Weekly fitness round up, w/e 24th May, 2013
It’s that time of year again: British Summer. Temperature rises above freezing, vest and shorts on view showing alabaster arms and anaemic kneecaps and what next?
Hospital, two weeks off work and and a fortnight of Tramadol all because Mr Keepfit UK thought that he was good to go without a warm up.
Mablethorpe in May is not LA or California
There’s no use denying it, most of the build muscle/lose belly fat campaigns you see online originate Stateside. Even those that are translated into Queen’s English are positively American in tone.
Pickled gherkin, granola and patties? Sound like the three witches out of a Shakespeare play, not items you’d find on a six pack diet menu.
But that’s the truth of it. The same can be said for the advice about warming up before exercise.
The musclebound dudes who spend eight hours a day pumping iron with their backs to the Pacific are not on the same planet as would-be athletes from the north east of England.
So when these American trainers advise that you don’t need to warm up for weights, take that advice with a pinch of salt.
US English gets lost in translation when food’s on the menu
I always remember the first time I got into fitness. The book I ordered was from Men’s Health and it came with an accompanying video.
Yep, that’s right. It was a VHS video, that’s how long ago we’re talking. The video I still have, just nothing to play it on any longer.
Anyway, similar situation. The book was called The Testosterone Advantage Plan and a guy named Lou Schuler had been approached to translate it from US English into a more decipherable tongue for the UK audience.
On the whole, he did a brilliant job. I read it from front to back, back to front and the sweat-stained pages in the workout section are testament to the amount of times I pawed it when I was getting used to the exercises.
But there were two stand-out things that didn’t translate at all for me. One was the diet, which introduced me to the ingredients named above.
No Internet back then (not that I could use, anyway) – I had to hunt them down before realising what they were:
- gherkins went out the window and were replaced with fresh cucumber
- muesli with crushed almonds sufficed for a granola mix
- patties I made into quarter-pounders using turkey mince, onion and a variety of herbs and spices.
- Yep, they’re just burgers to you and me.
When should we warm up for a workout in the UK?
If we ever get a genuine run of warmth, there’s an argument that if you’ve been active you’re good to go. But the other thing that stood out for me about Lou’s re-write was that he alluded:
“if you’ve carried the shopping in from the car, you’ve done your warm up.”
Okay, those may not have been the exact words. It’s been a long time.
But they’re close enough to prove the point that if you’ve just carried a dozen Tesco bags from the car in a hail storm (did you get it yesterday?), you’ve not just brought twelve bags of shopping in from your SUV from the Cali-fawn-eye-ay Walmart.
With that in mind, there are three types of warm up I’d recommend; adjust as you see fit, depending upon the weather and how you’re acclimatised to it.
Stretches and aerobics
Don’t get shocked and stunned when you see aerobics. As a long-term belly-fat buster and muscle-building platform, they’re less than useless. As a warm up for five minutes, they have their place.
Something as simple as jogging on the spot if you’re at home or 5-10 minutes on the treadmill at the gym will get the blood circulating and loosen the muscles and tendons ready for your workout.
Should you stretch before a workout or is it a waste of time?
Stretches are a bit contentious. Depending upon your age, frequency of exercise and overall flexibility will dictate whether you’ll find them useful.
When I came out from hip surgery, I stretched before every workout for three months.
Shoulders, chest, hamstring, groin, calves and back – I elongated all of them gently until they felt loose enough to lift. Even now, I still get the urge.
Body weight warm up workout
However, if you’re active, progressing along nicely in The Definition Method for example, and have been inside a warm house all morning, you may want to kick off with five minutes of body-weight exercises.
Lunges, crunches, press-ups and squats, all done at a steady pace to get the most benefit and stretch your muscles slowly, are a great way of getting the heart pumping and the circulation going ahead of a workout.
Reduced-weight circuit warm up
Following on from that, if you’re limber and eager to start your workout, why not try a circuit with reduced weights?
That’s the method Lou advised in the T.A.P. Rather than do two or three sets at whatever weight you’ve progressed to for the workout you’re about to undertake, go through one set of each exercise at about half-to-three quarter weight.
That way, you’re priming the muscles you’re going to be calling upon for the workout and getting the feeling that you’re not just going though the motions of a warm up for the sake of it.
What about a warm down routine?
When you order The Definition Method, you may think that the diet only allows for the exercise dictated in the accompanying workout. It’s not so.
The diet’s there for a reason – to fuel and protect your muscles during workout, but also to keep your metabolism ticking over.
The further you get into the program, the more your body will become accustomed to strenuous exercise.
In conjunction, the more stoked your metabolism will be, constantly turning your food into fuel ready to be consumed during exercise.
If you want to do a circuit at half weight after your scheduled workout, your body will be primed to adapt.
Similarly, if you wanted to run down your heartbeat, a steady 10 minutes on the treadmill will only serve to enhance the work you’ve put in.
The fuel stores you’re building will help protect you from muscle fatigue, but your metabolism will burn them at rest if they’re not used for exercise.
Losing that belly to show your abs and developing the muscles to give you that washboard in the first place is a piece of precision engineering.
Your diet and your workout must be tailored to you, your fitness level and your current physical state to stand a chance of working.
The Definition Method not only offers you that, but guarantees that you will see results in twelve weeks and comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee.
It’s cliché, but the only thing you’ve got to lose is weight.
Why not give it a whirl and see if you can’t get in shape and be ready for summer, even if it’s not quite ready to appear yet?
Photo used under CC 2.0 attribution from lululemon athletica & Compfight
