Should we be using supplements when we exercise?

This is a topic that I have thought about, and explored, at length because exercise has always been such a central part of my life. Being a qualified personal trainer made me take an even closer look at supplements, and then there is the whole organic, real food vibe that I subscribe to, which kind of denotes avoiding supplements altogether.

I'm sure you've all been told, at some point, that taking a protein shake, or this fat burner or that fat burner is the way to lose weight. When you walk into a dischem you are literally bombarded with all manner of supplements, all of them promising all sorts of miracles.

A few years back, CLA was the "it" supplement. It is supposed to be a fat burner and I religiously took it for about a year. I can say honestly, that, during that year I gained about 6kgs and didn't see any new muscles growing! I will explain the "why" of it in a bit but, at the time, I didn't understand it at all.

The thing with supplements is that it's a BIG industry, kind of like over-the-counter medication. Advertisers are very sneaky. They will find a way to convince you that you simply cannot function without them. If you get a cold, you HAVE TO go out and buy Benylin for flu, throat spray and strepsils and possibly a nose spray as well. All that will set you back easily about R250 and, at the end of it all, you will probably end up feeling worse because, all that stuff does is stop your body from healing itself naturally. You'll end up spending more money on a doctor's appointment and the subsequent prescription of antiobiotics (which don't even kill the flu virus!)

Supplements are no different. You need to lose weight and you spy an advert telling you about the USN 12 week body makeover challenge. You see pictures convincing you that it works. You "suddenly" realise you will NEVER be able to do it alone. You need to spend several thousands on all the products and take the challenge. The before and after pictures say it all! It DOES work. (can anyone say sucker?)

Here's the thing with a package like that: it involves spending thousands on supplements but those supplements WILL NOT work alone. You also need to change your diet and train regularly as part of the challenge. The truth is, THAT is what will bring on the changes. Your body shape and size is ALL about diet and exercise, not the supplements you take. The challenge is no different to hiring a personal trainer, except a trainer will be cheaper and more beneficial because they don't require you to buy thousands of rands worth of supplements but they will still help you change your diet and train you correctly and regularly. There is also nothing to motivate you like a personal trainer. Do the USN challenge alone and you will eventually fail and you will have wasted thousands on supplements that will sit on your shelf gathering dust.

You will start gaining weight again when you stop the challenge and they are very clever, those advertisers. You will be convinced that it's the supplements that are necessary to maintain your body shape. Surely you don't have to continue to diet and exercise so religiously if you just buy more supplements? A few thousand later, you are out of pocket and you've gained 5% body fat... I'm not making this up. I've seen it happen to a few friends. Earlier I mentioned that I was taking CLA and I didn't understand why it made me gain weight. I can say now that I DO know why. I was relying too much on the pills and not enough on my diet and exercise. You can't take CLA and keep eating rubbish. Of course you'll get fat. Body shape is 80% diet and 20% exercise. I was exercising like a mad thing, but I was eating more than my body needed. The result? The excess calories went to my thighs and hips and no pill could change that.

You need to stop putting your faith in a supplement made in a laboratory. You know the deal. Anything that is made in a lab is NOT real food. Your body will not thank you for it. USN products contain aspartame as do a lot of supplements out there. Aspartame is poison to your body. Here's what you can expect from ingesting too much of it:

• Headaches
• Ear buzzing
• Dizziness
• Nausea
• Gastrointestinal disturbances
• Weakness
• Vertigo
• Chills
• Memory lapses
• Numbness and shooting pains in the extremities
• Behavioral disturbances
• Neuritis

Needless to say, aspartame is not just used in supplements, you'll find it in most processed "sugar-free" foods, but supplements are our focus for today. The truth about the USN challenge, and any supplements that you buy, is that NONE of them will work without the right diet and the right amount of exercise. You already know, if you read this post, that each person only needs a certain amount of protein per day. The amount depends on your weight, and the amount of exercise you do.

If you read the instructions on a whey protein container, they tell you take 2 scoops of protein shake before or after exercise. In most cases, 2 scoops of protein shakes contain at least 44grams of protein. Women who don't exercise need roughly that amount of protein THROUGHOUT AN ENTIRE DAY, not just in ONE meal. That means, if you are having your shake in the morning after exercise, technically, you shouldn't have any more protein during the day. How many of you are vegetarian? Not many, I'm sure. That means you are eating too much protein in one day. Any extra protein is going to need to be stored somewhere on your body...

It's true that protein can help your muscles recover after a workout but who decided it HAD to be protein shake? The big corporations making money off of them, that's who. Andy Murray eats raw fish straight after a big match. He makes sure there is a good quality sushi restaurant nearby to deliver his fish straight after the match. That is how he replenishes his protein resources. I couldn't think of anything better! Raw fish is full of powerful, healing enzymes AND protein. It's real food doing what a supplement promises to do only it's doing it so much better because it's the real deal and it will rebuild your cells with good quality, real nutrients instead of plastic, poisonous chemicals.

If you MUST use a protein shake, there is a right and a wrong way to do it. Try and stick to a brand that uses ingredients that won't mess with your body too much. I only recommend SOLAL's whey protein if you are going to use one. It doesn't have chemical additives and it's not heat-treated so all the nutrients stay intact and it's not carcinogenic. It's the one we use if we use one at all. Avoid any that contain aspartame and any ingredients that you can't pronounce! As with any food you buy, try and stick to the most natural, least processed foods and you more than likely won't go wrong. Always read the nutrient breakdown on the container and determine how much protein is in a scoop and only have as much as you need. As far as other training supplements go, I'd avoid them and let your real food diet do the work instead. It is entirely possible to build muscle, and lose body fat, without a single supplement. All they will do is empty your bank account, pollute your body and give you false hope.

If it was just me, I could make do without a protein shake at all.We often do. If we run out, I can go weeks without buying a new one. I find it makes my smoothies too sweet. But GLM misses the taste of it in her morning smoothie;) My compromise is that I add only one scoop between our two smoothies, just to add the flavour she enjoys and then I add all my usual breakfast smoothie goodies plus a raw egg and some raw yogurt and all my raw fruits and veggies to make up for the shake;) We don't drink protein shake after exercise at all. It only goes in our morning breakfast smoothie. I don't see the point of drinking it after exercise because a real food meal works even better. A protein shake, on it's own, will be an unbalanced meal anyway and I wouldn't recommend doing it too often. Eat a balanced meal of protein, fat and carbs, with a combination of both raw and cooked food, after a gym workout and you will see far more benefits than you would from downing a little protein shake mixed with water. Plus it's far tastier!

Nothing in excess will ever be beneficial. Life is all about balance. Find the right balance and your body will reward you:)

The key to losing body fat

I guess it's a given that, no matter how important health is for all of us, weight loss is always going to be top of the list for most people in terms of goals. If you've been reading my blog daily, you'd have noticed I focus a lot on health, because that's more important to me, but I have also said that, eating clean, organic, real foods will, by default, lead to weight loss, so it's a win-win.

If you have been changing your lifestyle, cutting out chemicals and all processed foods, eating more clean fruit and vegetables, eating only free-range meat and dairy and drinking no more sugary drinks, you will likely have seen and felt a change in your energy levels, your body will have an enhanced ability to heal, your hair will be shinier and grow faster and so will your nails and you'll have lost some weight. That weight will likely keep dropping off if you have included exercise in your daily routine, but, if you haven't, there is a chance the weight loss will plateau after a while.

There is a catch to all this healthy eating, as there is with ANY eating. Your body requires a certain amount of calories to function and anything you eat over and above that is going to go into storage. I know you didn't really want to hear that but it's true!

Whenever people prescribe fad diets, 9 times out of ten they end up working for the first few weeks. Why? Because they drastically cut calorie consumption. Think about any diet you have ever been on, or heard of. No diet allows for junk food of any kind, most, if not ALL diets prescribe LOTS of salad and vegetables and less refined foods, and all diets cut the amount of calories you are allowed daily. Anyone who cuts calories, no matter WHICH calories they are, will invariably lose weight because, after their body has used what it needs to function, there are no excess calories left over to store. Your body will start using existing fat stores for energy and, before you know it, you've lost 5kgs. Exciting stuff!

Here's the rub: very few (if any) people can maintain a diet that only allows you a yoghurt for breakfast, a tuna salad for lunch and a skinless chicken breast and veggies for dinner. For starters, it's just boring. Secondly, it's bad for your body because it's totally lacking in any fat at all and thirdly, it's going to end up making you so hormonal and grumpy that your friends and family will beg you to eat again!

When you start eating your "normal" food again, those 5kgs you lost, will come back just as quickly as you lost them. That is the danger of dieting. That is why it is so important to get the word "diet" out of your vocabulary as quick as you can and replace it with "lifestyle".

I've given you most of the tools in all my blogs, to clean up your eating habits, get healthy and lose weight, so all you need to do is keep on doing what you're doing, BUT you also need to cut down on quantity. How do you know how much you need to be eating? You can calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR).

Your BMR is how much energy your body uses when it's at rest. Why does your body use energy while it's resting? Well, you'd be amazed by how much is going on in your body while you are sitting still. Your digestive system is busily digesting the meal you ate an hour ago, sending nutrients to wherever they are needed to build new cells, you are breathing all the time and your blood is transporting oxygen to the cells in your body and carbon dioxide away from the cells in your body. If you are cold, your body is working hard to keep you warm, if you're hot, it's trying to cool you down. Your hair is growing, your nails are growing, you may have a cut on your hand that's busy healing or stiff muscles that need repairing. Your body is in a constant state of change and it needs energy to do that. Your BMR tells you how much energy is needed to run YOUR body on a daily basis.

Every BODY is different. A man who spends his life sitting in a car or on a couch, leading a sedentary life, is going to need fewer calories than a man who spends his life being active, whether its in a gym, or with sports or with a job that involves a lot of moving and carrying. A very tall man will require more calories than a very short man. A pregnant woman will require more calories than a non-pregnant woman (you get my drift!)

The active man will need more calories than the sedentary man, because his body is more active and he has more muscle. Muscle is metabolically active, whereas fat isn't at all. If the man on the couch eats the same amount of food as the active man, he will be eating more than his body requires to function and the excess calories will likely be stored as fat. He will have a lower BMR than the active man so he will need to eat according to his own BMR.  The fact that he isn't active is also going to be a factor BUT, interestingly, even the active man will gain body fat if he eats more than his body is using. That is why I say, exercise alone won't ensure that you lose weight. Diet is 80% of it. Everyone needs to eat according to their own metabolic needs and most people don't.

You only have to look around you when you're at a restaurant to know that people eat far too much. They're also eating far too much of the wrong stuff. Most people who eat out will have a starter, mains and dessert.  Mains will come with a range of starches and a huge piece of meat of some kind. Dessert will also be loaded with sugar and a gazillion calories because health isn't top of the list in most restaurants. In that ONE meal, most people have exceeded their daily calorie requirements for the entire day. It's no wonder people are getting bigger.

You don't need to starve yourself to lose weight. You just need to work out what your body needs on a daily basis, and eat a little less than that, and you WILL lose weight. How do you work it out? Here is a handy calculator, because the formula is complicated. Once you know what your BMR is, you need to also take into account how active you are. Use this formula to calculate it. I'll use myself as an example. I require 1292 calories a day BUT I gym about 4 times a week, so, according to the formula, I need to multiply 1292 by 1.55. According to those calculations, my body needs 2002 calories to function. Now, if I wanted to lose weight slowly and in a healthy manner, I'd probably cut my calories by about 100 a day, so I'd try and consume ±1902 calories a day. My body will draw on the existing fat stores to make up for the calorie deficit and I will burn fat.

One way to immediately lower your caloric intake is to work out how much protein your body needs daily and try stick to that. As with BMR, everyone is different in terms of protein requirements. Most people eat way too much protein and, contrary to popular belief, it isn't fat that makes you fat, eating excess calories makes you fat so, if you eat too much protein, your body will store it as fat. How do you work out how much protein you need? Sedentary adults need about 0.8 grams of protein per kg of body weight IF they are not active. That means, if you weigh 55kgs, you need to multiply 55kgs by 0.8 and the result is 44grams of protein.

BUT, you also need to take into account how active you are, again. Check below to work out how active you are:

1. Sedentary: 0.8
2. Recreational Exerciser: 1-1.5
3. Endurance athlete moderate: 1.2-1.6
4. Endurance athlete heavy: 2.0
5. Strength/Power athlete: 1.2-1.8
6. Adolescent athlete: 2.0

If you gym 4 times a week you'd likely fall under option 3 which means you need to multiply your weight by 1.2-1.6 instead of by 0.8. You need to gauge just how active you are at gym. I gym about 4 times a week, and I work very hard when I'm there, so I'd probably multiply my weight by about 1.4. Got it?

If my protein requirements are 77grams a day, that is NOT a lot of protein at all. One chicken thigh has roughly 28grams of protein in it. I bet when you eat a chicken curry you don't only eat ONE chicken thigh, do you? You probably have a thigh and a drumstick and maybe some white meat too. One can of tuna has 39 grams of protein. If you eat one chicken thigh and one can of tuna in a day you will have almost met your protein requirements. Protein isn't only found in meat either. Vegetables, fruits and dairy also contain protein. One glass of milk has about 7grams of protein. One egg has about 6grams of protein. Do you see where I'm going with this? Before the day is through you have eaten triple your protein requirements and that is one of the reasons why you aren't losing weight.

I'm not going to tell you to sit and count calories. All you need to do is cut them down really. If you always eat two chops, or two chicken pieces for dinner, cut it down to one. If you usually scramble three eggs for breakfast, cut it down to two, if you have bacon with that, cut it down to one egg. This is a great website if you really want to count your calories and it will give you a good idea of how much you are eating daily. You can record your daily meals and work out just how far off you are from your BMR.

Another way to make sure you don't eat more than you need, is to snack rather than eat big meals. The Japanese have really got it right. They don't sit down to huge meals like we do. Their meals are about quality rather than quantity (think sushi). They "graze" all day on small meals. It's a great way to speed up your metabolism and, eating every 3 or 4 hours means you never get to that point where you are STARVING. You always maintain your appetite and so you end up eating only what you need, when you are hungry. Both me and GLM eat this way and it works really well for both of us. She has lost weight, and I have gotten my IBS more under control. My body is so accustomed to eating small meals every 3 hours that, literally on the DOT of 3 hours, my tummy grumbles for food;) If it doesn't, I know I ate more than usual in the previous meal and I wait until the hunger hits. There is no strict rule when it comes to time. We only eat when our bodies tell us to. For me, that's usually every 3 hours though!

If all of those small meals are made up of clean, organic, real foods, you can't go wrong, really. I have to be honest, I don't count calories at all. I used to be obsessed with it but now I find, if I eat only as much protein as I need, and eat clean, organic, real food, and no processed junk, I maintain my weight quite easily.

You CAN do the same... Good luck!

Why we need to warm up, cool down and stretch when we exercise

So you have mastered a demanding, but effective, cross-training workout! Well done YOU;) But what happens if you don't warm up and cool down and stretch before and after that workout? Why is it so important to do all of those things? Well, I speak from experience when I say, skip the warm up and you'll probably be skipping gym for the next few weeks trying to recover from a strained muscle!

A few months ago we were learning some warm up drills in class. So, in case you don't know what usually happens when you put a bunch of fitness freaks, trainers and sports fanatics together in a room, I'll tell you! They all try to outdo each other;) We ended up timing each other and trying to beat each other's times which was rather silly for a bunch of professionals, given that we hadn't warmed up beforehand! By the end of the first drill I could feel that my thigh wasn't happy. But I stretched it out and carried on. By the third drill, when we had to run a race, I was stopped short, half way through, in agony. Whatever I'd started with the first drill, I'd pretty much driven home by the third drill. I'd pulled a muscle and the only thing that would heal that, was time. That put an end to any lower body workouts for at least 4 weeks, very frustrating for an exercise fanatic...

Stefan Terblanche warming up

THAT is why you need to warm up. If you go from standing still, to doing a jump squat, or even just fast walking, your muscles will get such a shock, you will likely strain something. Even the fittest of rugby players warm up before they run onto the field. No-one is exempt from the need to warm up.

Your body is highly intelligent. When you are just going about your every day life, it is determining exactly where to send blood flow, based on your needs. If you are sitting at a computer, not moving much, it won't be sending a large portion of it to your muscles, it'll be sending more to your digestive system and to your brain. When you exercise, your body sends more blood to your muscles enabling them to exert themselves, loosen up and become more flexible and capable of working effectively. Before you start to warm up, your muscles will be cold, and tight. If you make a sudden movement during that stage, your muscle won't be prepared for it, it'll have no flexibility, and it will, at best, take strain, and at worst, tear. You definitely want to avoid the pain and inconvenience of either of those options.

Another  advantage of warming up is that it improves your reflexes. Nerve impulses travel at a faster rate, at higher temperatures which means you'll be able to move faster, the warmer your muscles get. Increased blood flow also means more oxygen is available because oxygen is transported by the haemoglobin in your blood. More oxygen means more energy and less chance of muscle failure. That means you can work harder and more efficiently.

It's important to do a gradual warm up for obvious reasons. Dive head first into warming up and you will probably injure yourself before you even get to the main event. You don't want to shock your body into sending blood to flow to your muscles too rapidly, you want to slowly encourage it away from your digestive system and into your muscles. Warming up also helps to gradually increase the heart rate and ensure that the demand made on the circulatory and metabolic systems is gradual. It helps to improve neural function and co-ordination. It also signals your body to increase the supply of lubricating synovial fluid in your joints and thickens the articular cartilage which are your body's shock absorbers, something especially useful when you are running or jumping.

So you've warmed up, you've done your exercise and now you're ready to head home? Not yet I'm afraid! You haven't finished your exercise session until you've cooled down and stretched. But what exactly does a cool down mean and why is it so important?

Well, you know all that blood that you sent rushing to your muscles during your exercise? Just because you've stopped exercising doesn't mean it suddenly all resumes whatever it was doing before. It takes a bit of time for your body to realise that the situation has changed and you don't need so much blood going to your muscles anymore. Cooling down gradually awakens your body to the fact that blood is no longer needed in such great supply, in the muscles and it can send it back to the heart to be sent to other places that need it. If you don't cool down, the excess blood is going to just pool in your muscles and you increase your risk of feeling light headed and fainting because of decreased blood flow to the brain. Also, you don't want blood pooling in your legs too often. It can cause damage to the small veins eventually and varicose veins aren't pretty.

Your cool down should be low intensity and gradual as well. If you have been running at a fast pace, you need to gradually bring it down to a nice slow pace over the course of about 5-10 minutes. Keep an eye on your heart rate and your breathing intensity. Once you are breathing normally, and your heart rate is down to about 80-90 beats per minute, you are probably adequately cooled down. But it doesn't end there either. As part of your cool down, you also need to stretch.

There are varying opinions out there about the importance of stretching. In my experience, and according to the study of exercise science, stretching IS of great benefit and necessary to your workout because it reduces the risk of injuries to your muscles in the longterm. Stretching should be done AFTER your workout and not before, unless you are ONLY doing stretching on that day, obviously. Contrary to popular belief, stretching before a workout doesn't add benefit to your workout UNLESS you have an existing injury. In that case, it's a good idea to gently stretch a previously injured muscle if you know it causes problems for you when you exercise. But, the two main reasons you wouldn't stretch all your muscles before a workout is; firstly, because stretching a cold muscle increases the risk of injuring it and secondly, because it slows muscle activation. That means that it will decrease muscle strength for up to an hour after you've stretched (which would basically mean you'd have decreased strength throughout the workout following that stretch). If you want to exercise to the best of your ability, stretching beforehand will hamper your workout by making you weaker.

When you exercise, your muscles contract and shorten. That's why, when you do a bicep curl, you see the raised bump of the muscle during the concentric contraction as in the image below.

Any exercises that you do will shorten your muscles, whether you are doing jumps or bicep curls. Stretching enables you to lengthen those muscles again, after exercise. If you don't stretch, your muscles will get tighter and tighter and, the end result of that, is you lose flexibility and range of motion. The more flexible you are, the easier you will find it to exercise, the less chance there is of you injuring a muscle or joint. There is another, rather important side benefit to stretching: it can significantly reverse hardening of the arteries which decreases risk of a heart attack. Yoga is especially beneficial in this case.

The basic rules of stretching are that you never force a muscle to stretch, you do it slowly and gradually, and only as much as the muscle can handle. Over time, flexibility will improve, but it is a gradual process and shouldn't be forced. Never make any fast movements while stretching. Start it slowly, and end it slowly, easing your muscle back to its original position. I've often seen people bouncing while stretching. Don't do it. There is a good chance of hurting that muscle and you're not really stretching it properly if you bounce. Just pull your muscle gently, and hold it, then ease it back. Rule of thumb is to stretch all the muscles you have worked during a workout, and to hold each stretch for about 15-20 seconds. Stretching shouldn't be a comfortable feeling! The point of it is to stretch a muscle, which is uncomfortable! But it shouldn't be painful. You should just feel the stretch. If you can't feel much, push a little more.

Some basic stretches to get you started

All of this sounds like a mission, but, in reality, doesn't take that long if you work efficiently. Our entire workout, from warm up to stretching, takes us 45 minutes. You shouldn't need to spend hours in a gym. If you are, you're doing something wrong, especially if you aren't seeing any changes. As long as you spend 45 minutes challenging your body in ways it isn't accustomed to, it will reward you by getting fitter, slimmer, stronger and healthier. The key is to working smarter, not harder.

Here's to a fitter, slimmer, stronger, MORE flexible YOU!

Intelligent versus unintelligent exercising.

We actually love to gym on weekends or while we're on holiday! Some would say we're crazy;) But, the nice thing about gymming on a public holiday is that it's so quiet. I actually love it! That's the same reason that gymming in winter is always far easier for me than in summer. Yes, it's cold. But you warm up within about 5 minutes of getting there AND it's so quiet that you can have a proper workout without having to adjust your programme because there is a queue for every cardio machine in the gym and all the free weights are being used. But what do you do if ALL the machines are being used and you are at a loss for something to actually DO; something that will make your gym visit more worthwhile than just getting a few vitality points! (I know all about those of you who do the boomerang move. Swipe your card, go through the turnstile and then straight back out of the other turnstile! The only person you are cheating is yourself there, but you know that;) But I digress... All of your favourite machines are being used and you have NO idea what to do... what then?

To be honest, I'm not a fan of the machines in a health club. They serve their purpose for those who are inexperienced, and, in that regard, they are probably a good starting point. But if you stick with those for the rest of your gymming days, you will start to see fewer results as time goes by. As I said in my previous exercise post, if you don't challenge your body, it will become accustomed to what you are doing and it will respond by plateauing. You won't see or experience any changes in your shape or size after a few weeks. What usually happens then is that you become frustrated because you feel like you are doing all this work and getting no reward. You also get bored! So you start slacking off, finding it easier to just stay home, under a blanket on the couch and you do the boomerang move twice a month to ensure your gym contract stays active.

Of course, as you've probably read in a magazine, ANY activity is better than no activity at all. So why shouldn't you just do the usual thing every time you go to the gym? At least you don't look stupid because you KNOW what you're doing, AND it's easier than having to try and figure out a new workout. You don't really know what you would do if you changed your routine because you don't know what exercise works which muscle, so it's best to just stick with what you know. But, as I said, if you have no choice BUT to change it, because the gym is busy and everything is being used, what then? I've actually figured out some of my best exercises by being forced to try something new. I go to a gym to work out and I get really frustrated if I get there and everything I planned, has gone awry because of all the people! What that makes me do, is try harder! So I find something new, and probably even MORE challenging to do;) I'm a glutton for punishment, what can I say?

There is intelligent training, and there is unintelligent training:

Which would you say is which here? Personally, I think the body on the right looks far healthier than the body on the left. Granted, the woman on the right is big, but look how BALANCED everything is as opposed to the woman on the left who has almost NO thighs to speak of. Her shoulders are way bigger than her biceps and triceps and she just looks unhealthy to me. Some of you, I know, think that skinny is better. Firstly, I just think it's unappealing, and secondly, it's not healthy. How is a body supposed to maintain itself? She looks like a strong breeze would snap her! The woman on the right exercises intelligently. She will maintain her sporting career for a lot longer, and with less injury, than the woman on the left. But how does she do it? She cross trains, she does exercises that mimic natural movement, and she does compound exercises that work her whole body.

I'm a real fan of crossfit-training and compound exercises. What does that mean? Well, I don't believe that you should go to a gym and JUST do isolation exercises like bicep curls and leg extensions. I believe in doing exercises that work several muscles groups at the same time, in fact, in most cases, they work your WHOLE body at the same time, WHILE working you aerobically as well. Most of the machines at the gym are designed for isolation exercises. Isolation exercises are used when you focus only on biceps, or triceps, or stomach, or calves etc. Unless you are religious about your gym visits, you are going to end up missing days, and body parts, and it's really difficult to get the balance right and work all your muscles equally. How many times have you seen guys at the gym who have massive upper bodies, and upper legs, and TEENY TINY little calf muscles?

Erm, I don't even know WHAT to say...

This is the problem with working your muscles separately. This is not intelligent exercising! A lot of people get a bit obsessed with working certain muscles. I love to work biceps and triceps.  When I first started doing weights, that's all I did, really, because I didn't know what else to do and because it made me feel good and I thought it would give my arms a nice shape. The downside is that the rest of my body was neglected. Biceps and triceps won't look like anything special unless your shoulders are ALSO developed but I didn't know that at the time. Granted, I was never going to get huge biceps and triceps doing things the way I was doing! But what's the point of exercising only 2 muscle groups?! Don't tell me you don't do the same thing... I know some of you are guilty;)

Another point is that exercise should mimic natural movement. How natural are some of the movements you make when you're working the machines at gym? I'd say little to none of them! They aren't making your body strong, really. They might give it a bit of shape, but you'll only be stronger with THAT particular movement. If you had to defend yourself, those bicep curls you do daily, won't get you very far. You know those big, beefy guys you see at the gym? They look strong, don't they? Well, I'd love to see one of them take on a karate champ with a black belt. Have you seen the body of an elite athlete with a black belt in karate? It's pretty much perfectly formed. Every muscle is defined and everything is in perfect proportion. They may be smaller than the big guys you see at gym, but I guarantee they will be stronger, and faster. They do exercises that work their WHOLE body, they use their own body weight, and they do movements that you would make naturally, if, for example, you needed to defend yourself. Their exercising incorporates movement that takes power and power is FAR more useful in life, combined with strength, than just having strength on its own. Most of you watched Karate Kid;)

Who is going to get there faster? No question really.

So, if you go to gym and it's packed, and you need to make a plan to do a workout, what are your options? Well, there are several actually. If you have some knowledge of a few cross training exercise options, you can have a comprehensive and effective workout. We pretty much do this kind of workout every day, no matter what machines are available, simply because it's better to exercise smart, and get more bang for our buck! GLM often says, "Are we ever going to do a normal gym session again?" and my answer is, this IS a normal gym session. What we were doing before was based on my limited knowledge of exercise. Now that I've studied exercise and anatomy, I am better equipped to design effective exercise programmes and I have a better idea of what we should be doing and I don't see the point in working on certain muscles exclusively, when you can work your entire body at the same time and get better results. Crossfit is the new buzzword in the training industry but, honestly, people have been doing it in different forms for years. It just didn't have a copyrighted name to label it with;)

With the following workout, the most important thing is getting your form right. It's pointless doing an exercise if you are going to do it wrong. For one thing, it won't do what it's meant to do, for another, you will likely end up hurting yourself or pulling a muscle.

In the bicep curl above on the left, she is doing it right. She is only using her biceps to pull the weight up. On the right, she is basically using her back to pull the weight up so she is exercising the wrong muscle and could potentially hurt her back. It would be better to not do the exercise at all then to do it the way she is doing it. Spend some time watching the videos below BEFORE you try this workout. Do the moves in the privacy of your home a few times to get some confidence. Once you are ready, start with VERY light weights until you feel confident that you have got all the moves down.

All-over Cross Training Workout

(A word of advice: If you are a complete novice, I wouldn't recommend trying this just yet. You will need to start with those gym machines and build up a bit of strength and fitness first!)

You will need:

An aerobic step

A rocket bag (weight will be dependent on your abilities. Start light and work your way up as your strength increases) You can also use a barbell for this exercise.

A kettlebell (again weight will be dependent on your abilities. Start light and work your way up as your strength increases)

A heart rate monitor would be preferable but it's not essential. You need to keep track of how you are feeling though. If you are struggling, take a break. The more you do this workout, the better you will become at  it, the lower your heart rate will be.

Because you are a newbie at this workout, you will start with 6 repetitions of each exercise, all in a row. Once you've completed a round of 6 of EACH exercise, you will then do 5 of each exercise, then 4, 3, 2 and finally 1 with as little rest in between as possible.

Kettlebell swings

(This video has really loud music so turn down the volume if you are going to watch it in your office!!)

Watch the video and practice it a few times to get your form right. This exercise is FANTASTIC for an all-over body workout. You can see how it works her muscles in her arms when she removes her pullover. It works your core, it works your legs, it's overall really good for balance and stability and, provided you do it right, it will strengthen your back and probably get rid of any backache you may be experiencing when you run. (It fixed mine up!)

Once you've done 6 of those in a row, immediately go into the next exercise.

Plyometric Jumps

These you'll start with a normal height aerobic step but, over time, you will need to make them higher to keep challenging yourself. 

Once you've done 6 of those in a row, immediately go into the next exercise.

Jump Squats

These you will eventually do with the rocket bag on your shoulders, but for starters, do them without any extra weight added. Be sure to get your form right. When you squat, always focus on keeping your weight on your heels, your butt out, your chest out and your head upright and facing forward. Watch the video carefully to see the proper form for a squat.

If you watch to the end of this video you will see how his form changes as the exercise gets harder to do. At that point he could do himself some damage and that's why form is so important. It's better to use a lighter weight, or stop, if you find yourself not managing to do it right.

Once you have completed all of these exercises, go back and do 5 of each of them, then 4, then 3, all the way down to 1. The whole workout shouldn't take you longer than 20 minutes. If it is, you are resting too long. Allow yourself no more than 30 seconds rest after you complete a round of all the 3 different exercises.

All of these exercises are compound exercises. You are working several muscles at once, even though it seems like it's mostly your legs! Your legs WILL feel wobbly after this;) But you are also working pretty much every muscle in your body AND you are getting a cardio workout at the same time. They are all GREAT for your core. You will achieve a six pack far quicker with a workout like this than you will doing endless stomach crunches! The key to ALL of these exercises is to keep your stomach muscles nice and tight. No wobbling around while doing everything. Focus on keeping your body centred and balanced to make your workout more effective and to prevent injury. As you get better at this workout, increase the amount of repetitions until you can do 10 repetitions all the way down to 1, with very little rest. You must also increase the height of your aerobic step as you get better at it, and increase the kettle bell and rocket bag weight as well.

Always start any workout with a warm up. For this workout I recommend getting on a treadmill and walking at an easy pace for about 2 minutes, then up your incline to about 6 and walk at the same pace for another 2 minutes, then up your incline one more time to about 8 and do another 2 minutes. Go immediately into your workout while your heart rate is still up so you don't rest too long. It's also really important to cool down afterwards as well. I'll go a bit more into why tomorrow! A gentle 10 minute walk on the treadmill, or a cycle, or on the cross trainer will be good for that. Finally, remember to stretch. I will go into more detail tomorrow about why this is all so important.

Good luck and I'd love to hear any feedback about how things went!

Wait... weights? Really?!

Have you ever taken note of how many females there are in the cardio section of a gym, compared to the males, and, transversely, the amount of males in the free weights section of a gym compared to the females? It's like there is some unspoken rule that says women should rather use the cardio machines, but the men should rather use the weights, with very few exceptions. When I was a newbie gymmer, I used to be terrified of crossing the border into the male-dominated area that was the free weights section, even though I was itching to. When I finally did, I got more than a few sneers, and condescending offers of assistance and "friendly" warnings not to drop a weight on their heads! It's no wonder women keep their distance!

I made a decision to never take any offered help and to prove them all wrong by being able to lift heavy weights right alongside the best of them. Ok, so I was never going to bench press 120kgs! But I did eventually manage to leg press 160kgs and that shut a lot of the naysayers up;)

Hehe...

That's just me! I get rather annoyed with chauvinism and I find it hard to just ignore it. Besides which, if you tell me "I can't" then I WILL, just to prove you wrong. I'm stubborn like that;)

But seriously, I think there are three main reasons why women stick with cardio machines and avoid weights. One: It is a bit intimidating to walk into the weights section when you are not sure what you are supposed to be doing and you don't want people to realise you're actually clueless. It's safer to just stick with what you know. Two: You have been told, and you've read in many magazines, that LOTS of cardio is the best way to burn fat and so you prefer to do what "works". So your gym session consists of 20 minutes on the treadmill, 20 minutes on the stair climber and 20 minutes on the bike, ie. lots and lots of cardio. Three: You are a woman and you prefer to look like one. You don't want to turn big and muscular like a man.

There you have it folks!

I can relate to, and acknowledge the first reason, but two and three are complete fallacies and I'll tell you why.

As far as the second reason goes, if you do all of those cardio machines, for an hour, every day of the week, you will burn some fat, there's no question. But if you keep doing the same thing day in and day out, your body is going to get rather accustomed to that kind of movement and you will eventually hit a wall. After that, you can carry on running until the free-range cows come home, but not much is going to change except that, eventually, your joints are going to complain bitterly from all the pounding away on that treadmill. So, if you have been doing the same thing at the gym for a year, and wondered why you still look the same, that's why!

As far as the third reason goes, honey, if body builders could build muscle as easily as YOU think you can, they'd just do what you do and forget about the hectic diets, and the supplements, and the hours, upon days, upon weeks, upon months, upon years that they spend in a gym to get the bodies that they have! It's not going to happen to you, I promise. Women aren't predisposed to building loads of muscle. Believe me, I tried! I was pushing some seriously heavy weights and I still have little peas for biceps;) Unless you are an elite athlete, you can cast that worry aside right now.

Now, as far as the first reason goes, the one that I can relate to, I get it! I do. But, at some point you are going to have to bite the bullet and give it a shot. Get yourself a gym partner who has at least SOME idea of weights so you don't have to go it alone. If necessary, sign up with a personal trainer for a month just to show you the ropes and make you feel like you can survive the free weights jungle alone.

Some of you are saying, "Why should I bother? The experts say the main thing is to keep moving and I'm moving on a treadmill!" True. You are. But exercise is not about focusing on ONE component. You don't only run or walk in life, do you? Think about natural movement.  It involves carrying stuff and picking up things and sometimes there's jumping and dancing and bending over and twisting to the side while picking up stuff. It all depends on what you are doing but I bet you do most of those movements in an average week? I believe that exercise should mimic (as close as possible) the movements we make often in our daily lives and that will make us better equipped to handle things in our daily lives, for a lot longer than it would if all we did was run.

For example, a pregnant woman towards the middle and end of her pregnancy, is going to be carrying a heavy weight in front of her for several months. She should be focusing on strengthening her back, to avoid backache and strengthening her leg muscles to allow for the extra weight they will be carrying as well. And once she has had that child, pretty much the rest of her days will be spent doing everything with one hand while she holds a child in the other. That means strengthening her arms to equip her for that as well. Carrying a baby chair, with a baby in it, and trying to hold your older child's hand while you try to get somewhere, is NOT easy. Most women I know are going to be, or are already, moms. Wouldn't it be good to actually be able to carry all that stuff from the get-go, without feeling like you are going to die of exhaustion? Also, if your job involves you travelling a lot, and carrying heavy luggage, shouldn't you be working on your arm strength? Lifting that bag into the overhead compartment isn't easy and there isn't always a strong man around to help! One of my main motivations for getting stronger was that I had heavy music equipment to lug around and I point blank refused to wait for a strong man to come along and help! Those speakers way a TON. SO That is just a couple of examples, but hopefully you get where I am going with this?

There is another, very important reason, to start doing some weight-bearing exercises. One word: Osteoporosis. There is no GOOD reason why so many women should be getting osteoporosis, except that they don't do weights. Doctors will tell you to take calcium supplements. I personally believe that you should be eating a diet that gives you enough calcium through nutrient-dense food. It IS possible to do. BUT, what doctors should also be telling you is that, if you don't challenge your muscles, and your bones, by making them work hard, and often, your bones will eventually start being reabsorbed by your body until you are pretty much left with shells and that is when they become brittle and break easily. At best, you will have a terribly rounded back, at worst, a broken hip.

It's a well known fact that women suffer from osteoporosis more than men. We have our hormones to thank for that. But I believe a large part of the reason is also that women never do weight bearing exercises. In the past, they had a big strong man to carry and lift and they never had to lift a finger. Muscle, on a woman, wasn't attractive. These days women are more independent, but they are still not doing any carrying and lifting because they believe they don't need muscles, they just need to do cardio because now it's all about being skinny.

Let me explain what happens when you do weights in an easy nutshell. If you challenge your muscles by lifting weights, you actually cause microscopic tears to happen in your muscle. It sounds awful, I know. But by damaging them, you challenge them to, not only repair themselves, but to grow bigger and stronger. The same applies to your bones, because muscles are attached to bones and bones would not be able to move if it wasn't for muscles. When you lift a weight, the bone attached to your muscle, also takes strain. Your body is very intelligent. It acknowledges that more strength is going to be needed in the future to be able to do that again and handle it better. So your bones make themselves stronger to compensate. If your bones are constantly being challenged, they will keep growing strong and you will, more than likely, not end up with osteoporosis.

Here's another good reason to do weights: Have you ever noticed how men just have less body fat than women? That's largely because they have more muscle than women. Muscle is metabolic, fat isn't. If you have more muscle than fat, on your body, your body will literally burn fat while you are sitting down. So men can eat what they want, and look the same, for many years, until the beers start to catch up and the muscle starts to disappear. It doesn't stay forever if you don't maintain it. That's why men will, eventually, start to gain weight no matter how thin they were when they were younger. It just starts a bit later in life for them. For women, it starts in their 20s because, let's face it, they had almost NO muscle to start with. So they will start gaining fat as soon as their metabolism starts to slow down, which usually starts in their late 20s. You need to keep that metabolism burning by building some muscle!

When I say you need to do weights, I don't mean just do a few butt crunches and stomach crunches, also favourites of women! Doing stomach crunches won't give you a flat stomach I promise! You need to do exercises that are going to hurt a bit. Have you ever done walking lunges and then tried to walk normally the next day? Can anyone say John Wayne;) You are going to have to strain yourself a bit to feel the benefits. If you don't challenge your muscles, there isn't much point. Your body will not feel the need to improve itself in any way and will stay the same.

It all sounds complicated but it's not really that complicated. I will spend the next few days giving you some pointers. If you are stuck, you are more than welcome to come to me for some personal training and I will get you started;)

Humans beings were born to move. We weren't meant to be sedentary, and yet, so many of us are. It's all very well to say that you don't like exercise, but really, you don't have too much of a choice if you want to live a long, healthy life.

Need I say more?

I like to move it, move it!

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love to exercise. Ironically, I've never been the sporty type. I was terrible at ALL sports at school. I'm not a team player, I can't run fast, I can't catch a ball and I had have very thin, weak wrists. That pretty much meant my only extracurricular choices were the choir and guitar lessons. (time well spent I think!) But can anyone say, "Nerd?!" Needless to say, I didn't move around much, aside from walking to and from school. I was fortunate enough to be blessed with my father's fast metabolism and so, despite being mostly sedentary, and having a voracious appetite, I never really gained weight.

Can anyone say, "Skinny?!"

That all changed when I hit my late 20s! All of a sudden it was like I couldn't even LOOK at food without it finding its way to my hips. (Read yesterday's post to get a better understanding of what most people incorrectly call, the ageing process.) I had actually been gymming for many years by that stage. When I was about 18, my older sister persuaded my parents to take out a family contract at the new Health and Racquet gym opening in Westville (remember those?!) I wasn't much of a gym fanatic, and I had very little clue as to what I was doing, but I went fairly regularly. Still, it was only when I suddenly had a weight gain issue that I actually started paying close attention to the exercise I was doing and the fact that it WASN'T WORKING.

I signed on with a personal trainer for a couple of months and I paid attention to what he showed me. I learnt a bit, but I found he wasn't really listening to what I actually wanted and so I decided to go my own way. I became an avid reader of fitness magazines and I made friends with fitness instructors at the gym and I watched personal trainers and gradually, I started learning the right form and the best exercises to achieve certain aims.

I became obsessed, often exercising twice a day, doing an hour of cardio and then an hour of weights but STILL the extra body fat refused to disappear. I was getting stronger and stronger, focusing a lot more on weights than cardio (I get so BORED with cardio!!) By the time I shot my music videos for my second album, Unspoken Truth, people were jokingly calling me Madonna, and it wasn't due to my music success so much as it was to the biceps and triceps I was developing;)

My gym partner thought he was pretty funny taking this pic!

It was only when I made a decision, finally, to study exercise science, that things started to change. Studying coincided with our going organic and I am 100% sure that one complimented the other. After several years of exercising, the last, stubborn bits of body fat began to melt away. Hooray! Ironically, I was back down to exercising once a day, sometimes only 3 times a week.

So why, when I was exercising less, did the body fat decide to finally shift? Well, for one thing, I was finally realising the power of food over my body shape and size, and for another, I was exercising smarter, rather than harder. 

Over the years, my fascination with food has taken me down many different roads, but I never quite GOT it until I learnt the true meaning of real, organic food. I bought everything that was labelled "health food" and "low-fat" and I mistakenly thought I was doing everything right. Yet I was still feeling unhealthy (I kept getting sick) and I wasn't losing any body fat despite exercising like a demon.

Studying exercise science finally helped me to learn the proper way to exercise. I wasn't doing too badly in some areas, but in others, I was WAY off track. I found it fascinating to learn how the body actually works, from the tiniest of cells, to the blood vessels, muscles and bones. I realised that it wasn't one thing or another that was going to change my body, it was a COMBINATION of things. 

Going organic made me take an even closer look at my body and its functions and I realised that I was almost putting in TOO much effort when it should've been so simple. I didn't need to go and hunt out the "healthiest" health foods, and I didn't need to count every calorie and weigh everything, I didn't need to avoid fat, it wasn't about my blood type and it wasn't about eating strictly every 3 hours. It was simply about eating real, organic, whole foods and nothing else.

The minute I started giving my body what it needed, the exercise I was doing started paying off. The fat literally melted off and has stayed off. My exercise routine has changed as well. Now I exercise my body as a whole, rather than isolating certain muscles. It will take years of work and MANY exercises to focus on each individual muscle and, frankly, my days of spending 2 hours in a gym are over. I have a life to live! I love to gym, but I don't love it as much as I love to spend time with my GLM. We gym together, granted, but we are usually surrounded by loud, sweaty males... Need I say more?

We have talked a fair amount about food and health in the last few weeks, so, I think it's time we talk exercise! The next couple of blogs will be focused on exercise and why it is so necessary, but also, how to do it so that it doesn't take over your life, but you STILL feel the benefits of it.

Until tomorrow!