Why all ladies should weight train at least once a week
A simplified analogy and quick-blitz tutorial on how to lose body-fat
Neil at 74 years young
Hit the Weights Room Hard Ladies!
The benefits of weight or resistance training is so diverse, that if you do not incorporate this form of training into your lifestyle you are robbing your body of much needed short and long term benefits. A lot of ladies that newly join a gym or health club always say “I want to do weights but I don’t want to get big”. This is a universal misconception that needs to be eradicated.
Firstly in order for ladies to get big and bulky, it is a very difficult and adverse task. In order for ladies to increase muscle mass to the point where they look big and muscular, it takes years and years of specific eating, heavy weight training and the right genetics of ample testosterone (male hormone) production. Those pictures of ladies you flick through and see in bodybuilding magazines that look incredibly built and almost look too masculine, have been training, eating and living ultra-hard towards muscle growth for several years, and some with hormonal and synthetic supplementation.
If you have noticed that as a female, you have in the past put on abundant muscle quite easily from weight training, there is more probability that the following has happened. Women genetically have a greater ratio of body-fat to muscle (then men). Therefore you are more prone to storing much more body-fat than any other stored energy. Hence any little amount of light muscle gain that you would have acquired, forces and pushes the body-fat out further against the skin to promote an illusion of major muscle bulking. In actual fact the muscle growth may have been very minimal.
Did you know that effective weight maintenance and body-fat loss is achieved more by resistance/weight training than aerobic training?! Firstly, aerobic activity pending on what you do, i.e a one hour cardio class will only elevate your metabolic rate for the next several hours. This means that your body’s ability to metabolise calories will again slow down after this period of time. Conversely, weight training creates micro-tears in your muscles, and on some levels in your connective joint tissues which require continual calories, hormones and time to fully repair. This places more cell workload on your body during rest to rehabilitate your body to go back to normal function strength and beyond. This in turn increases your physiological integrity to adapt to the stresses you applied during training.
This means you are getting stronger, leaner, more shape, improving your bone density, increasing your metabolism and burning body-fat and calories for several days (not just hours) after your weights session!!! So if you want to burn fat fast, incorporate a healthy eating lifestyle, do your weight training, coupled with your cardio to increase your heart and lung functioning and fitness and make it fun with variety!! This will ensure you maintain more motivation, and increases your chances of sticking with your new active lifestyleJ.
Ahmad Faisal Sahim
I’m Too Old to Train
This is truly an inspirational story giving us hope and knowledge that any age is a great age to start being fit and active.
Step 1 – Get a medical clearance from your Doctor nice and quick.
Step 2 – Obtain any information of specific Do’s and Don’ts of exercise relating to you, and any pre-existing health conditions you may have.
Step 3 – Find a local club or community centre that runs programs for seniors.
Step 4 – You may also wish to get more personal 1 on 1 training. If so, find an industry qualified and experienced seniors trainer in your locality.
Step 5 – Always start and exercise slowly. Always train at a mild intensity. Have lots of fun and increase your quality and longevity of lifeJ.
Burning Fat During Sleep
And doing my research I did!! Studies performed relating to levels of sleep and body-fat loss is a little deceiving. The calories we burn during sleep is so minimal that placing any great deal of priority on these findings is a matter of choice. We burn 50 to 80 calories an hour during sleep, whereas if you go for a jog for an hour, you will burn roughly 500 to 700 calories. From these 50 to 80 calories we burn during sleep, a greater ratio of it is fat as opposed to protein and carbohydrates (ratio of fat loss depends on how fit and strong you are, genetics, stress, medication and daily lifestyle).
So to sum it up, yes you do burn a greater ratio of fat during sleep compared to protein and carbohydrates but the fat loss is so minimal that you’re better of being fit and active so you burn more calories through exercise and safe calorie restriction. Also please do not get taken in by any products or commercials that advertise greater weight loss during sleep. Because you burn so little calories during your sleep, it is irrelevant whether you burn sugar or fat.
Diabetes & Exercise
Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder where your body struggles to regulate the glucose levels in your blood. For the healthy functioning of our bodies, we need to convert our blood sugar from food into energy. Insulin is a hormone created in our pancreas which enables this conversion to happen. People who suffer from Diabetes either create too little insulin (Type 1) or too much insulin (Type 2). Both conditions in their extremes are detrimental to our health.
There are two types of Diabetes. Type 1 or Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (IDDM) is currently one of the most serious childhood diseases in Australia. Here in Australia, we have one of the highest rates of IDDM compared to most countries of the world. Type 2 Diabetes which is adult onset diabetes or non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus is the most common form of diabetes which consists of greater than 80% of all diabetic sufferers.
According to Diabetes Australia, an estimated 275 Australians develop diabetes every day. 1.7 million Australians have diabetes but that up to half of the cases of type 2 Diabetes remain undiagnosed. By 2031 it is estimated that 3.3 million Australians will have type 2 Diabetes (Vos et al., 2004).
There are many myths regarding diabetes. Some are that consuming too much sugar during pregnancy will cause diabetes in the baby, diabetes only surfaces in the elderly and sufferers should never consume sugar. These myths are a few of many that people without the complete information may make, however one other general assumption that people may make is very accurate. That is apart from medication, Diabetes can be greatly controlled through diet and exercise.
A controlled diet and exercise program assists a person with diabetes in the following ways:
- Helps in the control and regulation of your blood sugar (glucose) levels.
- Helps in the control of your blood pressure.
- Helps in the control of your blood lipid (fat energy) levels.
- Provides in the prevention of potential diabetic complications (i.e. hypo/hyperglycaemia, and effects of chronic uncontrolled blood sugar levels)
- Assists in weight control
- Reduces stress and improves your quality of life.
If you’re suffering from diabetes and would like to begin an exercise program, you should always firstly see your doctor for a full medical examination to get the green light.
It is very important to also establish with your doctor if your diabetes is poorly controlled. If your fasting blood sugar levels and urinary ketone production are too elevated, then it is for your benefit to stay away from exercise until they stabilise. Exercising under these conditions will increase their levels and production, and actually make you feel worse and be more ill.
Another reason why you must health screen yourself with your doctor before commencing exercise, is that if you have any cardiac or diabetes complications like retinopathy or nephropathy (to name a couple), your physician or an accredited exercise physiologist will inform you on the best and safest ways for you specifically to increase the intensity of your exercise.
Once you have taken the necessary precautions to eliminate potential risks with your doctor, and are ready to commence exercise, make sure to receive as much continual help as you need from a qualified health and fitness professional.
Exercise & Pregnancy
You must always consult your physician before commencing any exercise if you are pregnant. If you are given the green light to exercise, you may begin exercising at a very low intensity and low impact with limited physical stress. Everyone’s body is different and adapts to stress and trauma in its own special way. During pregnancy, the key is to always finish exercise sessions feeling like you could have done much more. Throughout pregnancy, your internal core body temperature and hydration are two of the most paramount factors towards the health of you, and your little one to be.
If you are not pregnant but plan to be in the future, now is a perfect time to start strengthening your body against the wonderful yet stressful holistic and physiological effects of pregnancy and child birth. By becoming physically stronger and fitter pre-pregnancy, you lay a solid platform of increasing your chances of a smoother pregnancy. Then when you become pregnant the strength and fitness foundations which you laid earlier will act a vessel towards a safer passage even post child-birth.
- The benefits of exercise for the preparation of pregnancy are diverse. Some are:
- Decreased threat of developing cardiovascular disease.
- Decreased threat of developing certain cancers.
- Decreased risk of acquiring type 2 and gestational diabetes.
- Reduced risk of developing osteoporosis.
- Reduced risk of obesity and unhealthy weight gain.
- Improved respiratory function, cardiac output.
- Elevated blood volume, strength, endurance and better general health.
- Improved self-esteem and a greater sense of wellbeing and quality of life.
There are many physiological changes and adaptations that happen during this wonderful phase of your expecting body. Pregnancy and exercise combined, stimulates changes in the functioning of a woman’s heart and circulation at many levels in many ways. These changes are due the combination of hormonal signals from the embryo, foetus and placenta, along with the stresses applied from diverse exercise and movement.
There are changes with your blood circulation due to the growth of the developing baby and hormonal changes and shifts that must occur for the preparation of what is to come. It is because of this that you may acquire feelings of light-headedness, tiredness, constipation, unexplained hunger, and mood-swings.
Consistent and regular exercise increases your blood volume, heart ventricle size, the amount of blood that travels around your body per minute and growth of certain blood vessels. This in turn enables you to disperse heat by maximising sweat, therefore lowering your body temperature through an increase in skin blood flow.
Therefore, by being fit and strong, you are stimulating an elevation in blood volume, which enables greater ease of much needed blood flow to the placenta during exercise and other stressful events.
The benefits are that women who maintain safe physical activity during pregnancy have more circulatory reserve, which basically means they have an increased capacity to deal with unanticipated and anticipated circulatory stress (whether it be from their exercise, occupation or general day to day).