significant amounts of calories from carbs or fat—about 5-15 minutes before your workout. The easiest way: Mix up a protein shake.

After your workout: For fat loss, immediately consume at least 10 grams of protein—no carbs, no fat. For muscle, consume at least 10 grams of protein and 20 grams of carbs.