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Category: Resistance Training
10 HARD FACTS FROM RP STRENGTH
April 4, 2025

10 HARD TRUTHS from RP STRENGTH

You can’t out-train a bad diet.⁠
Training hard with no nutrition strategy = spinning your wheels.⁠
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Progress will slow.⁠
Beginner gains don’t last. Long-term change takes patience and precision.⁠
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Motivation won’t save you.⁠
Discipline and routine > fleeting motivation.⁠
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You’re not eating enough protein.⁠
If you want to build muscle, protein isn’t optional it’s essential.⁠
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Fat loss requires a calorie deficit.⁠
No hacks, no magic. Just science.⁠
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You can’t “spot reduce” fat.⁠
Abs are made in the kitchen, not with 100 crunches a day.⁠
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Rest days matter.⁠
More training isn’t always better. Recovery drives growth.⁠
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Tracking works – guessing doesn’t.⁠
Want results? Know your numbers. Period.⁠
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You’re not training hard enough.⁠
3 sets of 10 with 50% effort won’t build muscle. Push yourself.⁠
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There are no shortcuts.⁠
The RP way: real science, real effort, real results.⁠
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#RPStrength#RPLifestyle#RPDietApp#Lifestyle#Fitness#Health#Hypertrophy#Training#RPHypertrophy#RPDiet#Gains#GymLife#Fitspo #agewell ##FitAfter50 #StrongWomenOver50 #MenopauseFitness #HealthyAging #OnlinePersonalTrainer #WomenOver50Fitness #50AndFit #StrengthTrainingForWomen #MidlifeWellness #AgelessStrength

lea4000@gmail.com No Comments
December 4, 2021

Exercise is now prescribed for cancer patients

💢CANCER & EXERCISE💢, an essential combination. Really you say? Yes, I say, because COSA says so. (Clinical Oncology Society of Australia). – I AM SOOOOOO PASSIONATE ABOUT THIS!!💯

I received my treatment at Icon Cancer Care in Northlakes. The staff there are incredible. They turn a day of sitting in a chair, having a chemotherapy drug infused into your body all day, into an almost enjoyable experience.


☹️Nearly everyone is affected by cancer one way or another. You either have it or someone you know has been diagnosed with it. Please, if is you, or someone you love, share this information with them, and encourage them to keep active. 🏃


👉Myself, I have been living with Leukaemia for over 9 years now. And I have a beautiful client that is bravely dealing with the effects of her breast cancer every day. 👩‍🦰


🏋️‍♀️I never stopped exercising through my 6 months of chemo. I would train as hard as I could the morning of treatment & the day after. By the 2nd & 3rd day after I felt quite rat shit, so very little exercise, if any. But then back into it after that. And the cycle continued. When I say “as hard as I could”, that was no way near what I could do pre-chemo. I was nauseous a lot, and very short of breath, but I did what I could.


🧑‍🔬COSA’s Position Statement on Cancer Care is that:

🟣All people with cancer should AVOID INACTIVITY and return to normal daily activities as soon as possible following diagnosis (i.e. be as physically active as current abilities and conditions allow)

🟣 All people with cancer should progress towards and, once achieved, maintain participation in:

🟣at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise (e.g. walking, jogging, cycling, swimming) each week; and

🟣two to three resistance exercise (i.e. lifting weights) sessions each week involving moderate to vigorous-intensity exercises targeting the major muscle groups

🟣Exercise recommendations should be tailored to the individual’s abilities noting that specific exercise programming adaptations may be required for people with cancer based on disease and treatment-related adverse effects, anticipated disease trajectory, and their health status.

Exercise Helps to Treat Cancers


An extensive review of research shows that exercise:


• reduces the side effects of chemotherapy treatments including nausea, fatigue, anxiety, and depression, and increases bone strength and muscle mass (Curr Treat Options Oncol, 2008;9:135-46)
• increases the percentage of people who are able to complete full-dose chemotherapy regimens (J Clin Oncol, 2007;25:4396-404)
• can increase tumor sensitivity to chemotherapy (Cancer Prev Res (Phila), 2013;6:925-37)
• reduces heart damage from chemotherapy (Circulation, 2011;124:642-50)
• markedly reduces arm swelling from extensive breast cancer surgery (N Engl J Med, 2009;361:664-73)
• is associated with a 50 percent increased survival rate in patients treated for breast cancer (JAMA, 2005;393:2479-86) and colon cancer (J Clin Oncol, 2006;24:3535-41)
• is associated with a 70 percent risk reduction of high-grade, advanced or fatal prostate cancers (Arch Intern Med, 2005;165:1005-10)

A regular exercise program reduced carcinogenic inflammation, strengthened the immune system, and improved mental processing by increasing apoptosis and by lowering cancer-inducing insulin-like growth factor 1, DNA damage, and gene mutations (Br J Cancer, 2011;105:S52-73). Exercise reduced cancer patients’ anxiety, depression, and fatigue, and exercise specifically can reduce the massive upper arm swelling and fluid retention common in women treated for breast cancer (Med Sci Sports Exerc, Nov 2019). Exercise also helped to prevent cancer patients’ inactivity that increases the risk for heart failure (Med Sci Sports Exerc, 2010;42:1409-1426).

Rules for Exercise for Cancer Patients
Cancer patients should check with their doctors prior to starting a new exercise program. If possible, most people with cancer should try to exercise at least three times per week, at a moderate intensity such as brisk walking, for at least 30 minutes, and if possible, they should also try to lift weights twice a week. I can recommend no specific exercise program for cancer patients because the amount of exercise a cancer patient can do is limited by the level of fitness, the extent of disease, treatment regimen, and other variables. In general, all exercisers – healthy or not – should follow these rules:

• Stop exercising when your muscles start to hurt, burn or feel tight. If you keep on exercising, your muscle fibers can start to tear and run out of their stored sugar supply. Your body always talks to you and tells you when this is happening. Failure to listen to your body is the most common cause of exercise injuries.

• Take the day off when your muscles feel tight or hurt after you have warmed up for five minutes or more. It is normal for muscles to feel sore when you first get up in the morning, but they should feel better after you have exercised for five to 10 minutes. Soreness after warming up means that your muscle fibers are damaged and are at increased risk for tearing if you exercise that day. Sometimes you can get away with exercising at reduced intensity on days when your muscles feel sore, but often it is best to just stop for the day.

• Stop exercising immediately if you feel increasing soreness in one spot, which can mean that a muscle is about to tear or go into a spasm. You can prevent many injuries just by stopping exercising when you feel pain in one spot and do not have pain in the same spot on the other side of your body.

#cancer #cancercouncil #canceraustralia #cancertreatment #cancersuck #leukemiawarrior #leukaemeia #leukaemiafoundationau

Lea Wagner No Comments , , , , ,
November 25, 2021

All Exercise is Good, and Vigorous Exercise is Better

 December 4, 2020 – article taken from Dr Mirkin’s website

A new study suggests that the more intensely you exercise, the less likely you are to suffer a heart attack. Researchers followed 403,681 U.S. adults for an average 10 years and found that those who spent a greater proportion of their exercise time exercising intensely had a significantly lower risk of death from heart attacks than those who exercised for the same amount of time but at lower intensity (JAMA Intern Med, Nov 23, 2020). Those who exercised more vigorously also had a lower risk of death from cancer and lower all-cause mortality during the study period.

Other studies show that people who exercise intensely are significantly less likely to die prematurely than casual exercisers (JAMA Intern Med, 2015;175(6):970-977), because vigorous exercise is more effective in:
• preventing weight gain (Prev Med, 2014;60:131-133),
• preventing heart disease (Am J Cardiol, 2006;97(1):141-147),
• preventing diabetes (Int J Epidemiol, 2012;41(4):1132-1140), and
• promoting fitness and the ability to process oxygen (Med Sci Sports Exerc, 2002;34(1):152-157).
The HUNT study from Norway found that the more fit people are, the less likely they were to develop a first heart attack (JAMA, April 19, 2019). The SUN study from Spain found lower heart attack rates in those who exercised intensely compared to those who exercised less vigorously (Am J of Cardio, Dec 1, 2018;122(11):1871–1878).

Any Level of Exercise is Healthful
A regular exercise program of any intensity is associated with reduced death rate (Int J Epidemiol, 2011;40(5):1382-1400), because a regular exercise program is associated with reduced rates of:
• cancer (JAMA Intern Med, 2016;176(6):816-825),
• diabetes (Endocrine, 2016;52(2):226-230), and
• heart disease (Br J Sports Med, 2019;53(22):1405-1411).
Spending long periods of time sitting or lying in bed increases risk for heart disease (Prevent Med, May 02, 2019).

Benefits of Intense Exercise
Intensity makes all muscles stronger, including your heart muscle. All people lose heart muscle as they age, which increases risk for frailty and heart failure. Strengthening your heart muscle helps you to live a more vigorous lifestyle and to protect you from heart failure. Intense exercise stabilizes plaques in arteries and widens heart arteries to help protect you from a heart attack. One study showed that men with the highest levels of VO2max (a test of oxygen use that is a measure of fitness) were least likely to have high blood pressure, high HBA1C (a test for diabetes), high fasting blood sugar levels, obesity, an abnormal treadmill exercise test, and a high 10-year risk for heart attacks (American J of Cardiology, March 2012;109(6):839-843).

Starting a New Exercise Program
I think everyone should have a regular exercise program, and it is never too late to start. First check with your doctor. If you are not a regular exerciser, you should spend your first few months exercising in your chosen activity at a very casual pace. Stop when you feel tired, your muscles feel heavy, or you feel any discomfort, even if you have only exercised for a few minutes. When you can exercise every day for about 30 minutes at a casual pace, you are ready to try exercising at a more intense level. See my article on How to Start an Exercise Program.

Increasing the Intensity of Your Current Exercise Program
All exercise training is done by stressing and recovering. To increase the intensity of your exercise program, start by taking a harder workout on one day and expect to feel sore the next morning. This is called delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS. Go slow and easy for as many days as it takes for your muscles to feel fresh again. You should not take your next hard workout until the muscle soreness is gone. You may need to take from one to five or more easy recovery days before you do your next intense workout.
• When you are training properly, your muscles may feel sore every morning. If they don’t feel better after a 10 minute warm-up, take the day off.
• If you feel pain in one spot that does not go away after you slow down, stop that workout immediately for that day. Otherwise you are likely to be headed for an injury.

Your Intense Workout Days
Always warm up your muscles before you exercise more intensely. Start out by going very slowly for the first 10 or more minutes of your workout. To make a muscle stronger, you have to exercise intensely enough to feel a burning or tightness in your muscles. For non-competitive athletes, you should slow down immediately when you feel this discomfort. Most people will start out by picking up the pace for only about 10 seconds. If you are a runner, cyclist or skater, pick up the pace for a few strides or pedal strokes. Then go slow and easy, and when your muscles feel fresh again, pick up the pace and then slow down. Repeat these alternating bursts of intense exercise (called “intervals”) until your muscles just start to feel heavy and tired, then slow down. When your muscles continue to feel heavy and tired after you slow down, you are through for that day. In the beginning, you may be able to do only a few intervals in a workout. However, with practice you will improve until you can do lots of intervals, perhaps 15-20 or more. Then you can extend the time that you stay in each hard interval, gradually going from a few seconds up to about 30 seconds. If you are not a competitive athlete, there is no reason to stay in an intense interval longer than 30 seconds. Most healthy exercisers will be able to work up eventually to 10-20 repeats of 20-30 second intervals. For non-competitive athletes, there is no need to do more than that.

Your Recovery Days
Expect your muscles to feel tired and sore when you get up the morning after an interval workout. You can try to exercise that day, but you should do so at a slow pace and stop when your muscles start to feel heavy and fatigued. If your muscles don’t feel better after a five-minute warmup, or if you feel pain in any area that does not go away when you slow down, you should stop your workout for that day. Do not take your next intense workout until your muscles feel fresh after you warm up for 5-10 minutes. Most people who exercise for fitness will follow each hard day with one or two recovery days. Competitive athletes are likely to take such intense workouts on their hard days that they may require up to five recovery days before their next hard day. See Recovery: the Key to Improvement in Your Sport

CAUTION: Intense exercise can cause a heart attack in a person who has blocked arteries or heart damage. Check with your doctor before you start a new exercise program or increase the intensity of your existing program.

Lea Wagner No Comments , , , ,
July 5, 2021

Menopause Tummy

😒The average woman gains about 2kg as she starts the transition to menopause in her 40s. And it’s a trend that doesn’t slow down, either:
Women continue to put on about 680grams each year in their 50s and 60s, according to a review published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

😱After menopause, your ovaries stop producing estrogen, and the only place where it can be generated is in your ABDOMINAL FAT CELLS.

Your body naturally gravitates towards storing fat in that area, in an effort to get estrogen. The stomach’s been called “the third ovary.”
But this type of fat, known as visceral fat, is toxic. It produces hormones such as the stress hormone cortisol as well as inflammatory proteins known as cytokines.

These chemicals force your body to churn out more insulin, which not only ramps up your appetite but also increases the storage of fat in fat cells. This, in turn, causes you to put on even more belly weight and also sets you up to develop insulin resistance, a key factor in the development of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

Women face menopausal-induced physiological changes, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and osteoporosis. Amongst many others. ☹️
⬇️Due to the decline in estrogen levels our muscles💪, bones, adipose tissue & liver are also adversely affected. And our body composition suffers negative modifications (more fat, less muscle)🚫


✅It is VITAL, I will say it again, ✅VITAL, and again if you didn’t hear me,✔️ VITAL. This is not negotiable, that women must incorporate resistance training weekly into their routine, ESPECIALLY when they reach their menopausal years.

👉There’s no such thing as being “too old” for strength training or starting “too late.”👈

💪Building muscle can increase what’s known as your basal metabolic rate, the amount of energy your body needs to keep working when you’re not moving. This energy is used for things like maintaining your 🌡️body temperature, ❤️keeping your heart beating, and 🙂breathing. 👌So, building muscle can help you burn more calories, which can help with weight control.


A 2016 study of post-menopausal women in their late 50s and 60s found that those who did an hour of strength training twice a week for eight weeks not only significantly reduced their body fat compared to a control group, they also reported less physical pain and felt better overall. If you’re resistant to pumping iron, consider yoga or pilates.

🙏Women need to gain back the muscle they have lost. Try to get at least 3 weight training sessions a week. 🙏

🙋You will feel appreciably stronger, more capable, more confident in your body and your abilities, and more in control of your overall health after adopting strength training. Particularly in a time in your life when you may feel as though your health is a bit out of your control.

Effects of progressive resistance training on growth hormone and testosterone levels in young and elderly subjects. Mech Ageing Dev. 1989 Aug;49(2):159-69.
#Hormonal responses and adaptations to resistance exercise and training. Sports Med. 2005;35(4):339-61.
Sternfeld ie KA, Ensrud KE, et al. Efficacy of exercise for menopausal symptoms: a randomized controlled trial. Menopause. 2014;21(4):330-8. See Less

The facts stated above have been obtained from:
Jo Ann Pinkerton, M.D., executive director of the North American Menopause Society and professor of obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Virginia Health System
Deborah Clegg, M.D., a professor of internal medicine at the Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles
Pamela Peeke, M.D., professor of medicine at the University of Maryland

#menopause #womenshealth #perimenopause #menopausesupport #hormones #menopauserelief #menopausesymptoms #health #women #pcos #womenover #wellness #selfcare #menopausehealth #hotflashes #hormonebalance #womensupportingwomen #pms #healthylifestyle #weightloss #fitness #menopauseweightloss #hrt #menopausematters #hormonehealth #midlifewomen

Lea Wagner No Comments , , ,
May 15, 2020

Cluster Set Resistance Training

A systematic review & meta-analysis of 25 studies was published on the 11th September 2019, the objective was to determine the efficacy of a single session of cluster sets on force, velocity & power compared to traditional set training.

Lea Wagner No Comments
January 19, 2020

What happens to your body when you exercise?

taken from BBC Science Focus Magazine


Exercise diverts blood from your liver and digestive system to your skeletal muscles. Hormones tell the body to convert fat into glucose, reduce the pain you feel and improve your mood. Muscles generate lactic acid as a by-product of intensive exercise and, as this builds up, the pH of the blood around the muscles drops. This drop in pH eventually prevents the muscles contracting further. At this point, you need to rest to allow the lactic acid to be metabolised.

1. Brain

What happens to my body when I exercise?

© Raja Lockey

The brain makes neurotransmitters, like serotonin, dopamine and GABA. This is part of the reason why the brain consumes more energy during exercise.

2. Heart

What happens to my body when I exercise?

© Raja Lockey

Adrenaline levels rise, which stimulates the heart to beat faster. Capillaries in the muscles open wider, increasing blood flow there by up to 20 times.

3. Lungs

What happens to my body when I exercise?

© Raja Lockey

The muscles of the ribcage assist the diaphragm to pull in up to 15 times more oxygen than at rest. Breathing gets faster but also deeper.

4. Skin

The muscles of the ribcage assist the diaphragm to pull in up to 15 times more oxygen than at rest. Breathing gets faster but also deeper.

© Raja Lockey

Your two million sweat glands can produce 1.4 litres of sweat per hour. Waste heat is carried away by the latent heat of evaporation as it dries.

5. Muscles

What happens to my body when I exercise?

© Getty Images

As you exercise, the large muscles in your arms and legs squeeze the veins running through them, pumping blood back to your heart.

6. Bones

What happens to my body when I exercise?

© Raja Lockey

High-impact and weightlifting exercises stimulate bone formation and reduce the rate of calcium loss as we get older.

Lea Wagner No Comments
April 16, 2019

Prolong your life by increasing your muscle power

Lisbon, Portugal – 12 April 2019: Prolong your life by increasing your muscle power. That’s the main message of a study presented today at EuroPrevent 2019, a congress of the European Society of Cardiology.1

“Rising from a chair in old age and kicking a ball depend more on muscle power than muscle strength, yet most weight bearing exercise focuses on the latter,” said study author Professor Claudio Gil Araújo, director of research and education, Exercise Medicine Clinic – CLINIMEX, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. “Our study shows for the first time that people with more muscle power tend to live longer.”

Power depends on the ability to generate force and velocity, and to coordinate movement.2 In other words, it is the measure of the work performed per unit time (force times distance); more power is produced when the same amount of work is completed in a shorter period or when more work is performed during the same period.3 Climbing stairs requires power – the faster you climb, the more power you need. Holding or pushing a heavy object (for example a car with a dead battery) needs strength.

Professor Araújo said: “Power training is carried out by finding the best combination of speed and weight being lifted or moved. For strength training at the gym most people just think about the amount of weight being lifted and the number of repetitions without paying attention to the speed of execution. But for optimal power training results, you should go beyond typical strength training and add speed to your weight lifts.”

Muscle power gradually decreases after 40 years of age. “We now show that power is strongly related to all-cause mortality. But the good news is that you only need to be above the median for your sex to have the best survival, with no further benefit in becoming even more powerful,” said Professor Araújo.

The study enrolled 3,878 non-athletes aged 41-85 years who underwent a maximal muscle power test using the upright row exercise between 2001 and 2016 (see photo). The average age of participants was 59 years, 5% were over 80, and 68% were men. The highest value achieved after two or three attempts with increasing loads was considered the maximal muscle power and expressed relative to body weight (i.e. power per kg of body weight). Values were divided into quartiles for survival analysis and analysed separately by sex.

During a median 6.5-year follow-up, 247 men (10%) and 75 women (6%) died. Median power values were 2.5 watts/kg for men and 1.4 watts/kg for women. Participants with a maximal muscle power above the median for their sex (i.e. in quartiles three and four) had the best survival. Those in quartiles two and one had, respectively, a 4-5 and 10-13 times higher risk of dying as compared to those above the median in maximal muscle power.

Professor Araújo noted that this is the first time the prognostic value of muscle power has been assessed. Previous research has focused on muscle strength, primarily using the handgrip exercise. The upright row exercise was chosen for the study because it is a common action in daily life for picking up groceries, grandchildren, and so on. The researchers are currently examining the link between muscle power and specific causes of death including cardiovascular disease and cancer. He added: “Doctors should consider measuring muscle power in their patients and advise more power training.”

How to train to increase your muscle power:

  • Choose multiple exercises for the upper and lower body
  • Choose a weight with the load to achieve the maximal power (not so easy to lift and not so heavy that you can barely lift it)
  • Do one to three sets of six to eight repetitions moving the weight as fast as possible while you contract your muscles (slow or natural speed in returning to initial position)
  • Rest for 20 seconds between each set to sufficiently replenish the energy stores in your muscles to start the new set
  • Repeat the above for the other exercises (biceps curl, etc.).

How to progress:

  • Start with six repetitions in each set and when the exercise becomes easy, try to increase to eight
  • If it becomes easy again, increase the weight and go back to six repetitions
  • If you unable to complete the repetitions with the proper technique, avoid “cheating” and go back to less repetitions or less weight. This is important to prevent injuries.

Lea Wagner No Comments , , , , , ,
December 11, 2018

In Menopause? Hit the weights, not the treadmill

🙂Ladies are you menopausal? or post-menopausal? Research suggests that you should be hitting the weights, not the treadmill.  This is great news for me to hear.  As ONE (1) I am 50 & currently going through menopause & TWO (2), I am a Personal Trainer who loves strength training.  

👩Janet Viljoen, a Research Fellow in Physical Activity & Health at Rhodes University found that Women over the age of 50 should try lifting weights and doing other strength training exercises if they want to kick menopause symptoms. – weight gain around the belly, knee, back & hip pain, inability to climb stairs or get up from the ground with ease, less confident, unhappy, loss of muscle mass, osteoporosis & mood swings. Happy days 😫

🏋️Their study looked at how 30 minutes of strength training, five times a week, could benefit a group of women aged 55 to 65. Performed at a moderate to high intensity.
–
👍The women exercised in small groups with a personal trainer doing exercises that targeted their upper bodies, torsos and legs. The programme got progressively harder as the two months went by. 💪

😜The women in the study were more confident, happier – and even received compliments from their partners. 😘And after 3 months on the programme, they had lost significant centimetres from their waists.

A paper published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information by Nalini Mishra, V. N. Mishra, and Devanshi stated that “women can enjoy a good quality of life after menopause even without hormones. Research indicates that postmenopausal women who engage in the comprehensive exercise program, benefit by maintaining a healthy body, bone density levels, and good mental health. Osteoporosis, the greatest ailment in older women, can be kept under control with exercise. Even a moderate exercise schedule can not only keep the weight in check, but it also lowers the risk of stress, anxiety, and depression, all of which tend to show up liberally during and beyond menopause. Exercise works by improving muscle mass, strength, balance, and coordination. Therefore, unlike treatment with medicine, exercises work simultaneously on various aspects of one’s health.”

“An effective exercise prescription may be resistance and weight bearing exercise three days a week (on alternate days). Care should be taken to do the exercise for all the muscle groups by rotation preferably with a trainer. Brisk walking at the speed of five to six kilometres per hour, cycling, treadmill, gardening or dancing may be done on the remaining days of the week.”

“Warming up beforehand can help to reduce exercise related injuries and pain following exercise. One should aim for two hours and 30 minutes of moderate aerobic activity each week. Other deep breathing, yoga, and stretching exercises can help to manage the stress of life and menopause-related symptoms.”

It is never too late to start exercising.  Contact me today so we can put together a plan together to get you healthier and happier.    https://www.fabulousphysiques.com.au/contact-me/

 

Lea Wagner No Comments , , , , , , ,
woman's muscles
August 9, 2018

What should you eat after a workout?

What should you eat post-workout?

Last reviewed Tue 7 August 2018 By Lana Barhum Reviewed by Katherine Marengo LDN, RD

The importance of the post-workout snack
Eating a snack post-workout will help the body replenish lost energy.  During exercise, the muscles use up stored glucose, called glycogen, and levels become depleted.

Endurance sports, such as running, use up more glycogen than resistance activities, such as weightlifting. Another effect of exercise is that the muscles develop small tears.  Getting the right nutritional balance after exercise restores energy levels and reduces fatigue, helping the body to build strength for future workouts.

Proteins, carbohydrates, and healthful fats are all essential for the body’s recovery.

Protein
Exercise supports muscle growth, but the body can only build upon existing muscles if they recover after each workout.

Consuming protein after exercise helps the muscles to heal and prevents the loss of lean mass. Lean mass contributes to a muscular and toned appearance.

Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are micronutrients that help the body to recharge and restore its fuel supply.

Anyone who exercises more than seven times a week should consume plenty of carbohydrates, as they quickly replenish glycogen levels.

What about fat?
Many people believe that consuming fat after exercising slows digestion and the absorption of nutrients. For some types of fat, this may be true.

However, there is little information about the post-workout effects of fat calories. It may be a good idea to limit fat intake after exercise, but low levels of fat are unlikely to inhibit recovery.

The following are examples of foods and compounds that help the body to absorb nutrients quickly and speed recovery.

Dairy protein
According to research published in 2017, as few as 9 grams (g) of milk protein may be enough to stimulate protein synthesis in the muscles, aiding in recovery after exercise.

Other than milk, dairy products rich in protein include:  Greek yogurt, ricotta cheese, cottage cheese 

kefir
In fact, a single cup of low-fat kefir contains 9.2 g of complete protein. Complete proteins can repair new cells, especially those in the muscles. Complete proteins also contain all the essential amino acids, which are only available through the diet.

In 2007, some researchers found that milk-based proteins are more effective than soy-based proteins at promoting the growth of muscle proteins after resistance exercise.

The researchers concluded that while both milk and soy proteins help a person to maintain and build muscle mass, milk proteins were more effective at supporting the quick growth of lean muscle mass.

Eggs
Results of a study from 2017 suggested that consuming whole eggs after resistance exercise resulted in more protein synthesis than consuming egg whites with the same protein content.

The researchers concluded that the nutrients in the yolk helped to stimulate the muscles more effectively.

Omega-3 fatty acids
Research from the Washington University School of Medicine suggests that supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids helps to boost the synthesis of muscle proteins and increase the size of muscle cells in healthy young and middle-aged adults.

Fatty fish, including salmon, are rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Tuna also contains high levels of the fatty acids, and about 6 ounces (oz) of tuna packed in water contains 41.6 g of protein and 5.4 g of fat.

Other evidence shows that oil drawn from fatty fish may help to reduce muscle soreness after resistance training. A study from 2016 found that consuming 6 g of fish oil every day for 1 week before beginning resistance exercise resulted in reduced muscle soreness.

Carbohydrates
young woman drinking water whilst out running
Staying hydrated is essential when exercising.
Consuming carbohydrate-rich foods may be the best way to reduce the decreases in immunity that can occur after exercise.

Consuming carbohydrates as part of a post-workout snack also helps to promote glycogen storage.

Sweet potatoes, grains, and fruits can contain high levels of healthful carbohydrates, as can quinoa.

Quinoa is gluten-free, classified as a pseudocereal, and usually consumed as a grain. It is high in fiber and rich in protein, with 1 cup providing 8.14 g.

Also, quinoa has a low glycemic index, making it an excellent choice for people who regulate their blood sugar.

Herbal tea
The nutrients and chemical compounds in herbal teas, especially yerba mate, may help the body process carbohydrates and protein effectively.

Authors of a study from 2016 compared the effects of yerba mate to water after exercise. The participants who drank yerba mate recovered strength faster in the 24 hours that followed a workout.

In 2012, researchers found that mice administered yerba mate extract were able to metabolize more quickly and expend more energy than those who did not.

Water
It is essential to drink plenty of water before, during, and after a workout. Staying hydrated ensures that the body gets the most benefit from exercise.

The body loses water and electrolytes while sweating, so drinking water during and after a workout promotes performance and recovery.

Everybody varies in the amount of water they need, depending on the type of exercise, how much they sweat, how thirsty they are, as well as other factors.

In summary 
Consuming carbohydrates, proteins, and some fats post-workout helps to encourage muscle protein production, and promote recovery with the best results.   Arrange to eat a snack as soon as possible after a workout. Also, remember to replace fluids and electrolytes by drinking water before, during, and after exercise.

Do you want to find out more?  Or start training with me?  Contact me now

 

Lea Wagner No Comments , , , ,