Improve your health and fitness!
Eat healthier, feel healthier! Dispel all those commonly believed health & fitness myths!
March 2018
PC Fitness E-zine March 2018
New Year…....New You……. Did you stick to your eating and exercising resolutions?
Achieve the physique you’ve always wanted!
How much protein do we really need?
The only safe way to do sit ups
Look After Your Back with One Easy Move
Should you be doing the barbell upright row?
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Welcome to the second of my monthly fitness e-zines. Please share it with your friends if you enjoy reading it and please subscribe to my YouTube channel by clicking on the icon on the right. If you have any questions or would like me to write about any particular issues, please contact me via my website: pcfitness.org.uk.
New Year, New Me? Try Small Changes = Big Rewards… How many times have you heard people say this…? Did you say it yourself in January? Keeping active and eating healthily are ingrained lifestyle habits. Extreme ‘fad’ diets may work wonders initially, but are they sustainable? The latest trendy celeb quick-fix diets can help you to lose weight but are you losing fat or muscle tissue too?
Can you sustain a diet that leaves you permanently hungry so that after a month or so you give up and consume the entire contents of your snack cupboard? Do you want to continue a diet that leaves you feeling like c@@p and gives you breath that even a dog would find offensive? Are you really going to regularly go to that gym that you joined in January when you were wracked with guilt about how much you ate and drank over the Christmas period? Especially if you don’t really enjoy going to the gym in the first place? The best dietary and exercises changes (i.e. the ones that are sustainable) are small ‘tweaks’ that together can make a huge difference to the way that you look and feel. (Continued on page 2)
New Year, New Me? Try Small Changes = Big Rewards…(continued) Try these small changes to your diet:
Drink a big glass of water before you eat a meal; this will help fill you up so you might eat less. Also drink plenty of water whilst eating meals for the same reason.
Sometimes thirst manifests itself as hunger, so before you raid the snack cupboard when you feel peckish, try drinking a glass of water. Wait a few minutes and then eat only if you’re still hungry. If you do eat a snack, maybe you’ll eat less since the water will have partially filled you up (try the healthy snacks on page 3).
Cut out hidden sugars: breakfast cereals and fruit juice contain vast amounts of sugar.
If it isn't in the cupboard, you can’t eat it!! Try to avoid buying the junk food in the first place. I know that this may not be easy if you have small children...this is where your will-power comes in.
It’s easy to make the grand gesture of promising to regularly go to the gym, but do you really enjoy working out in the gym? Try these activity tweaks:
At work, walk to a colleague’s office instead of sending them an email;
Walk during breaks at work;
Climb the stairs instead of using lifts/escalators;
If you find it difficult to fit exercise into your daily routine, try some short high-intensity workouts such as those on my YouTube channel. Try the dumbbell complex on page 4; you can do it in your home and all you need is a pair of dumbbells;
Find some kind of physical activity you actually enjoy, whether it be playing badminton, going for a walk or doing a Zumba class. If you enjoy doing something, you are much more likely to stick with it.
Remember, improving/maintaining health and fitness is a long-term commitment and not a quick fix that you can accomplish as a knee-jerk reaction to bingeing over Christmas or a weekend. For this reason, it is better to make small adjustments to your diet and activity levels in order to bring about long term gains: small changes really can add up to big rewards. Don’t forget this quote, from a much wiser man than me………………..
Healthy Snack Ideas: If you need to snack, it may be a sign that you’re not eating enough at mealtimes. Having said that, most of us do snack (including me). So ditch the crisps, biscuits and chocolate and try these instead:
Nuts (almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, walnuts etc.); be careful to measure portion size since nuts contain 50% fat so it is easy to over eat. 25g = a small handful.
Carrot and/or cucumber sticks with hummus.
Fruit: apples, berries (any), bananas, cherries etc. (bananas are the most calorie dense of these fruits, so eat them in moderation if you’re trying to restrict calories).
Greek yoghurt topped with fruit of your choice (you can even add a scoop of whey protein).
Try this quick, easy and delicious banana bread recipe: 3 bananas; 4 eggs;
Nutritional Value (per slice):
1 teaspoon baking powder;
141 kcal;
1-2 teaspoons nutmeg;
1g fat;
1-2 teaspoons cinnamon;
20g carbs;
120g porridge oats.
12g protein.
Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze? Which exercises cause more harm than good? Which exercises do not provide rewards that justify the injury risk that they present? You need to adopt a risk-benefit analysis approach to exercises: If it hurts, don’t do it!! If you don't like an exercise/activity, don’t do it!! If it hurts AND you don't like it, DEFINITELY DON’T DO IT!! But what about some exercises that don’t actually hurt at the time, but may be doing you more harm than good? Each month I will be looking at particular exercises that present an injury risk, explaining why they that risk is not worth taking and providing you with safer alternatives. This month: the barbell upright row (see the next page).
The Barbell Upright Row...the juice definitely ain’t worth the squeeze!! Some people will tell you that the upright row is a good way to work your deltoids…… Whilst the deltoids (shoulders) are definitely at work, there is too much stress on the shoulder whilst performing this exercise since the joint internally rotates whilst under the load of the dumbbell. If you have shoulder pain and visit a physio, they will ask you to perform the HawkinsKennedy test where you lift your forearm horizontally in front of your face. They will hold your elbow up and push your hand down at the same time. If you feel pain, this is symptomatic of an impingement when the rotator cuff tendons get pinched inside the joint. (More details here). And guess what…? This is EXACTLY the same movement that you are doing every time you do a barbell upright row except you’re doing it with a heavy load!! Ouch!! The only safe way to perform upright rows is to do a dumbbell high pull, externally rotating the shoulder as you lift the dumbbells (watch a demonstration here).
Complexes, a quick and smart way to work out….… Complexes are workouts where you perform exercises back to back without rest. They are a great way to exercise every muscle in your body in a quick workout. Performing complexes will help you to improve your body shape and lose fat and gain or maintain muscle mass. Try this dumbbell complex: (10 repetitions per exercise) 1. Push press 2. Renegade Row (10 reps. each arm) 3. Chest Press 4. Deadlift 5. Squat-Curl-Shoulder Press Don't forget to apply the principle of PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD; this will ensure that you continue to make progress and become fitter, continue to lose body fat and increase strength or endurance. Progressive overload is achieved by gradually making the exercises more difficult over a period of time. You can progressively overload in the following ways:
Increase FREQUENCY i.e. perform the complex more often e.g. twice per week instead of once per week.
Increase INTENSITY by using heavier dumbbells.
Increase TIME by performing more repetitions or by performing more complete complexes e.g. perform it 3 times instead of twice. 5
Look after your back with this one easy yoga move According to the Office for National Statistics in 2016, 30.8 million work days were lost due to musculoskeletal problems (including back pain, neck and upper limb problems). Most people have experienced back pain at some point in their life and know how debilitating and painful it is. This one move can help to improve the health of your spine and keep you free from problems. Give this yoga pose a go to keep your back in good shape!!
Are Sit Ups Good For You? For many years sit ups have been the go-to exercise for those wishing to work their abdominal muscles. However I believe that they are not the most effective exercise to use and that there are actually many dangers associated with performing them. Professor Stuart McGill is one of the foremost experts on spinal health in the USA and in this video, he debunks some common myths relating to the spine and he examines the dangers of doing crunches and sit ups and the damage they can cause to your vertebrae. The video shows you how to do the ‘McGill curl up’ which is a much safer alternative to the standard crunch or sit up. Keeping one leg straight prevents the pelvis from titling forwards so that we maintain our normal spinal curve and alignment. Placing hands under the lower back also prevents the back from flattening. You will notice that this version of the exercise only involves a few degrees of flexion by raising the head and shoulders off the ground and that this flexed position is held for up to 10 seconds. This avoids the fast, jerky momentum initiated movements which may damage the spine. He also shows you the ‘stir the pot’ and ‘bird dog’ exercises which are excellent ways to improve your core strength and to look after you spine. My yoga plank ab workout (watch the video here) is another safe, effective way to work your rectus abdominis (6 pack muscles). Since you are facing downwards when you are flexing the spine, you do not have the weight of your head and shoulders pulling downwards which could possibly cause damage to the vertebrae and intervertebral discs that Professor McGill shows in his video. 6
Do you really need to eat a lot of protein to gain muscle/lose fat? Eating an adequate amount of protein is essential to build muscle and to maintain muscle mass when trying to lose body fat. NHS guidelines tell us that the average adult man needs to eat 55g per day and that women need 45g per day. However, this is not nearly enough for most people and in any case, what is an average man or woman? So how much protein do we need? 1.5 to 2g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight is plenty. If you track what you eat, this is easy to measure; if not, a good start is to include a palm-sized portion of protein with every meal. Benefits of eating more protein include:
it helps to increase the size of muscle fibres as a response to weight training;
it helps you to maintain existing muscle;
it helps you to feel full for longer after eating.
So do you need to be chugging back protein shakes with the selfie-taking gym bros immediately after finishing your workout? Absolutely not!! Just make sure you include a protein source with every meal and include snacks that are high in protein. Whey protein shakes are a good way to increase protein intake; particularly if you are a vegetarian or if you do not like foods high in protein. The social media obsessed, squatting without shoes (I won’t get started on this….) self-proclaimed experts at your local gym will probably tell you about the ‘anabolic window’ in which you must consume vast quantities of protein (i.e. within 30 minute of exercising). The idea that your workout is ‘wasted’ and ineffectual and that your muscles enter a catabolic state (begin to breakdown) without this immediate intake of protein seems ludicrous to me. In the past I have been guilty of succumbing to this idea and have wasted hundreds of pounds on buying too much whey protein powder and consuming it like a drunk wolfing down a kebab. Simply eat a meal including good quality protein and carbohydrates within 2 hours of working out and you’ll see the results of your endeavours. If you feel hungry immediately post-workout, then eat a banana (nature’s ’power bar’) or some other fruit or if it’s convenient, a protein and carbohydrate shake e.g. whey protein, banana, oats and ice. It’s simply is not essential if you do not feel hungry straight away. In conclusion, eating more protein has many benefits but you do not need to eat vast quantities everyday in order to achieve good results from your workouts and to remain healthy. 7