Fats & Sugar: Are they good or bad?

            

 Fats are not entirely bad to your body. As a nurse, I remember teaching families in the slum areas how their bodies absorb the supplemental vitamins that were donated to them. I teach them the importance of fat in their diet which helps absorbs their daily vitamins. 

There are many good fats that are also essential in fighting bad fats. Personally, I prefer taking fish and vegetable oils. Conjugated Linoleic Acids (CLA) is now becoming famous because of its fat-burning and anti-cancer properties. Nuts, seeds and olive oils are some of the essential fats that we can incorporate in our diet.

•   Fat also serves as a protective cushioning of our organs like the heart, kidneys and more 

•   It is also responsible in the regulation of our hormones which includes our sex hormones

•   Fats reduce the risk of heart diseases, cancer, Alzheimer's and depression.

•   For healthy cell membranes

•   Optimum brain functions

•   Healthier skin and joints

Sugar is also beneficial in bodybuilding. They work especially well during post-workouts when your muscles are on a catabolic state where fast are broken down together with your hard-earned muscles. Your post-workout diet should contain protein, carbs, multivitamins and lastly, sugar. Yes, Sugar is important so that you will have insulin spikes in your bloodstream. Your blood will pump nutrients and energy to your starving muscles. This makes your recovery faster. Ingesting a high glycemic index food with a high protein drink will result to a greater insulin spike. 

Incorporating creatine monohydrate on your post-workout meal is also beneficial because it prevents bloating with the help of sugar or what we call insulin spikes. Sugar is also useful in the morning after you wake up when your muscles were already fasting for 7-8 hours.

  Post-workout meal should consist of:

•          Protein shake  (preferable whey protein w/ 20-30g protein)
•          2 bananas
•         1-2 tablespoon of honey or 1 bottle Gatorade
•         Optional  (creatine and glutamine)
• 
  

      

         Any suggestions or reactions please write your comments below... thank you...

Females and Dumbbells

(Weight Training for Females)

Ladies are becoming frequent visitors in gyms nowadays. This is really great because it means that more and more people are becoming conscious and aware of what they can do to get active and healthy. But, if you observe them closely (and admit it, we all do), most of them keep doing the same workout every single day. They use all the gym machines doing a 35-50 rep range. Everybody knows that weight training’s not only for men because women can also benefit greatly from resistance training. Although, there are many things that seem to hold them back. I will tackle some of these issues in this blog entry. The so-called myths of female body building:

Myth # 1 - I don’t want to be muscular or bulky 

                It’s kind of annoying to hear this coming from girls because guys train their butts off to attain just that. I will hear ladies complaining and not wanting to do intense trainings because they believe they will get huge. If this is your main concern, you’re just wasting your time at the gym. Excuse me for my words but that’s the truth. I’m telling you, you will not get bulk unless you are going to take steroids. I’m sure you want to hear some scientific findings to even consider my claims, right? Testosterone is the hormone that produces muscle mass and women have a very small amount of this hormone in their body. About 15-70 ng/dl is the normal range of female testosterone compare to 200-1200 ng/dl for men. With proper training and diet, ladies will gain muscles that are lean and shapely. I hope that I made my point now and end this myth once and for all.

Myth # 2 - Rep range must be endless for females

                Females always intend to have 30-40 rep range on 5 sets because they believe that they should train this way because it’s for toning or fat burning purposes. This can lead to overtraining and this may minimize you muscle gains. You will reach a catabolic state wherein you secrete cortisol that minimizes your muscle building potential.  If you want to have shapely bodies and sexy curves you have to train heavy like us guys. Rep range of 6-12 is very beneficial with only 2-4 sets including the warm-up set/sets. This rep range is for hypertrophy (muscle building) so more muscle means faster metabolism and greater fat burning potential. This means that the ladies should refrain from using the lightest dumbbell for never-ending reps.

Myth #3 - Eating lots of carbs is bad

                First of all the carbs are not your enemy. Stay away from fad diets that restrict you from eating carbs. Carbs is one’s means to get energy that will let you push your last sets to complete muscle failure.  In building new muscles, carbs are also necessary. Even in our normal body processes like breathing, we use energy, or carbs for that matter. Secondly, eating 6-7 meals a day will help your natural fat burning mechanism. Your metabolism will shoot up. Eating small meals every 2-3 hours will help you maintain your hard-earned muscles by constantly giving nutrition to your muscles to prevent its catabolic state. Have a well constructed diet plan that will suit you personally. So don’t be afraid to take carbs and eat frequently because this will lead you to your goal.

Myth #4 - Spot reduction

                There is no such thing as spot reduction. You can never choose a specific body part to burn fat from. I often see girls doing abdominal crunches every single day because they believe that this is necessary for their abs to be visible. For example, if I’d like to make my biceps lean and more defined, I will give my full attention on them and do bicep curls more often. That’s not true. Loosing fat in our body is a holistic thing. Muscles and fats are two very different entities. So don’t expect fat to turn into muscle. But more muscles can lead to lesser fat by making your metabolism faster. This means you need to work out every muscle on your body, not only your abs, if you want maximize your muscle building and fat burning potential.

Myth # 5 - Drinking plenty of water will make me look fat

                How many times do we hear that it is important to drink 8-10 glasses of water a day? Many people still don’t understand the importance of proper hydration. Ladies are more vulnerable to bloating and drinking water is needed to prevent this. Yes, you read that right. Proper hydration is the key so that water retention will be very limited. Ladies can be bloated because of the hormonal imbalance they experience every month (Ladies, I think you know what I mean). If your kidneys feel that your body is not properly hydrated, it will hold on to the water stored on your body to maintain your normal body fluids. That is when water retention happened. So bring a big water container to the gym and make it a habit to make it empty when your workout is done.

Myth #6 - Females should focus on cardio

                You might’ve already noticed how girls hog the treadmills while the macho men pump the irons. Don’t get me wrong, we all know that cardio is highly beneficial on your conditioning and endurance but you should also give resistance training a try. Weight training’s not only for males and there are studies which suggest that females should not make their training regimen to be entirely different from the guys. Too much cardio will result to overtraining that will minimize your muscle gains. 10-15 minutes of cardio training will be enough to make your heart start pumping and start up a good workout session. I suggest that you have your cardio sessions on rest days to make your recovery faster because it will improve your blood circulation. For example, Mondays are leg days, Tuesdays for the biceps and triceps, Wednesdays can be a rest day or cardio day while Thursdays can be for delts, Fridays for chest and back, Saturday rest day or cardio day, Sunday’s a rest day again.

They are many false beliefs in the gym regarding weight training that can somehow hold you back. Don’t let that stop you from achieving your goal. Females can prevent many diseases like arthritis, diabetes, osteoporosis, depression and many more with the help of resistance training. You ladies can improve your athletic performance and gain strength through resistance training. You should not make any more excuses because I have already tackled the top myths on female fitness and bodybuilding. So start pumping some heavy dumbbells and start improving your physique.

Reference: www.bodybuilding.com

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