Tag Archives: Health

Getting fit can be boring, following the same routines day in day out can make you become unmotivated. Boxing exercises can work the whole body, giving you a range of fun exercises to do to work the parts of the body you want to work on, mixing weights with cardio exercises. Learn how to get the most from your workout by making your daily routine more exciting, we will give you a step by step guide on boxing exercises which will help you burn fat, tone up and improve your overall fitness. We will give you the knowledge and understanding of how to use the equipment to get the most for your money, giving you the best chance to reach your goals.

Easy to get started

All you need is a space that is your arms width, the most fun about boxing exercises is throwing the punches. Shadow boxing is a simple exercise where you can do your own thing, throwing jab, hooks and upper cuts. If you are unsure don’t worry, here is former boxer Tony Jeffries to show you how its done. This is all about the intensity, creating your own combinations and having fun. Breaking into a sweat is easy with shadow boxing as you are always on the move, you will be able to feel the fat burning.

Add equipment, Step it up

With boxing the equipment is at the lower end of the price scale, adding simple equipment to your home workout can step you up to the next level, making your goals more achievable. We want to add resistance to the workout, pushing your body to burn fat and tone the upper body. You can use hand warps or gloves with the equipment, whatever makes you feel comfortable

The equipment

Dumbbells upto 5kg – simply hold them in your hands while you do your shadow boxing, this will make you work harder to hold your hands up when you are throw your punches
Heavy boxing bag – this will give you a target to hit and motivate you to put more power into your punches
Relax punch bag – this will get you moving and increasing your punching speed, increasing your energy out put

What you need to know

Introducing boxing into your workout is great for your overall fitness and health, it will help you tone your arms and burn fat, find out more here. Taking up boxing doesn’t just have a positive impact on your physical heath but it will have help with your mental well-being. You need to know what not to do, its important to make sure you avoid making mistakes when starting something new. Technique is key to making sure you get the most from your workout and you avoid injury, find out more here. The equipment is essential for pushing your workout to the next level, giving you the best chance at achieving the goals you have set out for yourself.

Mental Wellbeing and Motivation, Nutrition, Time Saving, Weight loss

Healthy Plate, Healthy Weight

8th March 2021 bgarmstonLeave a comment

Changing your lifestyle and workout routine is always the main focus when trying to become a healthier version of yourself. How about looking at what’s on your plate, if you want a healthy weight you need to change your plate.

When, What, Why

When to eat and Why

Timing your meals is as important as what you are eating, you need to make sure you start the day off with a healthy breakfast to get your digestive system working. This will help to speed up your metabolism, which will result in you burning your maximum amount of calories without doing exercise. Do you eat late at night? Maybe this is why you struggle to fall straight to sleep and you aren’t giving your body the time to break down the nutrients. This will mean the body doesn’t use the nutrients and end up storing them as fats, remember whatever you eat is fuel for the body and it needs to have time to use this fuel or store in correctly.

Timing your meal around a busy life can be hard but you need to make sure you do this, your body can’t run on nothing and you need to make sure you give your body what it needs to function as normal, this is not just food but water as well. If you simply don’t have time to make a healthy meal then snacks can be used keep the body functioning, keep your strong with some great ideas here or for some healthy snacks take a look at this and make these in 5 minutes.

What to eat and Why

Start the day off with a colourful plate, or even maybe a smoothie. This is all about giving your body vitamins it needs to allow your brain to function at its highest level, this will make you feel energised and refreshed. For some breakfast ideas following the link here.

12pm hits you need to top up your fuel supply, it is a good idea to continue with the light meal theme as this will ensure that you don’t feel like you have over eaten and resulting in you feeling unmotivated for the rest of the working day. Look here for foods that you can use to keep you energised for the hard afternoon ahead.

its the end of the working day you have been working hard all day and enjoying some light healthy food to get you through the day, now its time to reward yourself with one of your favourite meals. This meal should be a nice balanced out plate, you want to use all the nutritional groups. find out more about how to balance out your diet with the NHS Eat Well guide.

What’s the Difference

It is easy to eat foods that you might think are healthy for you without knowing what you are putting into your body, follow these links to understand how you can effect you diet, understand carbohydrates, understand fats and understand nutrients.

Equipment Guides, Exercises, Fitness, Weight Training, Workouts

Invest in Yourself: The Multi Gym VS The Gym

7th March 2021 cproudloveLeave a comment

Have you ever wondered about building your own home gym? Imagine how convenient, time efficient and accessible a workout place in the home would be. If you’re keen to get fit, build muscle and exercise but worried about the ongoing, monthly cost of a gym membership, have a shortage of time or feel self conscious stepping into the gym, then allow us to introduce to you to the multi gym.

At excercise.co.uk, we understand the ever growing demand for fitness equipment in the home, subsequently, basic equipment like dumbbells are frequently sold out. That’s why, we believe the multi gym is a staple piece of equipment and is truly worthy of investment. Why, you might ask? Take a look at our information below.

The cost factor: multi gym price vs a gym membership

We have a multi gym to suit most budgets, with prices starting from £349 and ranging up to £2,199. We also offer 0% finance payment plans across all of our products over £399, so you could secure your multi gym with as little as a 10% deposit and spread the cost over 12 months!

To put it into perspective, the average gym membership is £40 per month making the average year long membership £480, more expensive than our starting range of multi gyms! Why not invest into a lifelong machine, for less? Ultimately, the multi gym is a financial investment and a money saving machine.

With one machine, workout the full body!

The multi gym can work out every muscle you target in the gym, whether you’re looking to build strength, muscle or tone up – the multi gym can do it. Check out our blog on the 10 best multi gym exercises to achieve your fitness goals.

From beginner to professional

Did you know a third of under 35’s are too self conscious to join a gym? The multi gym is the perfect way to battle these feelings. With the multi gym, you can work out in the comfort of your own home, try new exercises and discover a passion for fitness without the pressure or anxiety of a busy gym.

Also fitting for professional, or long-time gym goers, our multi gym selection ranges from 45 kg weight load, up to a 170 kg weight load, considered the next evolution level of strength training! Check the range of multi gyms available online now.

To suit your schedule

Social Media consultant, Lisa Williams, recently told the BBC she will not be returning to the gym after the pandemic, because home workouts fit perfectly around her family and work commitments. The multi gym is the ideal way to upgrade your home gym so you can workout anytime without sacrificing the gym-style, professional equipment.

If you’re ready to invest into yourself by purchasing a multi gym but you’re not sure which model is for you, then read our ‘Multi Gym Buying Guide.’ Otherwise, visit our website and purchase your multi gym today with complimentary delivery available!

Fitness, Mental Wellbeing and Motivation, Workouts

Workout together, when we can only be apart

7th March 2021 cproudloveLeave a comment

Are you missing your workout friends and personal trainers? Working out with friends is fundamental for our exercise motivation, mental wellbeing and physical progress. With the current lockdowns, we understand that keeping motivated for exercise is hard. I mean, how many times can we run the same route or watch P.E with Joe Wicks?

Studies, such as this article by Adidas, find that working out with friends is beneficial for your physical and mental health. It is proven to reduce anxiety, increase motivation and boost your mood, that’s why, at exercise.co.uk we believe that when the world stops, that doesn’t mean you have to.

We have collated some of our favourite ways to work out together, when all we can be is apart, to help you find the motivation to workout, keep connected with your friends and improve your mental and physical wellbeing.

Compete!

Wearable technology, like the Apple Watch or Fitbit, allows you to compete with your friends through weekly competitions. These functions were created to motivate you to hit goals, whether that’s a calories burnt, standing goals or amount of steps each day. You can track your own progress and peek at your friends progress too.

Free fitness applications, such as Strava, are also great for workout motivation. Set up missions with your friends, such as to work together to complete a 20 km distance in the week, or perhaps you want to see who can run the fastest 5k? Set yourselves the competition, and go!

Keep connected

Zoom has been one of the biggest buzzwords of the year, with zoom quizzes, zoom conferences and zoom parties, why not have zoom workouts? Connect with your personal trainer or coach your friends into being the most proactive you there is… from the comfort of your living room.

Mentalhealth.org recommends many different ways to remain in contact with your friends and family throughout the lockdown period and exercise.co.uk have some great articles to help you feel motivated and find ways to ease stress and anxiety through exercise. Check out our blogs on physical & mental wellbeing during lockdown and the benefits of exercise for mental health.

Online classes

With the world quite literally at our fingertips these days, there are a breadth of online exercise classes that you can tune into. The NHS have published online workouts, YouTube hosts a whole selection of online classes whether you’re looking for yoga or want to try out a new Zumba class, these are all accessible online for free!

Our experts have written articles showing the top tips for working out at home, why not try these out with your friends and encourage each other to push harder to achieve your goals!

“Tuning in to an online workout with my friends in the morning helps me feel more productive, motivated, and reduces the anxiety I felt during the lockdown periods,” says our writer.

Do you have any ways that help you cope with stress, anxiety, and methods to make you feel motivated to work out and keep connected with your friends? Let us know in the comments section and you could help someone else combat these feelings too.

Fitness, Workouts

Can I effectively work out at home?

7th March 2021 ofolorunsoLeave a comment

I never really fancy exercising at home because I believe the body is an art and to create the perfect art you need to make the sacrifice to commute to a professional art studio, an environment created to enhance creativity, that forces you to be focused and mentally ready, a quiet and peaceful place with abundant tools and materials needed to create the perfect art.

For the body the professional art studio is the gym, the energy-filled environment motivates you, the sight of other gym members encourages you and reminds you why you decided to be fit in the first place and you also get to interact with them making you less likely to get bored compared to working out at home and the vast and large range of equipment available to you just screams perfection.

Oh, I miss the gym I cannot wait for everything to be back to normal and the pandemic is finally gone so I can go to the gym with zero fears or worries and get to sweat, get dirty, get my heart rate up, and most importantly for me design my body to look like the perfect art ready for summer so I look and feel good and also for the show-off.

“I don’t sweat, I sparkle!”

Fall of the fitness industry

The fitness industry was highly affected by the pandemic because of their sudden closure in most countries, the 2020 IHRSA report estimated that US gyms lost $13.9 billion between March and August 2020 as gym membership continuously declined.

Statistics like this make it feel like the home gym is here to stay as several people are now working out from home using fitness applications but against all odds, I personally have a huge feeling that when the pandemic is over gym membership will skyrocket.

Unlike the home gym, there are days when I feel tired, ready to go home not reaching my fitness goal for the day and then I look behind me to see my mate out there hitting a milestone, going hard it inspires me to take a deep breath and dive back into it. You can never get this feeling when working out at home.

“I’m not stopping until I’m proud of myself”

Realisation

I must confess it’s not always like that you know, I remember one time I saw a lad go four hours cycling, I was amazed but most importantly inspired. I really love cycling and on some days when the weather is perfect, with light winds and clear skies I cycle to work and I enjoy the commute so I believed I could also do it, I took up the challenge. The next day with just 150 pounds I bought an indoor cycle bike and started practising, it took me a while but this indoor practice made me really good at cycling as I could get on my ride at any time and most importantly scream my lungs out at home but I act really shy in the gym around people. The next time I went to the gym after several practices at home I came in and beat his record.

“You don’t always get what you wish for, but you always get what you work for”

My indoor gym

It was not all so easy you know, just like I said before I take the environment where I gym very personal but because I wanted to achieve my goal I was self-inspired and determined to make sure the next time I hit the gym I was going to break his record so started my small home gym.

We have a large room in the basement no one uses so I used it for my set up. Just somewhere quiet and comfortable for me to workout.

But as time passed by, I started to buy other gym equipment like my dumbbell, abdominal slant bench, starter weight bench and others all from the website I posted below, it was all spaced across the room because I love my space but if you do not have a large space to set up your indoor gym like me, you can read about Setting Up a Home Gym When You Have No Space here.

“Find your feel good”

Can I work out effectively at home?

After my experience, my perspective towards home gym changed I realised I could achieve my gym goals without leaving my house if I am determined and ready. Doing this without having to care about how I look when working out, I can make my loud noises, get wild and express myself anyway I can without feeling shy was exciting, I started enjoying working out at home.

“It’s easier to wake up early and work out than it is to look in the mirror each day and not like what you see”

Are you ready?

Here are the ways to gym from home effectively :

Try to make it fun – Getting fit from home could get really boring, but there are certain things you could to do add flavour to the process by playing music and having a playlist of your favourite songs to work out to, you can also get yourself a gym buddy.

Motivate yourself – It could get hard to motivate yourself when at home, so you need to make conscious efforts to stay motivated, by setting goals and ensuring you reach them.

Fitness applications – This is also really effective as serves as using these applications serves guidance and also motivates you during your workout sessions. You can also read more on fitness applications that can make exercising from home easier to determine the most suitable application for you.

Use a routine – Having a workout routine is also effective as this gives you a sense of seriousness and forces you to work out in a more organised manner.

Don’t restrict to a particular area – When working out from home, you do not have to restrict yourself to a particular room, you can leave your indoor treadmill and go outside for a jog or ditch your slant bench and do you sit up outside or the sitting room. Just try to move around and have fun while getting fit.

“Home sweat home”

Exercises, Exercising with chronic conditions

Don’t let diabetes hold you back! Exercise your way to a better future.

7th March 2021 bborehamLeave a comment

Being physically active is beneficial for everyone, it helps to control weight, lower blood pressure, and helps to strengthen muscles.

For people living with diabetes, there are added benefits to being physically active, whether you’re able to go for a walk, run or swim.

“Exercise lowers blood glucose levels and boosts your body’s sensitivity to insulin, countering insulin resistance.”
Harvard Health Publishing

*Taking up a hobby like photography can help motivate you to get outside*.

NHS England recommend that adults should

aim to be physically active every day. Any activity is better than none, and more is better still.
do strengthening activities that work all the major muscles (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms) on at least 2 days a week.
do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity a week.

Getting Started

Before getting started, there may be a few things to think about

What time do you have available each day for physical activity?
What activity or activities do you enjoy? Picking something you enjoy can help ensure you stick with it.

Things to remember

Don’t push yourself too hard, too fast. It’s no good running 5 miles the first day but then aching too much to exercise the rest of the week, you would be better going for a 10-minute run or walk each day.
Start as you mean to go on and remember to take rest days.

Activity Suggestions

Top 3 Exercises

Walking is the easiest exercise anyone can do. Walking can be done almost anywhere and you can walk on your own, with friends or with pets.

“Spending 30 minutes of brisk walking, five times each week is a great way to increase your physical activity. You can even break this 30 minutes down into 10-minute sessions three times a day.”
Cleveland Clinic

Swimming helps takes the pressure off your joints while stretching and relaxing your muscles.

“To get the most benefit from swimming, we recommend that you swim at least three times a week for at least ten minutes and gradually increase the length of the workout.”
Cleveland Clinic

Yoga helps to reduce stress levels while building strength and improving your balance and flexibility.

“Yoga is also effective to improve blood glucose levels due to the improved muscle mass that comes with consistent Yoga practice. That’s not all; apparently, Yoga helps to lower body fat and fight insulin resistance too.”
Health and Body Tips

Listening to music can help keep you motivated, here’s a yoga playlist to get you started.

Other activity ideas

Jogging – then build up to running
Bike rides outdoors or indoor stationary bike
Join a fitness or dance class at your local gym
Resistance training with resistance bands or light weights

If you are not ready or are unable to do any of the above at first, then activities such as housework and gardening can also be a good workout. Any exercise is better than none and once you have built up strength, you can try new exercises.

*Gardening is a great form of exercise and it can be a solitary activity or one the grandchildren can get involved in!*

Information on glucose levels and weight management can be found here.

Fitness, Weight loss, Yoga and Stretching

Yoga and Meditation

Aside7th March 2021 swangLeave a comment

As people pay more and more attention to their health, yoga movement began to appear on our side, yoga with its movement soothing, remarkable effect by people’s welcome. So what are the benefits of long-term yoga practice?

DO YOU REALLY NEED A YOGA MAT?

Photo by Kari Shea on Unsplash

When the weather turns cool our appetite is big, inadvertently will consume large amounts of fat, in fact, in the winter the energy needed to power a body and summer is not much different, but the weather’s cool movement is relatively small, yoga through the various curved back, turn around before extrusion, stimulate our glands, adjusting endocrine, make the person produces heat capacity increased, to help us better control appetite, prevent the body fat. During the practice of yoga, people often sweat, and at this time the sweat will expel toxins from the body. Also can through the body twisting pull god, massage and other methods to stimulate the body has the effect of detoxification organs, so regular practice yoga, help to discharge toxins in the body. The quality of our breath often directly affects our mind and body. When we learn how to control and moderate our breath, we can find that we can control our body and mind more effectively. Yoga can help us learn to master our states of mind and eliminate the stresses that we face in our daily lives.

Can yoga help you lose weight?

Some people can have such perplexity, be oneself after practicing yoga, feel oneself slim many, but seem weight did not go down, however, is this why? In fact, speaking of weight loss, mainly to consume calories, and want to consume calories, mainly by reasonable exercise and reasonable diet, but yoga is just a kind of exercise muscle, so it is not so much to achieve the purpose of weight loss, accurate speaking, should be thin.
Another kind of circumstance, is when people in a state such as state of mind is not very good, she’ll want to find a vent, want to go to eat to solve, but if this time to practice yoga, you can transform the outlet, so as to change your state, let you get a better state of mind.
Is yoga have more feelings than any other sport, is running or fitness Kubla khah dripping wet, yoga is one of the most natural fitness ways, through yoga training system can not only change the human body, still can massage visceral organs, improve a person’s status, and so on, the whole people will look brand-new, insist on yoga after a period of time, the figure will be more beautiful, size is also beautiful. So yoga is through which several aspects to change a person, shape your beautiful figure?
1. Burn calories
In doing yoga, although do not need strenuous exercise, but each time the consumption is very big, if a week to adhere to 2-3 times of yoga training, each time in more than 40 minutes, so the effect of weight loss and weight loss is very obvious, calories are consumed, so the fat can not accumulate naturally.

2. Eat a balanced diet

After practicing yoga, yoga can also lead people to the dietary balance, in after a period of time, you will find that the diet habit can be, you will no longer like high-fat high-calorie foods, thus to fruits and vegetables and protein, so your intake of rich nutrition, weight loss is also more obvious, and most importantly, don’t worry about to rebound.

Yoga meditation methods

Learning yoga, from the pranayama of the body to the cleansing of the mind, is a chain reaction. Your thoughts and emotions exist in your body. By exercising and relaxing your body, your body continues to practice yoga, focusing your mind on stretching and strengthening parts. When you relax and focus on stretching, your body produces a feel-good “endorphin” that stabilizes your mood. This releases negative emotions and leads to positive thoughts, leading to a state of “peace of mind” and “unity of body and mind”. Through yoga meditation can also eliminate our eye fatigue, and can promote the blood circulation of the eye, because yoga meditation, often need to close your eyes for a long time, can let our eyes get rest for a long period of time, which makes power be enhanced, and it also can improve our ability to focus of the eyes, at the same time can eliminate we fear in the heart of the world. It is also possible to enter visualization at home at any time. Just find a visual object, such as a crystal, a fishbowl, a potted plant, a picture, etc. These objects help us to focus our attention, gradually eliminate external distractions, and slowly turn inward to experience peace and serenity! Imagine yourself lying on a piece of green grass, soft, continuous, bursts of fragrance blowing. There is not a cloud in the blue sky. The babbling brook, flowing slowly from the side, called not famous wildflowers, competing to open. In the distance, a cow was walking with her calf, and children were frolicking beside her. A cricket was bouncing around in the ground, and the birds in the tree were singing.
Things to note before yoga meditation:
1. Choose a place where you feel like you can get your mind off the fray, which will help you get into a meditative state.
2. Choose a regular time of day — early morning and late afternoon are ideal.
3. Use the same time and place to relax and calm your mind more quickly.
4. Sit with your back, neck and head on the same level, facing east or north.
5. During meditation, keep your body warm (wrap a blanket around your body when it’s cool) and guide your mind to remain calm.
6. Get your breathing on a regular basis — breathe deeply for five minutes, then calm down.
7. Create a rhythmic breathing pattern — inhale for three seconds, then exhale for three seconds.
8.When you haven’t completely calmed down, don’t force yourself too much. It doesn’t matter.
9.After quiet down, let the consciousness stay on a fixed target, which can be in the middle of the brow or heart position.
10. Get into a meditative state with your chosen meditation technique.
11.Before the arrival of a very pure state of meditation, don’t force, let the free state continue to exist naturally.
12.After a period of practice, the free state of mind will slowly disappear and eventually, enter the pure.

Fitness, Mental Wellbeing and Motivation, Uncategorized

There are thousands of reasons for gaining weight, but this one is really unexpected!

7th March 2021 zweiLeave a comment

Not getting enough sleep can lead to gaining weight!

Extensive research shows:

People who sleep 6 hours a day gain more weight than those who sleep 7 hours a day, and those who sleep only 5 hours a day gain more weight than those who sleep 6 hours a day.
As long as the lack of sleep for 2 consecutive days, and the sleep time is less than two hours than usual, it can affect the weight.

You might say that after someone stays up all night in a row, they look haggard and disheveled. How can you explain this?

Not getting enough sleep will make you lose muscle

In fact, the weight lost by staying up all night is actually the precious muscles of the body, and it has not lost fat, and it will make it harder to lose weight in the future. If you want to gain more muscle, you might as well take a look here.

And after people stay up late, the secretion of appetite-related hormones will be affected, and they will become more craving high-calorie foods.

The usual saying that snooze and laziness will lead to weight gain means that too much sleep time takes up exercise time, and less activity will lead to weight gain.

However, if you sleep more, you can eat less, and you won’t necessarily get fat, but if you sleep less, you may overeating the next day and make you fat!

More unfortunately…

You can’t make up for lack of sleep

It's okay, just make up the next day's sleep.

too young, too simple, sometimes naive.

Sleeping less than 7 hours a day can still be energetic. This is really just the talent of a few people.

If you stay up all night occasionally, it’s good to make up for your sleep, but if you stay up often, you can’t make up for your sleep.

Especially for many young people nowadays, for them, time is money, and many people even deliberately train themselves to be “sleepless elites,” thinking about drinking a few large cups of super-strong coffee during the day. （IS CAFFEINE GOOD OR BAD FOR YOU?）

This unhealthy routine of work and rest has caused them:

getting fatter

Most adults need 7-9 hours of sleep. No matter how you practice, lack of sleep means lack of sleep. Don’t deceive yourself.

Some people will ask,

Actually I want to sleep, but I can't sleep, what should I do?

Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome

Staying up late for a long time leads to irregular sleep, unable to control your own late sleep, etc. These conditions are classified as ” Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS)” in sleep medicine, which is a kind of sleep cycle disorder, rather than “staying up late”, it is more appropriate to say “irregular sleep”

Common irregular sleep injuries include:

Short-term memory loss
The decline in learning ability
Endocrine system disorders
Decreased immune system
Increased risk of heart disease
There is also research that irregular sleep can increase the risk of cancer

Let’s go back to the question just now. What if someone has insomnia and wants to sleep but can’t sleep?

Here are a few scientific methods to change the bad factors that affect sleep. But before, I want to make it clear: If the symptoms of insomnia seriously affect your life, you have to find a professional doctor.

Pay attention to sleep hygiene habits

The bedroom environment should be quiet and reduce the light.

Put down your mobile phone before going to bed.

Don’t let too many electronic light sources stimulate your vision.

Please abandon your late-night supper before going to bed.

One hour before going to bed, be sure not to consume high-fat, high-calorie foods. Otherwise, after you fall asleep, your stomach is still overworked. Don’t blame it for “protesting” and wake you up in the middle of the night!

Give coffee and strong tea a limit of “don’t drink after lunch”.

Drinking such beverages as coffee and strong tea after noon can easily lead to overactive brain nerves at night. Next time before you can’t help but want to drink, please remember the late night when everyone sleeps and you wake up alone.

Maintain regular schedule

Leave your bed temporarily

If you can’t sleep in bed for 20-30 minutes, get up decisively and leave your bed and bedroom.

Go to the living room or study room to listen to some soothing music (the sound should be low), read a light book, and quietly say that it is a good choice to prepare a book that “is sleepy as soon as you open it.”

Note that you must leave the bed and wait until you are a little sleepy before going to bed. If you still cannot sleep, repeat the above steps after 20-30 minutes.

Don’t think this method is silly, stick to it for more than 4 weeks, there will be surprises!

In addition, yoga can also help you fall asleep better. How yoga can help you to sleep better? Click here and learn more.

Tonight, let’s go to bed early, wish you have a good dream, nighty night~

Fitness, Nutrition, Time Saving, Weight loss

Ultimate Meal Prep Guide: Weight Loss, Maintenance & Bulking

6th March 2021 liredaleLeave a comment

Did you know when following any type of healthy diet plan to fulfil a healthy lifestyle the 80-20 rule is an important rule to follow by? This rule consists of 80% nutrition and 20% fitness, both in which compliment each other and are not effective unless they are fulfilled together. This rule highlights to us how important nutrition and our diet is hence meal prepping being key to maintaining this rule of thumb. For more detailed, prep planned aimed at specific needs check out our up and coming blog explaining what macros are and how to implement them.

What is Meal Prepping?

The answer is in the name …meal prepping literally means prepping your meals in advance, this could be through choosing a free afternoon to pre-cook and portion your food out for a few days or even for the week. The goal is to help you stay on track through controlling your nutrition and calories to meet desired dietary needs and goals.

Why Meal Prep?

The beauty of meal prep is that it allows you to be ahead of yourself for a few days or a week. This is perfect for people with busy lifestyles or if you just simply need a little motivation, structure and a plan to follow. It also allows you to reduce your time and food shopping cost whist reaching you desired goal such as losing weight, maintaining weight or bulking.

How to Meal Prep?

Firstly you need to determine your end goal, this will allow you to start your meal prepping journey in terms of making your nutrition and training plan personal to your desired goal.

Tips when Meal Prepping:

There are several useful tips for meal prepping… our top three picks have to be:

Making a meal plan (set a day to cook every week)
Weekly shopping list
Exercise at least three times a week (this will help you maximise your visual results and see the real benefits of your meal prep journey).

Remember.. consistency is KEY.

Food Ideas

We have you covered with our quick and easy meal prep ideas for three different goals:

Weight loss
Maintaining Weight
Bulking

Here is an example day of Meal Prepping for three different goals:

Who said you can’t have fun when Meal Prepping ?

Weight loss

Breakfast: Egg Muffins – Eggs,Courgette, Spinach, Turkey Rashers. Lunch: Tropical Salad – Quinoa, Tuna, Papaya, Mixed Leaves, Peppers,Grated Carrot, Feta Cheese. Dinner: Nando’s Fakeaway- Nando’s Sauce, Chicken Breast, Sweet Potato, Broccoli. Snacks: 2 Dark Chocolate Rice Cakes, 1 Protein Bar.

A days Weight loss Meal Prep:

This meal prep example is very high in protein. The benefits of protein being a big assistant in helping the process of changing your body’s composition resulting in overall weight loss.
The most suitable exercise to complement your weight loss journey is cardio, also interval training is a good fun way to incorporate into your fitness regime. This type of training is when you alternate periods of high and low intensity activity. An example of interval training could be alternating between sprinting and walking on a treadmill.

Maintenance

Breakfast: Overnight Oats- Protein Powder, Oats, Water. Lunch: Skinny N Spicy Salad- Chicken Breast, Sweet Chili Sauce, Rice, Mixed Leaves, Peppers, Grated Carrots, Cabbage. Dinner: Bangers N Grains – 4 Beef Sausages, Rice, Green Beans Snacks: Handful of Mixed Seeds & Nuts, 1 Protein Bar, 2 Dark Chocolate Rice cakes.

A days Maintenance Meal Prep:

This Meal Prep example day shows the importance of balancing protein, carbohydrates and fats when following a maintenance diet. Protein is used for both energy and building muscle, Carbohydrates are important for energy and fats are used for energy after been broken down into fatty acids.
When following a Maintenance Meal Prep plan to maintain your overall body weight, a balance of both strength training and cardio is the best to do this, as it allows you to strengthen muscles as well as keeping your fitness levels up too. Exercises for both cardio and muscle strength, could be sprints using the rowing machine.

Need a little more inspo and motivation? why not take a look at our guide to 20 Minute HITT Rowing Machine Workout.

Bulking

Breakfast: Peanut Butter Overnight Oats- Protein Powder, Peanut Butter, Oats, Water. Lunch: Power Plate- 2 Tins of Tuna in Olive oil, Quinoa, 1 Avocado. Dinner: Omega Loaded- 2 Salmon Fillets, 2 Sweet Potatoes,Broccoli Snacks: 2 Chicken Breasts, 1 protein bar, Bagel with Peanut Butter & Banana

A days Bulking Meal Prep:

There are several key factors when Bulking such as feeding your muscles with enough nutrition. It is important to include fatty foods, this is to ensure muscles can be repaired as quickly as possible after heavy training. It is essential when bulking to radically increase the calories consumed beyond your bodies needs. This provides fats to be a good way of getting your calorie intake up, as they’re over double the amount of calories per gram than carbohydrates and protein. For more advice see our guide to Why a high-calorie breakfast is good for weight gain.
To maximise your results, you need to be doing intense weight training, bulking is all about packing in those heavy weighted workout routines. The bulking process acquires you to have a lot of dedication, patience and commitment with your training, even at home there are no excuses weight training can still be fulfilled…. check out our resistant band workout guide.

Change in Mindset

Meal prepping allows you to have structure, as it sets you up for the week, changing your mindset from your old bad habits to new good ones. This therefore motivates you to reach your goals. Along with Meal Prepping and training, meditating a few times a week will allow you to completely detox your body with any stress or worries. All of these factors can have a knock on affect in your new regime of meal prepping; getting into a new routine to better yourself.

Before beginning any exercise or nutrition program, consult your physician, doctor or other professional. This is especially important for individuals over the age of 35 or persons with pre-existing health problems. Exercise.co.uk assumes no responsibility for personal injury or property damage sustained using our advice.

If you experience dizziness, nausea, chest pain, or any other abnormal symptoms, stop the workout at once and consult a physician or doctor immediately.

Fitness, Mental Wellbeing and Motivation, Nutrition, Uncategorized

How to manage your weight in a healthy way

6th March 2021 mbusakharLeave a comment

Whether it is losing weight or gaining weight, managing ones weight is a hot topic in society today. And with the advent of the world wide web, the people in the society are more confused than ever before.

But why has managing ones body weight become such an important topic? NHS, WHO, CDC and almost all of the leading health organisations of the world are unanimously saying one thing, “Obesity is on the rise and more common now than ever”.

The majority of adults were overweight or obese; 67% of men and 60% of women – NHS UK

These never seen levels of obesity bring a whole host of health issues with them ranging from increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes to even cancer. The issues are not limited to the physical level, the mental wellbeing is also at risk. With teenagers having unrestricted access to social media, which has plenty of “fitness influencers” flaunting their perfect bodies, body image issues are becoming prevalent.

Content-

But how did it get so bad?
So, what can we do to manage our weight?
So, let us start by dispelling some common myths
- There is no “best” diet
- There are no “bad or good” foods
- You can not “out-workout” a bad diet
Conclusion

But how did it get so bad?

The fundamental cause of obesity is an energy imbalance. There is disparity between the calories consumed and the calories expended. This can not be pinpointed to one single thing that we are doing different, rather this is a result of multiple things happening. With globalisation, there is an increase in the intake of energy-dense foods that are high in fat and sugars, also there is a decrease in the physical activity of people due to the increasingly sedentary lifestyle.

So, what can we do to manage our weight?

It is really hard to navigate through the internet while trying to the diet or workout plan that will work for you. The internet really is full of advice from a range of individuals that you most probably have never met before. You will go through many blogs, much like this one, in the quest of finding the right diet or workout.

So, let us start by dispelling some common myths-

There is no “best” diet

This might come as a surprise after so many people claim that so and so diet was life changing for them. And the options really are limitless whether it is keto or carnivore or vegan or intermittent fasting. As we have mentioned before, the only thing we need to remember is the concept of energy balance. To successfully lose weight, we need to consume less calories than what we expend. You can do that with some extreme measure like cutting the carbs out of your diet (Keto), or just living on meat (carnivore) or you can have all the foods you like in limitation and just making sure the total calories are less than what you expend.

I know it sounds a bit too easy but it really is. It would be a bit of trial and error to find the calories you need to consume but once you start figuring things out, it becomes effortless.

There are no “bad or good” foods

Again, this might sound very controversial with the whole internet worshipping avocados and chia seeds. Can you still be healthy if you eat a meal from McDonald’s once a weak? Absolutely. Can you still be unhealthy if you eat avocadoes or those other “super foods” religiously? Absolutely. So, sugars and fats are not evil? Absolutely.

We should try and look at food and meals as pieces of a large puzzle (calorie that we need to consume). We should see what foods would fit our puzzle nicely, according to our dietary preferences, what we enjoy eating etc. We should definitely try and consume raw foods or cook them ourselves and eat less of the processed foods. But that it is not to say that processed foods are off limits even once in a while.

You can not “out-workout” a bad diet

The other way to lose weight can be by looking at the other side of the equation, the calories expended. Theoretically, if we can increase our calories expended and get them higher than our calories consumed then we should lose weight. That is where exercise comes in. Whether it is running, jogging, cycling, or swimming, it is some form of cardio (cardiovascular exercise) that comes to mind when we first think of weight loss. “I am going to start running as I have put some pounds on”, we have heard this very often.

But what we fail to realise is that workout or exercise can be a tool that can be used in tandem with caloric restriction to achieve superior results. But on its own, without any control over what we are eating, cardio will not be that effective. The calories people normally burn while working out will usually only account for about 5 % of the total calories expended in the whole day.

This is not to portray exercise as something negative. It is definitely encouraged, and a workout plan should be followed which will allow you to achieve your goals whether they are weight loss, muscle gain or anything else.

If you want to learn more then check out the blog post linked below

How to make a successful workout plan

Fitness Myths: Cardio will make you lose weight

Conclusion

I am hoping this would have cleared some of the common misconceptions with regards to approaching weight management or fitness goals.

Overall, our goal should be to eat or consume calories according to our goals. If we want to lose weight, then we need to consume less than what we expend or vice versa if we want to gain weight. No foods should be off limits unless you are allergic to them or if you do not like them!

Exercise can be a great supplement when used with a controlled diet. In fact, people should be encouraged to move more. Whether that is by going to the gym and working out for an hour or just making more movement conscious decisions during the day (taking the stairs rather than the escalator) etc.